WORSHIP: WHAT IS IT REALLY?
The very first time the word worship appears in the entire
Bible is in Genesis 22: 5 and the circumstance surrounding its premier
appearance is when Abraham was en route ‘slaughtering’ Isaac in obedience to
God’s demand. The Bible says thus,
‘And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the
donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and WORSHIP, and we will
come back to you."’ (Genesis 22:5, NKJV, emphasis added)
By ‘going yonder’ to ‘worship’, only Abraham and
God knew Isaac’s fate based on God’s prior demand. Now, the word WORSHIP is a
very interesting word because it means different things to different people.
So, we will do well to dig a little deeper on the meaning of this word so as to
have a biblical understanding of it.
The word WORSHIP in the Hebrew is Shacha and it
means to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or
God), bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make)
obeisance, and do reverence.
One thing is clear from the definition above;
worship means to bow oneself to God. To successfully do this, a person needs to
be humble at heart; this is only possible when one first acknowledges that God
is greater than them. This is important because there can be no worship without
first bowing oneself to God. Each time any of God’s creations does this, they
give Him great pleasure.
I want to emphatically state that when Abraham went
yonder with his son Isaac to WORSHIP God, there were no musical instruments
present and no moods needed to be activated. Abraham’s worship was not a
momentary activity; it was the fruit of decades of obedience to God – a
lifestyle. It was not an emotive undertaking (had Abraham deferred to his
emotions, he would not have obeyed God), it was a covenant commitment to God.
Also, God was more interested in Abraham’s obedience than in his sacrificing
Isaac. In obeying God, Abraham gave God great pleasure.
Now prior to his obedience, Abraham had already
submitted to God in His heart. We see this clearly written in Hebrews 11 thus:
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered
Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice
his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God
could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from
death”. (Vs 11:17-19, NIV)
This means Abraham had submitted to God’s will in
his heart by accepting Isaac’s death. So that when God eventually told him not
to kill Isaac, it was like having his son come back from the dead.
What Abraham was going to physically do with his
son had already been done in his heart. So that it was not obedience out of
obligation, it was obedience springing forth from a heart bowed to the will of
the Great Monarch of heaven. This is because it is possible to obey someone
without submitting to them in your heart. Obedience is an action; submission is
an attitude. Tyrants get obedience by force and not by wilful submission from
the heart. God is no tyrant; He is a kind Lord and gentle King who allows His
subjects to draw near to Him and bow to Him in their hearts by choice.
Jesus said,
"These people draw near to me with their
mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in
vain they worship Me” (Matthew 15:8-9, NKJV)
Bowing oneself to God has nothing to do with
physical postures or flower declarations; it is a posture of submission humbly
taken in the heart in response to the acknowledgement of God being mightier
than us. This happens when we see the visions of God’s glory which help give us
perspective on the truth that He is not altogether like us (Psalm 50:21).Every
man who has ever seen the visions of God’s glory bowed himself to God. Isaiah
bowed (Isaiah 6); Ezekiel bowed (Ezekiel 1) and Saul of Tarsus bowed (Acts 9),
John bowed (Revelation 1) etc.
Worship is therefore obedience to God that stems
from unreserved submission to Him.
WHY WORSHIP?
The Lord is the Most High God, the most excellent,
the most exalted, self-existing, self-sustaining, ageless, omni-everything,
eternal God. He lived in eternity past very fulfilled all by Himself; long
before He lifted a finger to create a thing. And when it pleased Him to create,
He created heaven and the earth, the universe and everything in them for one
purpose only which we shall consider in a moment.
The Bible records a melodious and mellifluous chant
in the chamber of thrones that are before the throne of God thus:
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honour and power: FOR THOU HAST CREATED ALL THINGS, AND FOR THY PLEASURE they
are and were created”. (Revelation 4:11, KJV, emphasis added)
This verse of Scripture clearly states why God
created heaven, the earth, the universe and everything in them: For His
pleasure.
All of God’s creation in heaven and earth are
designed to bow themselves and look up to God in a symbiotic order that first
gives God pleasure and then helps them maximise their potentials. Just like the
plants bow themselves and look up to the sun for maximum productivity, so have
all of God’s creatures been designed to prostrate and look up to God in worship
to give Him pleasure. In giving God pleasure, God’s creatures increase their
measure.
THE GREAT MONARCH OF HEAVEN: HOW WORSHIP IS DONE IN
HEAVEN
“…and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat
on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in
appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an
emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw
twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold
on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and
voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven
Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And
in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures
full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion,
the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face
like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four
living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within.
