I've been thinking on this for a while:
Where in Scriptures are we told to 'worship Jesus'?
I've noticed many memes, comments and posts in cyber-land that play into this scenario as if they are ignoring God altogether. Also, why do people think angels are to be worshipped as well?
All through the Old Testament (Tanakh) believers worshipped the one true living God - Yahweh.
In Matthew 4 Satan tempts the Son of God three times:
1. Because you're hungry, say to these rocks to become bread
2. Cast yourself down from the edge of the temple, let the angels protect you
3. You can have everything if you worship me
Yahshua counters these temptations by quoting from Scriptures:
1. It is written that the Son of man does not live by bread alone, but by all the Words that proceed from the mouth of the Father.
2. It is written you will not test Master Yahweh your God.
3. It is written you will worship Master Yahweh and Him alone will you serve.
When Yahshua says 'it is written' he means that which has been recorded in Scriptures, the Word of God, what we now call the Old Testament. He was pointing out the difference between the truth which came from the Father, and the 'oral traditions' of the Pharisees, which was the beginnings of the religion Judaism.
1. Deuteronomy 8:3 ~ He subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but may live on anything that the Father decrees.
Psalm 91 ~
I have lightly paraphrased just as an update for today's world.
If we dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the protection of Shaddai, He will save us and we will find refuge in Him. We need not fear the terrors of night or attacks during the day, the plague that stalks in the night or the scourge that ravages during the day. Many will be affected and fall, but it will not reach us. We will witness the punishment of the wicked because we chose Yahweh as our refuge. No harm will befall us, no disease will enter our homes. He will order His Messengers to guard us ..... "they will carry you in their hands lest you hurt your foot on a stone". We will tread on cubs and vipers; we will trample lions and asps. This will happen IF we are devoted to Yahweh - He will keep us safe because we know His Name. When we call upon Him, He will answer, rescuing us in times of distress, showing us His Salvation.
2. Deuteronomy 6:16 ~ Do not test Yahweh.... be sure to Keep the Commandments, decrees and laws that Yahweh your God has enjoined upon you. Do what is right and good in His sight that it may go well with you (so that we make it to the promised land)
3. Deuteronomy 6:13 ~ Revere only Yahweh your God and worship Him alone, and swear only by His Name. Do not follow any gods of the peoples around you, for Yahweh is an impassioned God and His anger could blaze forth against us and wipe us off the face of the earth.
John 4:23
But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking
such as these to worship Him.
We are not to be in the practice of angel worship, either.
Angels
have appeared certain times throughout Scriptures and usually appeared as
men - no wings, no halos, never as a female - but their divine righteousness became obvious. They
usually had a Message for the human from the Creator, which is why they
are called Messengers - it is the office they hold. We have read those
visions and descriptions of heavenly beings who are part of Yah's
spiritual realm, things yet to be seen by our eyes, but we must not
overlook examples of when man actually saw an 'angel' and knew it was a
divine being.
Revelation 19:10
So I fell at his feet to worship him (the angel). But he told me, “Do not do that! I
am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who rely on the
testimony of Yahshua. Worship God !
Colossians 2:18
And let no one wish, by subverting the mind, to bring you under bonds that you worship angels; while he is prying into that which he has not seen and is vainly inflated in his fleshly mind.....
•This is how the verse reads in the Berean study bible:
Do
not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels
disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person
is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.
So many people are compelled to share the Word of God and some have been snared by what they have been taught without ever taking it to Scriptures for proof. They are not building on the same foundation as the 12 Apostles and are misleading many.
The Son of God is the corner piece upon which the 12 Apostles built the foundation, teaching everything that Yahshua taught them; which is everything from Yahweh our Father. Ever since then there have been disciples building upon that same foundation. However, there are people teaching doctrines that only cause cracks in that foundation which become snares for His people who do not love the truth and lack knowledge of what is written in Scriptures. We have been warned: these are they who will be destroyed.
Our songs of praise, our love and obedience is to Yahweh God Almighty first and foremost in all things. We love Him with our entire being and know how to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is not the end game but only the beginning. We also have the testimony of His Son Yahshua - we openly acknowledge he is the Son of Yahweh who was killed and resurrected and will one day return for his followers, those who God gave him from the beginning.
Destroy your collection of icons and idols and put Our Father first. Read His Instructions and gain understanding. Stop sharing those images of angels and 'Jesus', Roman death devices and armed spiritual warriors; idol worshipping is also forbidden by Our Father.