1-3-10 Matt. 2:2b, 11, 4:10b - "For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him...and fell down and worshiped Him...You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."
Sometimes I wonder how the Jehovah’s witnesses can avoid these verses? They claim that Jesus was not God, yet here are the wise men who are coming to worship a baby. When they get there and saw him they fell down and worshiped Him. Obviously, Jesus knew who was to be worshiped because when He was tempted by the devil He quoted the OT and told the devil…”Hey, you are to worship God only.”
Now they may say that the wise guys only fell down in front of Jesus because He was a special baby and they really did not worship in the same way that Jehovah is to be worshiped. Wrong. The same word is used in 2:2 and 2:11 as in 4:10 – “proscuneto”. The worship is the same. Jesus is to be worshiped and God is to be worshiped, but God alone is to be worshiped. Get it? People who claim that Jesus was not God are missing this and they can’t explain it.
The point: Jesus is God. He claimed to be God. (See 4:7) People worshiped Him as God.
The real point: Do I worship Him? How do I worship Him? Where is my heart when I allegedly worship Him? Do my words verify that I worship Him? Do my actions bear out the fact that I worship Him? Are my attitudes worshipful? Are my songs, prayers, reading acts of worship or just going through the motions?
Jesus is God. He alone deserves my worship, my proscuneto, my falling down before Him in absolute surrender and awe. How am I doing?
3 comments:
Greetings Glen
I need to point out that because someone in Scripture is worshiped, this does not necessarily make them Almighty GOD!
The Greek word you speak of is the word proskuneo.
Its Hebrew equivalent is the word shachah.
Men are indeed worshipped in Scripture.
It is called civil worship.
It is the obeisance/reverence offered to dignitaries such as prophets, patriarchs and especially kings.
This usage is shown throughout Scripture. It is the kind of worship that men such as Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, Elisha received.
So how much more, Messiah Jesus, our Prophet, Priest and King,
he that is born, King of the Jews! -
can receive such worship!!
And so he did, as shown in the Scripture.
Generally, when men in Scripture received civil worship, it is translated in our bibles
as do/make obeisance/reverence.
Sadly, this is where the confusion comes from; because when the same words are used in reference to Jesus the translators translate it as "worship"; and in our western minds, we assume one meaning of the word, "worship".
(In fact, shachah is used more in reference to men, then to GOD in Scripture!
Also proskuneo is used in reference to a human king in Matt. 18.23,26.)
Therefore, Matt 2.11 describes exactly what men did towards kings, royalty and dignitaries throughout the OT.
The magi weren't seeking GOD.
They were seeking the King of the Jews!
(Mat 2:2) Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
They sought a newly-born king in order to bow down and do reverence to!
For more info, please see:
The Worship of Christ
Defining the Term "Worship"
So there is a "worship" which belongs to GOD alone.
And there is a civil worship which is applicable to men esp. royalty.
(Both kinds of worship are shown in 1 Chr 29.20)
So, yes. Jesus was worshipped; however he is worshipped
as the King Messiah
not as Almighty GOD!
Jesus can indeed be worshiped scripturally, because he was/is worshiped as GOD's Messiah,
GOD's Appointed King.
He was never and is never worshiped
as Almighty GOD!
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
The Human Jesus
PS I am not a JW!
I appreciate the fact that at least one person is reading this blog. Thank you Adam Pastor for your response.
Only one problem, the same worship that is attributed to God in Matt. 4:10 is the worship that is given to Jesus in in Matt. 2:2 and 2:11.
In addition, one has to deal with things like Jesus' Name "Emmanuel" which means "God with us" Matt 1:23, Jesus telling Satan that he should not temp the Lord your God (Jesus was the One being tempted in 4:7), others came and worshiped Him Matt. 8:2, 9:18, 14:33, 15:25. He had the power to forgive sins. Matt. 9:2. He claimed that He was Lord of the Sabbath. 12:8. Only God can be called God, only God can forgive in this way, only God is the Lord of the Sabbath. Some may try but it is tough to read this any other way...and this is just in the book of Matthew.
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