A moment of truth: Matthew 4:8

In Matthew chapter four, as Jesus was being tempted by the devil, he was taken up into an “exceeding high mountain,” from which he could see “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” (verse 8).

To accurately assess this passage of scripture, we must make some observations:

1. The location of the vision:
   1. “An exceeding high mountain”
      1. i.      Is this mountain significant because from here Jesus could see all that the devil was showing him? Or
      2. ii.      Is this mountain significant because of the isolation and emotional factors involved?
   2. No mountain could be high enough to physically view all the kingdoms of the earth, even if you extend consideration into the realm of the theoretical. The earth is round; therefore a portion of the earth would always be out of visible range, no matter how high the mountain is.

1. The duration of the vision:
   1. “A moment of time” (Luke 4:5). The underlying word here seems to imply, “the smallest part of time that can be conceived” (Gill)
2. The nature of the vision:
   1. Two views of this vision can be considered:
      1. i.      The vision is literally all the kingdoms of the entire world. In this case, the vision would of necessity be a psychological event. Where the glorious aspects of every single kingdom were impressed upon Jesus’ mind (Keep in mind the devil is tempting Jesus). Presumed to be omitted in this presentation are all the inglorious, shameful, undesirable attributes of these kingdoms. The devil isn’t going to try to entice either Jesus or you by showing you sin and evil.
         1. The significance of the location of the vision (the mountain) is not very relevant to the vision itself… no height would be necessary to exhibit the kingdoms to Jesus meaning that this vision theoretically could have been impressed upon Him at virtually any location. We could, however, presume that this mountain was an isolated place and may have been used by the devil to set the emotional stage for the remarkable vision shown to Jesus.
         2. The significance of the duration of this event may come into play here. Certainly, human beings are capable of very complex, very well perceived detailed thoughts in a very brief moment.
      2. ii.      The vision is of the land of Canaan, similar to Moses’ vision. Moses had a similar experience on a mountain, only that mountain is identified in Deuteronomy 4:1-3. This vision was that of the surrounding lands, it seemed to be quite literal, and it was given by God, not by the devil.
         1. In this case, the location of the vision would be very significant to the vision because the height and the geographic location would influence what Jesus saw. .
         2. Some may look to passages such as Romans 4:13 and Luke 2:1 where the word “world” is by context much more limited in scope than our present perception of the term.
         3. The duration of the vision may contradict the opinion that Jesus was shown only the surrounding areas: to physically look at them all would probably take more time than what the word for moment implies.
      3. iii.      I think Jesus was shown literally all the kingdoms of the world, therefore, the mountain is not physically essential to the vision, but certainly added some emotional connotations to the event that made the vision very tempting.

All The kingdoms of the world are here claimed by the devil. In the end, however, all kingdoms become Jesus’ (Revelation 11:15). The lesson here is this:  when presented with idealistic visions of what we can have or what we can be that tempt us to do wrong, we should respond the way Jesus did: keep the end in mind. Every good thing is given by God (James 1:17), not the devil, and God is the one who can “do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

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