Have you ever wonder what WORSHIP is all about? We have commonly hear this word all around the churches and the places we say we are gathering to glorify and search for His will. But, simply this generation and trend has changed the meaning of worship into ear-satisfying songs and high-skilled instrumental chords that blow our minds. Those beautiful stage lights too, maybe. We easily say that we worship GOD when we raise our hands high in the air and sing loudly just as dramatic as the worship leader does. Confidently say that we've been worshiping GOD that way.
Is that worship? This reality keeps me thinking and wondering if WORSHIP is just about those rituals, physical gestures, face expressions and so on, why are we, the Christians, are well-known for being a worshiper? Are we good at maintaining face expressions.. or maybe we don't understand anything about WORSHIP at all.
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"Abraham's Faith Tested" has become the title of the first part in Genesis 22 where the word 'worship' was firstly introduced to all Bible readers in the world. It is very unique and interesting to enjoy the story and also to gain as many as possible lessons from Abraham. Shortly, Abraham and Sarah had waited for 14 years since God promised them a son that will become a nation. Their greatest giant was facing the truth that they both had been very old and Sarah was sterile. Sarah even laughed at God's promise that she thought God was telling them a joke and she decided to gave her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to sleep with Abraham to continue their line of descendant as her expression of disbelief. Ishmael was born from Hagar and that's a different long story to tell. Focusing on how Abraham and Sarah had battled with their seemed-impossible reality and hard-to-believe situation means discovering the beautiful truth that God never break His covenant with us. When Abraham reached the age of 99, Sarah gave him Isaac (means laughing) as God's proof of what He has promised all this time. Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac deeply, the son they had been waiting all their marriage life.
Some time later, God tested Abraham's faith. He called Abraham and told him to TAKE his beloved, one and only son, Isaac, and SACRIFICE him as a burnt offering in the land of Moriah. The next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he prepared everything and did it exactly what God has told him. He chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering with his own hands (and I'm sure his mind can't get over the mixed feelings) and went in a journey to Moriah.
"Worship is giving the offerings and the way to offer it exactly the way He requested us"
On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the servants. "The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and we will come right back." Why was Abraham telling the servants to stay and not to follow them until the top of the mountain? It was not because Abraham didn't want the servants to see their master murdering his son or whatsoever dramatic narration in my head. It's actually because worship talks about intimacy with God. When Abraham came to the mountain where he was going to offer his son, he left all his donkeys which represented his loads and burdens of life just to come as a nothing but a servant after the LORD.
He didn't want his servants to come along because intimacy is not bringing your relatives, even not your parents, sisters, brothers or best friends to your mountain of worship. It is just you and your deep-loved offering, walking a little farther, climbing a little higher, diving a little deeper, taking little more steps, to the mountain of worship with GOD.
"Worship talks about intimacy with God, it's just you and your deeply-loved offering walking a little farther to the mountain of Moriah"
So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "We have the fire and the wood," the boy said, "but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?" "God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son," Abraham answered. And they both walked together.
I marked the word fire and knife to highlight that indeed worship means sacrifice. Fire and knife will hurt and leave scars at anything. Any creatures, animals of plants, humans or even dead things will have mark as they experience direct contact with fire and knife. The mark that shows that your loved one is no longer yours, but it's God's possession. Your future is no longer yours, it's God possession. Your free will of choosing is no longer yours, it's God possession. Your freedom of dating is no longer yours, it's God possessions. Your rights to blame and not to forgive is no longer yours, it's God possession. Abraham's one and only son, is no longer his 'my-son' possession, but it's God's possession.
When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Yes," Abraham replied. "Here I am!" "Don't lay a hand on the boy!" the angel said. "Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear GOD. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son."
Later, GOD showed him that He had provided a ram caught by its horn in a thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it, named the place "Yahweh-Yireh" which means the LORD will provide.
"You just need to shut your possessive feeling over anything and realize that everything belongs to God. No matter how long Abraham had waited for a son, no matter how careful and loving He had looked after Isaac, no matter how precise and structured Abraham had planned Isaac's future, whenever God asks him to offer Isaac. He'll always respond it the same way, "Here I am, LORD." for he truly feared God."
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Worship happens in your daily life. Your eating, working, sleeping, thinking and interacting with others. 45-minutes-long praise and worship session in church is just a moment to express and celebrate it together with your Christians community. But worship actually happens daily. The Scripture defines worship with the story of Abraham's faith tested by God.
I started to stop considerate it worshiping by counting how many time I have sunk in slow and mellow songs, instead I started to offer my daily life, the moments I can enjoy my morning by having hot chocolate or coffee and exchange it with bible-reading habit. I started to offer my right to enjoy church music and began to look around my community, which one of them needed my prayer to support them through their dark valleys. I offer my Saturday night to Him, my education years to Him, my plans of graduating to Him, my pride and egos, my possession and my definition about success.
It may not be easy, it may takes so many risks. It may makes people throw disgusted look at you. But when it comes to worship, you've got to offer your deeply-loved Isaac and that's worth it.
