Was anyone else in the Bible worshipped like Jesus?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

The only figure in Scripture who receives worship alongside Jesus is the Angel of the LORD, who is best understood as the preincarnate Son of God appearing before His birth as Jesus (Genesis 22:12; Joshua 5:13–15). Unlike created angels, He identified Himself with God, was recognized as God by those who encountered Him, and accepted worship that belongs to God alone (Judges 13:21–22). When the Son took on human flesh and was born as Jesus, He continued to receive the same worship because He is fully God (John 1:1; Matthew 28:9). Throughout both Testaments, all other examples of worship directed toward idols, false gods, angels, or humans are either condemned as false worship or corrected as a mistake (Exodus 32:4–8; Acts 14:11–15; Revelation 19:10). Worship belongs exclusively to God, so Jesus receiving worship is powerful evidence of His divine identity. We, as sinners, worship just about everything by setting our desires above Christ, but we must remember that only God is worthy of worship. We must guard against elevating anything above Christ and continually direct our devotion, love, and allegiance to Him alone.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• While the Angel of the LORD bears the title “angel,” it is clear that He is no ordinary angel. He Himself identified Himself as God. For example, in Genesis 22, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:2). Yet later, when Abraham was about to kill his son, the Angel of the LORD stopped him, saying, “now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:12). He said that Abraham had not withheld his son “from me,” referring to Himself while also saying he had not withheld his son from God.
• In another example of His being God, the Angel of the LORD visited Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson. He told them that He would offer a sacrifice to God on their behalf, but when He did, He went up in the flame as well. We read their response: “Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, ‘We shall surely die, for we have seen God’” (Judges 13:21–22).
• It is because the Angel of the LORD is divine that He is distinguished from created angels and can rightly accept worship. For example, when Joshua encountered Him (in an account where He was called “commander of the army of the LORD”), “Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped” and was told, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy” (Joshua 5:13–15).
• While the Old Testament is not as clear as the New Testament regarding trinitarian distinctions, scholars, based on how the Angel of the LORD both acts and interacts with God, refer to His appearance in the Old Testament as a Christophany (or, more accurately, a Theophany). That is, He is the Son of God, as is Jesus, meaning the Angel of the LORD is the Son of God before taking on human nature, whereas Jesus is the same Son after being born human.
• Because the Angel of the LORD was not human, He appeared only temporarily in human form. For example, He appeared to Abraham along with two other men (likely angels) in Genesis 18:1–2. In another example, He appeared before Manoah and his wife, parents of Samson, in Judges 13:3–6. In these and other instances, He appeared in human form to interact with humans, but that form was temporary.
• The Old Testament includes accounts of other people and things being worshipped, but in each case, they were instances of false worship, such as the statue of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:5) and the golden calf (Exodus 32:4–8). So, the Angel of the LORD was the only one who rightly received the worship due God.

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The Angel of the LORD was the preincarnate Son of God. The New Testament opens with the Son becoming incarnate, meaning adding on real human nature (Philippians 2:6–7), being born as Jesus (Matthew 1:18–21). From that time on, the Son was no longer only temporarily in human form but had forever added on humanity. As fully God (John 1:1), the Son can rightly receive worship, as Jesus did (e.g., Matthew 28:9). As the Old Testament showed, this was not the first time humans had worshipped the Son. Rather, the worship of Jesus was the continuation of the worship that was given to the Angel of the LORD.
• Note: As with the Old Testament, the New Testament also shows others being worshipped; it was false worship. For example, a city tried worshipping Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:11–13). In Revelation, what John saw was so wonderful that he forgot himself and began to worship an angel (Revelation 19:10) who rightly corrected him, redirecting the worship to Jesus.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

Worship is the display of love and honor to the one being worshipped. As our Creator, God is the only one who warrants such worship. Jesus was worshipped because He is the Son of God and, thus, also worthy of such worship. However, if we submit to anything else, we are worshipping something in creation. That is both foolish, as creation can’t satisfy the soul, and sinful, as it places God’s creation above Him.

Worship does not always mean bowing down to a physical idol. It’s been rightly said that our hearts are idol-factories, meaning that we can (and usually do) worship anything and everything. It can be pleasure, the desire to marry or have kids, or politics. It can be virtually anything we are passionate about.

How can we tell if we are worshipping something? One easy test we can ask ourselves is: “Am I willing to sin for X?” Sin is a display of disdain for God, so anytime we are willing to sin to satisfy our desire or to make something happen, we are saying we love and honor that thing more than God. We are worshipping and serving it.

How can we stop our idol-factories? We do that by conforming our hearts to Scripture and by pursuing Christ. We read the Bible and apply it to our lives. We attend church and sit under solid Bible preachers. We fellowship and serve in the church. We pray and remind ourselves that God is the source of all that we have. As we do such things, we are training ourselves to think of God as the center of all things, focusing our desire and thus worship on Him.

UNDERSTAND

• The Angel of the LORD was rightly worshipped in the Old Testament because He is the preincarnate Son of God—the same divine Person who later became Jesus.
• Jesus' acceptance of worship confirms His deity, since worship belongs to God alone.
• All other worship seen in Scripture directed toward idols, angels, or humans was wrongly given.

REFLECT

• What in your life is most competing for your worship, and how can you intentionally give Christ the devotion that belongs to Him alone?
• How does knowing that Jesus received the same worship as the Angel of the LORD strengthen your confidence that He is truly God and worthy of your complete trust?
• When you evaluate your priorities, desires, and decisions, what do they reveal about Christ's place in that?

ENGAGE

• Why is Jesus' acceptance of worship throughout the New Testament such powerful evidence for His divine identity?
• What can we learn from the repeated biblical pattern of angels, apostles, and other created beings refusing worship while Jesus receives it?
• How can we identify modern forms of idolatry and help each other keep Christ at the center of their worship and devotion?