Genesis 22:1-19
Isaiah 6
Genesis 4:1-7
John 4:19-26
I have been revisiting the last post and I think I was wrong and incomplete on my thoughts regarding worship. In reading the passages above, I have come to realize that there are 4 main components of Worship.
1. Invitation
a. God summons the worshiper to come worship
2. Preparation
a. The worshiper must prepare themselves or become clean through a form of sacrifice or offering
3. Communion
a. God reveals Himself to the worshiper and the worshiper ascribes worth to God. There is a recognition and expression of that understanding toward God.
4. Covenant
a. God enters into a covenant that cements the communion and blesses the worshiper.
“Here I am”
Beginning with Abraham, we see the four parts laid out. It begins with a call to Abraham to offer Isaac as an offering. He gets his son and servants and heads straight out to the place God commanded him to go. When he gets there, Abraham offers his son as a burnt offering. He sets in his heart to put God first. It is here that God acknowledges Abraham’s intent toward Him and allows the communion with Himself. Out of that communion God blesses Abraham and establishes the covenant.
This is a living analogy of Worship. Abraham is stating by his actions that he assess God’s worth to be higher than anything on earth. He places his hope, his heart, his most precious child on the altar as an offering to God. He is valuing God above all else. By doing so, Abraham is placing God on the throne of his heart. Only in this way can he commune with God. He has removed the thing that would come between them.
So as I went through I wanted to look at what the invitation looked like. So I turned to what I consider the most terrific invite, God’s call to Isaiah. However, this did not turn out like I thought. Isaiah is summoned, not just invited. God pulls him up to His throne room suddenly. Isaiah is brought before the Throne of God, and he is not prepared. God has invited him, but there is sin between him and the Lord. Isaiah must confess his sin first and with the help of a seraph, offers his lips as a burnt offering to the Lord. After this the Lord and Isaiah commune and they enter into a covenant.
After seeing this, I went to look for the first instance of an offering to see if it was related to worship and here I found the lesson of Cain and Abel. Abel’s offering was pleasing to the Lord and Cain’s was not. The reason was not the offering, but the nature of the offering. Abel offered what was precious to him and Cain only went through with what he had to do. This wasn’t the best of Cain’s crops. Cain was sacrificing what he could afford to lose. That offering did nothing to draw him closer to God. Yet still God instructs Cain and warns him. He extends grace to Cain.
It is important to be prepared for Worship. I must look at my sacred things and determine if they are between me and the Lord. What do I need to place on the altar?
Yet we have good news. We no longer need to build altars or make burnt offerings anymore. Now we can worship in Spirit and in Truth. Christ was sacrifice on the altar for us. He was the lamb that was slain so the child could be saved. Yet there is a throne in our hearts where Christ has been placed. We can now enter the throne room of God through Christ and worship our Father who is in spirit.
Now, there is an open door policy to the throne room of God. Christ has prepared the way. Christ has removed all the obstacles between us and the Father. We can commune directly with the Father. We can worship Him. Now when we place our offerings on the altar it is not just out of obligation, but out of love. They can be pure offerings as God intended from the beginning. The need for offerings remains as much as ever, since we still allow things to come between us and the Lord. The difference now is that we have an open invitation. At any time we can confess our sin, and come before God to commune with Him.
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