The Work of Worship

Gen. 22:1-13

The remarkable account of this unforgettable event in Abraham’s and Isaac’s lives is full of emotion and life-changing truth. One’s imagination wanders to the central individuals in this episode.

The young men

These two servants had accompanied their master Abraham on this strange journey to sacrifice on an unknown mountain. The journey began abruptly, there were unexpected and mysterious factors to Abraham’s manner and behavior, compared to his normal practice of sacrifice. Yet after it was over, his relief and joy, happiness and thankfulness were unmistakable! What had happened up there on the mountain?

Sarah

Perhaps she knew the reason for Abraham’s journey, perhaps she didn’t. If she did, the days would have been filled with heartsick waiting, with tearful prayer, and perhaps despair. Imagine her joy to see the whole company returning to her again with joyful faces!

Isaac

He too left with his father unexpectedly and abruptly. Perhaps his father was silent and detached, struggling alone with his grief. Isaac was content to follow his father’s leadership all the way onto the altar. When did he realize what was in store? Did he rebel against it, even in his heart? We don’t read of him struggling to escape, or trying to persuade his father to spare his life. Did he trust his father’s faith in God this much, or was his own faith in God just as sustaining?

Abraham

What agony of soul he must have experienced! We may imagine the groaning of his spirit every step of this journey to the mountain of Moriah. We don’t read that his faith faltered, but how natural it would have been to happen. Why would God miraculously give him a son (Ishmael was Abraham’s solution), and then rip him away from his grateful father? Why was God putting him through what felt like a tortuous, up-and-down obstacle course? Was following God worth the sacrifice? Could Abraham think ahead to the rest of his life, and be excited about the potential cost to following God?

We don’t know if these thoughts crowded into his head…instead, we see what he DID. He didn’t hesitate, he didn’t accuse God or speak disparagingly about Him. He simply obeyed…and beyond the pain was great joy and fellowship with God that he never could have imagined.

In obeying God, Abraham and Isaac were used by the Lord to paint a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died in our place, and took our judgment. But instead of spending the rest of our time on these elements, I’d like to point out a part of this account that we may not readily consider.

Gen. 22:1-5

As Abraham is in the act of obeying God’s command, he tells his young servants what he is going to do: he and Isaac are going to worship God. This is the first instance of the word “worship” in the Bible, and we find many important facets of worship that ought to guide our thinking and our observance of it. In this passage, I want us to look at ten different truths about worship that we can and should apply in our own worship to God.

I. Worship is Obedience

Gen. 22:1-2

Why should we worship God? Because He commands it. God not only knows the cost to us, but He knows the benefit. And He instructs us to worship Him.

Psalm 99:5 KJV 1900

Exalt ye the Lord our God, And worship at his footstool; For he is holy.

II. Worship Takes Purpose and Preparation

Gen. 22:3

Whether we prepare materials or our hearts (vs. 1b), worship doesn’t happen accidentally or reflexively. Abraham invested himself in the work of preparing to worship God.

1 Chronicles 16:29 KJV 1900

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: Bring an offering, and come before him: Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

This verse includes much preparation: 1) Choosing an offering, 2) Bringing the offering, 3) Consecrating oneself to holiness. Do we invest ourselves in preparing to worship God? (We may expect the quality of our worship to reflect our preparation!)

III. Worship is Personal and Private

Gen. 22:4-6

Abraham left the two young men (vs. 3) behind! They may misunderstand what he would do; they may try to stop him. Regardless of that, his actions were obedient and personal with God.

Psalm 95:6 KJV 1900

O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

True worship means the worshiper humbles himself. When we humble ourselves before God, we are also lifting Him up. It is a 1:1 encounter that is personal and private, at least in the heart!

IV. Worship is for the LORD

Gen. 22:7-8

Isaac was expecting the “normal” sacrifice…indeed, it was the same sacrifice that Abel made! (Gen. 4:4) Abraham would have preferred this sacrifice! But God is the object and sole purpose of worship: it is for Him and Him alone! Abraham didn’t have the attitude of giving God what Abraham wanted. He left the issue of a lamb up to God. If God wanted one, God would provide one. Abraham would worship God by sacrificing according to God’s command, in obedience.

