Acceptable Worship (Akutan)

Introduction

Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 32:1–6 ESV

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

When I was here two months ago we looked briefly at the 10 commandments. First, we looked at the difference between the law and the Gospel, and then we looked at the first commandment, that we shall have no other gods before him. Therefore, I thought it would be fitting for us to pickup where we left off and look at the second commandment, that “you shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God...”

If you’d like to listen any of our other sermons related to the 10 commandments you can find them on our church website and listen to them there at unalaskareformed.org. We haven’t finished teaching through all ten of them yet, but you can follow along there if you’d like. Next week, Lord willing, I plan to preach on the 4th commandment, to keep the Sabbath holy.

Now, I pointed out previously that we typically divide the 10 commandments into two parts, or two categories, the first table and the second table. The first table, includes commandments 1-4, and has to do with man’s duty to God, and the second table, which includes commandments 5-10, has to do with man’s duty to one another. This is why Jesus was able to sum up the law by saying in Matthew 22:37-39, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

First table and worship

The first table of the law could also be described as commandments that dictate our worship given to God, that you shall have no other gods before me, that you shall not make for yourself a carved image, that you shall not take the Lord’s name in vain, and that you shall remember to keep the Sabbath day, and to keep it holy unto the Lord. These four commandments describe for us who is to be worshipped, how he’s to be worshiped, and when he’s to be worshiped. That God is to worship rightly, reverently, and regularly. For example, while the first commandment forbids worshiping the wrong god, and the second commandment forbids worshiping God in the wrong way. The second commandment, broadly speaking, refers to how we worship God, it’s meant to regulate our worship, that we might worship him properly. That we’re not given the freedom to worship God in any way that seems good to us.

Golden calf

We see this most clearly illustrated just 12 chapters later in Exodus 32, when Israel proceeded to violate the 2nd commandment by making for themselves a golden calf, even though God had already given them the 10 commandments audibly back in chapter 20. So, go ahead and open up your Bibles and let’s look briefly at the story recorded for us in Exodus 32, beginning in verse 1,

English Standard Version Chapter 32

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Now, many Christians at this point, after a quick reading of the chapter, often conclude that Israel here is forsaking God to follow after other gods, that their actions here were primarily a violation of the first commandment to have no other gods before me, but they’d be mistaken. As we’ll see here in a minute, while they are indeed violating the first commandment, they’re not doing so directly, but indirectly. Their sin in this story is not about who they’re worshiping, but about how they’re worshiping.

What I mean, is that upon closer examination the Israelites aren’t making an outright attempt to worship another god, but have made for themselves a golden calf in order to worship Yahweh. They have made for themselves a golden calf in an attempt to render worship to Yahweh. Notice specifically what they say there in verse 4,

English Standard Version Chapter 32

4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

In other words, they’ve fashioned a golden calf in order to worship the God “who brought [them] up out of the land of Egypt.” This is further confirmed by verse 5, that says,

English Standard Version Chapter 32

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

Notice how your English Bible puts the word LORD in all caps, this is meant to indicate that the Hebrew word translated LORD there is Yahweh, the personal name for God, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush back in Exodus chapter 3.

Pagan worship practices

The Israelites aren’t intending to forsake Yahweh for another god, but have employed the methods of worship found in Egypt and the surrounding pagan nations. You see, we have to keep in mind that Israel had spent more than 400 years in Egypt, most of that time in bondage to slavery, and they were undoubtedly impacted by the pagan worship practices all around them.

Consequently, after they were delivered out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of slavery, they naturally began to employ pagan practices in their worship of Yahweh, despite the warning given to them in the second commandment twelve chapters earlier. They had become impatient waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, and so they asked Aaron to fashion for them a graven image for worship. Notice the phrase originally found in the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself...” and then again here in Exodus 32:31,

Exodus 32:31 ESV

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.

God had earlier forbidden them from “making for [themselves] a carved image,” yet here we find them twelve chapters later having “made for themselves gods of gold.” They had already made a verbal covenant with God at Sinai, but before they had even left the mountain they had broken it, which was graphically portrayed when Moses “threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” (v. 19)

Culture’s influence on worship

Therefore, what I want you to ask yourselves, as we examine this commandment, is this, “How has your culture influenced your own worship?And how might your own culture be impacting or perverting your worship, as Egypt and the surrounding nations had influenced the worship of the Israelites at Sinai?” And as we’ll see increasingly, this is a very important question to ask ourselves, because the consequences for improper worship are serious. The rest of chapter 32 details the judgment carried out against the Israelites who had sinned against God, the Levites are instructed to put to death many of them by the sword, and then in verse 35 the LORD sends a plague upon the people, all because of the calf, the one that Aaron had made for them.

