Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
The verse commands reverent, godly fear of the Lord and exclusive service and loyalty to Him alone, acknowledging no other god. It was given to Israel as they were about to enter the land to enjoy blessings they had not made, warning them when full not to forget the Lord who brought them from bondage nor follow other gods. Christ used this command with divine authority to rebuke Satan in the mountain temptation when offered all the kingdoms of the world for worship, ordering him to depart and refusing to acknowledge his supremacy. By that refusal He honored the Father, passed over Adam's ground without yielding, and chose suffering and death to redeem the world so He would afterward receive the kingdoms as rightful everlasting possession. His victory was won for humanity, so those who partake of the divine nature can resist temptation in His name and strength, drive Satan away by this Scripture, and give worship and allegiance to God alone and to no man.
Command to Fear and Serve
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, belongs to what God required of Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself, to fear God and give Him their service. That fearing goes with keeping His commandments and walking in His ways. It is among the directions in Deuteronomy that God's people are to observe carefully, even in the details of conduct, with consecrated service and careful speech and behavior by those entrusted with sacred duties.
The fear commanded is godly and reverent fear, honoring God, not servile fear. To serve Him and swear by His name is to acknowledge Him alone, with exclusive loyalty to Him and to no other god. It forbids going after any of the gods of the surrounding peoples, for He is a jealous God whose anger destroys the unfaithful.
It was spoken as Israel was about to enter the land and enjoy its blessings after the Lord delivered them from Egypt and the house of bondage. They were to receive good cities and houses, dug wells, vineyards and olive trees they did not make, great cities and full houses they did not build. When they had eaten and were full they were to beware lest they forget the Lord, and to remember Him rather than turn to the gods of their neighbors.
It stands with diligently keeping His commandments, statutes and testimonies, and not tempting Him as at Massah. His words were to be kept in the heart, taught diligently to children in the house and by the way, bound as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, and written upon house posts and gates, so kept constantly before the people to keep them from every false way. Reverence for the Lord thus taught is the beginning of wisdom, and this instruction through Moses is to be taught to children from their earliest years that they be brought up in the Lord's teaching.
The same requirement to remain faithful and keep His commandments applies today. What was required in Deuteronomy 4-8 is to be studied now with profit, because the world is nearing God's great final review when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for their deeds. The present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. In the Sunday-law conflict God's people are therefore to present the Sabbath truth from Scripture, relying on the authority of God's Word.
Christs Rejection of Satan
Worship, homage, reverence, service and allegiance belong to the Lord God alone and to no other, for He alone is to be feared, served and worshiped. Giving that homage to any other is blasphemous assumption and insult to God the Creator.
In the mountain wilderness temptation Satan took Christ to an exceeding high place, in a moment of time showing Him all the kingdoms of the world with their power, glory, attraction, splendid cities, palaces, fields and vineyards. He claimed to be the rightful ruler and possessor of the world and offered to make them over at once and relinquish his claim if Christ would fall down and worship him as superior and supreme. The offer was made in the most attractive light to draw the mind away, promising to give all their power and glory on condition of worship.
Christ refused to look on the entrancing spectacle or dally with the tempter lest He endanger steadfast integrity. He refused to acknowledge Satan's supremacy, to admit that the world belonged to Satan to give, to gain the world on condition of worship, to yield up real kingship to hold dominion subject to Satan, or to be bought by homage to the principles of evil. He would not deny that the world belongs to God, nor take the dominion of this world resting under the curse of sin with all its woe and misery apart from God.
With divine indignation and divine authority He used this command to rebuke Satan, ordering him to desist, depart and leave His presence. Divinity flashed through humanity with such power that Satan's concealment of his true character and deceptive arts failed, for he was known from the first, and he fled baffled as a conquered foe from the battlefield. Satan's demand was a blasphemous assumption and insult to Jehovah, seeking from Jesus on earth the worship he had failed to obtain in heaven. There dissatisfaction began because he could not be first and highest in command, equal with God and exalted above Christ, for which he rebelled, lost his estate, and was turned out with his sympathizers.
