Exodus 20:1-11
Here at the end of this series of studies on great biblical texts about worship, we need to look at that fundamental text: the Ten Commandments. The Law of Moses is basic to any understanding of the Bible, and the first four of the Ten Commandments very specifically have to do with worship. It is the Christian understanding of these Ten Commandments which interests us, but, however one approaches it, these first four commandments, or, as it is often called, the first table of the Law, are going to be basic to a biblical understanding of worship.
The first commandment makes clear that our worship is to be exclusively worship of the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To no other than this God are divine honors to be given. God demands of us exclusive devotion. This is the essence of monotheistic worship as our Puritan ancestors so well understood.
Jesus gave us an interpretation of the first commandment. Answering the question as to which is the first and greatest commandment, Jesus taught us that the first commandment is to love God with all one's heart, all one's soul and all one's mind. As Jesus saw it, the first principle of worship is that worship above all should love God. We find the same thing when the Apostle Paul is asked about a number of things which had become problems in the worship of the Corinthians. Love for God, our Father, and love of our brothers and sisters in Christ should be the first principle of Christian worship. (Cf. I Corinthians 13).
What about the commandment against idolatry? As we find the text in Exodus 20, it is carefully elaborated. We are not to make any images of anything in heaven or earth and we are not to bow down to them or serve them. For centuries this was characteristic of Jewish worship. There might be embroideries of angelic forms in the Temple for reasons of decorating, but there were to be no statues, figurines, or icons of God. There was no cult statue in the Holy of Holies.
When Aaron made the golden calf it was considered a serious breach of God's commandment. Even at that, the golden calf was not considered a real god so much as the mount on which the Baal rode. Still, the worship of the calf was considered idolatry.
Deuteronomy had made very clear that just as Israel heard God's Word at Mount Sinai but saw no form (Deuteronomy 4:12), so Israel must take care not to make any graven images of male or female divinities. God is not to be seen by human eyes. The folly of serving gods of wood and stone, the work of mens' land, is derided again and again (Deuteronomy 4:28). God reveals himself, as well as his will, by his Word, not by the art and imagination of men (Acts 17:29).
The point of the second commandment as it is to be understood by Christians is that we are not supposed to make images or pictures of God out of gold, silver, stone, wood, or even paper. We are not serving God by trying to imagine what he looks like. As we find it in Paul's sermon in Athens, we have no authority to make gods of our own art or imagination. Much rather, we are to be the living images of God. We ourselves are to reflect his glory.
Just as Jesus was "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Colossians 1:15, NIV), so we are to reflect the mercy, the compassion, the truth, the justice, and the generosity of the Son of God in all that we do and all that we are.
The third commandment teaches us not to take the name of God in vain. This is apparently a commandment against a magical understanding of prayer. When Jesus taught us about prayer he taught us to hallow God's name, to approach him with awe and reverence. We are not to try to gain control over God and use his power for our own purposes.
The fourth commandment is defined elaborately in Scripture. It is a commandment to observe the memorial of God's mighty acts of creation and redemption. "Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy" (Exodus 20:8, NIV). As we find the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11, what we are to remember is God's mighty acts of creation. ""For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them..."(Exodus 20:11, NIV). First of all, logically the worship of God's people is supposed to be a memorial of the creation. The word "remember" is a theologically rich word in the Hebrew Scriptures. It has to do much more with observing the memorial appropriate to the Sabbath than merely recalling to mind that the Sabbath is a day of rest. In fact, when we read the fourth commandment as we find it in Deuteronomy 5:12, we find that we are to observe the Sabbath because it is the memorial of the redemption from Egypt. "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day " (Deuteronomy 5:15, NIV). The worship envisioned by the fourth commandment is then a memorial of God's mighty acts of both creation and redemption.
Jesus gave us an important interpretation of the fourth commandment. Significantly, when we read the account of the Last Supper the Apostle Paul gives us in I Corinthians 11:25-26, we discover that Jesus directed that whereas the Passover was to remember God's mighty acts of redemption done through Moses in the Exodus, the Lord's Supper was to be done in remembrance of Jesus. From this it would appear that Christian worship is to be a remembrance of God's mighty acts of our redemption in Christ. In these words Jesus appears to be interpreting the fourth commandment.
It is for this reason, of course, that Jesus and the Apostles observed the fourth commandment not on the seventh day of the week but on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. The Christian is to worship on the Lord's Day, the weekly memorial of Christ's ultimate victory over sin and death, the first day of the new creation.
Hughes Oliphant Old, formerly pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, teaches worship at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
This is an excerpt from Worship Leader magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment