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Worship: homage rendered to God, which it is sinful
(idolatry) to render to any created being (Ex. 34:14; Isa 2:8). Such worship
was refused by Peter (Ac. 10:25-26) and by an angel (Re 22:8-9).
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WORSHIP:
And the man bowed down his
head, and worshiped the Lord.
Exodus 4:31
And the people believed: and
when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he
had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.
Ex.12:27
That ye shall say, it is the
sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of
Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the
people bowed the head and worshipped.
Ex. 33:10
And all the people saw the
cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door:
and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man in his tent door.
Ex. 34:8
And Moses made haste, and
bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Deut. 26:10
And now, behold, I have
brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And
thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God.
Joshua 5:13-14
And it came to pass, when
Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold there
stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went
unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay; but as
captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto
him, what saith my lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the
Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place
whereon thou sandiest is holy. And Joshua did so.
2Sam. 12:19-20
But when David saw that his
servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, is
the child dead? And they said, he is
dead.
Then David arose from the
earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into
the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when
he required, they set bread before him and he did eat.
Let’s stop for a minute and
go over some of these versus. First,
most of these scriptures state that they bowed their heads and worshiped. One stated that they rose up and
worshipped. Then Joshua fell on his
face to the earth, and worshipped.
You will find these similar
scriptures all through the old and new testaments. Why do you think they worshipped in this way? And how is it different then the way we
worship?
I feel that first of all
they knew whom God was and second they had a fear of God. Not the kind of fear the devil gives. It is a fear that you respect him and a fear
that he has all power, and he is in control of your life. And like the scriptures say fear the one who
can destroy both body and soul (Matt. 10:28).
Psalm 5:7 but as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of
thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
But to have a fear of God
you first have to get to know him. Just because you are saved don’t mean you
know him. To get to know him you have
to emerge yourself in him by studying his word, mediating on him and on who he
is, fasting, prayer (our communication with him), worship, praise, and
fellowship with other Christians etc. Just because you meet someone doest mean
you know them. Haven’t you ever thought
you knew someone and then you find out you really didn’t know them? And you can’t
just go on what someone tells you about someone or about God and think you know
him or her. Because everyone sees
things differently and comprehends differently. In other words, before we can worship God we have to know
him. Remember in scripture it says to
work out our own salvation (Php. 2:12).
I believe David knew who God
was and he had a Godly fear. If you
back up and read the chapter David sorrowfully repented, and the Lord said
David would not die because of it, but his son would die because of David’s
sins it brought a reproach to the Lord’s name.
So even thou the Lord had told David this, he began fasting and laid
upon the earth all night, hoping the Lord would change his mind. But what the Lord said came to past David
lost his son. Did David blame God? No, when he found out he arose and washed
and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came to the house of the
Lord and worshiped. What a man, no
wonder God said he was a man after his own heart.
David didn’t blame God at
all. He got up and worshiped. Would you had got up and worshiped? I believe we would probably have a pity
party first. Then later we come to our
senses and worship maybe. We need to
get to the place that we worship first, after we find ourselves in a trail. We can’t
even begin to compare ourselves to David.
As my study Bible states this should be a lesson to teach us not to
willfully sin because we have to sometimes pay to consequences of our sins.
Another lesson I see in here
is David washed and anointed himself, and changed apparel and then went to the
house of the Lord. I feel he is telling
us that, when we come to the house of God we should clean up and look our best,
out of respect for God.
FORMS OF WORSHIP (the list
will continue as this study goes on)
1.
Bow head
2.
Fall on face to the ground
3.
In Godly fear worship
4.
Lifting up of hands
1 Ch: 16:29
Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness.
Another way to worship is
with an offering.
1Ch: 29:20
And David said to all the
congregation, now bless the Lord your God.
And the congregation blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed
down their heads, and worshipped the Lord, and the King.
2Ch: 7:3
And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house,
they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and
worshiped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth
for ever.
*When they felt the glory of
God they fell down and worshiped. I
feel that bowing down your head or fall down on the ground is a way of humbling
yourself before God, and showing respect.
But in today’s society we have too much pride to bow down. And we all know what the Bible says about
pride.
Pro. 29:23
A man’s pride shall bring
him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Pro. 8:13
The fear of the Lord is to
hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and
the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate.
Sometimes we have too much
pride to kneel down at the alter, let alone bow down and worship.
We know where pride comes
from. Satan was kicked out of heaven
because of pride (Isa. 14:12-19). Oh! How we need to be careful. We listen to Satan and obey him so easy will
out realizing it. How do we do this you
ask?