By refusing, Christ remained faithful to His Father's will and appointed way, choosing a life of suffering and dreadful death to redeem the world rather than promised power and glory. Satan made the offer to save his own life and kingdom by getting Jesus to depart from His Father's will and avoid death, knowing that if the plan of salvation was carried out by Jesus dying to redeem man his power would be limited and finally taken away. So Christ would become the lawful heir and afterward receive the kingdoms as His rightful everlasting possession when all in heaven and earth submit to Him, while Satan would be given into His hands to be destroyed by death to annoy Jesus and the saints no more. In that answer Christ refused to take sides with the apostate foe, passed over the ground where Adam stumbled without yielding in a single point, honored the Father by enduring a test no human being will ever pass through, and withstood as overcomer for fallen men so they might overcome, be equal with the angels and be acknowledged as sons of God.
Exclusive Worship Today
The command requires that the Lord who made the world be the only one before whom human beings bow in worship and service, and no finite person is to be put in the place where God should be. No human being has been given power to claim homage or to be honored as a god and made an object of worship, whether pope or prelate or cardinal, so to worship the man of sin in the person of the pope and his representative is to break this command. Keeping it refuses homage to the adversary in exchange for the kingdom and glory of the world, refusing to surrender true kingship in order to hold dominion subject to him or to be bought by homage to the principles of evil. It therefore rejects the dominion once desired, a kingdom of this world resting under the curse of sin with all its woe and misery apart from God beneath outward beauty, and holds instead to the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness that restores the world to more than Eden beauty.
Exclusive devotion belongs to the Creator alone, so no earthly beauty or wealth or gain is worth giving worship to anything in place of God. Every temptation that would draw heart and mind away from Him must be resisted in unswerving allegiance to the Father. The victory gained in the wilderness was won for humanity and places humanity on vantage ground, opening redemption in which those who become partakers of the divine nature are enabled to resist temptation. What was done there shows what every human being may do in the name and strength of Jesus, meeting temptation in the same way while striving for the crown of everlasting life.
Even when weak and suffering and faint and exhausted in human nature, the overcomer need not yield for a moment but by this Scripture can show superiority over the tempter, exercise authority over him, and command him to depart. Meeting him thus drives him away baffled as a conquered foe and brings the ministry of angels to the overcomer, as happened when the devil left and angels came and ministered. If there had been yielding and worship given to the adversary, the plan of salvation would have failed and hopeless misery would have come upon mankind.
The verse commands reverent, godly fear of the Lord and exclusive service and loyalty to Him alone, acknowledging no other god. It was given to Israel as they were about to enter the land to enjoy blessings they had not made, warning them when full not to forget the Lord who brought them from bondage nor follow other gods. Christ used this command with divine authority to rebuke Satan in the mountain temptation when offered all the kingdoms of the world for worship, ordering him to depart and refusing to acknowledge his supremacy. By that refusal He honored the Father, passed over Adam's ground without yielding, and chose suffering and death to redeem the world so He would afterward receive the kingdoms as rightful everlasting possession. His victory was won for humanity, so those who partake of the divine nature can resist temptation in His name and strength, drive Satan away by this Scripture, and give worship and allegiance to God alone and to no man.
Command to Fear and Serve
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, belongs to what God required of Israel that they might be a holy people unto Himself, to fear God and give Him their service. That fearing goes with keeping His commandments and walking in His ways. It is among the directions in Deuteronomy that God's people are to observe carefully, even in the details of conduct, with consecrated service and careful speech and behavior by those entrusted with sacred duties.
The fear commanded is godly and reverent fear, honoring God, not servile fear. To serve Him and swear by His name is to acknowledge Him alone, with exclusive loyalty to Him and to no other god. It forbids going after any of the gods of the surrounding peoples, for He is a jealous God whose anger destroys the unfaithful.
It was spoken as Israel was about to enter the land and enjoy its blessings after the Lord delivered them from Egypt and the house of bondage. They were to receive good cities and houses, dug wells, vineyards and olive trees they did not make, great cities and full houses they did not build. When they had eaten and were full they were to beware lest they forget the Lord, and to remember Him rather than turn to the gods of their neighbors.
It stands with diligently keeping His commandments, statutes and testimonies, and not tempting Him as at Massah. His words were to be kept in the heart, taught diligently to children in the house and by the way, bound as a sign upon the hand and as frontlets between the eyes, and written upon house posts and gates, so kept constantly before the people to keep them from every false way. Reverence for the Lord thus taught is the beginning of wisdom, and this instruction through Moses is to be taught to children from their earliest years that they be brought up in the Lord's teaching.
