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Scripture that "If He were on earth, He should not be a priest" (Heb. 8: 4). Why, then,
is there this consistent exclusion of "service" from the realm of "worship"?
In spite, however, of this evident separation of the words "worship" and "service"
when used of the Lord, it is clear that when the Lord promised Moses, "Ye shall serve
God upon this mountain" (Exod. 3: 12), and when he 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, 25), 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 (Numb. 3: 7, 8), and the ministry of
Aaron and his sons were all "service" (Numb. 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 Jer. 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 referred to.
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