“Worship”
Isaiah
66:1-4
August
13, 2023 YouTube
As Israel prepares to go into the Babylonian captivity, God
talks to them about the return of the remnant to Israel one day, and He tells
them that worship must conform to the nature of God.
“Thus
says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the
house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these
things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.’
God
begins by telling them that the Temple is not the resting place of God.
We
will remember that Solomon’s Temple will be destroyed by the Babylonians. So, when the remnant returns, there will be
no Temple – no place for the worship of God – and God tells them not to be
confused: God does not need the Temple
and God cannot be contained in the Temple.
That
is not a condemnation of the Temple – when Solomon built the Temple, God gave
him detailed instructions about how it was to be built – the material, the
rooms, the areas of sacrifice, etc.
When
Solomon dedicated the Temple, he said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this
house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to
his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your
servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day
toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’
that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they
pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you
hear, forgive” (I Kings 8:27-30, ESV).
So,
God gives instruction for how the Temple is to be built and how He is to be
rightly worshipped, but He does not want them to become confused about God’s
Nature. God says that the earth is His
footstool and Heaven in His throne. And God made everything, and everything
that is came into being by His Right Hand.
God is transcendent and immense – He exists apart from the Creation
which He made – God was not created – and He is not subject to any of the
limitations that exist in the Creation that He made. He is God and King over all.
God
cannot be contained in the Temple – or in any church – but God has told us how
to build places of worship to Him – with the understanding that God is far
beyond every being and all of Creation.
Second,
in worship, God wants us to show reverence for His Word.
“But
this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and
trembles at my word.’
How
do we meet with God? How do we get Him to
abide with us and make us His people?
Big, beautiful buildings? Fancy robes?
Musical instruments? Statues and art?
Without
getting into whether those things or others can be part of biblical worship,
let us note that none of those are what God says is the most important part of
our worship – what God takes joyful notice of – is our coming before Him in
humility, with a contrite spirit, trembling at His Word.
God
wants us to come before Him in humility.
God wants us to come before Him with a right estimation of who we are in
comparison with Him. We just looked at
the transcendence and immensity of God.
He is Holy, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and so forth – compared with Him –
our estimation of ourselves ought to be very low. Even as forgiven sinners, saved through the
work of Jesus – the Servant of Isaiah – David describes himself before God,
“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people”
(Psalm 22:6, ESV).
Some
today would say that David had low self-esteem, but, in fact, he rightly saw
himself in relation to God. Being humble
does not mean that we are unjustly negative about ourselves – we were created
in the Image of God. And God has indwelled all we who believe with the Person
of the Holy Spirit. We are not to anger
God by offending His creation, much less Himself.
We
are to come before God with a contrite spirit. We are to come before God as
repentant sinners – again and again as we continue to sin. We remember Jesus’ parable about the Pharisee
and the tax collector, where the Pharisee “prayed” telling God how lucky He is
to have someone who keeps the Law and is a great example to the community – not
like this tax collector. And the tax
collector – who came with a contrite spirit – called out to God, “Forgive me, a
sinner.” This is how we are to come to
worship – this is the one who is forgiven, the one who confesses and repents of
his sin.
And
we are to come – Israel is to come back devoting herself to the Word of God –
we are to come trembling before the Word of God. God does not mean we are to
come being afraid of the Bible – though it may be appropriate to tremble in
fear before some of the things written in the Bible – rather, it is to come
before the Word of God with an appropriate reverence. It is to come before the Word of God
sincerely believing that what we have in the Bible is everything God would have
us know for faith and salvation. We come
believing that everything in the Bible is true – the Word delivered through
human authors by God and kept from error by the Holy Spirit from the day the
texts were written until the day Jesus’ returns.
In
reading and believing the Word of God – in being saved by the Servant Savior,
Jesus – we have faith that moves us to obedience. Truth faith – received when God saves us will
always lead to believers striving to do everything God has commanded in His
Word.
What
God wants is for us to have reverence for His Word and then to follow Him in
obedience.
Third,
having a Temple does not guarantee its purposes are being fulfilled.
As
we see in the next section of our text:
“’He
who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb,
like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one
who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like
one who blesses an idol.’
It’s
been said that “going into a church makes you a Christian as much as going into
a McDonalds makes you a hamburger.”
The
sad truth is you can be brought up in the church, take part in everything in
the church, be baptized, confirmed, receive communion, teach Sunday School, and
still never truly believe and end up going to Hell. Similarly, there were people – like the
Pharisee Jesus mentioned – who went to the Temple and did what he thought he
should – maybe even adding some additional rules and ceremonies that God had
not commanded – and that son of Israel can still die and go to Hell.
Faith
in Who Jesus is and what He did is the sum of the Gospel and the means of our
salvation – nothing else. Then, we are
to be obedient and do all those things God has commanded. So, it was with the remnant who would return
from Babylon. Isaiah records four parallels
of righteous and sinful sacrifices that the remnant would bring to the Temple –
whether literally or metaphorically – God is warning the remnant – He is
warning us – don’t think we are not liable to do things in worship that God
hates – just being in the Temple or in the church doesn’t make a thing right –
pleasing in God’s sight.
