Matthew 4:8-11

⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” ¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Commentary 

The devil having failed to lure Jesus into a grand display of Jesus’ Person as the Son of God (so that Jesus would be vindicated as such before one and all), now employs what he believes will be his most enticing lure of them all. And so the devil now takes Jesus up on an exceedingly high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and all their glory, and then he says to Him, ...“All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” ^{vs. 9} Now in Luke’s Gospel it is made clear that the devil has been given authority over all of these (see Luke 4:6, also consider John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; 6:12 etc.), and so here the devil is not bluffing when he offers Jesus all of the worlds kingdoms and all their glory if He will fall down and worship him; something the devil so desperately wants; to be like the Most High (consider Isaiah 14:14). Now Jesus will receive all of these things (Rev. 11:15), but first He must past through every temptation and trial (including suffering death on the Cross), before He does so that the devils defeat will be complete and finial. There are then no short cuts to glory for Christ, for in order to fulfill His Purposes He must fulfill all that God’s Word has said He Will do. Therefore this time Jesus will employ His strongest rebuke against the devils strongest temptation. And so this time Jesus employs not only God’s Word but also His own Authority as the Son of God, to rebuke the devil calling him by his name Satan, telling him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” ^{vs. 10} Therefore with that strong rebuke of Satan the Scripture says, “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” ^{vs. 11}  

Now in Luke’s Gospel it states: “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” ^{Luke 4:13} Thus though the devil is rebuked he is not finished, he like his own will always seek another way, and for Satan it will be to employ one of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas Iscariot who will later betray Him, but even in that the devil (unknown to himself) will only be fulfilling God’s Word. Therefore we as Christ’s disciples should not be alarmed when the devil seeks to undermine us by multiple means and through multiple people, for the Lord Jesus Christ has already warned us all that believing in and belonging to Him means that even those of one’s own household will be ones enemies (see Matt. 10:11-42, vs. 36). And so with the departure of the devil the Scripture says that immediately angels came and ministered to Jesus. For at this point Jesus being in the flesh as a Man would’ve been utterly drained of all bodily strength and life, and so His immediately being ministered too by God the Fathers angels would’ve been both a necessity, but more to the point God the Father’s deep concern for His only begotten Son’s well being. And so though God the Father has by mutual Divine choice before time began made it so that Jesus must be fully in this world in the flesh, susceptible to experience all that mankind has to face and endure apart from His Divine intervention to rescue Him (consider Matt 26:52-54), He has neither left Jesus’ Person, nor has He forsaken Him to the devil and the evil forces that rule and have sway over this world. And so we too as God’s children are likewise under the same sort of oversight and care as Christ was when He was here in flesh (consider Rom. 8:37-39; Heb. 1:14).

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.