Celebration and Praise
is No Substitute for Worship –
Part I
After descending from
Heaven and speaking the Ten
Commandments to Israel from Mount
Sinai (Exodus 20), the Lord called
Moses to a summit on Mount Sinai.
(Exodus 24:12) During the forty-day
visit, God gave Moses various
instructions and the Ten Commandments
that Jesus had written with His own
finger on two tablets of stone. Moses
left his brother Aaron, and Hur* in
charge of the camp as he and his
aide, Joshua, departed. The Bible
says, “… the glory of the
Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six
days [Moses and Joshua waited near
the summit while] the cloud covered
the mountain, and on the seventh day,
the Lord called to Moses from within
the cloud. To the Israelites, the
glory of the Lord looked like a
consuming fire on top of the
mountain. Then Moses entered the
cloud as he went up the mountain. And
he stayed on the mountain forty days
and forty nights.” (Exodus
24:16-18, insertion mine)
While Moses was
visiting with God in what looked like
a consuming fire on top of the
mountain, the Hebrews camped at the
foot of the mountain became bored.
The Bible says, “When the people
saw that Moses was so long in coming
down from the mountain, they gathered
around Aaron and said, ‘Come,
make us gods [a god **] who will go
before us. As for this fellow Moses
who brought us out of Egypt, we
don’t know what happened to him
[he may have perished in the
fire].’ Aaron [who tried to
thwart their evil request by
demanding their precious jewelry]
answered them ‘Take of the gold
earrings that your wives, your sons
and your daughters are wearing, and
bring them to me.’ So [to
Aaron’s dismay] all the people
took off their earrings and brought
them to Aaron. He [obligingly] took
what they handed him and [he had it]
made it into an idol cast in the
shape of a [male] calf**, fashioning
it with a tool. Then they [the metal
craftsmen] said, ‘these are your
gods [This is your god**], O Israel,
who brought you up out of
Egypt.’ When Aaron saw this, he
built [tried to sanctify the
situation by building] an altar in
front of the calf and announced,
‘Tomorrow there will be a
festival [a celebration] to the
Lord.’ So the next day the
people [were excited and they] rose
early and sacrificed burnt offerings
and presented fellowship offerings.
Afterward they sat down to eat and
drink and got up to indulge in
revelry [wild dancing and singing].
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go
down because your people, whom you
brought out of Egypt, have become
corrupt. They have been quick to turn
away from what I commanded them and
have made for themselves an idol cast
in the shape of a calf. They have
bowed down to it and sacrificed to it
and have said, ‘These are your
gods [This is your god**], O Israel,
who brought you out of Egypt.’ I
have seen these people,’ the
Lord said to Moses, ‘and they
are a stiff-necked people. Now leave
me alone so that my anger may burn
against them and that I may destroy
them. Then I will make you into a
great nation.’ But Moses sought
the favor of the Lord his God.
‘O Lord,’ he said,
‘why should your anger burn
against your people, whom you brought
out of Egypt with great power and a
mighty hand?’” (Exodus
32:1-11, insertions and emphasis
mine)
Did you notice the way
the Lord tested Moses? The Lord
identified rebellious Israel as
Moses’ people, but Moses
reminded the Lord that the Israelites
were His people and that He
had brought them up out of Egypt!
This banter about ownership says much
about the character development that
took place during the forty years
Moses spent in the desert herding
sheep. When Moses was a powerful
member of Pharaoh’s court, the
Israelites were his people and
he thought of himself as “their
deliverer.” Now eighty years
old, Moses understood the truth. He
was a servant of the Owner and
Deliverer of the sheep.
As Moses and Joshua
descended the mountain, a loud sound
could be heard. “When Joshua
heard the noise of the people
shouting, he said to Moses,
‘There is the sound of war in
the camp.’ Moses replied:
‘It is not the sound of victory,
it is not the sound of defeat; it is
the sound of singing that I
hear.’ When Moses approached the
camp and saw the calf and the
dancing, his anger burned and he
threw the tablets out of his hands,
breaking them to pieces at the foot
of the mountain.” (Exodus
32:17-19) “And when Moses saw
that the people were naked; (for
Aaron had made them [dance and sing]
naked unto their shame among their
enemies). Then Moses stood in the
gate of the camp, and said, ‘Who
is on the Lord’s side?’
‘Let him come unto me.’ And
all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves together unto him. And he
said to them, “Thus saith the
Lord of Israel, ‘Put every man
his sword by his side, and go in and
out from gate to gate throughout the
camp, and slay every man his brother,
and every man his companion, and
every man his neighbor [that is
naked].’” And the children
of Levi did according to the word of
Moses: and there fell of the people
that day about three thousand men
[and in addition to this, many
women].” (Exodus 32:25-28, KJV,
insertions mine) “And [after
thousands of naked revelers were
slain] the Lord struck the people
with a plague because of what they
did with the calf Aaron had made.
(Exodus 32:35, insertions mine)
No Substitute for
Worship
Three thousand men and
perhaps as many women were killed
that day, and perhaps thousands more
perished when God sent His plague
upon the camp. This is a powerful
object lesson. The worship of God is
a very serious matter and God is
angered by idolatrous revelry and
dissipation. From God’s point of
view, there is a sharp difference
between true worship and false
worship. True worship occurs when a
person approached God to humbly and
obediently submit to God’s
commands. Celebration and praise are
no substitute for worship. Of course,
it is appropriate to praise God in a
worship service, but our praise falls
on deaf ears if we have not humbly
and obediently entered into worship.