Exodus 34:14 KJV 1900

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

V. Worship Requires Surrender

Gen. 22:9

Abraham was surrendering his only beloved son to God! (vs. 2a) He cut no corners—he prepared the altar and wood properly. He permitted no obstacles—he bound Isaac. Worship isn’t simply about giving up our precious things to God! It’s also about HOW we give them up to Him.

Abraham’s surrender of Isaac didn’t begin at the altar site. It began after God’s command, before he got up early in the morning to obey! What a good example Abraham is to us!

Joshua’s example also demonstrates that worship includes surrender.

Joshua 5:14 KJV 1900

And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

(Joshua was the general of Israel’s army! And yet when he realized who his heavenly visitor was, he immediately worshiped and surrendered his autonomy as general to God.

VI. Worship Requires Sacrifice

Gen. 22:10

In a typical burnt offering, the lamb would be slain and his body burned. Abraham expected to do this to Isaac’s body. When offering a sacrifice, the thing sacrificed is lost to us forever. This isn’t a loan; it is a permanent gift to God.

Isaac was submitting to death in order to worship God! (Vs. 5 — “I and the lad will go yonder and worship...”) He probably didn’t understand the need for his death…but we don’t read of his rebellion or frantic struggle for survival.

I can only imagine the natural struggle that would have been going on in the minds of Abraham and Isaac at this moment—both of them struggling to understand why this was necessary, and wondering what the end would be. But compared to the all-encompassing importance of obeying the King of kings, the seemingly dreadful end didn’t matter.

Romans 12:1 KJV 1900

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Service is part of worship! If we are going to worship God, we must present ourselves as a living sacrifice. What might be the end of a life characterized by this continual choice? The end doesn’t matter compared to the compelling need to worship the Lord of lords! If we are a living sacrifice to God, we have given ourselves as a permanent sacrifice to God. It must be just as final as if we had been burned on the altar.

VII. Worship Requires the Fear of God

Gen. 22:11-12

Worship DEMANDS that we fear God.

Webster’s 1828: Worship: To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration.

Psalm 96:9 KJV 1900

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Fear before him, all the earth.

This is the whole motivation for worship! Giving something precious to God isn’t worship if it isn’t accompanied by fear. We may tithe without fearing God; we may donate our time without fearing God. But when we surrender and sacrifice what is precious to us, in order to honor and reverence God, because we FEAR Him…that is worship!

VIII. Worship Glorifies Christ

Gen. 22:13-14

Jehovah-jireh: the LORD will provide. What better description of Christ as our substitute than this?

The only reason we can worship God at all is because of Christ’s redemptive work, reconciling us to God! 2 Cor. 5:17-21

Philippians 3:3 KJV 1900

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

IX. Worship Brings Blessing

Gen. 22:15-17

Romans 12:2 KJV 1900

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Worship pleases God, and when we obey and exalt God in our lives, He will bless us. Ps. 37:1-11

X. Worship Allows God to Use Us

Gen. 22:18-19

God would send Christ through Abraham’s seed, and He would continue to use Abraham as a man of God, and use the record of this event for millennia of believers!

Matt. 26:6-13

When we obey God purposefully, personally surrendering all we have and sacrificing ourselves for Him alone, when we properly fear God and glorify His Son with our actions, God will bless and use us, furthering the cycle to more worship.

How can we have what Abraham had? How can we please and know God like he did? (We may not be known as the “Friend of God,” but we may know and please God like Abraham did!) It comes down to the two things that God made a point of talking about:

We must fear God

Genesis 22:12 KJV 1900

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

We must obey God

Genesis 22:18 KJV 1900

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Abraham didn’t let God’s gifts take the place of God in his heart and affections. When God asked him to give up his long-awaited son, he did so without hesitation…and God blessed him for it. Abraham enjoyed deeper fellowship with God, and God’s gifts to him were an even GREATER blessing in his life!

THIS is what God values. This is what worship is all about. And if we will fear Him, we will want to obey Him. When we fear Him and obey Him with/in our worship, we will not withhold anything from Him, we will glorify Him with it, and He will use us. This is worship “in spirit and in truth.”

This is the work of worship. It is not easy; it is not natural. But when we worship God in spirit and in truth, He will see our actions like he saw Mary’s—as a “good work” that we have bestowed on Him. May we worship God this way!