FACES OF WORSHIP

Theologasters and their offspring, the "Doctors of Divinity" and "Fathers of the Church", have always emphasized Israel's bondage under Egypt and the onerous conditions in which their slavery was endured. Even Mr. Cecil B. DeMille, Hollywood producer of that great entertainment, "The Ten Commandments", hyped his production by saying that, "the question was then, as now, `Shall man be free?'"

Slavery, though more common then than now in it's physical form, was no doubt fraught with misery -- but Israel's socio-ideological state was not the reason Moses was sent to say to Pharaoh, "Let My people go!" Not at all! It was WORSHIP!!

WORSHIP WAS AT THE VERY CORE OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE EGYPTIANS BECAUSE THE ISRAELITE WORSHIP OF YAHWEH REQUIRED SACRIFICE OF THE THINGS THAT EGYPT WORSHIPPED!

Genesis 46.34 tells us that "all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians" and Joseph recognized this long before Israel enslaved themselves to Egypt (according to God's purpose). When Israel drove their herds or flocks to a place of sacrifice they were sacrificing the animals the Egyptians held sacred: for instance, the ox was one of Egypt's gods, but an offering in sacrifice made by the Israelites. An ancient historian, Tacticus, complained of the Jews "...they sacrifice the ram, in order to insult Jupiter, and the ox which Egyptians worshipped under the name of Apis".

I think that Moses explained to Pharaoh that when it came time to offer sacrifice to the LORD, they'd lay hands on the very gods Egypt worshipped, put them to death and burn them.

How promptly, how briskly, the world rises up to protect that which it worships!! How often churchdom does the same to protect its own idols! For the true Israel, worship of Yahweh meant that they must put to death all other gods because the command (and the promise!) that was to come at Sinai written on stone by the finger of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY: "Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me." (Rotherham's translation).

The only way to freely and fully worship God, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, is to get away from the bondage and boundaries of the world. If we sacrifice to God in the camps of Babylon, we'll end up sacrificing the very thing Babylon reveres, and the religiosi will stone us, figuratively, at least. Put to death the things they glory in, their dancing, their thingamajigs and thingamadoodles they shout about -- and we'll soon be relegated to the hall of heretics. Indeed, if we speak against the "devil" to which they give such lick-spittle homage, they will rise up in their self-righteousness and curse us, saying we live in heresy and are believers in iniquitous false doctrine -- because we don't "give place to the devil" and render to him what they think is his due. Consciously or unconsciously their "devil" is for them a "god of evil", and we don't dare do away with him and hell -- even if our witness tells us Jesus overcame both.

GOD IS CALLING A PEOPLE OUT AND ONWARD to get far away from Egypt so that they can offer sacrifices and put to death the allurements of the flesh and say with Paul, "The world (Egypt) has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6.14).

Certainly, the way out of Egypt leads through the wilderness, and HE knows the way through it. He'll lead us to a place where we can raise an altar to Him and on that altar sacrifice everything churchdom-called-christianity has worshipped other than God. Every instead-of-Christ practice and form will be slaughtered, DEALT WITH BY HIS CROSS! Then offerings in the reality of His spirit, and a flow of worship acceptable to God are possible -- unmixed with adulterous worldly worship.

It must be understood that the worship of God's CALLED OUT ONES and the worship of the world are diametrically opposed. If we are in bondage to the world and churchdom we will either cease to worship God or we will worship in the manner of those two unhappy yokefellows, just as the unfaithful are reported to have done in the prophet Jeremiah's era:

Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathos in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah saying, "As for the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food, and were well off, and saw no misfortunes." (Jeremiah 44.15-17, NASB)

"This is the way we do it and no prophet of God is going to rise up and tell us it's wrong!"

THAT'S THE WORLD'S WAY, THE PATH TAKEN BY THE JADED, HARLOT, SELF-NAMED "CHURCH".

Should we wonder at the darkness such actions reveal? God's people who seek to go on with Him will never be understood by natural man because "...the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised". (1 Corinthians 2.14) We must be SEPARATED -- SET APART from the worship of this age's sacred cows if we will offer in sacrifice those things which they have clasped so close to their hearts.

He is delivering us from the captivity wherein we were once bound, and drawing a people onward to Zion, where He (not we!) will restore that pure worship which flows from the heart. That place shall become the arena where His blessings are poured out so that we are able to send forth HIS righteousness and HIS truth to all the world. We shall NOT entertain the world with our worship, because pure worship is unto the LORD only. But, paradoxically, the more we do worship Him, lift up and exalt Him, the more the world will be drawn to Him.

We no longer dare to learn the ways of the heathen, but in our return to pure worship, there will be born in the hearts of all mankind a desire to learn HIS ways.

This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:

"Seek me and live;

do no seek Bethel....

Seek the LORD and live....

