MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2026
10:36 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: “Satan
Tempted Christ to Doubt God’s Plan”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke 4:5-8
Message of the verses: “And he led Him up and showed Him all
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its
glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I
wish. Therefore if You worship before
me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus
answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve
Him only.’”
I will begin this SD by stating that
this temptation that Satan gave to Jesus is very similar to the one that he
gave to Eve in the garden of Eden. “1
¶ Now the serpent was more crafty than
any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,
"Did God actually
say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We
may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit
of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it,
lest you die.’" 4 But the serpent
said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” It seems to me that the temptation that he
gave Eve, and the one that he gave to Jesus were both lies, or at best half-truths.
Satan certainly did not have the authority to give Jesus the kingdoms of the
world, and since we will see that Jesus did not take Satan up on his offer,
that He would eventually go to the cross to die for the sins of the world, then
the Father gives all the kingdoms over to the Son.
John MacArthur writes “Having failed
to persuade Jesus to doubt God’s love for Him, Satan tried a different
approach. After he led Him up
onto a high mountain (Matt. 4:8), Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment of time, evidently by means of a perspective belonging
only to supernatural beings or simply by looking as far as our Lord’s eyes
could see on the representative kingdoms in view. Then the devil made an astonishing
proposal, I will give You all this domain and its glory,’ he said, “for
it has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I wish.” Satan’s goal was to get Jesus to doubt
God’s plan for Him, and to bypass it. ‘Ask
of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,’ the Father promised,
‘and the very ends of the earth as Your Possession’ (Ps. 2:8; cf. Daniel
7:13-14).”
(Daniel 7:13-14)
“13 "I saw in the night visions, and behold,
with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the
Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
one that shall not be destroyed.”
“Yet Jesus
was here in the middle of nowhere, with nothing more than the clothes on His
back. And even worse humiliation was to follow; a life of poverty with ‘nowhere
to lay His head’ (Luke 9:58); rejection by His people (John 1:11); the agony in
Gethsemane; an unjust, illegal trial; a brutal scourging followed by a painful
death on the cross. Worst of all, He
would be forsaken by the Father as He bore sin on the cross which would cause
Him to cry out, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matthew 27:46).
“Satan’s proposal would have allowed
Jesus to bypass all that suffering and enabled Him to take immediately what was
rightfully His. Once again, the devil
used a partial truth to bait the hook for his temptation. It is true that Scripture calls Satan the god
or ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4). That does not mean, however, that he
literally possesses it, but rather that he is the ruler of evil world system
that dominates the nations of the world. It is God who
determines the times of the nations’ existence and their boundaries (Acts.
17:26), and rules over them (1 Chron. 29:11; 2 Chron. 20:6; Psalm 22:28; 47:2,
7-8; Daniel 2:21; 4:17, 25; Rom. 13:1).
Satan was a liar, pretending to offer what was not his to give. Nor would he have surrendered authority over
the nations to Jesus even if he did have it; the devil’s false promise was
based on nothing but brash astounding evil pride.”
(Acts. 17:26)
“26 And he made from one man every nation of
mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted
periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,”
(1 Chron. 29:11; 2 Chron. 20:6; Psalm
22:28; 47:2, 7-8; Daniel 2:21; 4:17, 25; Rom. 13:1)
“11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens
and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as
head above all.”
“6 and said, "O LORD, God of our fathers,
are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In
your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.”
“28 For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he
rules over the nations.”
“2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.”
“7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing
praises with a psalm! 8 God reigns over
the nations; God sits on his holy throne.”
“21 He changes times and seasons; he removes
kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who
have understanding;”
“17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers,
the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know
that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and
sets over it the lowliest of men.’”
“1 ¶ Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist
have been instituted by God.”
“The condition Satan imposed on his
offer uncovers his true motive.
Brazenly, he said to Jesus, ‘Therefore if You worship before me, it
shall all be Yours.’ It was his
illicit lust for the worship that belongs to God alone that led Satan’s
downfall and expulsion from heaven (cf. Isaiah 14:13-14).” Now I went over these verses along with the
ones from Ezekiel 28 in an earlier SD as both sets of verses speak of the fall
of Satan. MacArthur goes on to write “He
sill desires to be worshiped, and proliferates false religions that ultimately
are all some form of worship given to him (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20; Rev. 9:20).”
(cf. 1 Cor. 10:20; Rev. 9:20)
“20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they
offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with
demons.”
“20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by
these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up
worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood,
which cannot see or hear or walk,”
“But the
supreme coup would have been for Satan to persuade the Son of God to worship
him. That would have achieved his original
goal of elevating himself above God (Isa. 14:14).”
(Isa. 14:14)
“14 I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”
“Christians must beware of the
temptation to lose faith in God’s plan, particularly when they are enduring
difficult circumstances. There are no
shortcuts; God’s way is always the best.
His infinite wisdom guarantees that any plan of His is perfect and
cannot be improved upon. Believers must,
therefore, wait patiently for God to act on their behalf and refuse the
temptation to make matters into their own hands (Psalm 37:1; 10:1; Heb. 6:12;
James 5:7-8,10).”
(Psalm 37:1; 40:1; Heb. 6:12; James
5:7-8,10)
“¶ «Of David.» Fret not yourself because of
evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!”
“1 ¶ «To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.» I
waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.”
“12 so that you may not be sluggish, but
imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
“7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the
coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the
earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
8 You also, be patient. Establish your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
“10 As an example of suffering and patience,
brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”
“Jesus emphatically rejected Satan’s
blasphemous suggestion, quoting again from Deuteronomy 6:13) as He had when
faced with the devil’s first temptation.
“It is written, ‘ He declared, ‘You shall worship the Lord
your God and serve Him only.’ Jesus
refused to step outside of God’s plan.
There would be no deal with the devil; no shortcut to glory. He would follow His Father’s plan whatever
the cost to Him.”
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
It all is about trusting the Lord, even when there are bumps in the road, for
He always knows what is best for me in my life.
Spiritual
meaning for my life Today: It is my desire to not go before
the Lord’s plans that He has for me, but to trust Him to guide me each step He
has for me to follow.
5/9/2026
12:02 PM
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