For What Will I Sell My Worship

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,  and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
(Luke 4:5-8 ESV)

I once heard a pastor say that if the devil had taken any more than a moment of time to show Jesus all the kingdoms of the world that it wouldn’t have been much of a temptation.  People say the most ridiculous things.  There is no way this was much of a temptation for Jesus; not even had this devil taken a week to display all the glory.  Think about it.  Can you really imagine Jesus going, “Oh, wow.  I know I can form entire galaxies with a word, but you know, these, these look really neat too.  This is a tough one.  All I need to do is worship you, who I created in the first place?  That is a pretty sweet deal…”  Seriously?  I’m telling you, there has to be more to this temptation than what can be found on the surface.  Because it makes the devil seem pretty stupid on the surface.  I doubt he’s that dumb.  That would be nice, but I don’t think so.

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The Butler Did It

Then the king said, “And where is your master’s son?” And Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me. ‘”  So the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.” And Ziba said, “I prostrate myself; let me find favor in your sight, O my lord, the king!” (2 Samuel 16:3-4 NASB)

Ziba is described as the servant of Saul’s household in 2 Samuel 9:2.  The details about Ziba given in the chapter bring a few things to light, and help understand what he does right here.  First, he is the servant to Saul’s household but only Mephibosheth, a cripple living across the Jordan with another family, is left or is he?  At first it looks like Ziba’s essentially been living off Saul’s household.  On the other hand, in chapter 21 they find seven other sons.  So David’s choice of Mephibosheth had more to do with Jonathan than Saul.