“Worship the Lord your God and Serve Him only.”

“Worship the Lord your God

and Serve Him only.”

 

 

 

 

 

“The devil led 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.’  Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’” (Luke 4:5–8).

 

 

 

I desire to receive the lessons that the Lord gives through this meditation.

 

(1)   While meditating on the second temptation of the devil (Luke 4:5–8) in connection with Matthew 4:8–9, I have organized the devil’s temptation and Jesus’ response as follows:

 

(a)    The Devil’s Temptation: The devil led Jesus up to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, saying, “If You will bow down and worship me, I will give You all this authority and glory” (Lk. 4:5–7; Mt. 4:8–9).

 

(i)               Jesus, who had been led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (Lk. 4:1), now allowed the devil to lead Him up to a very high mountain. I believe there were at least two reasons for this:

 

·        First, although Israel failed when tested in the wilderness, God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, had to overcome the temptation on our behalf.

·        Second, Jesus wanted to demonstrate that though He was tested in every way just as we are—having experienced human birth, childhood, youth, and adulthood—He was without sin (Heb. 4:15).

 

-        Thus, this blameless and pure Lamb of God overcame every temptation and completely resolved the problem of sin for all humanity.

 

(ii)             When I meditated on the words that the devil led Jesus up a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory (Mt. 4:8; Lk. 4:5), I was reminded of Genesis 3:6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye…”  When the serpent—the most cunning of creatures—tempted the woman, she saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eyes.  This shows that Satan tempted her by stimulating the lust of the eyes (1 Jn. 2:16).  That is the very strategy of Satan.

 

·        Satan knows well the greed of our eyes. He knows that the human eye is never satisfied (Prov. 27:20).  Our eyes are full of lust, and they continually lead us into sin (2 Pet. 2:14).

 

-        Therefore, we must guard ourselves against the insatiable lust of the eyes (1 Jn. 2:16).  If we do not, Satan will constantly show us things that appear “pleasing to the eyes”—like the forbidden fruit—to stir up our desires and make us fall into sin.

 

n  Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book Spiritual Light, said: “The problem lies in your eyes. What you look at, your heart follows. If something leads you into temptation, do not look at it!  Do not let your eyes covet anything. Keep your gaze fixed straight ahead.  Make a covenant with your eyes, that you will look only forward—toward the direction God points: toward holiness and heaven” (Job 31:1: “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman”).

 

(iii)           The devil said to Jesus, “If You will bow down and worship me, I will give You all this authority and glory” (Mt. 4:8–9; Lk. 4:7).  Yet God the Father had already given His Son, Jesus Christ, all authority and glory to rule over every people and nation (Lk. 4:6; Jn. 17:2).  What authority or glory could Jesus possibly need beyond that?

 

·        I am reminded of the praise song “Above All”: “Above all powers, above all kings Above all nature and all created things Above all wisdom and all the ways of man You were here before the world began.  Above all kingdoms, above all thrones Above all wonders the world has ever known Above all wealth and treasures of the earth There's no way to measure what You're worth. ….”

 

-        When I think about this second temptation of the devil, I believe that the devil certainly knew that Jesus was the Son of God. Yet, after tempting Him the first time by saying, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (Lk. 4:3), he dared in the second temptation to say to Jesus, “If You will bow down before me…” (v. 7) [“If You will fall down and worship me…” (Mt. 4:9)].  This means that the devil, a created being, was trying to tempt Jesus, the Son of God and Creator, to bow down and worship him.

 

n  I believe this represents Satan’s act of perversion, his work of reversing the created order. About this perverting work of Satan, Romans 1 says: “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, birds, animals, and crawling creatures” (Rom. 1:23), and again, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” (v. 25).  Therefore, Satan’s second temptation was a temptation to make people worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.

 

(b)   In response to this second temptation of the devil, Jesus answered, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’” (Lk. 4:8; Mt. 4:10).

(i)               When I meditate on Jesus’ words, “Get behind me, Satan,” I am reminded of what Jesus said to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Mt. 16:23).  This was when Jesus had begun to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Lord, this shall never happen to You!” (vv. 21–22).

 

·        He had also said to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You.” But within that bold claim was the thought that Jesus would never actually die on the cross, and therefore he himself would never have to die with Him. In the end, though Peter said with his lips, “I will lay down my life for You” (Jn. 13:37), his heart was not yet prepared to truly die for Jesus (cf. Luke 22:33).

 

-        Jesus said: “If anyone comes to Me and does not love Me more than his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—yes, even their own life—they cannot be My disciple” (Lk. 14:26).

 

(ii)             When Jesus said to the devil, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’” (Lk. 4:8; Mt. 4:10), the phrase “It is written” refers to Deuteronomy 6:13, which says: “Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name” (Korean Modern Bible: “Worship the LORD your God and serve Him. When you make a promise, make it only in His name”).

 

·        As I meditated on the phrase “Fear the LORD your God” in Deuteronomy 6:13, I was reminded of Proverbs 8:13a: “To fear the LORD is to hate evil.”  To hate evil means to hate Satan, the source and embodiment of all evil.  Thus, true disciples of Jesus—who fear God and therefore hate Satan—will serve only the Lord and never Satan.

 

-        The lyrics of the gospel song “I Will Serve Only the Lord” came to my mind: “I lift up my hands in praise to the coming King, the Lord Jehovah.  Only You rule over me (×2).  I will serve only the Lord, casting away vain desires.  Holy Spirit, fill my soul completely.  Before the Lord, I give my life…”

 

(2)   The devil also tempts us, taking us to high places in this world, showing us all its glory, and saying that if we will bow down before him, he will give us all of it.

 

(a)    To overcome Satan, we must hold firmly to the Scripture that says, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Mt. 4:8–10).  We must pray as in Psalm 115:1: “Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to Your name be the glory.”  And we must dedicate ourselves to serving the Lord and His body, the Church.

 

(i)               We must serve the Lord with a whole heart (1 Chron. 28:9).  The phrase “whole heart” means a simple and undivided heart (Yoon-sun Park).  In other words, we must serve the Lord with a heart that is single-minded and un divided.  We must also serve Him with a willing mind (v. 9)—that is, serve Him voluntarily and joyfully.

 

·        King David could say these words to his son Solomon because he himself had longed for the house of God (29:3) and had given everything he had prepared for the temple with an honest and willing heart (v. 17).  David could do this because he had received the blessing of prosperity from the covenantal God.  He simply gave back to the Lord what he had received from His hand (v. 14).  Therefore, David could tell his son Solomon to serve the Lord in the same way he had served. 

 

-        We too must show our children by example what it means to serve the Lord—serving Him with a whole and joyful heart.  We must not display a superficial form of service that lacks sincerity.  Why not?  Because God searches our hearts (v. 9). 

 

n  God examines our hearts and knows all our thoughts (v. 9).  Therefore, we must serve the Lord with a whole heart and a willing mind, continually seeking Him through prayer.  When we do this, the Lord will gladly accept our service that comes from a pure and joyful heart.