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15 Seven
days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which
the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine
increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely
rejoice. 16 Three times in a year shall all
thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in
the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of
tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the
blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. (Deuteronomy
16:15-17)
When we consider the volume of a
vessel, we usually think in terms of the material sense. The vessel is viewed
as full, empty, half-full, etc., of some material substance such as water or
wheat. But there is another vessel that is the concern of God – the heart
vessel of every soul born to woman. Our hearts are either treasure chests of
immeasurable riches of love and beneficence, or else of the trash and garbage
of greed-bought lucre that is only worthy of the world and its unbridled
passions.
The text above says much in a very
concise commentary – a quality typical of only the finest authors, and this is
not surprising when we consider that the Author is God. It tells us, first of
all, three things about how we should appear before the Lord in service and
worship:
1.
We
appear in God’s appointed venue. (“.... appear
before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose”);
2.
There
is a God-ordained time for worship. There was a strict structure for this
moment of time in
Deuteronomy: “Three
times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place
which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of
weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.”;
3.
God
ordains the manner in which we should appear both now, and in the judgment,
before Him: “….they shall not appear before the LORD empty.” From many
modern pulpits, you will hear that this refers to coming before the Lord
without a good offering in material treasures of which share the preacher
usually gets the prominent share and the Lord gets the hindermost; but that is
not the point – it is the treasure of the heart that pleases the Lord. For I
desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
Secondly, the text can be reduced to
four things that God expects in worship:
1.
He
demands we WORSHIP Him. The
men in Deuteronomy were to APPEAR before
the Lord. I need not remind those who take the trouble of reading this clumsily
written devotion that the only means by which any approach the Almighty God is
on bended knee. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth.
(John 4:23-24) Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matt 4:10) There are churches today who have a
lot of SOME kind of spirit, but lack a reliance on Holy Scripture. There is
another kind of church in our day that has much biblical truth, but lack any
spirit of love that brands them as ‘Christian.’ Spirit and Truth must be joined
in worship.
2.
God
has appointed the proper place for worship – the CHURCH! Based on that very
same model for His first institution (Marriage), God instituted the Church. ….upon this rock I will build my church;
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt 16:18) Jesus refers to Himself (the Rock of Ages, 1 Cor 10:4) - not the PEBBLE that was Peter. The Church is the
Israel of God. It is becoming more and more difficult to find a church that
exalts the Word of God above the imaginations of the heart of man; but we must
be seeking that true church always as a pilgrim seeks the City of God, for God
counsels it: 25 Not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as
ye see the day approaching. (Heb 10:25) Just as our Lord Jesus cleansed the Temple of the money
changers, so today must our hearts be cleared of fleshly desires and greed. The
church is a place to form the righteous habits that overcome those of sinful
living that predominate outside her gates – a place to learn of the Lord and to
worship Him only!
3. God
has established a TIME for worship. There are three times in the year specified
in the introductory text in addition to the weekly Sabbath. As most Christian
scholars know, Jesus did not make the Law of the Lord less sovereign, but MORE
so. He added the spiritual dimension that is fueled by LOVE and not compulsion.
In addition, rather than a weekly day devoted to the worship of God, we now
have SEVEN days devoted to God. It is Christ that works through us in good
works. We have our Sabbath rest in Christ every moment of the day. We can lay
claim to no goodness of our own. Our day of worship begins at first wakening of
the day. We seek Him early as the Psalmist proclaims. (Psalms 63:1 – General
George Patton’s favorite text, by the way) Since the day is a gift of God, we
must forever be grateful in acknowledging that gift at first light – or even
before. As the waning light of the Morning Star appears on the horizon, what a
fitting time to lift our praises and thanks to Him – for He is figuratively,
the Morning Star and the Gate of the Day! (Rev. 22:16 and 2
Peter 1:19)
4.
God
has established limits and circumstances for our worship. He demands REVERENCE! Our liturgical
form of worship in the Anglican tradition (and other Reformed churches)
according to the old Book of Common Prayer assures the avenue for that
reverence. “9 Furthermore we have had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us,
and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be
in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” Heb 12:9 (KJV) The great vigor in
ministry of our day is that of “accentuating the positive and eliminating the
negative” as Bing Crosby crooned. But God’s Word is at least as full of
negatives as it is of positives. For example, there are seven “shalt not’s” in
the Ten Commandments. The reason for this is the fact that man’s imagination is
always to more and more evil, and it must be curbed by limits – “they shall
not appear before the LORD empty.” Now does this mean that we must pay gold
or silver to worship? Not at all! But we must bring SOMETHING of value before
the Lord, but WHAT? How about humility, faith, hope, love, repentance, etc.
What gives value to these qualities? It is what GOD values. Men value silver
and gold, but God owns every vein of gold and ore of silver in the Universe. He
needs it not; but He does value the things that imitate His own virtues, and
those are high lighted in love and mercy.
Every person reading this devotion
will remember the widow’s mite as it was given out of great need. It amounted
to more than all of the gold coins tossed in the Temple horn. If those two
mites were deposited in a bank, 2,000 years ago, at 5% interest (compounded
semi-annually) it would amount to more than all of the available currency in
the world today. Imagine
how much interest that offering will garner in the eternity of years to come!
How sad it
will be for us to appear before the Lord with no stars in our crown – no
brothers, sisters, mother, father, neighbor! His blood was sufficient for all,
yet we have kept it a secret! Our works of righteousness (which are His) should
be in the treasure chest we bring before the Lord. What of the remembrance of
our morning, noon and evening prayers? What about our compassions for the poor,
the weak, the destitute? If
we are empty of these, we have not conformed to the “shalt not” cited
above.
There are positives as well. Every
man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
(2 Cor 9:7) I tell the youth of my church that there is no more direct way of
giving to God than in caring for the widows and orphans, the hungry, thirsty
and naked. Insomuch as
ye have done it unto these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Our gifts to God must not be
dedicated to the enrichment of the pockets of greedy or hypocritical ministers.
The treasures of the heart are the things upon which God places the highest
premium. Our love convinces us to share with the poor, not a Commandment written
on a stone table.
How do we appear before the Lord –
empty of love, of heart, of soul? Or do we appear before the Lord full of hope,
love and faith; of mercy, sacrifice and a good testimony?
