Matthew 4:8

Again, the devil taketh him, &c.— The adversary, enraged, as it should seem, with his ill success in the two former attempts, casts off all disguise in this. He speaks no more of Son of God; but desperate, and thence impudent and audacious, he offers at once his whole stock of gaudy trumperies, all worldly power, dominion, and glory, and arrogantly sets the price at which they are to be purchased. Le Clerc is of the same opinion with the author referred to on Matthew 4:1 that what is here related, may more safely be conceived to have happened to Christ in a vision or dream, than really; but this, says Dr. Whitby, is a vain dream and a vision of his own brain; and that which robs us of all the practical improvement of our Lord's temptation. For, why should Christ have been led into a wilderness to have this dream or vision? Did he fast only in a vision forty days and forty nights? Or, why is it said, that he afterwards was hungry? Why is it said, that the devil spake to him, set him on a pinnacle, upon a high mountain, &c. &c.? and looks it not far more odd to give the devil power over the fancy of our Lord, to raise such imaginations in him, and suggest such dreams to him, than barely to give him that power over our Lord's body, which neither did nor could do him any hurt? I observe again, that as God caused Moses to see the whole land of promise from the top of Nebo, either by strengthening his eyes to see it thence, or else by representing it to him as it were in a large plan or map in all the valleys round about him; so might the devil, in the valleys round about that high mountain upon which Christ stood, make a large draught of the stately edifices, guards and attendants of kings, appearing in their splendour, visible to the eyes of Christ; which appearance could not be so well made to him, or advantageously seen, had he been in a plain. Wetstein is of opinion, that the devil might point out the kingdoms of the world to him in some such manner as this; "Turn thine eyes to the east, there is the kingdom of the Persians, to whom thy ancestors were subject, and the kingdom of Arabia, rich in gold, in frankincense and myrrh: Turn to the south, there is the kingdom of Egypt, where the descendants of the patriarchs suffered so long and severe a servitude: Turn to the west, there you see Tyre and the isles, abounding in merchandize and wealth; you see Rome, the queen and empress of the world: On the north, you see Syria, whose king Antiochus once profaned the temple, and brought such evils on the Jews; you see Galilee, whose fertility you know, and where you have hitherto lived in obscurity." Thus the devil pointed out to Jesus the kingdoms of the world, and their grandeur. Macknight, with several others, is of opinion, that this prospect was confined to the land of promise; and that the mountain of Nebo, whence Moses had a prospect of the whole land, was very probably that from which the devil shewed our blessed Saviour all the kingdoms of the world, that is, the whole of promise; for so the word is used, in the literal sense at least, of Romans 4:13. The land of promise, in its largest signification, reached from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, east and west, and from Egypt on the south to beyond Sidon north-wards, Deuteronomy 11:24. In Joshua's time, that extent of country contained thirty distinct principalities, besides the Philistines and Sidonians, as Spanheim observes; and even in our Lord's time it comprehended several kingdoms, some of which are mentioned Luke 3:1. All these the devil pointed out to Jesus in the temptation; taking particular notice of their glory; that is, their great and opulent cities, their rich fields, their hills covered with wood and cattle, their rivers rolling through fertile valleys, and washing the cities as they passed along; and promised to put him in possession of the whole instantly, if he would fall down and worship him. By confining this prospect to the land of promise the third temptation in Dr. Macknight's judgment had a peculiar force. The devil, that he might know whether Jesus was the Messiah, offered to give him all the kingdoms of the land to which the Messiah, as such, had a peculiar right; see Psalms 2:8; Psalms 72:8. He hoped thus to have enticed him to commit idolatry; thinking that, if he was not the Messiah, he would eagerly embrace this, as the speediest way of accomplishing his design.