UNCOVERING TREASURE
The Old Testament evidence is presented to demonstrate that worship is an assembly of God’s people in His very presence. This chapter also presents the Old Testament evidence for the regulative principle of worship.
Are you the kind of person who is curious and likes to explore unknown territory? Is the Old Testament unknown territory for you? It may be that for you the Old Testament is like a darkened room full of valuable treasures. But faithful study of its thirty-nine books will shed light on those priceless treasures and uncover a wealth of teaching on the subject of worship. You are invited to enter this room and discover two basic principles of worship.
A BASIC ELEMENT OFWORSHIP IN THE OLD TESTAMENT IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD AMONG HIS ASSEMBLED PEOPLE
Most individuals enjoy being with people. Gregarious instincts lead them to meet together for clubs, concerts, political rallies and sports events. The church also is a meeting together of people. The common New Testament word for church, ecclesia, is the equivalent of the Old Testament term qahal, which means “assembly” or “congregation.”
What is it that makes the assembly of the church unique? Why is it different from other types of meetings? The church is different because it is an assembly of God’s people in His very presence. The assembling of the church is a meeting with God as well as with fellow believers. The assembly is an extraordinary, supernatural event. This is implicit in the very term church.
God’s people assembled for worship regularly during the Old Testament period, and God manifested His presence in those assemblies (at Mount Sinai, in the tabernacle and in the temple on Mount Zion). God declared His presence in those assemblies in several ways.
We have already considered the significance of the divine name as a sign of the divine presence. God said, “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.” (Exodus 20:24). God’s name was associated with certain places where He revealed Himself (revealed His name) to Israel. These places came to be places of worship because God’s name was there. Because God’s name was there, Israel understood that God was present there in some special way. Likewise, we have seen the significance of God’s glory, the kabod, as indicative of the divine presence. At Mount Sinai “And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.” (Exodus 24:17). This was a visible manifestation that the omnipresent God was present in a special way as His people assembled to worship.
A third manifestation of the divine presence was what the Old Testament describes as “meeting God face to face.” When Moses was at Mount Sinai God chose to reveal His face. “The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,” (Deuteronomy 5:4; cf. Exodus 33:11). Does this mean that we can know what the face of God looks like? No, we are not to confuse the kind of face one sees in the mirror each morning with the face of the infinite God of the universe. He is a Spirit without physical parts. To refer to “the face of God” is to use a figure of speech known as an anthropomorphism. The term suggests not a face but rather God’s real presence – a presence in which direct personal communication takes place. What else can one do but bow in worship when sanding “face to face” with the Almighty God?
Worship, then, can be understood as seeking the face of God and entering into His immediate presence. As the Psalmist writes, “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. ” (27:8). This is a mandate for Christians to gather in worship to seek Jehovah’s face. Such assemblies for worship often conclude with a familiar benediction that refers to the face of God:
“The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26). Listen for references to the face of God the next time you assemble with God’s people for public worship.
One basic principle to be learned from the Old Testament is that worship implies the presence of God among his assembled people. (This same principle can also be seen in the New Testament, as will be shown in a later chapter.) What does this principle imply for contemporary Christians? It means that when one enters a service of worship he is entering into the very presence of God. Just as God came to Israel and was present with them in a real way, so also is God present among Christians when they assemble together. His name is upon them, His glory is manifested to them (in Jesus Christ) and He makes His face to shine upon them.
When the alarm goes off on Sunday morning, how easy it is to turn over and ignore it. How easy to rationalize, “I’ll sleep in just this one Sunday and catch a church program on TV later.” “So you attend the church of the inner spring.” How strange it is to forget that corporate worship is an appointment with the living God. A highlight of your week should be assembling for worship in the immediate presence of your Lord.
WORSHIP IS REGULATED BY THE TRIUNE GOD
Picture this in your mind. It is a crisp Saturday in October. The football stadium is filled with fans. The two teams come running onto the field. But there are no referees and no captains. All rules of the game are discarded. The result is chaos, as you can well imagine. A football game cannot be played without rules and regulations. The same is true in worship. Man is not free to make up the rules as he goes along. The triune God, who alone is worthy of worship, has instituted the principles under which He is to be given homage. Basing the practice of worship on only what can be derived from Scripture is known as the regulative principle of worship.
