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And still the devil is not overcome:
v. 8. Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.
Once more the tempter attacks; there is no ceasing in his efforts to destroy God's work, 1Pe_5:8. And he has great power, he controls, to some extent, the forces and the wealth of the earth, as a prince of the power of the air, Eph_2:2. See Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11; Eph_6:12. A stratagem of magic the devil here employed, to conjure up the wealth and the glories of all earth's kingdoms in an alluring, almost irresistibly appealing picture, all in a moment of time, Luk_4:5. The location of the exceeding high mountain here referred to is immaterial, also the question whether the picture was a physical demonstration or a mental suggestion. The main fact in Matthew's narrative is the refined subtlety, but also the extreme denseness of the tempter:
v. 9. And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.
For an ordinary human being no proposition, in itself, could have been more attractive. What a dazzling picture of absolute sway over the world and possession of its glory was here offered to the lowly and rejected descendant of David! But what folly to presume upon the unlimited disposition of the wealth and grandeur of the world in the presence of Him who of right holds all the nations of the earth as His inheritance and the utmost ends of the world as His possession! The condition of Satan demanding homage to him as the superior was therefore almost naively awkward. But he staked all on this last powerful appeal to worldly ambition, involving the willful yielding to the most heinous form of idolatry.