Deuteronomy With JesusSýnishorn

Worshipping God alone

The final temptation Jesus faces is the least subtle. Satan offers him power and success if he will worship him. It’s crude, but nevertheless enticing. Who of us has never been tempted to cut corners to achieve success somewhere?

In our culture the temptations are usually subtler than worshipping Satan, but they are just as real and dangerous. Money, family, career, reputation, health and wellbeing are just some of things that we can find ourselves tempted to prioritise above or alongside God.

Jesus’ response points us beyond simply avoiding this one temptation. It highlights the need for a deeper commitment to God in our hearts and minds. We will never be truly able to resist the allure of other things unless our hearts are filled with God.

The verse Jesus quotes calls us to ‘fear’ God alone. The ‘fear of the LORD’ is one of the great themes of the Bible, but it’s one we often struggle to grasp. I’ve found that these passages have helped me to understand it and grasp how it’s focused on our inward response to God.

Firstly, Deuteronomy 6 shows me that fearing God (v 13) actually flows from loving him (v 4-5) – which seems unexpected to us! The reason is that the ‘fear of the Lord’ is not primarily about being scared of God. Instead, its focus is on the recognition of God’s greatness and glory, and an appropriate response of awe and reverence.

There is plenty about God that is fearsome (as we see in v 15), but what makes the fear of the LORD different from other fears is God’s grace. When we put our trust in him, we receive his promise of grace and salvation, and hear those beautiful words spoken so often in scripture “do not be afraid.” We are still called to fear God – but we no longer need to fear what he might do, or what might happen to us.

One place that points us towards this understanding is Matthew 4:10, and how it translates the original verse. Rather than ‘fear…’ it says ‘worship the Lord your God.’ It’s an unusual translation of the Hebrew (yare יָרֵא), but a possible one, and it shows us how fear of the Lord is supposed to look in practice. Rather than terror it leads to wholehearted commitment to God, to worship.

The fear of the Lord reminds us that nothing and no-one compares to our God. As we fear God, we begin to see him as he truly is – and as we do, everything else pales in comparison. As Jesus knew when he quoted this verse, the antidote to worshipping anything else is to fix our hearts on God instead. The glorious bonus is that that not only stops us worshipping other things – it also releases us from the fear of them as well. The beautiful paradox is that when we fear God, we never have to be afraid again.

Prayer

Spend some time meditating on God’s greatness and grace. Ask him to increase your fear and love for him, and to release you from anything else you are tempted to fear or worship.