{Wilt worship before me} (proskun(8873)(8869)s en(9370)ion emou).  Mt
4:9  has it more bluntly "worship me." That is what it really
comes to, though in Luke the matter is more delicately put. It is
a condition of the third class (ean and the subjunctive). Luke
has it "thou therefore if" (su oun ean), in a very emphatic and
subtle way. It is the ingressive aorist (proskun(8873)(8869)s), just
bow the knee once up here in my presence. The temptation was for
Jesus to admit Satan's authority by this act of prostration (fall
down and worship), a recognition of authority rather than of
personal merit. {It shall all be thine} (estai sou p(8373)a). Satan
offers to turn over all the keys of world power to Jesus. It was
a tremendous grand-stand play, but Jesus saw at once that in that
case he would be the agent of Satan in the rule of the world by
bargain and graft instead of the Son of God by nature and world
ruler by conquest over Satan. The heart of Satan's program is
here laid bare. Jesus here rejected the Jewish idea of the
Messiah as an earthly ruler merely. "He rejects Satan as an ally,
and thereby has him as an implacable enemy" (Plummer.)