The regulative principle has ample support in the Old Testament ceremonial law and moral law. Under the ceremonial law God’s will for worship was specified in detail. When the tabernacle was constructed God commanded that it be built according to a very specific plan which He revealed in detail (see Exodus 25-27). Elsewhere Jehovah stated, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (Deut 4:2).
There is recorded a sobering story of two priests who disregarded regulative worship by introducing their own ideas. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord which He had not ordered (Leviticus 10:2). This event confirmed that God required Israel to worship in accordance with His revealed will.
The ceremonial law had minute regulation sin connection with tabernacle and temple worship that are no longer binding. Christ came and fulfilled the ceremonial law. However, this does not mean that the regulative principle is now obsolete. There is also a moral law – the Ten Commandments – which specifies God’s will concerning worship. The moral law is still operative. The first four commandments in particular must govern our worship today.
The first commandment specifies the object of true worship (Exodus 20:3). True worship must be given to the true God exclusively. No room is allowed for the worship of idols, saints, angels, the virgin Mary, or any other person or object in the universe.
On the Saturday night before Easter the Russian Orthodox churches have an evening vigil. As the door of the sanctuary opens you can see a casket being carried. You walk over to the casket and see an image of Jesus Christ lying there. They do not want to violate the second commandment. So the image of Christ is not three-dimensional but a flat cardboard figure. Is this practice in accordance with the regulative principle?
The second commandment specifies that the manner of true worship must be spiritual rather that physical. Worship is not through visual representations (Exodus 20:4-6). The second commandment forbidden in the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word” (Questions 50, 51). We are not forbidden to create and enjoy representational art. The creative arts are not sinful in themselves. We are forbidden, however, to worship God by means of visual representations. Visuals can be a hindrance to worship by obscuring God’s glory. Isaiah’s pointed question is, “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?” (Isaiah 40:18). There can be no answer to that question – only dead silence! The triune God cannot be visibly portrayed without obscuring His glory. Likewise,
visuals can lead to erroneous ideas about the triune God. This is what happened when the Israelites at Sinai made a visible symbol of God in the form of a golden calf. He violated the second commandment.
We should recognize the danger of misusing visual representations in our places of worship. We need to ask such questions as this: Can we legitimately include pictures of Christ in our stained glass windows and on murals in our church buildings? What are the practical implications of the second commandment when it requires that true worship be spiritual rather than physical? Just what restrictions does the second commandment impose when it forbids worship through visual representations? It is often a temptation to allow aesthetic and physical stimulation to replace the spiritual reality of true worship.
The third commandment specifies the attitude God desires in our worship (Exodus 20:7). True worship requires a reverent attitude toward the Lord God. The idea of reverence is also conveyed in the most common Old Testament word for worship, shahah. It is the equivalent of proskuneo in the New Testament and means “to do reverence to, to bow down.” Its use is illustrated in II Chronicles 7:3 where it is recorded that “all the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord . . . God desires that we recognize His worthiness and bow in His holy presence to hold His name in high regard. Thus some churches encourage worshipers to kneel as part of the worship. Whether you physically kneel or not, you should cultivate a heart attitude of reverence when entering the Lord’s presence in worship. Churches would do well to study ways to encourage godly reverence in the Sunday worship service. Likewise, parents would do well to instruct their children and to set a good example in this regard.
The fourth commandment specifies one appointed time for worship (Exodus 20:8-11). Certainly all our time is to be used to glorify God. Yet true worship requires setting aside one day out of seven for corporate worship. God has given us freedom as to the hour of the service and its length. But He has prescribed the day. With the resurrection of Christ there was a shift from the seventh day to the first day. Christians may meet for worship any day during the week. Yet they dare not neglect meeting on the first day for this purpose.
There are many changes occurring in American society with respect to the organization of the week. It is more common to find commerce taking place all seven days of the week. Sunday is no longer everyone’s day off. It’s not that people are working more hours, it’s just that different people have different days off for work. In this situation must we continue to hold out Sunday as the day of Christian worship? Why not have the church gather on Friday night or Saturday morning? Again, we need to ask: What does the regulative principle imply for this question?
The yardstick for evaluating worship services is not tradition or expediency, but rather the written word of the Lord God. True worship includes whatever is derived from Scripture alone.
You might find it stimulating to use the first four commandments in your private worship times this week. Pray through these commandments. Martin Luther did this. He would take each commandment and first reflect on what the Lord requires in it. Next he would look for reasons for thanksgiving in each command. Then he would make it a reason for confession of sin. He would conclude by making it a prayer of petition. Try it!
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