(Amos 5.5-6, NIV)

The word "Bethel" means "house of God". Why did He tell Israel not to seek Bethel? Because the worship in God's house had become adulterous, mixed with the idolatry of the heathen, and God had, in a sense, withdrawn HIS presence from the whole mephitic mess. He declared:

"On the day I punish Israel for her sins,

I will destroy the altars of Bethel;

the horns of the altar will be cut off

and fall to the ground."

(Amos 3.14, NIV)

Bethel is first spoken of in Genesis 28.18-22: Jacob was fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau (Genesis 27.41-44) and he came to a place where he rested overnight. It was at this place he dreamed of the ladder which reached to heaven, and it was there that God spoke to him. In the morning Jacob took the stone he'd used for a headrest and "set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top. And he called the name of that place Bethel....Then Jacob made a vow saying, `If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God. And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house; and all that Thou dost give me I will surely give a tenth to thee'". (NASB, my parenthesis.)

This scripture has fascinated me for years. I believe the present day prevalent prosperity-name-it-and-claim-it message finds its roots in that place. God visited Jacob there -- an awesome experience that shook Jacob and awakened him to an awareness of God unlike any he'd experienced before. So, as do many today, he was ready to wheel and deal with God:

IF you'll be with me, and

IF you keep me on this journey, and

IF you will give me food to eat, and

IF you will give me garments to wear, and

IF I return to my father's house in safety

THEN

the LORD will be my God --

AND

this stone, which I have set up as a pillar (Hebrew "matstsebah", i.e. a memorial stone, by analogy, an idol) shall be God's house

AND

I'll give you a tenth of anything You give me.

That's the deal Jacob offered his Creator several thousand years ago -- and man is still trying to strike bargains with our LORD. Recently, I listened to a young man's preaching on the subject of tithes and he sounded a lot like Jacob, saying, "Folks, I'm not going to put my money where it doesn't get a good return. I tithe because I know I'll get it all back with interest -- I'd be foolish to give and not expect a generous return."

Idols, pillars, come in many shapes and sizes -- and later our LORD specifically forbade the Jacobean tomfoolery we're discussing. Two scriptures are cogent here: Leviticus 26.1, "You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves..." (Leviticus 26.1,NKJV). "You shall not set up a sacred pillar...which thing the LORD your God hates" (Deuteronomy 16.22, NKJV).

How different from Jacob's arogance was old man Job's statement: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him". Worship isn't based upon His blessings to us!! Just because of WHO HE IS in His very person -- We WORSHIP Him!!!

Jacob received many greater promises from God, but he reduced them to natural fulfillment according to his carnal, and therefore crippled, understanding. God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can imagine according to His power that is at work in us (see Ephesians 3.20) so we can surely appreciate the prayer of the one who says, "LORD God, whatever you mean by what You say, that's what I want You to work in my life." Let's not fall into the snare in which churchdom seems complacently entangled, and confine God to what we understand and grasp with our limited self-soaked mind. He is calling us to UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDER to HIMSELF. --unconditional surrender means NO STRINGS ATTACHED to our worship. We will worship Him for WHO HE IS and not for what we receive from Him.

Rest assured: HE shall fulfill HIS purpose and promises IN US!

In Genesis 35.1, we learn that many years later God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar to God that appeared to you when you fled from Esau your brother." And Jacob went to Bethel where God once again appeared to him and renewed the promises, not just of worldly goods, but of what GOD WOULD DO IN AND FOR HIM. HE changed Jacob's name, which required a change of character and nature.

Note well, God did NOT change His goals for the man; HE did NOT lower HIS standards and promises to what the man could conceive, but HE purposed, then as now, to CHANGE MAN so man is able to receive what has been planned.

SURRENDER! -- and see GOD fulfill all HE has planned FROM HIS VIEWPOINT -- NOT from ours!!

After Israel entered the Land of Promise, the kingdom was split and Jeroboam took ten tribes with him and established worship at Bethel (about twelve miles north of Jerusalem) and at Dan. He set up golden calves in those places and said to the people, "It's too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." Now this thing became a sin because the people obeyed the voice of Jeroboam. And Jeroboam sinned further by devising feasts "like unto the feasts in Judah" all according to what HE conceived in his own heart . Read the record in 1 Kings 12.28-33.

Jeroboam devised a religious system parallel to much of the true worship God decreed, but it was a substitute, an imitation, an instead-of-anointed (or anti-anointed) kind of adultery. And where was this golden-calf worship to be celebrated?

IN BETHEL, THE HOUSE OF GOD!

God's Holy Spirit moved on the prophet Amos who declared: "This is what he showed me: the LORD was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, 'What do you see, Amos?' 'A plumb line', I replied. Then the LORD said, 'Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer". (Amos 7.7-8, NIV).

