Will We?
Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. (Exodus 19:8 NKJV)
One Commandment
Adam and Eve were given one commandment in the Garden of Eden and they disobeyed. Now the children of Israel are about to be given all that will be required for them to worship the Lord in the wilderness and they say. “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” They may have meant well when they said it, but they sure weren’t able to follow through!
They were told not to work on the Sabbath, but they did. They were told not to keep the manna picked up on weekdays until the morning, but they did. I think all the so-called ten commandments were violated before they got to the “promised land.”
What about Us?
We don’t have five books laying out the means that pleases God in worship. We have it given to us in fairly simple terms. If we are “born right” then we are to continue steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? Of course, there is part of the apostle’s doctrine that we don’t like—particularly that part about the differing roles of men and women in the church. Some of us don’t like the simple truth of identification with Christ in baptism after we are saved. Some of us don’t see the value in remembering the Lord in the breaking of bread. We would rather be hunting or fishing or sitting in a sports arena. Some of us really don’t love our wives. When it comes to loving our neighbors, we are still asking “and who IS my neighbor?”
As I have been reading through the Old Testament recently, I must admit that I find the ceremonial instructions for worshipping the Lord to be voluminous and technical and expensive and confusing. Yet, the Lord wanted it to be done HIS way, not the way the children of Israel might have wanted to do things. Priests had to be born right and they had to be dressed right and they had to be cleansed just right. They had to carry out ceremonies on the right days at the right time with the right sacrifices. When David went to move the ark without reading the instructions, he found out his mistake was deadly. We live in much simpler times, but do we do any better than the Israelites?
When it comes to salvation, we have one command and most religions aren’t satisfied with that one command. So, they add something to it. And in doing so, they violate it. That command is to trust the Lord. When it domes to worshipping the Lord ceremonially, we are told to get baptized and then to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread. Many people who claim to be Christians have never been Scripturally baptized and most feel that preaching and Sunday School and praise music is by far more important than simply taking a loaf of bread and a cup of wine and sharing it with others in a ceremony where the Lord and only the Lord is honored. And then for those of us who do want to please the Lord in that way, are we examples of “continuing steadfastly?”
Simplicity
I am glad for the simplicity of the Gospel and of the New Testament instructions for worship. But that need to “continue steadfastly” is convicting.
Lord help me to be simple enough to love you and to love my neighbor and to show that love in the way you have requested in the New Testament. Help me to “continue steadfastly.”
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of February 3, 2019