And they do not rest day or night, saying:
"Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!"
WHENEVER THE LIVING CREATURES GIVE GLORY AND HONOR
AND THANKS TO HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER, THE
TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS FALL DOWN BEFORE HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE AND WORSHIP HIM
WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER, AND CAST THEIR CROWNS BEFORE THE THRONE…”
(Revelation 4:2-10, NKJV)
The passage above gives a glimpse into God’s
eternal majesty. The sights and sounds are breathtaking as they are
awe-inspiring. John, the narrator, could only at best lean on the insufficiency
of language to make a laconic report of the things he actually saw in the
passage above. We see the glorious array of God’s throne and the continuum of
worship given to Him by frightening beings that surround His throne.
We see how that God is not just the creator of
everything but also the great Suzerain Monarch of heaven. We see how the
twenty-four elders who are vassal monarchs sitting upon twenty-four thrones in
heaven bow themselves down to God continually by casting down their crowns
(acknowledging that God is greater than them) and worshipping Him endlessly. We
must note that this is no regimented or forced routine; it is something they do
out of their volition. Note, however, the twenty-four elders cast their crowns
easily because they see the visions of God’s majesty and glory. We must also
note that they do not cast their crowns only once, they do it continuously.
Each time they do this they bring great pleasure to His Eternal Majesty, Jehovah
the God-King of all creation.
HOW WORSHIP MUST BE DONE ON EARTH
Jesus said,
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the TRUE
WORSHIPPERS WILL WORSHIP THE FATHER IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH; for THE FATHER IS
SEEKING SUCH to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24, NKJV)
Note the phrases ‘true worshippers’ and ‘the father
is seeking such’.
If there are true worshippers then there are false
worshippers. Seeking is not only done by man for God; God actually also seeks
men who will worship Him truly. How? In SPIRIT and TRUTH. Why? This is because
God is Spirit.
Let’s briefly consider what this all means:
First, the concept of worship is the same in the
Old and New Testaments but its execution is different in both Testaments.
Worship in the Old Testament was purely external because the substance of it
would not be available until in the New Testament. The model for the Old
Testament worship was therefore outside-in. Worship in the New Testament is purely
spiritual because the substance has been made available through Jesus Christ’s
finished works. The New Testament model of worship is therefore inside-out!
Second, worshipping God in the New Testament is
purely a spirit transaction – from the regenerated spirit of man, through the
Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) to God the Spirit (God the father) and truth –
Jesus, the substance and reality of God. Jesus is truth and without Him nobody
can get through to God (John 14: 6).
So this means that true worship must originate from
the regenerated human spirit that is in constant communion with the Holy Spirit
and a heart that is humble and is being made subject to God by the truth. God
first accepts a person before he accepts their worship.
The only way anyone can be acceptable to God is
that they first must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ – by so doing they get
saved (Acts 16:31).
Salvation is the only ground upon which acceptable
submission to God can be achieved. Why is this compulsory? This is because it
is only by salvation that regeneration (quickening of the human spirit by the
injection of God’s eternal life therein by the Holy Spirit [Titus 3:5]) can
happen. In other words, anyone on earth who is not saved and has not accepted
the lordship of Christ cannot offer acceptable worship to the great Suzerain
Monarch in heaven.
This is because a dead (devoid of God’s life)
spirit cannot generate anything pleasing to the great Monarch of heaven. It is
a transaction that must happen between man’s spirit, completely devoid of the
flesh (the fallen nature with its attendant corruption, proclivities and lusts)
and exclusively channelled to the Godhead. Anyone who worships in such a pure
manner becomes a person of interest on God’s radar.
Is worship therefore an exclusive preserve of believers? YES!
JESUS: THE EMBODIMENT OF GOD’S PLEASURE
‘Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved
Son, in whom I am well PLEASED."’ (Mark 1:11, NKJV, emphasis added)
Jesus’ sinless, flawless obedience to God and His
unreserved execution of God’s will to the point of death made Him the
embodiment God’s pleasure. His life constantly gave worship to God. His words
and deeds; actions and inactions all brought great pleasure to God. There was
not a single time when He gave in to the flesh.
The Bible firmly testifies;
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ
Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name”
(Philippians 2:5-9, NIV)
Jesus, being equal with God, gave up His rights in
the Godhead and bowed Himself to the Father. He went so low as to be subjected
to His creation, to be killed, just for mankind to be put in a position in
which they can worship God in spirit and truth. He is therefore our perfect
example and template for embodying God’s pleasure.
END OF PART I
