"Well did
Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it
is written, 'This people honors me with
their lips, their heart is far from
me.'" (Mark 7:6)
Thought:
Yesterday we looked at a number of
Scriptures that confirmed God is pleased
with a variety of physical acts when we
worship Him. However, externals in and
of themselves are no guarantee that our
worship is acceptable to God. Today I
want to take a look at physical actions
that were condemned by God due to the
sinful hearts of the worshipers.
The most common word for worship in
the Old Testament is hishtahvah, which
means to bow down in homage or reverent
submission. While bowing down is an
appropriate act whenever we gather to
worship God, the same word and action is
used to describe the worship of idols.
For example, Isaiah 2:8 reads, "Their
land is filled with idols; they bow down
to the work of their hands, to what
their own fingers have made."
Singing accompanied by instruments is
another means God has given us to
express passion and devotion to Him. In
our current culture, singing has almost
become synonymous with worship. However,
God finds no pleasure in singing that is
not accompanied with righteous living.
Take away from me the noise of
your songs; to the melody of your harps
I will not listen. But let justice roll
down like waters, and righteousness like
an ever- flowing stream. (Amos 5:23-24
ESV)
Lifting hands can signify a
wide range of emotions and attitudes -
dependence, gratefulness, expectation,
reverence, or celebration. However, God
condemned both the actions and motives
of the Israelites through His prophet
Isaiah. "When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you; even
though you make many prayers, I will not
listen; your hands are full of blood"
(Is. 1:15 ESV). In commenting on this
passage, Ron Allen and Gordon Borror
write,
"It is possible to do all
the right things but to do nothing right
- if the heart is not right before the
Lord. It is holy hands we raise to the
Lord (1 Tim. 2:8) to bless His holy name
and to implore His matchless grace.
Bloody hands are pictures of soiled
lives. Mistreatment of the poor, abuse
of the unfortunate, debasing of the
things of God, even bloodshed - such are
the marks God sees on hands that are
raised to Him when those hands are not
holy." (Worship: Rediscovering the
Missing Jewel, pg. 126)
Even the
simple act of standing can be offensive
to God if unaccompanied by heart
devotion. In Matthew 6, Jesus rebukes
the hypocrites who "love to stand and
pray in the synagogues and at the street
corners, that they may be seen by
others."
Our expressions of
devotion on the outside must line up
with attitudes of faith-filled devotion
on the inside. Otherwise true worship is
non-existent. No amount of bodily
expressiveness can make up for a
wayward, unrepentant heart.
Jesus condemned such activity as vain
worship in Mark 7:6: "Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is
written, 'This people honors me with
their lips, their heart is far from
me.'"
Questions to consider:
***Is my life evidence of a heart
that worships God all throughout the
week, not just on Sundays?
***What are some areas in my life where
I'm not worshipping God in Spirit & in
Truth?
***What will I do about
those areas today?
May our
external actions always be indicative of
passionate, truth-informed, ever growing
love for our incredible Savior.
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