Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 2)

December 20, 2023 at 11:24 am | Posted in Means of Grace | 3 Comments
Tags: Biblical worship, Christian worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 20, Exodus 32, Exodus 34, First Commandment, Second Commandment, Sunday School lessons on Exodus

² I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ³ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:2-3

Worshiping God involves worshiping Him in spirit, recognizing that He is not physically limited by time or space. We must not act as though He is available to be worshiped only at appointed times or locations. Our worship must not be hypocritical, merely outward. We must worship Him with our spirits, and we must worship Him in truth, not faking it. Worshiping in truth also means worshiping the true God.

In Exodus 20:2 He identifies Himself as the true God. Exodus 20:3 is the First Commandment. “Before Me” means “in My presence,” which, for the omnipresent God, is everywhere all the time. This is the Second Commandment: 

⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exodus 20:4-5

The First Commandment is about worship. The Second Commandment is about worship and service. He is the true God; we must not act like there’s another one. And don’t try to make anything that looks like a god. In the incident with the golden calf the people broke both of these commandments. 

¹⁷ And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. ¹⁸ And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

Exodus 32:17-18

This was “true worship” from a worldly point of view. There was: excitement; sacrifice; unity; enthusiasm; purpose; planning; commitment. It was “true worship,” but it was not worship in truth. It was syncretism and rationalization. It was not acceptable to God in any way, shape, or form.

Not all graven images are graven with tools like chisels. Graven image worship also involves engraving a false god in our minds, and giving it attributes that God doesn’t really have OR deleting one that He does have.

⁵ And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, ⁷ Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. ⁸ And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Exodus 34:5-8

Recognizing the revelations of God’s true attributes, Moses worshiped. One of those attributes is His jealousy, which we will look at next time.