The time between the last writings of the Old Testament and the appearance of Christ is known as the “intertestamental” (or “between the testaments”) period. Because there was no prophetic word from God during this period, some refer to it as the “400 silent years.” The political, religious, and social atmosphere of Palestine changed significantly during this period. Much of what happened was predicted by the prophet Daniel. (See Daniel chapters 2, 7, 8, and 11 and compare to historical events.)
Daniel also talks about fallen angels. Those are the same fallen angels who lost the battle in Heaven and were also cast down to the Earth, and have been here ever since waging war against Christians. To seek to prevent Gabriel’s message from getting to Daniel, the demonic prince attacked Gabriel as he embarked on his mission. This gives insight into the nature of the warfare fought in the heavenlies between God’s angels and Satan’s demons to which Paul referred (Eph. 6:12).
Temptation No. 3: Would Jesus attempt to accomplish His mission through political power? This was the kind of Messiah the people had expected and wanted. As Jesus looked out from the high mountain where He had been taken, He must have looked past the landscape to the political kingdoms of the world and envisioned them at His feet. At least this was what Satan intended for Him to do. He offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." Jesus successfully resisted the temptation by rejecting the devil's methods to accomplish His mission. He would not attempt to avoid the way of suffering for selfish and ambitious reasons, i.e., love of power and a desire to rule politically over others. He saw that surrender to Satan in this way would mean a divided loyalty, and He could not accomplish His true mission except through complete trust in God and service to Him. This could be accomplished only through suffering.
In the third temptation Satan was not offering Jesus a way to accomplish His true mission. He was attempting to turn Jesus away from that accomplishment through worldly ambition. Jesus could not have saved the souls of people by establishing a worldly kingdom. Satan did not take Him to that high mountain to show Him the souls of people which He had come to save, but to show Him "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." As Luke 4:6 shows, it was the "power" and "glory" of these worldly kingdoms that Satan offered to Jesus. From that high mountain Jesus saw beautiful lands, towns, cities, and mountains, in addition to all the peoples of these kingdoms, and the temptation was to have the authority to rule over all that was included in these "kingdoms of the world," and the "glory" that would accompany this vast political power and all the possessions that would come with it.
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