The first temptation of Jesus went to His physical needs; He was hungry so Satan tempted Him to turn stones to bread to meet that physical desire. In the second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to a high place and offers Him all the kingdoms of the world if He will worship Satan. Luke 4:5-7 says: "And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." Now if you remember that Jesus came to save the "world" then you see the significance of this temptation. Satan is offering Jesus the ability to accomplish His mission without the cross of Calvary. Of course Jesus knows that His mission is the cross and says in verse 8: "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Again, Jesus defeats temptation by speaking the Word of God. The recipe for victory remains the same; the Word defeats the devil.
Philip Doddridge explains this verse as follows: "Then Jesus, moved with indignation at so blasphemous and horrid a suggestion, answered and said unto him, with becoming resentment and abhorrence, Get thee hence, Satan, and be gone out of my sight, for I will no longer endure thee near me: for it is written, as a fundamental precept of the law, De 6:13 “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” It would therefore be unlawful thus to worship thee, who art no other than a mere creature...." Jesus was rough on temptation and so ought we to be also. Temptation is not to be toyed with; it is to be handled like a poison and placed far from us when it shows itself. Too many fail to recognize the seriousness of temptation. Let us be a people that deal harshly with all efforts of the enemy to destroy us.
Today, look out for temptation. If it comes, deal roughly with it. Command the enemy to depart from you. Quote the Word and resist the devil. If you do, he must flee (means run away in terror) from you. Take God's Word for that, He said it and He means it!
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