The Only One Worthy of Worship

“All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,
along with the noise of your harps…
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’”
Isaiah 14:11, 13-14

“…You were the model of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you…
Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor…”
Ezekiel 28:12, 15, 17

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…”
Exodus 20:4-5

The scripture tells us that Satan was a guardian cherub, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty who walked amongst the fiery stones on the holy mount of God and who played musical instruments, perhaps leading worship in heaven.  But somewhere along the way, he became corrupted in his heart because he allowed pride to seep in and cause him to consider his own beauty and splendor to be equal to or even greater than that of God.  In his heart he aspired to ascend God’s holy mountain and take over God’s throne so that he might receive worship for himself.  Somewhere along the way, he began to believe that his wisdom and beauty were of his own making and that he was deserving of the worship of heaven, forgetting that it was God who created him and gave him that beauty to begin with.

Many of us are familiar with that story and we might think ourselves wiser and above falling for the same deception, yet I’m afraid that the desire to receive worship is a common iniquity within us all.  As fallen, sinful humans, there is a part of our flesh that longs for others to recognize our beauty, our talents, our abilities, our riches, our admirable qualities, our power, etc. etc.  In fact, humans receive worship from each other all the time – politicians, musicians, athletes, celebrities, wealthy business people – and secretly, we love it.  We love to be admired, adored, praised and told by others how wonderful we are!  Now, I’m not talking about the healthy desire for words of affirmation and love from those who care about us – I’m talking about the deep, hidden desire that we wish wasn’t there that longs to be worshiped.

The Holy Spirit constantly has to remind me of this trap of the enemy, as it is so easy to get caught up in this, especially when you are involved in any kind of leadership role where people are looking up to you.  I don’t know about others, but I’m guessing that this isn’t uncommon even for worship leaders, musicians and singers whose sole purpose is to lead people to worship God.  Now, I believe that even deeper, there is the sincere and completely pure desire to have all worship go only to God and that He sees that desire more than He sees our weakness and sinfulness, so I hope I’m not communicating any sort of judgment or shame!  I know that God sees my true longings to praise and adore Him, but I also know that He is absolutely not willing to share any of His worship with me or any other person, and that He loves me so much, that He will do anything to rid my heart of these idolatrous roots!

Lastly, something I’ve been thinking about is that one of the attributes of God that makes Him God is that He alone is the only One worthy of worship or praise.  Like I already said, He will share His worship with no one – not an angel, not an animal, not the sun or moon or stars, not a demon, not any created thing in the universe, and certainly not any human!!  For Him to allow anything or anyone other than Himself to receive worship would mean that He would cease to be God, because then He would be saying that this thing or person is equal to or greater than Himself. 

However, there is one amazing exception to this, in that part of His perfect plan to redeem humankind involved sending His One and Only Son, His equal in every way, to become a man forever, and He set it up that Jesus will one day receive the worship and praise of every man, woman and child, every angel and demon and living creature, and they will all confess that Jesus is Lord!!!  Jesus is the ONLY man who is and will ever be worthy of receiving worship, because though He is now fully a man, He is also still fully God!  Through God’s sovereign and supernatural workings, He made it possible for a man to receive worship, while not relinquishing any of His own Divinity. since He chose to express His very own nature and form in Jesus, making what was once invisible now visible to mankind!  It’s sort of hard to wrap your mind around, but it’s pretty awesome!

In the end, I am so grateful that it is Jesus who will receive all the worship of all creation and that nobody and no thing will be able to any longer take any worship for themselves…including myself.