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gathering now is not an altar but a pulpit; the great ministry now is, not the shedding of
the blood of bulls and of goats, but the preaching of the Word that point away from all
type and symbol to the finished work of Christ, now seated at the right hand of God.
Prayerfully considered, there is much in this series of studies upon which the
enlightened mind can meditate, and thus knowledge be gained on the subject of
"worship in spirit and in truth".
We must now turn our attention to other aspects of this important theme, and trust that
when our quest is finished we shall have a clearer understanding of what is involved
when we speak of the worship of God.
#4.
Worship and Liberty.
pp. 221 - 225
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 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 Rom. 1: 1.
The word shachah, "worship", occurs upwards of one hundred and ninety times in the
O.T., while abad occurs upwards of two hundred and eighty 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 investigations 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 O.T.
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 reader may like to have the references:
Commands in the Law concerning "serving and worshipping" other gods:
Exod. 20: 5; 23: 24; Deut. 4: 19; 5: 9; 11: 16; 17: 3; 29: 26; 30: 17.
References to "serving and worshipping" other gods in the Prophets: I Kings 9: 9;
16: 31; 22: 53; II King 21: 3; II Chron. 7: 22; 33: 3; Jer. 13: 10; 22: 9;
25: 6.
In one passage a discrimination is made between "worshippers" of Baal, and
"servants" of the Lord (II Kings 10: 23).