The primary reason for worship is the
renewal of submission to God and His
authority. God calls us to worship to
break up our selfishness. The carnal
heart is like jello; as it gets cold,
it will congeal. True worship renews
our understanding of God and
commitment to His Word. True worship
warms the heart and makes it turn to
putty in the Potter’s hand. If
submission is not the design of every
worship service, the service itself
becomes a stumbling stone. False
worship can be inspiring and
comforting and false worship is
popular and fulfilling to the carnal
nature because it satisfies the
carnal nature. Billions of people are
following in Cain’s footsteps.
They are telling God how He will be
worshiped rather than humbly
submitting to God’s commands. I
have said many times, if we leave a
worship service without being brought
into a deeper sense of God’s
love and our need to obediently
submit to His authority, we have not
worshiped – we have been
entertained.
Aaron knew the price
of true worship because he had been
on the mountain in God’s
presence just a few days earlier.
(Exodus 24:1) He tried to weasel out
of the request to make an idol by
demanding they give up their precious
golden earrings – and to his
surprise, they gave them up. Then, at
the feast, he demanded they dance
naked – and to everyone’s
amazement, they gave up their
clothes. This is a powerful object
lesson. The carnal nature would
rather give up possessions and
decency than to submit to god’s
authority. The revelry at the base of
Mount Sinai is very revealing (pun
intended). Aaron failed to stand up
for the honor of God whose cloud of
burning fire was clearly visible at
the top of the mountain because he
was afraid the people would riot and
ultimately kill him. Aaron tried to
rectify the idolatry of Israel by
putting an altar to the Lord in
front of the golden calf, but
that did not stop them. Aaron should
have boldly refused to build the idol
and suffered the hostility of the
Israelites. Aaron’s weakness is
seen today. Many preachers, to keep
their jobs, give their congregations
what they want rather than what they
need. Thus, Israel’s descent
into apostasy is like ours.
Israel’s long
history is one of rebellion against
the Lord. About 700 years after the
golden calf incident, just before the
northern ten tribes were to be
destroyed in 722 B.C., the Lord said
to Israel through Isaiah, “The
multitude of your sacrifices –
what are they to me? Says the Lord.
‘I have more than enough of
burnet offerings, of rams and the fat
of fattened animals; I have no
pleasure in the blood of bulls and
lambs and goats. When you come to
appear before me, who has asked this
of you, this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me. New
Moons, Sabbaths and convocations
– I cannot bear [to listen to]
your evil assemblies. Your New Moon
festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates. They have become a
burden to me; I am weary of bearing
them. When you spread out your hands
in prayer, I will hide my eyes from
you; even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen. Your hands are
full of blood; wash and make
yourselves clean. Take your evil
deeds out of my sight! Stop doing
wrong, learn to do right! Seek
justice encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the
widow.’” (Isaiah 1:11-17)
What is the point of
attending a worship service if God
will not accept our worship? Those
who approach God must do so with
clean hearts and hands. Jesus told
the woman at the well, “Yet a
time is coming and has now come when
the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for they
are the kind of worshipers the Father
seeks.” (John 4:23) The phrase,
“Worship the Father in spirit
and truth” means submission.
Worship is a humble surrender to
God’s authority. Worship
services should renew our devotion to
God because our carnal nature is
hostile toward God (Romans 8:7) and
the law of sin is at work in our
bodies. (Romans 7:23) However, we
will be transformed by the power of
the Holy Spirit if we wholeheartedly
worship God and submit to His
authority. (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1
Peter 4:1,2)
About 100 years after
the ten tribes had been destroyed
because of rebellion, the Lord told
Jeremiah that the remaining two
tribes of Israel were about to be
destroyed. Notice the words of the
Lord: “For when I brought your
forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to
them, I did not just give them
commands about [temporary] burnt
offerings and sacrifices, but I gave
them this command:
Obey me, and I will be
your God and you will be my people.
Walk in all the ways I command you,
that it may go well with you. But
they did not listen or pay attention;
instead, they followed the stubborn
inclinations of their evil hearts
[and even though they never failed to
have worship services, they rarely
worshiped me]. They went backward and
not forward…. Therefore say to
them, “This is the nation that
has not obeyed the Lord its God or
responded to correction. Truth has
perished; it has vanished from their
lips. Cut off your hair [Jeremiah]
and throw it away; take up a lament
on the barren heights, for the Lord
has rejected and abandoned this
generation that is under his
wrath.’” (Jeremiah 7:22-24,
28, 29 insertion mine)
After reviewing
Israel’s idolatry at the foot of
Mount Sinai and 1,500 years of
failures, I hope you will be awaken
to the fact that the true meaning of
worship has been largely lost today.
True worship comes with a price, the
price of submission. A strong current
of false worship is sweeping the
world away from God and when the
first angel’s message in
Revelation 14:6,7 is given; the call
to fear God and worship Him will be
stunning!
* Hur
was probably one of the seventy
elders because he was the head of the
tribe of Judah which was the largest
tribe.
** See Psalm
106:19,20.
