October 3rd, 2024
It is not only crucial that we worship God in truth, but we must also be careful to worship Him in the way in which He has ordained. The Scriptures indicate that God is dead serious about this.
Let me give you two biblical examples. The first is found in Leviticus 10. In the preceding chapters, Moses and Aaron had been given clear instructions on how they were to worship the Lord. Up to this point, Moses and Aaron had done everything “as the LORD commanded” (Leviticus 8:9, 13; 9:10). Enter Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. Leviticus 10:1 reads, “each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them.” These two men brought “strange fire.” Whether it was the wrong time, an unauthorized mixture of incense, a prohibited place, in the wrong manner, or some combination, the bottom line is that they blatantly and arrogantly disregarded God’s clear directives for worship. “So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:2).
Fast-forward a few centuries. During a time of fulfillment, victory, and great rejoicing, the new king of Israel purposed to bring back the Ark of the Covenant, which had been the place where God chose to dwell with His people. But as they planned this homecoming, they overlooked God’s clear commands on how to transport the Ark. 2 Samuel 6:6-7 reads, “And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error: and he died there by the ark of God.”
Yes, God is dead serious about how we worship Him.
It surprises me today how cavalier the modern church is about worship. In many places, it seems like “anything goes.” Do they even read the Scriptures?
After the LORD put Nadab and Abihu to death, he told Moses, “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.” John Calvin wrote, “If we reflect how holy a thing God’s worship is, the enormity of the punishment will by no means offend us.”[1]
Still, we are offended. “That’s just the Old Testament!” some respond, trying to create a false dichotomy between the “harshness” of the old covenant and the grace and mercy found in Christ. Yet, the New Testament does not break from these principles; it builds on them. Leviticus 10 is in the background of Hebrews 12, which reads, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”
There is worship that is acceptable, and worship that does not meet God’s standard. Much of contemporary worship fails this test because it is man-centered, focusing on needs, emotion, and experience, rather than truth.
What is worship, after all? Is it a feeling? Is it a preference? Is it “good” when it makes me feel good and “bad” when I don’t feel anything? And a few other questions. What are we permitted to do to draw people to worship? Do we bring the mall Santa to the church coffee shop for pictures during Christmas season? Can we turn the sermon into a comedy show? Is the preacher permitted to make a grand entrance on a zipline or in a fancy sports car? Do we crank up the music to get the audience in a frenzy?
All of these questions completely miss the point. Worship isn’t about the worshipper. Worship is about the One worthy.
Simply put, worship is our response to God’s revelation about Himself. Genuine worship relies on truth from God; therefore, worship is made possible only by God on the terms He proposes. As He reveals His nature in His Word, and we respond in awe, fear, praise, and service, we must also acknowledge that our worship responses are prescribed in Scripture as well.
We can easily produce a “religious experience,” or appeal to the senses in some pseudo-spiritual way, but this is another way we corrupt worship. We focus on other ways. We seek out an experience. We engage in excess. In short, we set aside God’s Word and do whatever makes us feel good (or whatever draws a crowd).
It’s not that our feelings and emotions, by themselves, are sinful. But they can be deceitful, and they are easily hijacked. Jonathan Edwards penned an entire treatise on this tension. He wrote, “I consider it my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.”[2]
We must worship God as He has revealed Himself. And we must worship Him in the ways He has prescribed. Otherwise, we are corrupting worship.
[1] Quoted in Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 158.
[2] Quoted in Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters, 166.
Let me give you two biblical examples. The first is found in Leviticus 10. In the preceding chapters, Moses and Aaron had been given clear instructions on how they were to worship the Lord. Up to this point, Moses and Aaron had done everything “as the LORD commanded” (Leviticus 8:9, 13; 9:10). Enter Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. Leviticus 10:1 reads, “each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them.” These two men brought “strange fire.” Whether it was the wrong time, an unauthorized mixture of incense, a prohibited place, in the wrong manner, or some combination, the bottom line is that they blatantly and arrogantly disregarded God’s clear directives for worship. “So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:2).
Fast-forward a few centuries. During a time of fulfillment, victory, and great rejoicing, the new king of Israel purposed to bring back the Ark of the Covenant, which had been the place where God chose to dwell with His people. But as they planned this homecoming, they overlooked God’s clear commands on how to transport the Ark. 2 Samuel 6:6-7 reads, “And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error: and he died there by the ark of God.”
Yes, God is dead serious about how we worship Him.
It surprises me today how cavalier the modern church is about worship. In many places, it seems like “anything goes.” Do they even read the Scriptures?
After the LORD put Nadab and Abihu to death, he told Moses, “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.” John Calvin wrote, “If we reflect how holy a thing God’s worship is, the enormity of the punishment will by no means offend us.”[1]
Still, we are offended. “That’s just the Old Testament!” some respond, trying to create a false dichotomy between the “harshness” of the old covenant and the grace and mercy found in Christ. Yet, the New Testament does not break from these principles; it builds on them. Leviticus 10 is in the background of Hebrews 12, which reads, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”
There is worship that is acceptable, and worship that does not meet God’s standard. Much of contemporary worship fails this test because it is man-centered, focusing on needs, emotion, and experience, rather than truth.
What is worship, after all? Is it a feeling? Is it a preference? Is it “good” when it makes me feel good and “bad” when I don’t feel anything? And a few other questions. What are we permitted to do to draw people to worship? Do we bring the mall Santa to the church coffee shop for pictures during Christmas season? Can we turn the sermon into a comedy show? Is the preacher permitted to make a grand entrance on a zipline or in a fancy sports car? Do we crank up the music to get the audience in a frenzy?
All of these questions completely miss the point. Worship isn’t about the worshipper. Worship is about the One worthy.
Simply put, worship is our response to God’s revelation about Himself. Genuine worship relies on truth from God; therefore, worship is made possible only by God on the terms He proposes. As He reveals His nature in His Word, and we respond in awe, fear, praise, and service, we must also acknowledge that our worship responses are prescribed in Scripture as well.
We can easily produce a “religious experience,” or appeal to the senses in some pseudo-spiritual way, but this is another way we corrupt worship. We focus on other ways. We seek out an experience. We engage in excess. In short, we set aside God’s Word and do whatever makes us feel good (or whatever draws a crowd).
It’s not that our feelings and emotions, by themselves, are sinful. But they can be deceitful, and they are easily hijacked. Jonathan Edwards penned an entire treatise on this tension. He wrote, “I consider it my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.”[2]
We must worship God as He has revealed Himself. And we must worship Him in the ways He has prescribed. Otherwise, we are corrupting worship.
[1] Quoted in Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 158.
[2] Quoted in Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters, 166.
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