The same requirement to remain faithful and keep His commandments applies today. What was required in Deuteronomy 4-8 is to be studied now with profit, because the world is nearing God's great final review when all must stand before the Judge of all the earth to answer for their deeds. The present is the time of investigation when every character will have been investigated and every case decided for eternity. In the Sunday-law conflict God's people are therefore to present the Sabbath truth from Scripture, relying on the authority of God's Word.
Christs Rejection of Satan
Worship, homage, reverence, service and allegiance belong to the Lord God alone and to no other, for He alone is to be feared, served and worshiped. Giving that homage to any other is blasphemous assumption and insult to God the Creator.
In the mountain wilderness temptation Satan took Christ to an exceeding high place, in a moment of time showing Him all the kingdoms of the world with their power, glory, attraction, splendid cities, palaces, fields and vineyards. He claimed to be the rightful ruler and possessor of the world and offered to make them over at once and relinquish his claim if Christ would fall down and worship him as superior and supreme. The offer was made in the most attractive light to draw the mind away, promising to give all their power and glory on condition of worship.
Christ refused to look on the entrancing spectacle or dally with the tempter lest He endanger steadfast integrity. He refused to acknowledge Satan's supremacy, to admit that the world belonged to Satan to give, to gain the world on condition of worship, to yield up real kingship to hold dominion subject to Satan, or to be bought by homage to the principles of evil. He would not deny that the world belongs to God, nor take the dominion of this world resting under the curse of sin with all its woe and misery apart from God.
With divine indignation and divine authority He used this command to rebuke Satan, ordering him to desist, depart and leave His presence. Divinity flashed through humanity with such power that Satan's concealment of his true character and deceptive arts failed, for he was known from the first, and he fled baffled as a conquered foe from the battlefield. Satan's demand was a blasphemous assumption and insult to Jehovah, seeking from Jesus on earth the worship he had failed to obtain in heaven. There dissatisfaction began because he could not be first and highest in command, equal with God and exalted above Christ, for which he rebelled, lost his estate, and was turned out with his sympathizers.
By refusing, Christ remained faithful to His Father's will and appointed way, choosing a life of suffering and dreadful death to redeem the world rather than promised power and glory. Satan made the offer to save his own life and kingdom by getting Jesus to depart from His Father's will and avoid death, knowing that if the plan of salvation was carried out by Jesus dying to redeem man his power would be limited and finally taken away. So Christ would become the lawful heir and afterward receive the kingdoms as His rightful everlasting possession when all in heaven and earth submit to Him, while Satan would be given into His hands to be destroyed by death to annoy Jesus and the saints no more. In that answer Christ refused to take sides with the apostate foe, passed over the ground where Adam stumbled without yielding in a single point, honored the Father by enduring a test no human being will ever pass through, and withstood as overcomer for fallen men so they might overcome, be equal with the angels and be acknowledged as sons of God.
Exclusive Worship Today
The command requires that the Lord who made the world be the only one before whom human beings bow in worship and service, and no finite person is to be put in the place where God should be. No human being has been given power to claim homage or to be honored as a god and made an object of worship, whether pope or prelate or cardinal, so to worship the man of sin in the person of the pope and his representative is to break this command. Keeping it refuses homage to the adversary in exchange for the kingdom and glory of the world, refusing to surrender true kingship in order to hold dominion subject to him or to be bought by homage to the principles of evil. It therefore rejects the dominion once desired, a kingdom of this world resting under the curse of sin with all its woe and misery apart from God beneath outward beauty, and holds instead to the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness that restores the world to more than Eden beauty.
Exclusive devotion belongs to the Creator alone, so no earthly beauty or wealth or gain is worth giving worship to anything in place of God. Every temptation that would draw heart and mind away from Him must be resisted in unswerving allegiance to the Father. The victory gained in the wilderness was won for humanity and places humanity on vantage ground, opening redemption in which those who become partakers of the divine nature are enabled to resist temptation. What was done there shows what every human being may do in the name and strength of Jesus, meeting temptation in the same way while striving for the crown of everlasting life.
Even when weak and suffering and faint and exhausted in human nature, the overcomer need not yield for a moment but by this Scripture can show superiority over the tempter, exercise authority over him, and command him to depart. Meeting him thus drives him away baffled as a conquered foe and brings the ministry of angels to the overcomer, as happened when the devil left and angels came and ministered. If there had been yielding and worship given to the adversary, the plan of salvation would have failed and hopeless misery would have come upon mankind.