⁹ “All these things I will give to You, if You fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’ ”

Jesus is the Word of God, the living narrative of the truth. Satan tried to get in Jesus’ face; it was a desperate move. He had tripped up Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 3) and seemed quite successful at countering the image of God in them; they followed the deceiver rather than God. Like in a game of chess, Satan put God in check. But things have changed now. The seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), in the person of Jesus, coming as God’s answer to the fall of humankind, entered the world to undo the efforts of Satan. The devil understood that Jesus was about to put him in checkmate. The situation called for a desperate but bold move: three temptations in the desert to undermine the hungry Jesus, to knock Him off His mission to save the world.

When Satan tempted Jesus with an offer to give Him all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for Jesus’ worship of him, the Lord brought the definitive game-ending response. The word for worship was a familiar Greek word, proskuneo. The term conveys complete deference and respect by a lesser individual to a greater one. For example, in the fourth century B.C., Alexander the Great overwhelmed the Persian empire with relentless, ruthless military force and instituted the Persian custom of bowing down to the floor before him. After all, his conquest of many kingdoms made him the king of kings who subjugated the (then) known world.

The word proskuneo permeated through the ancient world up to the time of Christ. Satan wanted Jesus to bow in subservience and respect, and in return, he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, making him king of kings, or super-king, as it were. But Jesus turned Satan on his ear, trapping the father of lies (John 8:44) in his own logic. In his first foray against Jesus, the devil posited (for the sake of argument), “If you are the Son of God ….” The thrust of the question is, “Jesus, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that you are the Son of God. If that is the case, you could solve your hunger problem in this desert by turning the stones into bread. Piece of cake, right?” In his twisted mind, Satan backed Jesus into a logical corner. Of course, the devil was not acknowledging Jesus as the superior one; he was manipulating the narrative; His end game was to gain Jesus’ worship.

Jesus’ response shoots the devil down. I can imagine the tenor of His response: “If I am the Son of God (as you say that I am for the sake of argument) and the Scripture (which you are trying to misapply) teaches, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve,’ then you, Satan, should be worshiping Me!” No one can manipulate or out-maneuver the One who is the living narrative of God (John 1:1, 14).

I praise You, Lord, for I can trust Your promises that nothing can separate me from Your love—not even the lies of Satan.