LIMITED WORSHIP
LIMITED WORSHIP
So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far...”
Exodus 8:28
Worshiping the only God, creator of Heaven and earth, in Whom we exist and move, is the very essence of beinghood. Adoration is the most primitive, unavoidable, ceaseless and sacred of all our needs as created human beings. It started with the first man and woman in the garden of Eden, and it will never, ever pass away, trespassing eras, enduring all ages, on earth and out of it, for all eternity. Worship fills us, it fulfills our purpose in everything we do and infuses life in our hearts that, indeed, were designed with worship in sight.
Whether yellow, black, white, short, tall, rich, poor, male or female, from every single corner of this planet, we were created for this main purpose: to worship God; it is the core and nucleus of our existence, and the most genuine and groaning longing of our spirit.
When the only true God, the God of the Bible, the Creator and Keeper of the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob decided to unchain His own people from Egypt, which story is recorded in the Book of Exodus, in the Old Testament, we were gifted with one of the most epic literary odysseys of all times, indeed, but what God had in mind was not only the devastating plagues nor the spectacular parting of the Red sea which drowned the pride and stubbornness of the rebellious Pharaoh, what God had in mind was to have His own people, a holy nation He would call His, this family with which He would establish a covenant, a close relationship through worship. Yes, the Lord would redeem His people, and even combatting a very reluctant Moses, the great I AM was ready for action.
Naturally, after 430 years of subjugation and captivity achieved by the most cruel and bloody form of slavery, the formal request made by Moses, the once prince and now sheepman-emissary of God, was received like a bombshell: “we need to go to the desert in order to worship our God.” Needless to say, the powerful Pharaoh would not let them go that easily, and here is where the saga began.
After countless visits to the palace and despite back and forth heated conversations blended with Egyptian witchcraft, magi and sorcerers hurt by plagues and Egyptian deities humiliated publicly by the powerful hand of the true God, the narrative starts coming to an end when Pharaoh’s firstborn perishes hopelessly hit by the angel of death who came as the last of the now famed ten plagues. That was it, Pharaoh would finally allow the people to go, and a great nation was being born.
Applying the boundaries imposed by Pharaoh to Israel - which of course did not produce any effect - into our context today, we acknowledge they were very subtle in its nature, but even so, we can still identify traces of those same limits today, 3500 years later!
So, let’s take a look at the restrictions demanded by Pharaoh as far as how, according to him, Israel should worship God:
1. Limited Intensity
Exodus 8:28 - “Go and adore, but do not go that far...” This limitation has to do with a superficial and shallow worship, where there is no separated time and place for our God, except for fortuitous and scarce encounters in “times of need;”
2. Limited Priesthood
Exodus 10:11 - “You can go and worship, but only part of the family”. It happens when we forget our holy call for a priesthood that is committed to leading our whole family in the ways of the Lord;
3. Limited Resources
Exodus 10:24 - “Worship God, but leave what you have out of it”. It means we will serve the Lord but when it comes to our possessions, it is an off-limits area.
Thank God Moses and the People of Israel did not give in to any of these absurd demands.
Now, allow this analogy with me: it is indisputable common ground that we as parents, evidently do not want the affection from our kids delivered in halves or compromised, we desire and long for undivided and wholehearted passion. Well, so is our God!
The Devil knows that the Lord will not accept a bargained and sloppy half-way worship, and he will try everything in order to make our relationship with God to be as flimsy as possible.
Our devotion to our Heavenly Father must be always fervorous, intense and wide-ranging, involving our whole family as much as we can, honoring Him in complete and absolute yelding, serving and revering Him with all our heart, soul and strength, with our lives unreservedly surrendered at His altar, yielding to Him everything that He graciously deposits in our hands, once everything is His, including ourselves, and He alone deserves all the glory, honor and power, for He is our King of kings and Lord of lords, forever and ever. Amen.
Wishing peace, health and many blessings to your body and soul,
Pr. Joshua Mateíne