How was your week? I hope it went well! You know, it’s always interesting to me when things happen that are seemingly disparate but when you look closer they are all connected somehow. The topic for this week was born out of just such a situation that happened to me this week.
We certainly went through this topic previously, but not in the way we’re going to look at it today. Through a confluence of events, connections were made known to me that I had not seen before. I actually had a different topic in mind, which we’ll probably end up going through next week, when this one was presented to me, and I hope it helps you to grow spiritually and have a closer relationship with YHWH.
When last we looked at this topic, we focused on the Hebrew word pronounced shaw-khaw. This is the word that, in scripture, is associated with the English word worship, and is also always associated with bowing down to something or someone. There is also an Aramaic word, pronounced seg-eed, that is only translated to worship, and is also always associated with bowing down (Daniel 2:46, 3:5-7, 10-12, 14-15, 18, 28).
Whereas last time we went through this topic, we skipped over Hebrew words that were associated with pagan gods, the events of this week have led to understanding that this association is precisely why we should include at least one of these words in our understanding, and subsequent incorporation into practice, of worship. Yes, bowing down is most certainly a form of worship, but when was the last time you fell prostrate to YHWH? If you attend church, have you ever done that in the service, when it’s supposed to be a designated specifically as a time of worship? Maybe you have, or maybe you have decided those types of actions are not befitting of your proper portrayal of the act of worship.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you’re right or wrong for not falling on your face in church as your worship of YHWH. The point is that we already call something worship that doesn’t fit into the very narrow category of bowing down that we see in the Hebrew and Aramaic words above. So, we have to look elsewhere to see if what we call worship today might fall under some other Hebrew word, because after all, if we can’t find out in scripture how to do the thing YHWH made number two in His commandments, we have no hope of ever being able to do it as a pleasing act to Him.
This brings us to an interesting point, because out of the two remaining Hebrew words translated to worship in scripture, one of them is actually associated with the second commandment. The other is the one that was mentioned last time as also being translated to grieving, or hurting. In fact, that one is only translated to worship once (Jeremiah 44:19), and when you find such a seemingly out of place translation like that you have to check if it’s accurate or if it’s more likely that the idea presented in the verse falls more into the idea of how the word is translated in all other cases.
When we do that for this instance, what we find is that the statement being made was a sort of sarcastic one. The women, trying to justify their worshipping of the queen of heaven, Ishtar, were basically saying, “did we make cakes for her in order to hurt her?” The context was that they claimed Ishtar was helping them stave off disaster, and the cakes they made for her pleased her rather than hurt, or grieved, her because the whole time they were making her cakes disaster did not come upon them (Jeremiah 44:15-19). That’s a whole lot of detail about a word we’re not going to focus on, but it’s important to reinforce that we have to do our own study and look into the origins of the words and translations we see in English in order to get an accurate picture of YHWH’s word.
The word we’re adding to our idea of worship this week is the Hebrew word pronounced aw-bad. This is the one we found out last time means to work for, or to serve. Where we find this translated to "worship," or more specifically in this case "worshippers," is when Jehu, the newly anointed king of Israel, tricks the worshippers of Baal into willingly coming to their own destruction, their judgment for worshipping other gods (2 Kings 10:18-23). This is the same word that’s translated to worship in the second commandment (Exodus 20:5), and that’s important because it’s a part of the detail of the second commandment that a lot of time gets overlooked.
Specifically, in the second commandment, which really could be seen as an extension to the first, YHWH is commanding not only to not make an idol of any created thing, He’s also commanding to not bow down or worship it (which we found actually means work for or serve it). This is exactly where one of the events in my confluence of events this week occurred. An individual made a comment, given the season that we’re in, that they don’t see anyone bowing down to a Christmas tree, so Christians are clearly not worshipping it and therefore it’s ok for Christians to have during Christmas. To support their justification, they threw in some red herrings about pagan practices/influences like the names of the days of the week and the months and even the use of wedding rings, saying there’s a lot of pagan influences in our lives today so it’s ok that we include this one (paraphrasing here, obviously). They also attempted to bolster their statement by pointing out that overall, we should be doing everything to the glory of YHWH, and if we’re doing something in this season that’s not to His glory we need to get rid of it.
No, this is not another discussion about Christmas. I think you know my position on that, but if not, you can refresh your memory here. And I absolutely agree with the person’s statement on doing everything to the glory of YHWH. That’s scriptural, of course (1 Corinthians 10:31), but the question is whether or not something we do actually is to His glory or not.
