Mingled with this glorious ascription is the recognition of human

frailty: 'Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding',

and the fact that all the service we can ever render to the Lord is but using

the gifts which He has originally bestowed on us:

'O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee an

house for Thine holy name cometh of Thine hand, and is All Thine Own

... Of Thine own have we given Thee' (1 Chron. 29:16,14).

These passages contain abundant material out of which a very full

conception could be reached of what true worship involves, and we therefore

commend to our readers the desirability of a prayerful and careful re-reading

of them.

We have already learned something of the nature of worship by following

the lead given by the use of the expression 'bow down'.  There are, of

course, other lines of thought that we may pursue, and one that comes readily

to the mind is the connection between the word 'worship' and 'serve'.

The Hebrew words ebed, 'a servant', and abad, 'to serve', are familiar

in such names as Obadiah ('servant of Jah'), and Obed ('serving') the son of

Ruth, and the father of Jesse.  The prophet Isaiah, also, has much to say of

Israel, the servant of the Lord, and of the Coming One, Who is called 'My

Servant, Whom I uphold' (Isa. 42:1).  Ebed is the Hebrew equivalent of the

Greek doulos, a 'bond slave', as in Romans 1:1.

The word shachah, 'worship', occurs upwards of one hundred and seventy-

two times in the Old Testament, while abad occurs two hundred and eighty-six

times.  With numbers of this magnitude, the amount of labour involved in

determining the number of references in which 'serve' and 'worship' come

together can only be appreciated by those who have actually carried out

investigation of this kind.  We will not, therefore, be dogmatic, but so far

as we have investigated, it would seem that there is not a single passage in

the Old Testament where 'serve' and 'worship' come together when the context

is concerned with the worship of God!  On the other hand, there are nineteen

references where the two words come together in connection with the worship

of other gods.  We will not quote these nineteen passages in full, but the

readers may like to have the references:

Commands in the Law concerning serving and worshipping other gods:

Exodus 20:5; 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:19; 5:9; 11:16; 17:3; 29:26; 30:17.

References in the Prophets to serving and worshipping other gods: 1

Kings 9:9; 16:31; 22:53; 2 Kings 21:3; 2 Chronicles 7:22; 33:3; Jeremiah

13:10; 22:9; 25:6.  In one passage a discrimination is made between

'worshippers' of Baal, and 'servants' of the Lord (2 Kings 10:23).

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: