TEMPTATION OF ALLEGIANCE AND WORSHIP 1 “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9). Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven was based on allegiance and worship. He had all it takes for other angels to worship him instead of God the Son. His expulsion from heaven led him to take his rebellion to earth, and that man should see him as the object of worship. When the Son of God came down to earth the devil saw an opportunity he missed in heaven and thought he would be triumphant this time: “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:9). Jesus again responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13-14, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” We see in this temptation that the devil was saying to Jesus, “Why have you come to save these people who gave me the earth as my seat? The kingdoms you see and their subjects are mine and there is no way you will take them away from me. You defeated me in heaven but the earth is mine, you are now in my territory. If you just acknowledge now that I am the owner of this earth i will give it to you. If you can worship me I can give them back to you without you dying on the cross, just a bow will do”. This was another the same lie the devil used to deceive Adam and Eve (Gen. 3.6) that they were going to be like God (self worship). If Jesus had bowed to him, there was not going to be any salvation and Christ would have been his subject. The devil would have accomplished what he could not accomplish in heaven: to dethrone Christ. Remember that the great controversy between the devil and Jesus is about worship. The reason why worship is the bone of contention is the fact that we can only worship the One who is the source of life, the One who has created us. Again, when we worship we declare that we are subjects of what we worship. In other words we cannot be above what we worship; we declare that the object of worship is superior to us in all aspects. Just imagine a person worshipping an idol that is man-made. That means the worshipper (human being) is inferior than the object of worship (man-made idol). That does not make sense, but that is what the devil wants us to do: removing our allegiance to the real Creator and Source of life. The same thing the devil wanted Christ to do is what he wants all human beings to do: to shift focus from heavenly things to earthly power and beauty, and to seek independence by cutting the relationship with God the Father. What is interesting though is that we have been given power to say to the devil as Christ said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only (Matthew 4:10). We need to resist the temptation of false worship. Let this year be the year in which we will get rid of idol worship by inflating creation (the devil included), unhealthy loyalty, self focus, and self deception that we will be like God. Let us seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and know that God and God alone should be worshipped.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 08:23:51 +0000
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