Luke 4:5 And the devil taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time
In Luke 4 we see something utterly incredible: Jesus Christ being tempted of the devil. Verse 1 tells us that He was “led of the Spirit” but He was “tempted of the devil.” Now, God does not tempt us with sin. He doesn’t tempt any man, but Jesus was led by the Spirit and tempted of the devil. It is also worthy of noting that this temptation came when He had eaten nothing for a long time and was very hungry. Maybe you have heard of someone who was “hangry.” They were angry and in a bad mood because they were so hungry. Well, when we are weak physically, oftentimes it is an opportune time for the devil to tempt us spiritually. Jesus’ immunity was down.
It is also worthy of note that Jesus used Scripture in combatting the devil, but Scripture was also used by the devil to tempt Christ. In verse 10 the devil says, “For it is written…” and he quoted Scripture. Now he wrested Scripture, took it out of its context, in order to use it for his own purposes, but that is something that we ought to keep in our minds. We can justify almost anything if we take Scripture out of context, out of the meaning that God has for it, and allow that to be used as an excuse for doing something we know is not right.
Having settled that, what arrests my attention about this temptation is verse 5 where it says, “And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.” I don’t know if this was just a natural sight because of the high vantage point where they were or if it there was something beyond the altitude here where the Lord could see all the kingdoms of the world, but the point remains that this temptation was an offer of all the kingdoms of the world “in a moment of time.”
The word “moment” here is related to the word from which we get our word “stigma.” Stigma is a mark or a brand, a mark of shame. This was a prick, a tattoo of time, a moment of time. Paul often talks about bearing in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the tattoo, the mark, of Jesus Christ. In these days people would sometimes be branded with the name of their owner if they were slaves, and soldiers would even brand or tattoo themselves with the name of their general or their god. So, from this idea you get the word “moment.”
If someone gets a tattoo, it takes just a moment to have that ink placed on their skin. It takes just a moment to prick the skin, but the results are long lasting. So, the devil’s temptation was a momentary prick that had the potential of a lifelong mark. Temptation is momentary, but sin lives on. Here’s a guy who gets a tattoo when he is twenty-five and in the Navy. His tattoo says, “I love Mom” with a big heart. When the guy is seventy-five or eighty, the heart is all shriveled up and so is the word “mom.” It may have taken a moment, relatively speaking, to receive that tattoo, but it is something he is stuck with for the rest of his life.
Now, forgiveness is eternal. The forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ, Who is tempted as we are “yet without sin,” is eternal. My eternity is settled, not because I am good, but because God is gracious and the Lord Jesus took my punishment on the cross. When I trust Him to do what I can’t do, He does just that. So, forgiveness is something we can have, but the consequences of giving into temptation on a daily basis can be permanent.
I recently heard the tragic story of three teenagers that stole a Maserati sports car. They were actually being watched by law enforcement as they took off with this stolen car. The police were tracking their progress the entire time. When a police car pulled out behind them and tried to pull them over, the car sped up to over a hundred miles an hour, crashed, and killed one of the young men in the car. The other two were severely wounded. Here is a momentary temptation and action of sin that has long-lasting consequences.
What if Jesus had given into the temptation of the devil? If He had, we wouldn’t be talking about this now. It is worthy of note that even Jesus, God in a body, was guided by the Holy Spirit and used God’s Word. You can’t do any better than that! When you are tempted today, you have God’s Spirit enabling you if you belong to Christ, and you have God’s Word with which you can strengthen yourself against the temptation that comes with daily life because temptation is momentary but sin lives on.