What The World Needs Now

Worship in the Bible

The theme of worship is something that dominates the Bible.

Genesis

We see Adam fails to worship God in the one commandment he was given.

Revelation

Here we see that the ultimate end for those who love the Lord and accept the gift of salvation are to worship Him eternally.

Jesus quotes Deut 6:4-5 in Mark 12 and called it the greatest commandment.

Mark 12:29–30 ESV

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Jesus was identifying worship as what our first priority should be.

Exodus 20:2–5 ESV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “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,

Worship was supposed to be a part of every day life for the Israelites. The tabernacle by design was laid out to emphasize worship. It took 7 chapters in Leviticus for the details of how it was to be laid out (243 verses). As important as you would think creation would be to us, there are only 31 verses the describe creation.

The Tabernacle

It was designed for worship

It had no seats.

The Israelites didn’t go there to be ministered to.

They didn’t go there to be entertained.

They simply went there to worship.

If they had something else to discuss, they did it at another location.

The Tabernacle was at the hub of all of the camp.

The Law

All political, social, and religious activity was based on the law.

The first seven chapters of Leviticus deal with acts of worship.

The first of these is the burnt offerings which are unique since they are totally consumed by God.

They were first since the first thing a person needed to do when coming to God was to offer Him his worship.

These worship acts were specifically spelled out in the Old Testament and were to be followed exactly for the worship to be acceptable.

One of these was how to make the incense for the burnt offering

Exodus 30:34–36 ESV

The Lord said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you.

If this isn’t made exactly to the specification, there is a warning giveng.

Exodus 30:37–38 ESV

And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.”

When you take a look at the New Testament and the way they describe worship, we ourselves are now to be the perfume offered as a sacrifice to our God.

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2 Corinthians 2:15 ESV

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,

Anyone who makes their life purpose for anything other than worshipping our Lord, no matter how noble the cause may be, is committing a sin.

When Worship is Wrong

In Exodus we are shown how worship is wrong when the Israelites built the golden calf. Even though they wanted it to represent God, they were still worshipping a man-made object. 3,000 were slaughtered due to their disobedience.

Nadab and Abihu

These men had been raised to become priests.

They had been trained all their lives for this.

Exodus 30:9 ESV

You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it.

Look what happens when they performed one of their first priestly duties.

Leviticus 10:1–2 ESV

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. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

What they did was unauthorized worship before the Lord. We talked earlier about how many chapters were written about how worship was to be performed in the Old Testament.

Saul

Here is another example of what happened when someone didn’t follow the Lord’s direction in worship.

1 Samuel 13:8–14 ESV

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Because Saul didn’t wait for Samuel, as he should have, it cost he and his descendants the throne of Israel.

Uzzah

He was a Kohathite whose main task was to transport the Ark of the Covenant.

Numbers 4:5–6 ESV

When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it. Then they shall put on it a covering of goatskin and spread on top of that a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles.

Numbers 4:15 ESV

And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, lest they die. These are the things of the tent of meeting that the sons of Kohath are to carry.

They were told how to cover the Ark and how to carry it so they wouldn’t touch it. If they did, they would die.

Uzzah had a different idea.

2 Samuel 6:3 ESV

And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart,

2 Samuel 6:6–7 ESV

And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.

Because he didn’t follow the way God had told the Kohathites to carry the Ark, his intentions may have been good to keep the Ark from falling, but God’s directions were explicit as to what would happen if they touched the Ark. Uzzah was struck dead in his footsteps.

Next week, we will take a look at four kinds of unacceptable worship.

Unacceptable Worship