Thy Kingdom Come

The Last Temptation

“I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” -Luke 4:6

As prophesied, Israel’s true king came, born in the royal city of Bethlehem, born King of the Jews to reign on David’s throne. They called him Jesus, the Christ.

But death set its sights on Jesus from the beginning. No sooner had he been born than Satan tried to kill him. Herod sent soldiers to search and destroy every male child in Bethlehem. The king of the world tried to kill God’s King while he was still in the cradle.

But Satan could do nothing to prevent Jesus’ coming.

Having failed at murder, Satan later attempted bribery while Jesus fasted in the desert. And what did Satan have to offer? A kingdom. We read in Luke 4:5-7:

The devil led him [ Jesus] up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Satan was tempting Jesus to use his deity to his own advantage, to win the kingdom without enduring the cross. He was tempting Jesus to trade the kingdom of God for the kingdom of this world.

But Jesus knew which kingdom he would rule. Jesus mentions the coming of the kingdom more than one hundred times in the New Testament. From beginning to end, the gospel, according to Jesus, is the good news about God’s kingdom—a kingdom Jesus would wait for his Father to give him.

It takes a king to establish a kingdom, which is why God sent Jesus into the world.

From Wheaton College 2021-22 Advent Devotional Series