As image of God bearers and even more specifically: followers of Jesus Christ, we were made to worship.
This is the first session of three. These sessions are meant to serve you. My hope is that you continue to unlock further the depths that which God made you. To be a worshiper. We will define, discover, and behold worshiping the God who is revealed in the Bible. Starting with answering 7 main questions relating specifically to the reality of worship.
What is worship?
Hebrew understanding of worship:
עבַד – ‛âvad meaning work/serve the Lord in/worship in. To work or serve the Lord is to posture yourself in a place of worship – worship/serving is interchangeable
Genesis 2:15
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate (עבַד-‛âvad/ to work, serve) it and keep it.
This is the origin of worship. The intent of worship was to be a verb, to be an action, something that was done, beheld, and ever experiencing.
Adam was created to: work in a posture of worship to the Lord with gladness (Genesis 2; Psalm 100)! We must recognize that this is a pre-fall of humanity calling– and like Adam, we are called to serve, work, and worship the Lord with gladness in ALL we do: school, work, mundane chores, serving our neighbors, serving our family, serving our enemies– we were created to worship through the act of work and serving to and for the Lord WITH GLADNESS !!
Deuteronomy 6:13
You shall fear {only} the Lord your God; and you shall worship (עבַד-‛âvad/ to work, serve) Him and swear by His name.
This modern day is the days that the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and early followers of Christ longed for. In English and many other languages across the Earth (still not all of them though) we have access to the entire collection of the very Word of God.
In my experience thus far, to understand a topic or a specific subject, is to read and study that subject from cover to cover. By taking a surveyed journey from Old to New Testament. This allows us to best understand Gods heart, how humanity interacted in the specific area, and how it is redeemed under the blood of Jesus, and how it will be understood in eternity, New Heavens & New Earth specially.
To best comprehend worship and its original intent, we must go about this studious task to journey through the scriptures to see a little more clearly Gods heart for worship in relation to humanity and creation. I have organized a Bible reading plan that takes you from Genesis to Revelation uncovering the specific subject of worship. Providing space to read, reflect, process, and hopefully lead yourself into deeper spaces of worship. Enjoy this free downloadable Bible reading plan.
If you do embark on this reading plan, please leave a comment with your through reelections, I would be so blessed to read them! 🙂
Who do we worship?
We were created by and created to worship our Creator, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. He has revealed Himself as the One True God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His appearances to humanity has been recorded for thousands of years and preserved by His people in what we call the Bible. Which is the very living and breathing spoken and then written Word of God.
From the earliest days of Earths formation, to the days that Creator God made covenant with His people, to the appearance of the Messiah, the Sent One, who came, lived, died, and rose again so that we could know Him who made us. This is the very God by which we have our essence and substance. All things were made by him, in Him, and through Him, so that we could know, be with, and worship Him forevermore.
To learn more about this God of the Bible, I recommend reading through the entire Bible. It is a lengthy ancient text, compiling 66 books into a seamless narrative that points to and reveals Jesus Christ, the Son. Who is God with us, God who revealed Himself to us His created ones. He revealed Himself as fully God and fully human. To know this Jesus, the God of the Bible, begin by reading or listening to the Bible (total 60hrs total on average).
What is idolatry?
When working through a Biblical understanding of worship, it is also important to address what the Bible describes as the opposite of worship. the Bible gives us language to what worshiping the One True God is not, and that is described as idolatry. We will briefly work through the definition of idolatry to come to a clear conclusion on what worship is not.
Idolatry namely makes its appearance in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 31:19, which references the presence of household idols.
תְּרָפִים = household idols, which would be image(s), teraphim, family idol a kind of idol used in household shrine or worship. When Jacob fled from Laban’s household, his wife Rachel stole her father’s household gods (Gen 31:34). This strange incident makes more sense against the backdrop of the Nuzi tablets which describe household gods as a kind of title deed and proof of ownership of one’s inheritance. The possession of the household idol would secure for Rachel her husband’s property (Biblical Archaeology) .
It is now understandable why Jacob was so upset and later requested a boundary stone at Mizpah to keep Laban at a distance (Gen 31). This also is an example of how idols were embedded into the surrounding cultures, having a direct tie into the family, marriage, and socioeconomic climate of the day.
This is an example of why Creator God who would distinctly be known as the God of Israel would later call for such a distinction of His people.
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“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, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Exodus 20:1-7 (ESV)
In the early days of the house of Israel, we see this theme of the Lord God calling His people to be set apart: קָדֹשׁ, holy.
In the beginning, after God created the Heavens and Earth and everything in it. On the 6th day he brought forth humanity. Soon after uniting Adam and Eve to come together as the very image of the living God. From Genesis 1-2, humanity walked with God, in His likeness, in His holiness. They were created to bear His image and created to behold His holiness, to co-labor, to steward the Earth, and to fill it with those made in His likeness.
After the fall of humanity, this distinction and purpose was thwarted and the holiness of humanity began to dissolve. The sacredness of this covenant was broken, being set apart for His work and His holiness was being exchanged for images made in the lioness of humanity and not in the likeness of Creator God.
Fast forward, a people now who have been the fruit of sin, shame, slavery, and the cult worship of foreign land were in the process now of being purified. Generations of sin and idolatry were pulsing through their veins, their families, and there way of life. The God who brought them out of slavery was asking them something they had never been asked before. Be mine. Be only mine. Have no other gods before you. Begin to let me purify you in word and deed so that we can begin to unwind the web of idolatry that is among you.
The Hebrews had been living among the worship of Egyptian pagan practices, a kingdom that had the lifestyle of worshiping other gods embedded in the way they spoke, dressed, worked, raised their families, prayed, and worshiped. All the generation knew was idolatry, though they would not have called it that then, it was just the culture they knew and it some ways loved.
Culture created idolatry
In the words of Jesus, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This same compassion I have for the Israelites in that day. Brought into a prosperous land that at one point saved them would in later generations not only enslave them physically but enslave them spiritually. In the span of 400 years, a people that once called on the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would find themselves slowly but surely being molded by their surrounding culture. Still knowing of the God of their forefathers but now embracing the gods of their Egyptian rulers.
Fast forwarding to their hour of deliverance, this new generation is experiencing for the first time what it means to be “set apart.”
In Exodus, it is recorded that the Lord imparted the 10 commandments and later would bring the Law through Moses. Within the commandments and the law would be the reoccurring theme of being set apart, being holy because God is holy, and redemption.
This was a shadow of what was to come, and glimmer into the true reality of becoming set apart, being recreated, and redeemed. This redemption from idolatry was and is only found in worshiping Jesus Christ, the One True God!
In our next session, we will unpack how we can use our understanding of who the God of the Bible is, what idolatry is, and from there have confidence to worship Jesus with love and freedom!
In Christ,
Cosette
