Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
For many years I have been uncomfortable (subconsciously at any rate) with
the view that Jesus in some sort of vision (Matthew 4) was able to see all
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Particularly if by 'world'
the whole planet was meant.
How could that be, I asked myself. The solution to that particular problem
came from a simple comparison with Deuteronomy 34: 1- 4
" And Moses went up from the plains of Moab, upon the mountain of Nebo, to
the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho: and the LORD showed him all
the land of Gilead, to Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and
Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the utmost sea, And the south, and
the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to Zoar. And the
LORD said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and
to Jacob, saying, I will give it to thy seed: I have caused thee to see it
with thy eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither."
The parallel is being drawn with Moses going into the top of Pisgah and
being shown all the land of promise.
The sheer ferocity of the temptation now stands revealed. The Lord had said
"..I will give it to thy seed.." The Seed was here, now, in the Land, into
which the great Moses himself could not go. Take it Jesus, was the fierce
internal cry. He had all the power necessary to do so. Yet, he did not do
it.
That connection resolved the question, at least in my mind. Yet there was
still a subconscious gnawing. What was the relevance of the quotation that
Jesus used? Serving God is easily understood, but what about thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God..? How could he worship a 'devil'? How could any
external tempter even begin to hope to get that past him? If someone came to
me and said, 'Look, I'll sell you the whole of London for £10,' not even I
am sufficiently stupid to fall for it. So how could anybody get that past
Jesus - who knew better than any one else that 'The earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof..'?
No, there was more to it than that.
It was the phrase "and the glory of them" that suddenly struck me with its
true force. I had previously thought that those words meant 'how wonderful
and magnificent and beautiful they were'. But another, hitherto unsuspected
meaning is very possible. The phrase could mean 'the glory that he would
receive of them' if he seized the kingdom now. All men would fall down
before him and worship him as king and greater than that. All would praise
him, and sing songs to him. He would be equal with or to God in the hearts
and songs of men. There could be no temptation greater than that.
Adam fell flat on his face because that was what he wanted. He thought
equality with God a thing to be grasped/snatched. He went for it, and paid
the price.
This was Jesus' opportunity now. Go for it. Take it. It's yours by right,
Jesus. You are the promised Seed who will possess the gate of his enemies.
Why, none could possibly stand before you with the power you wield now. The
glory of the whole thing is absolutely mind-shattering.
He didn't take it then. So I ask, do all the churches who proclaim on their
sign-boards that 'Jesus Christ is Lord' and leave out the next words: "TO
THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER", really know what they are doing? They are
saying that Jesus Christ is Lord "to the EXCLUSION of God the Father" not to
the GLORY of God the Father."
Luckily (?), He solved that one in the wilderness, and refused to go for it.
Why then do the churches tempt Him now in this terrible way? And try God's
patience in this dreadful way?
Look through the index of your hymn books and see how many hymns that NEVER
EVEN MENTION GOD are in there. Is this right?
Jesus lived, glorifying God.
Jesus died, glorifying God.
Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. He was
superexalted and given the Name above every name. Why? So that all men will
bow IN His Name to what? To the glory of God the Father.
So why do it?
Asyncritus
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