Lesson 137 - Junior

Memory Verse

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

Notes

High Places

Mountains and high places were of great importance to the ancient people. Many of the cities were built on hills, surrounded by great walls, to discourage invaders who might come against them.

If we had wandered through the Land of Canaan before the Israelites possessed it we might have been pleased to see the beautiful parks on many of the high places. But do you know what was hidden among those trees? Idols. All kinds of idols! Those heathen people did not worship the true God, nor only one false god. They had many gods; and in each different grove we might have found a different kind of idol. The people offered sacrifices to those images, gods that could not see nor hear nor know anything that the people did.

God did not want His people to be fooled into thinking that those gods of wood and stone on the high places could answer their prayers. The Prophet said, "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jeremiah 3:23). The hills will be no help to people when judgement comes. We are told that the sinners will cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them when they come to stand before the Judge of all the earth.

Nahum the prophet tells us how much greater God is than the strength of the hills: "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein" (Na-hum 1:5).

The Holy City

God was going to set up the beautiful City of Jerusalem as the place for His people to gather and worship. A Temple was going to be built there that would be grander than anything that had been built until that time. There in the Holy of Holies would rest the Ark of the Covenant that had been carried on the shoulders of the Levites all the way to Canaan. And to this Temple all the Israelites would go to worship God.

During the forty years in the wilderness, the Ark had moved with them, and they had worshiped wherever the Tabernacle was pitched. It had been impossible to hold rigid rules for so great a body of people who did not remain in one place. But when the Israelites were established in Canaan, God was going to expect more of them.

Meat for Food

Animals for meat had been very scarce during the wilderness wanderings, and the Israelites had killed their cattle and sheep only for sacrifices, some of which were eaten at the Tabernacle as part of their worship. The young people who had grown up during those forty years did not know of any other occasion for eating meat. God told them that in Canaan animals would become plentiful, and if the Israelites were hungry for meat they were free to eat all they wanted, just as we eat meat with our meals. However, the firstlings of the flock, and those especially set aside for the Lord's sacrifice must be taken to the house of God and offered there.

Destruction of Groves

After all the great things God had done for His people, one would think they would never even consider worshiping some of those cheap gods of wood and stone, but God knew they would. For that reason He warned them again and again to be careful not even to enjoy the parks where the idols were kept. "Thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire" (Deuteronomy 7:5). God even told the Children of Israel that they should never plant trees near an altar of God to make it resemble a heathen altars in any way ([DEU:16:21]).

Devil Worship

Do you know what the people worshiped instead of God? They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars; they bowed down before images of Ashtaroth, Baal, Dagon, Diana; they paid homage to golden calves; and even worshiped devils. They not only offered their own sacrifices of animals to these strange gods, but some-times offered their own children. And because the Israelites copies the heathen and did these things, too, God let ten tribes of them be carried away captive into the land of Assysria ([2KG:17:1-41]).

Later the remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken captive and were forced to live in Babylon for 70 years. We do not hear that they ever again worshiped strange gods. Instead, they became very pious and tried hard to follow the letter of the Law. But there was no love in the hearts of most of them, and their forms and ceremonies were only mockery before the Lord. Such was the condition in Canaan (or Palestine, as it was later called) when Jesus lived among men. He repeatedly reproved the scribes and Pharisees for their wicked hearts, while they pretended to follow the commandments of God. They were careful to worship at Jerusalem; and they thought no one would be saved unless he became a Jew and obeyed the commandments of the rabbis, the Jewish elders. Jesus told them one day: "Ye compass seas and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matthew 23:15). A proselyte is a person converted from another religion, in this case to the Jewish faith.

Pointing to Jesus

The Tabernacle worship and the Temple worship had their place in God's plan of redemption, but when Je-sus came He ushered in a new dispensation. The time of animal sacrifices was past. These had pictured Jesus, and now Jesus was going to shed His Blood once and for all, that through that Blood all sinners who want to be saved might have their sins washed away.

On the day Jesus and His disciples walked through Samaria and met the woman at the well, He told her that the hour had come when the true worshiper would not have to go to Jerusalem nor to any other particular place, but if he had the love of God in his heart, he could worship anywhere.

Mount Gerizim

We learned in the lesson about the mountains of blessings and curses, that Mount Gerizim was chosen as the mount of blessing. Upon this mountain the Samaritans had in later years built a temple, and there they worshiped as the Jews worshiped at Jerusalem. The woman at the well was a Samaritan, and she realised that Jesus was a Prophet. So she asked Him at which temple it was right to worship. Would the people be any more righteous who went to Jerusalem to worship than those who climbed Mount Gerizim to the temple of the Samaritans?

True Worship

Jesus told her there was a difference in their worship because to the Jews had been entrusted the way of full salvation. God had called Abraham from the land of Ur, and had promised that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It was to the Jews that the Tabernacle worship had been given, and they had been His chosen people through hundreds of years. People who wanted to be saved came to the Jews to learn of God.

But the distinction between the Jew and Gentile had been broken down. Under the dispensation of grace, which Jesus ushered in, everyone has the same opportunity to be saved. Jesus said on the last great day of the feast: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). Any man could come, not just the Jew.

The time for the Temple worship was past. There was no more need for sacrifices, because Jesus had offered His life as the Lamb of God. The forms and ceremonies alone had not saved the people. The true worshiper must always worship God in spirit and in truth.

Today the sinner can come to God in repentance right in his own home, or out in the country, or even as he walks along the street, and receive forgiveness for his sins there as well as in the church. Jesus is looking at the heart, and when He sees repentance, and a desire to do the right thing, He forgives and makes that sinner a Christian. Many people have knelt by their bedside and been saved. We know of a boy who prayed on a chopping block in his basement until God forgave him. A soldier in the Army prayed by a stump in the woods and had his sins forgiven. They wee praying to God in the spirit, and he heard their prayers.

If it were necessary to go to Jerusalem today to worship, most of us would not be able to be Christians. It would be too difficult to make the trip. But God sent the Comforter into the world when Jesus went back to Heaven, and He is leading men everywhere into the truth. Jesus said, "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement" (John 16:8). He would reprove the world, not only the Jews. When He shows people they are sinners, He also teaches them how they can be saved.

Although we are free to worship God in any place, we must be sure that we are worshiping Him in the spirit. If there is anything permitted in a church which is contrary to God's commandments, we are told, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (II Corinthians 6:17). The true child of God wants fellowship with other clean people, and will separate him-self from those who do not live to please the Lord.

There is nothing sweeter than worshiping the Lord together in the unity of the faith, for there Jesus Himself comes to commune with His people. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).

Questions

1. Where were the Israelites to worship after they had settled in Canaan?

2. Where did the heathen worship?

3. What were the Israelites to do to the heathen places of worship?

4. Where did the Samaritans worship in the time of Christ?

5. Where have we heard of this mountain before?

6. What did the woman at the well ask Jesus?

7. What was His answer?

8. How are we to worship God?