8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
(Matthew 4:8-11ESV)
In this last of the recorded temptations of Christ, Satan pulls out all the stops and offers all the kingdoms of the world. Could he have actually followed through with this promise? Probably not, however, we know that he has much control over this world, but only as much as the Lord gives him. So ultimately he could not really give what he was offering up.
How often does the enemy seek to tempt us with things he has little to no control over? How often are those things far less than we think he promised? The father of lies will always promise the world and then drag us through the slums and ditches. His promises are never fulfilled the way we think they will be. Christ knew if he simply rebuked Satan, he had no control other than what the Father allowed. And the Father does not give him free rein.
The dive into the temptation of Christ tells us much about how to handle temptation in our lives. The more we do the stronger we become in our ability to rebuke the enemy and the easier it is to die to self. It is through this that we grow and mature in our faith and the less we are swayed by the world. Through Christ we do have this power.
