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commanded Pharaoh, `let My son go, that he may serve Me' (Exod. 4:23), the
`service' concerned was largely an act of worship, for we read that Moses
demanded of Pharaoh `sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice
unto the Lord our God' (Exod. 10:25). Again, the memorial of the Passover is
called a `service' (Exod. 12:25,26), and the feast of Unleavened Bread (Exod.
13:5), but these are also called `ordinances' (Exod. 12:14, 17,24,43; 13:10).
The care of all the instruments of the Tabernacle (Num. 3:7,8), and the
ministry of Aaron and his sons were all `service' (Num. 18:7), as were the
individual elements of this ritual such as the `vessels' (Exod. 27:19), the
things of gold, silver, and brass, and the skins, linen, incense and oil
(Exod. 35).
We have, therefore, to keep in mind two facts:
(1)
`Worship is not used with the word "service" when that worship is
directed to God; it is only so allied when used of idolatry.
(2)
On the other hand, the work of the Priests and Levites in
connection with the sacrifices, prayers and other ceremonials
relating to the tabernacle are freely called "service"`.
The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah have some searching things to say in
connection with the service of the Temple. In Jeremiah 7 we read:
`Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The
temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these' (Jer. 7:4).
And in the first chapter of Isaiah:
`Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the
new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your
appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary
to bear them' (Isa. 1:13,14).
And yet every item mentioned, temple, oblation, offering and feast, was
Divinely appointed. Why then this revulsion? The answer is found in the
chapters themselves. Israel had departed from the truth, and so in the eyes
of the Lord their clinging to the externals of religion was but empty
mummery. False gods did not demand purity and spirituality from their
worshippers, and so their worship and their service could be named together;
but with the true God, even a Divinely appointed ritual was all in vain apart
from uprightness of heart.
Even when the apostle acknowledges that to Israel pertained `the
service of God', this is limited to things `according to the flesh' (Rom.
9:3,4), and the epistle to the Hebrews, when speaking of `ordinances of
divine service' under the Old Covenant, adds the words `and a worldly
sanctuary' (Heb. 9:1). These things signified that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest. They were figures, shadows of good things
to come:
`That could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to
the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers
washings (baptisms), and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the
time of reformation' (Heb. 9:9,10).