The LORD continued:

"The high places of Isaac will be destroyed

and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;

with my sword I will rise against

the house of Jeroboam."

(Amos 7.9, NIV)

(The plumb-line is a symbol of justice -- not man's but God's. Man's uprightness is not the measure of God's justice. Rather, man must be "brought to plumb" according to God's measure -- which is HIS CHRIST.)

When Amos brought this declaration to Jeroboam one of his falsely anointed priests said to Amos; .."Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. DON'T PROPHESY ANYMORE AT BETHEL, BECAUSE THIS IS THE KING'S SANCTUARY AND THE TEMPLE OF THE KINGDOM." (Amos 7.12-13, NIV).

or

"Lay off, man-of-God! Just leave and we won't rail at you. You haven't our credentials nor our mark upon you. We have our own kingdom going great-guns here and we don't want to hear what you have to say. Don't trouble us with "the Word of the LORD GOD", -- this is the OUR chapel, OUR church -- not GOD'S!!

This might sound familiar to many.

Surely, the more you desire to worship God in spirit and truth the more you must flee Babylon. It's not difficult, because Babylon desires your departure. You're a pain in the flesh, a thorn in their complacent conscience -- a threat to them in their adulterous relationship, a reminder to the most God-aware that they are missing the truth. You are a bore and "extremist, fundamentalist, ignoramus" to the hardened fornicator.

You are "peculiar", "the mystic" -- the one that waits on God and seeks His face -- and "Why are you, O unlearned seer, crying out for God's visitation on this house? We've got a good praise and worship program going here -- lots of food, fun, and fellowship! We don't need your intercession!"

Amos cried out against the gross hypocrisy, the melodious music, sweet incense that was offered -- even while the hearts of the worshippers were attached to the idols of Jeroboam's making. "Let judgement run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5.24). That cry was then, and is now, attuned to the heart of our Saviour-God -- and just as surely as it was time for the plumb-line then -- it is true in this age of false-humility and showmanship-righteousness.

I solemnly declare that a tremendous cleansing has begun at the House of the LORD, and that the call for true worship is increasing even as this dismal darkness of "self-esteem"-ing, "I'm O.K., you're O.K." religion gathers in menace about creation. God's visitation is now at hand -- let's walk softly before Him!!

Our God began long ago to draw out a people to HIS ALTAR -- and He continues to do so now. His altar is NOT one that is built in man's kingdom. It's NOT an altar that mixes Babylon's weary and weird worship forms. Nor is it a mixture of the gods of the world, with the worship which must be from our hearts to HE WHO IS -- and nothing or no one else!

Israel needed a three day's journey into the wilderness to get away from the influence of Egypt and it's worldliness. Just so, God has been leading His people through a wilderness processing. He has been humbling us, feeding us on bread from the spirit which our fathers didn't know, after causing us to hunger -- "to teach you that man doesn't live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (See Deuteronomy 8.2-3).

"SEEK ME AND YE SHALL LIVE!"

But

DO NOT seek the way of the super-religious, who have MIXED their drinks -- poured out offerings unto God in a combination of the world's ways. Many are swift to defend what they call "Christian rock-and-roll", "religious rap", and their choreographed dancing -- saying that it's all O.K. -- because it's an "art form" dedicated to the LORD. Their shouting, prancing and pious pew-jumping is just human-hype originating in the flesh and offered to stir the emotions of men. And they dare call it "anointing of the Holy Spirit"!! It's a poor, beggarly substitute for HIS anointing and the flow of worship that exalts HIM and pays no honor to the FLESH.

He is drawing man to Himself -- and in so doing will sever the fleshly umbilical cord that has bound mankind to an adulterous church:

"All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people,

who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations --

a people who continuously provoke me to my very face,

offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick".

(Isaiah 65.2-3, NIV).

When it comes to making bricks, Egypt was an outstanding producer -- and I liken that moribund land of slavery and injustice to the present "church" masquerading as Christ's body. If you have the life, the strength and ability to make bricks, the "church" will do what it can to bind you to its service.

But churchdom isn't interested in your truth and spirituality, only in the number of "bricks" you produce to help them build their FORMS of worship, or perhaps in the burning of incense during one of their ceremonies. When you cease to WORK and begin to draw back into the secret chambers of the heart in order to worship God -- you are no longer considered a member of their fellowship.

Let us praise God for those whom He draws from the world, away from bumbling Babylon with its brick-built altars. And let us walk with Him confident that His fire will purify us so that we will offer pure worship to HIM.

Many fear the fire of His cleansing as if they'd suffer loss, but only the dross will be burned off and that which is pure abides to His glory and praise.

"Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?

He who walks righteously and speaks what is right,

who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes,

who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil --

this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.

His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him"

(Isaiah 33.14-16, NIV).

AND IT'S HIS INDWELLING SPIRIT that brings this PROMISE to reality in us.