Fear and Worship

[dvm]

When Jesus was tempted by Satan as recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, He quoted scripture to refute Satan's attacks. In the last temptation Satan requested Jesus to worship him. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13,

"You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him...".

As recorded by Matthew 4:10,

"...You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve."

Fear is from the Hebrew "yare" (Strong's number 3372) to stand in awe. Worship is from the Greek "proskuneo" (4352) to make obeisance, do reverence to.

Now to the question. Is Jesus, by using worship, equating the acts done to show reverence to the attitude which is driving one to perform the acts?

[m273p15c]

Is Jesus, by using worship, equating the acts done to show reverence to the attitude which is driving one to perform the acts?

This is an interesting question. ... May I ask a preliminary question? I thought Jesus' quotes were always taken from the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew writings. Is this incorrect? Can you think of a time when he "corrected" the Septuagint?

[dvm]

I'm not sure what version of the scriptures that Jesus quoted. It would be interesting to know. However in the Septuagint version of Deuteronomy 6:13, the root word is "Phobeo". Defined by Strong's -

to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience

. Either word "yare" in the Hebrew or "phobeo" in the Greek, it appears more attitude rather than an action.

Can you think of a time when he "corrected" the Septuagint?

As far as "correcting" the scriptures, I'm not sure. He has however corrected the Jewish interpretation of scripture, for instance Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28.

[dvm]

As I have continued in my quest to understand "worship", many of it's uses in the Old Testament seem to separated worship from the acts traditionally thought to be worship. Consider the following verses:

Deuteronomy 26:1-10; the firstfruits offering (the sacrifice) is a separate action from worship in verses 10. "...And you shall set it down before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God."

1 Samuel 1:3; Elkanah's yearly actions are set into 2 parts "to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh."

2 Kings 17:35-36; idol "worship" is prohibited while true "worship" is commanded. Consider the actions toward each; fear, worship [bow], serve, sacrifice.

2 Chronicles 32:12; Hezekiah's command "...Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices" [also compare to 2 Kings 18:22, Isaiah 36:7]

Final thoughts for today, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son in Genesis 22:1. In verse 5 while Abraham was travelling to the location specified by God, told the servants to "stay" while "I and the boy will go over there and worship...". Traditionally, I have been taught that the offering of his son as a sacrifice was worship. However, James 2:21 called Abraham's sacrifice a "work". If the sacrifice was a work (an act, a deed, a thing done), then what was worship?