So,
we have the parallels between what is acceptable in God’s sight in Temple
worship and what is not lawful – what is shocking, monstrous, and pagan.
Some
will say there is no difference between offering up an ox to God – which is
pleasing to Him, and they will also approve of killing a man in the worship of
God. It’s pretty obvious why this is wrong.
Again,
God says some will sacrifice a lamb in worship – and that is a right offering
to make, but the offering up of a dog after its neck is broken is an abomination. God does not accept a sacrifice with a broken
neck – it must be healthy and clean when it is brought to the Temple for
sacrifice.
It
is right to offering up a grain offering to God – God has given instructions
about this, but pig’s blood! If someone
today knows next to nothing about Jews, he will likely know that pigs are
unclean to the Jews – and so it would be a foul and repulsive thing to offer up
the blood of a pig to God in worship.
The
fourth example is the making of a memorial offering with frankincense – a type
of incense as the name indicates – which is right in the eyes of God, and the
blessing of an idol, which is blasphemous – though this is one we engage in,
isn’t it? Do we gloat about the money we
put into the offering and pat ourselves on the back? Do we consider how we
didn’t fall asleep during the sermon this week and think we deserve the biggest
piece of cake during coffee hour?
What
God wants of us is that we come to worship reverencing His Word. Reading, listening, and then responding to
the very Word of God – not neglecting the parts we don’t like, not adding to it
or changing it – but understanding it, thanking and praising God for it, asking
that God the Holy Spirit would help us to take what we have reverently received
and be obedient to it.
Fourth,
God rejects those who do not have reverence for His Word.
This
is not a surprise based on what we have already seen.
‘”These
have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I
also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because
when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did
what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.’”
There
will be those who come out of exile saying that “god” brought them out –
whatever that is. They will come desiring
to do things their own ways – engaging in the abominations they learned in
Babylon. They will be glad to return to
Israel, but they will be even more glad that they can continue their sin in peace. They will bring the idols and worship and practices
of Babylon back with them thinking that God won’t care – after all, they had
learned He is but one of many.
We
have a word, “syncretism,” which means the merging together of one or more
religions or thoughts. I have a doctor
like this. He wears a Hindu bracelet, as
well as Catholic prayer beads. He
carries a Torah, and also a card with a saint on it. All these things, he tells me, protect him
from evil spirits.
As
Paul walked around the Areopagus, he said, “So Paul, standing in the midst of
the Areopagus, said: ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very
religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I
found also an altar with this inscription: “To the unknown god.” What therefore
you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you”’” (Acts 17:22-23, ESV). The
Greeks worshipped all the gods they knew of and left the option open to worship
one they didn’t know about yet.
Some
people who claim to be Christians offer up blood sacrifices, and worship
statues, and if they pull the lever just right, they believe God will rain
money down on them. There are more
things we do. This is against the Word
of God that says there is One God and He Alone shall you worship – there is no
reverence of God’s Word when Israel does that – or when we do that.
Because people try to do things commanded and forbidden in
God’s Word while claiming to be faithful and reverent, God says He will bring
“harsh treatment” on such people and cause their fears to come true and arise
over them and upon them. The phrase “harsh
treatment” can be translated as “summary execution” or “the cause of
destruction” as well. God is very angry
at people who do not reverence His Word.
God says He called to the remnant, but they didn’t hear,
when He spoke, they didn’t listen, rather, they purposefully and intentionally
– not accidentally, not ignorantly – but because they willed to do so – they
did what is evil in God’s Eyes and chose what God does not delight in. They spit in the Face of God. They read the Word of God and all He
commands, and their response is to tell God to go away, to leave them alone,
that they don’t want Him.
That’s terrifying.
I have a friend from college who seemed to be a believer
when I met him. We studied the Bible and
discussed the things of God. We
worshipped in church. But, at some point since college, He renounced Christ and
repudiated God and calls himself an atheist.
He hasn’t explained to me what happened – not yet.
I hope this is not true of him, but the author of Hebrews
writes, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy
Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the
age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance,
since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and
holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6, ESV).
As Israel prepared to go into exile, God told them that what
He wanted from them was to reverence God’s Word – to know it and believe it and
be faithful to it – to understand that God is not contained in a house but is
greater than we can conceive. This is
true of us, today, as well. God also
warned them that there will be those who return from captivity who will think
themselves the people of God although they despise the true God and do what
they want believing they are right with God, and God will kill them in the way
they most fear.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the promise and the warning
You gave Israel as they went into captivity, because Your Word is for us today
as well. Help us to understand all we
can about Who You are from Your Word, and help us to come to Your Word, repentantly
and with reverence and thanksgiving. Cause
the Holy Spirit to work in us that we would be obedient to You. Keep us humble and fill us with joy in
You. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray,
Amen.
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