Inadequacy of images

So, we find in the second commandment instructions that forbid worshiping Yahweh like the pagan nations worship their false gods. Why? Because Yahweh is not like these other gods. You see, we’re forbidden from using images to worship God because all images are fundamentally inadequate to portray the maker of heaven and earth. Every earthly image fashioned by men will be inherently inadequate, and always result in idolatry, no matter how sincere our attempts.

As one theologian put it, man-made images “contradict the transcendent nature of God as Creator.” (John Piper) You see, God is uncreated, he is eternal, therefore any image crafted by men will inevitably contract his transcendent nature. Any image fashioned to represent God will always fall immeasurably short of portraying him and his divine nature. Images inevitably mislead us to worship the creation rather than the creator, and it doesn’t matter whether we intend for them to or not. Images fashioned by men don’t posses the capacity to portray God, therefore they will always result in idolatry, which is why such images are called idols. God is the only true and living God, it is therefore unacceptable to portray him with lifeless images, images that are blind, deaf, and dumb.

Man-made images give us the impression that we can carve him, paint him, put him in our pocket or on a shelf, that we can shape him and control him, that he’s under our dominion, that he serves us. That God does not really see, hear, know, or speak. While man-made images may be fitting for the false gods of pagan nations, they are wholly inadequate for worshiping the one true and living God. God is not like these gods, he is not like these dumb idols. He is not a false god made by human hands and fashioned by human imaginations, rather he is the only true and living God, maker of heaven and earth.

And this includes our own imaginations, that we’re forbidden from imagining or picturing God with our minds. While it’s appropriate to compare God’s love to a warm embrace, or to compare his love to a father who welcomes home his prodigal son, this is different than imagining him doing so as a man in your mind, giving him an imagined form of which he does not posses. We’re not meant to picture God in our minds as a man running to us, or as a man wrapping his arms around us, because by doing so we inevitably humanize him in such a way that unavoidably misrepresents him just as all other images inevitably do.

And because images fashioned by men (whether by our hands or minds) unavoidably result in idolatry, they inevitably cause us to violate the first commandment. In fact, because these two commandments are so closely related some see them as a single commandment, for example, Jewish, Catholic, and Lutheran traditions view these two commandments as one.

See by hearing

So then, how are we intended to worship God, if not by images? Well, as one writer put it, we’re meant to “see by hearing.” (Kevin DeYoung) You see, one of God’s attributes is that he cannot be seen, that he has no natural form, or as the Apostle John would later put it, for “no one has ever seen God,” (1 John 4:12) for “God is spirit” (John 4:24). Furthermore, listen to Deuteronomy 4:12 when Moses was reminding the Israelites of their covenant at Sinai before entering the land of Canaan, he writes,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

In other words, God has not revealed himself to us by seeing, but by hearing. Listen to Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” My point here is that God has chosen to reveal himself to us by hearing, not seeing, therefore we see by hearing.

This is why preaching is at the heart of Christian worship, God shepherds his people by his word. The Apostle John described Jesus as the Word of God, and God saves his people by the preaching of his word. Which is why I’m naturally very skeptical of conversion testimonies that are based upon dreams or visions rather than by the hearing of the word. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ... So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

This is also why we sing hymns and psalms in accordance with God’s word, and it’s why we devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture in corporate worship, because the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13 to “devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

We prefer idolatrous forms of worship

But you may have noticed that most people tend to chafe against these forms worship even within the protestant church. Every church I’ve been a part of in the past rarely read scripture aloud during worship, and if they did it was kept to a minimum, because we all know people’s attention spans are short, and people would much rather watch a drama, sing a song, watch a movie, or see pictures on a screen. Most Christians would rather watch a TV series drama like The Chosen portraying Jesus, than they would to read the Gospels. We would rather see God revealed on the screen, than in his word, but there is great danger in these pursuits. We not only risk violating the second commandment, resulting in idolatry, but as I’ve already pointed out images are a fundamentally inadequate form of worship, they will always diminish and distort our view and understanding of God.

Furthermore, outside of the protestant church, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox worship is intentionally designed to appeal, primarily, to the senses. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy employ incense, images, icons, and statues in their worship to appeal to those senses, Roman Catholicism going so far as to claim that the bread and wine literally become the real body and blood of Christ before the people. The priority of these practices has lead to the minimizing of God’s word. For instance, last year the Pope called any messages longer than 10 minutes “a disaster,” and then again recently, just this month, said that homilies should be no more than 8 minutes, or else people will just fall asleep.

Prescribed worship

While the second commandment forbids the use of images in our worship, it’s plain that we’re all very prone to make for ourselves images in order to aid us in our worship, images that God has clearly forbidden, images that will inevitably distort our view of God, and result in idolatry. Therefore, we must always keep in mind that we’re permitted to worship God only as he has prescribed. That we’re not permitted to worship God as we see fit, whether by making for ourselves images, or by any other unauthorized means, because we do not get to choose how we worship God.

