All the kingdoms of the world on a platter!
Yours if you will fall down and worship me.
Sounds like an offer you can’t put down, what?
Long years ago, when I was involved in a project sensitive assignment in the corporate world, I received a call from a would-be subcontractor B. All that he wanted to know was a piece of information readily available with me. How much had would-be subcontractor A quoted?
As comparisons go totally absurd to be sure, but the guy who is making the offer was the same….the enemy…the devil….Satan himself who is constantly looking for opportunities to promote himself at the cost of truth and righteousness.
And he attacks when you are most vulnerable
And when He (Jesus) had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Matthew 4:2-3
The Tempter does his homework. He has been watching you awhile. He knows your circumstances: you have fasted and therefore are hungry; a bite of bread will be most satisfying. You are expecting an addition to your family; he knows your bank balance is not great and is grossly insufficient to carry you through.
So, when the offer comes, it seems timely, tailored to a “T”………why even Godsent!
All you have to do is simply nod your head or mumble yes for a compromise or otherwise indicate your assent. He takes care of the rest.
And he sets up the stage for a bit of drama. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ “
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
At each step the devil does his darndest to sow doubts in your mind: prefacing each temptation with “if”, “if”,” if” when you know very well, and he knows very well that You ARE. Then again this is provocation at its pinnacle; calculated to put your pride on the pedestal and erode its ground support little by little.
Oh, he is so very cunning, isn’t he? It is not for nothing that St. Peter warns in his book 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
This reminds me of another time in Delhi following Indira Gandhi’s assassination when residents formed groups of vigilantes to keep the marauding gangs of murderers at bay.
Yes, you need to be vigilant. If you are slack you end up as a snack.
One thing we cannot miss in these exchanges is that the devil knows the scriptures very well. And he can quote verbatim flawlessly while many of us stumble. The only way to counter him is to also handle the Word of God aright: to expand this point a little using Microsoft Bing: Handling the Word of Truth aright is a comprehensive task that involves spiritual devotion, intellectual rigor, and a commitment to live out the teachings of Scripture.
If you don’t know the Word, better stay outside the ring. Lest you are beaten to pulp, packaged and pushed to the loser’s corner. Surely that is not the position you want to be in.
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor.15:57. For this we must “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11
As you battle on, Jesus administers the coup de grâce
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.’
Does the devil say “tou·ché” before slinking away? I guess not.
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.