Worship is Reverence and Service

"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the LORD your God, and serve him only.' " – Matt 4:9-10

Let’s take a look at the New Testament words for worship.  We looked briefly in on these last month, however they bear the weight of expressing what God Himself means by worship, so a closer look is worth our time and effort.  A couple of the main words used in the New Testament for worship are Proskuneo and Latreuo.

Proskuneo means “to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence, by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication.”¹  One scholar summarizes the meaning as “bow down before someone you revere and kiss the ground.” ² Another suggests the meaning “to prostrate oneself in token of reverence.” ³  This side of worship is where we arrive at the ideas awe, reverence, and wonderment of God for who He is and what He has done.  We sense God is and who He is and we worship Him.

Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Matthew 8:2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "LORD, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

Matthew 9:18 While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live."

Matthew 14:33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Revelation 19:4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"

From the birth of Christ to His throne in the new Jerusalem, people were and are falling down, bowing before God to worship Him.  Jesus walks on the water and those in the boat worship Him.  The leper in need of healing worships Him.  The ruler whose daughter has died comes and worships Him.  They are showing reverence to Him.  They are acknowledging He is the only one who can help them.  The Samaritan woman at the well learns from Jesus that true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth.  She learns He is the Messiah. 

Latreuo means “to serve, to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship.”⁴  Latreuo carries the idea of general, even bodily service “in far more comprehensive sense than that of slavery.” Like being a cup-bearer where your body is used for the king or even in the sense that bodily preparations must be made for service.⁵   

Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Luke 2:37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.

Romans 1:9 God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

Revelation 7:19 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them

Matt 4:9-10 "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship [Proskuneo] me." 10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship [Proskuneo]  the LORD your God, and serve [Latreuo]  him only.' "

Latreuo carries the comprehensive idea of service.  Serving by prayer and fasting, setting apart even our actions to God that our bodies themselves may be holy (set apart for Him).  If Proskuneo is the sense of God, then Latreuo is the service of God.  True worship must be “in spirit and truth, spirit providing the inner energy and feeling, truth providing the outward conformity and boundaries.”⁶  Mary can be seen as a brilliant example of this kind of worshipper.  Mary is seen consistently at the feet of Jesus – a true worshipper.  She sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said (Luke 10:39).  She got up quickly and went to Him and fell at His feet saying “Lord, if you had been here, my brother [Lazarus] would not have died” (John 11:29, 32).  Again we see Mary at the feet of Jesus weeping over His feet, wiping His feet with her hair, pouring a pint pure nard (very expensive perfume) on His feet and again wiping them with her hair (Matt 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8).  Mary understood what it meant to worship Jesus, to proskuneo (to sense, to reverence, to fall at His feet) and latreuo (to serve, to wipe His feet, to offer something of high personal value to Him, to serve with her body). “You cannot serve Him unless you sense Him in your life.  It will be a mockery.  And if you just sense Him without serving Him, you are not worshipping Him.  If you serve Him without sensing Him, it will be drudgery.”⁷

Footnotes

¹ Thayer, Joseph. "Proskuneo." Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Hendrickson, 1996.

² Zacharias, Ravi. “Let My People Think.”  Podcast. “Leadership Seminar Workshop.” http://www.rzim.org/resources/listen/letmypeoplethink.aspx.  22 July 2009.

³ Tenny, Merrill C. "Worship." The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Regency, 1975. Print.

⁴ Thayer, Joseph. "Latreuo." Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Hendrickson, 1996.

⁵ Tenny.

⁶ Zacharias.

⁷ Zacharias.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

First Use of Worship in the Bible

One of the rules of hermeneutics (the interpretation of Scripture) is the law of first mention.  Usually the first mention of a topic in the Bible is indicative of the rest.  It gives us a snapshot, a context, a reference point of how the topic should be viewed and interpreted in the rest of the Bible.

Genesis 22 contains the first mention of worship in the Bible.  Let us look closely at this passage to gain insights about worship.

    ¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
      "Here I am," he replied.

Ø Abraham was actively listening and responded in submission.  His initial openness and attentiveness led to further instructions from God.

    ² Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

    ³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

Ø Abraham obeyed the instructions he received from God.

Ø Abraham made preparations for the sacrifice.  He came prepared.

⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

The word worship here is defined by Strong's as to prostrate, pay homage to God, bow, humbly beseech, do obeisance, do reverence,... worship

             

            Hebrews 11:17-19  ¹⁷By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." ¹⁹Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Ø Abraham had faith in what God had promised him, that thourgh Isaac his lineage would be maintained.  He believed (had faith that) he and his son would return, even if God had to raise him from the dead.  Abraham over-came his personal obstacles to worship.

    ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"      

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
      "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"  ⁸ Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

Ø Abraham had faith that God would provide the sacrifice.  He understood that where God leads, He provides.

    ⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Ø Abraham was ready to sacrifice that which was extremely important to him in honor of God. It was a sacrifice of love.

Ø Abraham was tested in is belief in what God had spoken to him.  He had a total abandonment to God’s will.

¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
      "Here I am," he replied.

Ø Here again Abraham is actively listening and immediately responding to God.

¹² "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Ø Abraham feared God. He held God in reverence or awe and dared not to disobey Him.  God was testing Abraham’s obedience with something He Himself had promised and something Abraham truly cherished.  God was asking Abraham to lay down the thing of most importance.  After all, God was not asking Abraham to do anything He would not.

Romans 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

 ¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram ^[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

Ø Here God provides where He has led.  Verse 14 is translated “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. As it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided. ” in the American Standard Version.  This is the only place I found in the Bible where God is called Jehovah-Jireh or Jehovah will see (to it).

 ¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring ^[b] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Ø Great Sacrifice is rewarded with Great Blessing.  God promises that through Abraham’s lineage the Messiah will come and all mankind will be blessed through Abraham’s seed.

Romans 12:1-2  ¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[reasonable] act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Here is the essence of worship -- when we actively listen to God and respond immediately with total obedience and reverence, no matter the cost, He will reveal Himself to us as our provider, provide for us, and bless us for our obedience.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.