Last week we started this series about Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the wilderness. Three of the four Gospel writers tell us about this satanic encounter. For context, Jesus had been baptized by John and then led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He fasted for forty days. And when Jesus encountered Satan, He was full of the Holy Spirit. When you’re full of the Holy Spirit, you become very aware of spiritual things. Not only will you have God-encounters, but you will also encounter your spiritual enemy. Satan is not just Jesus’ enemy—he’s our enemy, too! In Friday’s episode, we learned from Luke that Satan enticed Jesus through physical hunger, tempting Him to turn stones into bread, which He could have done had He wanted to. But Jesus resisted by speaking Scripture from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Jesus would not be ruled by His appetites. Today, we continue the series and explore what Satan tried next. 

Then the devil took Him up and revealed to Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to You if You will worship me.” Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.’” (Luke 4:5-8) 

Satan, failing in his appeal to Jesus’ hunger after fasting 40 days, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Satan then offered these kingdoms to Jesus on one condition: that Jesus would worship him. One of the things I find most interesting about today’s passage is that Jesus knew it was His destiny to rule all of the kingdoms of the world. It was His destiny, but in His Father’s timing. Part of worshiping God is trusting His timing. Jesus again used a passage of Scripture, this time from Deuteronomy 6, to counter the devil’s offer: The Scriptures say, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” Jesus wasn’t serving Himself, He was serving His Heavenly Father. Here again, we find that He used the powerful tool of Scripture to fend off the devil’s attack. Let me ask a question: Do you read the Scriptures every day? I encourage you to do so. When the devil attacks, as the Scriptures say he will, don’t let him find you unarmed.  

Jesus used the Scriptures as a weapon to counter the illicit and illegitimate tactics of Satan. You can, too. And that is very Good News!