And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’”(Matthew 4:9-10)
The words of this text affirm that only God is to be worshipped. What does God require of us in our dependence on Him, that He may be glorified by us, and we accepted with Him? The answer is that we worship Him, (Lev. 10:1-3; Exod. 24:3; Gen. 18:19; Joshua 23:6-8; Zech. 14:16) in and by the ways of His own prescription and appointment, (Matt. 4:10; Rev. 14:7; Deut. 6:13, 10:20), that is, through Jesus Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit. God is jealous of the love, devotion, and worship of His people (Ex. 34:14).
In the most basic and foundational sense, we Christians should also be wholly and irrefutably devoted to our Lord simply because we are twice His. He created us… and He redeemed us. As both our Maker and Redeemer, how could we even consider turning our love, devotion, and worship to another?
But there remains still an even stronger reason for us to worship God alone. And that reason is revealed in the following narrative shared in 1 Kings 18:22-39.
King Ahab and his notoriously wicked wife Jezebel were hunting down and slaying all the prophets of God. Other than those who were protected in hiding by Obadiah, Elijah declares himself to be the only one remaining. And he’s ready for a showdown.
Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire – he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good,” (1 Kings 18:22-24).
What follows is a play-by-play account of the standoff. Elijah gave the 450 false prophets every advantage. They got to pick which of the two bulls they wanted. They got to go first. They were allowed the entire day to call on their gods. And Elijah even coached them up… “Shout louder!” he said at some point. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened!”
After a day’s worth of 450 false prophets yelling and dancing wildly about with no response whatsoever from their gods, it was Elijah’s turn. He incorporated the help of the people of Israel – the audience there watching everything – to rebuild the altar that the false prophets had destroyed with all their carrying-on. Using twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes, they first repaired the altar.
Once that was done, Elijah arranged the wood on top and then laid the cut pieces of the bull on top of the wood.
What follows next, however, takes everyone by surprise.
Elijah orders the people to fill four large jars with water and pour it over the meat and the wood. “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time… to the point that the water ran down around the altar and even filled the deep trench that encircled it (verses 34-35). Elijah is leaving no opportunity whatsoever for anyone – the false prophets or the people – to explain away what was about to happen.
Then Elijah prays. He doesn’t scream, beat himself, or do any such thing. He simply prays: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel….”
God wasted no time answering. No sooner had Elijah finished praying, than “the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench!”
Note that God’s fire even burned up the stones and the soil… and the water! It’s no wonder that “when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!” (verse 39).
This is why God alone is to be worshipped: He is the only true God. There is none beside Him. To worship any other would be akin to insanity, for in the words of Simon Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” (John 6:68). There is no other entity, no other being, no other anything that can come close to comparing to our great and awesome God.
Why, then, do we give our heart to another, a lesser? How do we disregard His sovereignty, His deity, His superiority… and give our time and attention to anything else?
Only God is to be worshipped… in the ways and means which He has prescribed and appointed (Matt. 4:10; Rev. 14:7; Deut. 6:13, 10:20), that is, through Jesus Christ and by the power of His indwelling Spirit. Such is our faith and confidence in Him, our fear of Him, the subjection of our soul and conscience to Him as the great Sovereign Lord. He is our first cause, last end, Judge, and Rewarder… everything.
John Owen rightly aid, “Such worship is consistent, and concerns those outward ways and means which God has appointed so that a man’s faith, and love, and fear of Him is exercised and expressed to Him as glorious.”
The act of worship as defined in Scripture is acknowledging God and all His divine excellency as He so instructs us. Such worship is done individually through the mediation of Christ in the power of the Spirit, and it is done collectively in congregational worship, “The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob,” (Psa. 87:2).
God calls all those who profess allegiance to Him through faith in His Savior not only to adore Him but to also draw near to Him in worship (Rev. 14:6-7; Matt. 4:10; Deut. 10:12-13). And worship of God alone is not only the natural response… it is the ONLY response once you truly see who He is and what He has done for you.
- Lord, anyone who believes in You as the one Supreme God who made all other beings can do nothing less than acknowledge there must be a peculiar worship due God which no human being can challenge, change, or share in.
- You alone Lord are to be worshipped. I am to do this only in the name of Christ, and as You have commanded. It is written in Matthew 4:10 that I should worship You alone and serve You alone (Rev. 22:8-9). You tell me Yourself, “Call on me, in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
- Lord, I know I must only call on You and worship You in the name of Christ for it is only through Christ that I can draw near to You. Christ Himself said, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” Whether I worship You or pray to You as worship, I must only come in the name of the Savior. Only through Christ is any of my worship acceptable.
- Lord, I know that I must worship You with understanding. 1 Corinthians 14:15 says, “I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with understanding also: I will sing with the spirit and will sing with understanding also.” Why must I do it this way? You say, John 4:24, “because, God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
- What will I do in worship Lord? Will I do what I want or what You require? Will I do what feels good to me, or what You have expressly said? It is written, (Deut. 12:32), “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” How careful am I? How careful is the church to do as You commanded? Your Son says, by way of warning, “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,” (Matt. 15:9).
Further References for Matthew 4:9-10
Deut. 6:13, 10:20; Matt. 4:4; Rom. 16:20; Ps. 95:6