First of all it starts in
our thoughts (this ties in with our other Bible Studies) and then we accept it.
It doesn’t become sin until we accept and act on.
Example: You’re in a church
service and people are raising hands and praising the Lord. Then you starting
thinking if I raise my hand I will look stupid and what will people think.
Another example: You’re in a
church service and no one is praising the Lord. They are just very reserved.
But something in the service touches your spirit and you feel like
shouting or raising your hand, but here comes those thoughts again. They won’t like it if you do that. You will
look like someone crazy. They will
think you are a religious
Nut. Here is the real big one. Now days we don’t have to worship or praise
the Lord like that, just as long as we go to church and sing a few songs, take
up offering, listen to a sermon. We
have worshiped. No you just took up
time out of your day. Where do all
these thoughts come from? They sure
don’t come from God. How do I
know? Because it don’t line up with
God’s word. Check where your thoughts
come from. Satan can’t stand to see us praise or worship the Lord. So he will try to stop you any way he can,
and it usually starts with our thoughts. Is the Lord going to tell you not to
praise or worship him? I don’t think
so. Heb 4:12 For the word of God is
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Final example:
A sinner is in a church
service and he/she feels a pulling at their heart (conviction). Then here come the thoughts such as: What will people think? You will look like a
fool. You could never live a Christian life.
You will have to give up everything you enjoy. Where do you think these thoughts come from?
2Cor. 10:4,5
For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strongholds
Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exaltheth itself against the knowledge of god, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
We have to be careful with
our thoughts. We let them interfere with our worshiping and praising God.
2 Ch. 20:18
And Jehoshaphat bowed his
head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.
2Ch. 29:28-30
And all the congregation
worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this
continued until the burnt offering was finished.
And when they had made an
end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves,
and worshipped.
Moreover Hezekiah the king
and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the
words of David, and of Asaph the seer.
And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and
worshipped.
Ne. 8:6
And Ezra blessed the Lord,
the great God. And all the people
answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads,
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
In these scriptures we see
again that they bowed themselves and worshipped. But we also see here there is a difference between worship and
praise. It stated that the congregation worshipped, singers sang and trumpeters
played. I believe it is saying there is a difference between worshiping and
singing. In most churches we call
singing a few songs, worship. In these
versus, I think they are showing us that singing is a form of praise, although
I think we can worship with a song. But
when we worship with a song it is more intense, and I believe we are also
mediating on what the song is saying.
And there are some songs that seem to be more like worship and some more
like praise. The difference is that worship songs seem to really touch your
spirit because they express who God is and what a mighty God he is and
sometimes they are slower and when you are singing, you can just close your
eyes and mediate on his greatness. True
worship no matter what form will come from the heart.
John 4:24
God is a Spirit: and they
that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth.
Philip. 3:2-4
Beware of dogs, beware of
evil workers, beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh.
Though I might also have
confidence in the flesh. If any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.
Here it is telling us that
worship must come from the heart not just the flesh. Just because we raise our hand or we even bow down to worship, it
has to come from the heart or it is in vain.
And you don’t do the outward worship just so people will think you are
holy, because that is useless to God.
We worry too much what people think, instead of what God thinks. And he is the one that knows our very
intensions from our thoughts to our heart, and most of all he can destroy our
soul in hell. I will say it again in
order to truly worship God we have to know him on a personal basis.
How can you worship, if you
don’t know who or why you are worshiping.
For some people it is easy to raise their hands and worship but their
hearts is far from him.
Matt. 2:11
And when they were come into
the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and
worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto
him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Here they worshipped then
presented him gifts.
Matt. 4:8-10
Again, the devil taketh him
up into and exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them;
And saith unto him, All
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Then saith Jesus unto him,
get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve.
Here the devil even
recognized the bowing down form of worship, because he wanted worshipped in
that same way. That is why he doesn’t
want you to truly worship the Lord.
I believe it is the Islam
religion that kneel down on rugs and bow in worship to their God. So Satan does
get worshipped in that way.
Ex: 34:14 For thou shalt
worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Deut. 8:19 And it shall be,
if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve
them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely
perish.
Deut. 11:16 Take heed to
yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other
gods, and worship them.
1King 9:9 And they shall
answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers
out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have
worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all
this evil.
1King 22:53 for he served
Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel,
according to all that his father had done.
Psalms 81:9 there shall no
strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
Please write and let me know if this information was
helpful in your studies, or if you have any questions please contact me:
Robin Farley