Most of us are all probably familiar with Leviticus 10:1-3 when the sons of Israel’s first high priest, Nadab and Abihu, offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, we read,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

10 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

This account will seem extreme to those of us who take a casual approach to worship. It’s only when we don’t take seriously the holiness of God that we find this account offensive. Listen again to verse 3,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

In other words, God will not negotiate his holiness, he will be regarded as holy.

Worshiping God on our terms

Some of us have come to assume (probably unwittingly) that in the new covenant God is somehow no longer as concerned with our worship practices as he was in the old. In fact, I don’t think most Christians have ever given it much thought, and many of the modern worship practices today I think make this abundantly clear that we haven’t. I’ve been a part of many churches who worship God in all sorts of ways, some with men and women dancing up and down the aisles or on the stage, men and women waving flags in the sanctuary, people on stage painting spontaneously upon a canvas, conducting church dramas, fire tunnels, blowing shofars, all sorts of visual media meant to stimulate the senses, people lying on the floor, incense, candles, dimmed lights, images, icons, and so on. And my point is this, have we ever stopped to ask ourselves, “Are these prescribed forms of worship? Or are we inventing our own forms of worship?” Or maybe a better way to put it is this, “Are we worshiping God on his terms or our own?”

Many of us have adopted the notion that our feelings determine the validity of our worship, that if a certain practice makes us feel like we’re worshiping then it must be right, that if a certain practice makes me feel close to God, or to feel what we believe is the presence of God, then it must be right. Many protestant churches have come to equate the emotional experience of a rock concert with worship, or experiencing the presence of God, therefore many churches have come to employ professional musicians to create this kind of atmosphere. And it isn’t that attending a live concert or engaging one’s emotions is sinful, not at all, and it certainly isn’t within its appropriate contexts, but is the emotional experience created by a musical instrument the litmus test for our worship practices?

Sincerely wrong worship

Many of us are also prone to gauge the validity of our worship practices primarily by whether we’re sincere or not. Now, it’s absolutely true that our worship must be sincere, and come from a pure heart. That our worship must never become hypocritical, merely going through the motions without any sincerity of heart. However, for many Christians this has become a ditch on one side of the road, where sincerity of worship is valued above right worship. Many Christians have erroneously concluded that as long as their worship is sincere, then there really is no wrong way to worship, but again this is dangerously mistaken.

Nadab and Abihu may have been sincere when they offered unauthorized fire on the alter, but that wasn’t enough. And I’m sure Uzzah was sincere when he reached out and touched the ark of God when the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, but good intentions were not enough. Our worship must not only be sincere, but right worship. There are two ditches on either side of the road, sincere worship that has not regard for right worship, and right worship which has no regard for sincerity of worship. If you truly are sincere in your worship then your sincerity should drive you to worship God as he’s prescribed.

Acceptable worship

And lastly, if sincere worship isn’t coupled with right worship then it’ll never be acceptable worship. Most of us are all probably familiar with the story of Cain and Abel back in Genesis chapter 4, when Cain presumably became jealous of his younger brother and murdered him out in the field, however, that’t not where the story began. We read in Genesis 4:3-5,

Genesis 4:3–5 ESV

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

I want to point out a couple things in light of our study today, 1) I think we’re meant to see that Cain’s offering was not accepted because it was unauthorized and of his own invention. The text seems to imply that a blood sacrifice was required, but that Cain neglected to bring this kind of offering, and instead brought an offering from the fruit of the ground. 2) The text doesn’t tell us why, but perhaps it was because it would have forced him to purchase an animal from his brother of whom he despised, or maybe he thought his offering was good enough. Furthermore, while Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and the best portions of it (the fat), the text doesn’t mention whether or not Cain’s offering was of the firstfruits of the ground, seeming to imply that Cain wasn’t concerned with bringing the best of his crop. Whatever the case, his offering was clearly inadequate, therefore we’re told that the Lord had no regard for Cain and his offering, that it wasn’t acceptable worship.

Then thousands of years later, the writer of Hebrews, while compiling a list of the faithful, commented on this event in Genesis 4, writing in Hebrews 11:4, that,

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

What’s important for us to realize here is that Abel’s sacrifice was more acceptable than Cain’s for two reasons, 1) Abel’s heart was right, his worship was sincere, and 2) his offering was also right, that it was prescribed by God, that it was an authorized sacrifice, and not a sacrifice of his own invention. Therefore, his worship was deemed acceptable before God. Abel’s right worship was evidence of his right heart. That his heart of faith resulted in carrying out right worship, just as it should with our own worship.

Conclusion

In summary, while the first commandment is concerned with who we worship, the second commandment is concerned with how we worship, and that how we worship matters, that we are not permitted to worship God on our own terms, but on his terms. That we do not have the liberty to invent our own forms of worship. And that we must not employ images in our worship, because to do so unavoidably leads to idolatry. That images are inadequate, that we’re instead intended to see by hearing, that we’re intended to be word centered people, hearing and obeying the voice of God.

Prayer