People are kind of funny in a way, in that we so easily fall into the trap of feeling like we have the authority to define something just by saying that it is. In this case, and in many other situations, this verse written by Paul, and the context in which he wrote it, is used as a get out of jail free card for Christians to justify themselves and what they do…with a few exceptions, of course. No one would use it to justify murder….at least I hope they wouldn’t…well, at least Christians as a whole wouldn’t widely accept that as a justification for murder……oh wait, there were those nasty crusades way back when….but I digress!
No, as much as we would like to be able to, we do not have the authority to define what is to YHWH’s glory. Only He has that authority, because, after all, it’s His glory! Many Christians may disagree with me that celebrating a pagan holiday in His Son’s name is not His glory, no matter how you celebrate it, but this week we’re going to take it broader, to the context of this idea of worship being to work for or serve something or someone.
The whole point this week is that while bowing down is certainly considered worship, so is doing an action for something or someone. The scientific definition of work is energy transferred to an object via the application of force on it through a displacement. In other words, using energy to move something from one place to another. If you want to take this idea to an extreme, even speaking is work because you are using your energy, by moving your vocal cords and using your lungs, to move air from one place to another. This movement, in turn, creates sound waves that we interpret into words.
Why is that important? Because in a way, you can consider anything you do to be serving or working for something or someone, and therefore you are worshipping someone or something. However, it’s not the specific action you’re taking that determines whether or not it’s to YHWH’s glory, it’s the origin behind it that matters and whether or not He approves of it.
Let’s take a very simple, yet personal, example. If I go up to someone and speak words of compliment or encouragement to that person, I could do it from the basis of making myself look good, making YHWH look good, or making something or someone else look good. While there is certainly an air or attitude I could take that would seemingly make it sound like I’m doing it in one of those categories or another, in general, someone overhearing it, or even the person receiving it, will not know which one it is.
The same is true for a physical action. While there are actions that clearly have their origins in one of those categories, the majority of actions have no clear origin just by observing them. I mean, just look at the example of murder that we brought up earlier. By the strict definition of murder, that action has its origin in evil. Since the beginning of time, Satan has set out to destroy YHWH’s creation, and influencing murder is one of the ways he accomplishes that goal.
Yet, during the middle ages, that action was claimed to be one done to YHWH’s glory. Man, in his infinite wisdom, decided he had the authority to determine that an action clearly commanded against by YHWH in scripture was actually being committed in His glory. In fact, it was widely accepted by the church at the time, the entirety of the formal body of Christians, that this was the case! Do you think YHWH agreed? Do you think He approved? Absolutely not! It was an abomination to Him regardless of what the church called it (Proverbs 6:16-19).
It's no different today. We can call anything an act of worship to Him, a working or a serving of Him, but that doesn’t make it so. Whether it’s ornamenting something of His creation, celebrating something in His name that isn’t from Him, or murdering someone, the actual origins of the actions we take are of supreme importance to whether or not they are to His glory, regardless of what we have in our hearts about those actions. The crusades are a perfect example of this, albeit an extreme one. However, just because something is not murder doesn’t mean it’s less of an abomination to YHWH.
Did you know that when talking about casting people away, Yeshua used the same word for “know” that Mary used when she asked how she would become pregnant although she’s never known a man? (Matthew 7:23, Luke 1:34) This “know” means to know from personal, intimate experience, and Yeshua’s point was that even though the people coming to Him were doing good things in His name, like driving out demons and performing miracles, He would cast them out because He was never in a personal relationship with them. This discovery was a second event in my confluence of events this week.
Yeshua said only those who do the will of YHWH will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21). Do you think that YHWH’s will includes people being freed from demons? Do you think it includes people being healed and relieved of suffering through the power of miracles? Of course! But Yeshua still called them workers of lawlessness because they lacked the personal relationship with the One whose power they were using to do those things. In order for us to know YHWH’s will, and thereby do things to His glory, we have to be in a personal relationship with Him, and the way we do that is through study of His word, talking to Him, and seeking the truth in all things. The hard part sometimes is accepting that truth and acting on it, if necessary, regardless of what the rest of the world, or the rest of Christianity, says.
As you go forward, consider all the actions you take in a given day and try to figure out their actual origins. If you’re just doing something because other Christians, or maybe society, says you should, or has justified it to you in some way, try to figure out where it came from, because otherwise you’re just working and serving the thing or being that created that action. I’ll give you a hint: the origins are either going to be from YHWH, or from evil. Those are the only two options.
Joshua put it well, and we’ll leave it with this quote for the week as a message for you to consider: “But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve YHWH, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve YHWH!”
Have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
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