#DailyDevotion Are We Worshiping As The LORD Gave Us?
Amos 4 4 “Come to Bethel and do wrong, to Gilgal and pile up your wrongs. Bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes every three days. 5 Burn a thanksgiving offering of bread with yeast. Call for freewill offerings and announce who gave them, since that is what you love, you people of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.
Bethel was one of two places, Dan being the second, which Jeroboam I set up for the Israelites to worship the LORD, where he also made golden calves to be worshiped as the LORD. He made these sites, no doubt, to keep the Israelites from going to Jerusalem to worship the LORD at the Temple there. He was afraid if they went there to worship all the time, they would change their loyalties. In doing this, he despised the promise the LORD made to him when He promised the ten tribes to Jeroboam.
The LORD often punishes sin with more sin. We see this in Romans 1, “24And so God, letting them follow the lusts of their hearts, gave them up to live immorally and dishonor their bodies,” when they gave up worshiping God to worshiping idols. So too, the LORD here gives up the Israelites to their idols and tells them to multiply their sins all the more so their sin becomes extremely gross, so He can punish them all the more.
He encourages them in their zeal for false worship. What they were doing they were doing with much fervor, but it would do them no good in the end because it wasn’t what the LORD commanded them to do. Who brings a tithe every three days? The tithe was once a year. They were offering bread with yeasts to be burned which was forbidden by the Law.
Freewill offerings were to be spontaneous offerings of the people. They were not to be called for. Much like the Pharisees in the Gospels who wanted credit from their fellow Jews for their “good works,” there was an announcement as to who made them. They apparently were very zealous about their worship, as He says it is what they love to do. We can see here, when the people worshiped the LORD they did in some form given from the Law but it was not in accordance with what the LORD told them to do. Everyone was doing their own thing.
So we should take note as New Testament worshipers of the LORD Jesus Christ. On one hand, Jesus has given us considerable freedom in how we worship. He desires us to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, which means using His words as He has given them. He desires our worship be from the heart and not hypocritically. Jesus wants our worship to be freely given. He wants the Scriptures read to us in worship. Jesus wants that word to be taught to us for “teaching, showing what is wrong, correcting and training in right living 17so that a man of God is ready and equipped for every good work.”(2 Tim. 3). Christ wants us to pray in worship and to encourage one another in worship. He also wants us to use the sacraments as He instituted them. Baptism must use water and the Triune name He gave us in Matt. 28. The LORD’s Supper should be given with bread (a baked flour product using grains) and wine (not grape juice). He did not give us other elements like cookies and milk, orange juice and whatever else. Of course we should use the words He gave us in our celebration of it. In our worship we are to seek reconciliation with those we have harmed and forgive those who harmed us.
Heavenly Father, give us Your Holy Spirit so we may worship You in Spirit and in Truth, from the heart, as You have given us to worship in Your holy Scriptures. Turn us away from all our idols and draw us only to Jesus Christ our LORD, in who name we pray. Amen