Every time I read Isaiah I wonder what God thinks of our corporate worship practices. The example from today’s reading is worth our consideration.
Recall what we have learned from Isaiah about God’s opinion of His Old Testament people’s worship: He despised it, was offended by it, and wished they would not bother gathering to go through the motions of worshiping Him. Then, under King Ahaz, Temple worship was ended in favor of worshiping pagan gods.
It took Hezekiah’s order for the priests and Levites to resume their responsibilities, to reestablish the service of the Temple of the Lord. The first worship service was accompanied with rejoicing at what God had brought about in the hastily organized service, and they wanted more. So rather than moving forward with what they wanted to do, they planned for worship God’s way, observing the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread as He had instructed in the Law.
“The hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out” what was ordered to prepare for the proper celebration of the Passover. They didn’t exercise their creativity in devising an extravagant worship experience, but did what was instructed. In our culture we are conditioned to “having it our way,” and we expect that of our worship practices as well. If their unity of mind came from the hand of God, wouldn’t we be wise to ask Him for the same in our churches?
Some pilgrims came unprepared to observe the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread as required in the Law, and apparently suffered physical ailments for doing so. Are we blessed to have so few guidelines laid out for our coming before God to worship? What guidelines are laid out for our coming into God’s presence for worship? Notice that Hezekiah didn’t pray for everyone afflicted because their failure to come prepared for proper Passover observance, but he prayed for those who set their hearts on seeking God. What a great way to handle that need: he didn’t have to know whose heart was set on seeking God, because God knew and would heal or not heal appropriately. That’s a great example for our prayers.
The worship done God’s way in the Passover celebration and observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was accompanied by more rejoicing – that word is used several times to describe the event. Doesn’t it seem from this example and the psalm we read today, that rejoicing is an appropriate and desirable feature of corporate worship of God? To what extent is our corporate worship characterized by joy? If it isn’t, should we be concerned about it?
Then worship was followed by action to destroy everything associated with pagan worship. Worship moved them to action. That is why preaching from the Word of God is part of our worship services; it we are truly worshiping God to delight Him, we will be moved to take action in response to what He reveals to us from His Word.
Hadn’t that removal been done before – more than once? One of the differences this time is that the people did the destroying, and the destroying didn’t just involve taking down the objects of pagan worship and stashing them somewhere, but smashing them and discarding the remains. Another difference was that they replaced pagan worship with something meaningful: they reestablished worship of God as prescribed in the Law. How does their example apply practically to you?
Things are thus looking rather good for Judah at the point Israel (or as Chronicles calls it, Ephraim and Manasseh) has been dispersed in exile for their unfaithfulness and sinfulness. The remains of God’s people have thrown off pagan worship, they have embraced worship of the Lord according to the Law, and if Hezekiah’s plan was fully enacted, they have renewed their covenant with God. They are also enjoying the strong leadership of a king who did “what was good and right and faithful before the Lord…, who sought His God and worked wholeheartedly, and so he prospered.” Isn’t life going to be good? Not if the enemy can help it.