Empty Handed Worship

Scripture: Deuteronomy 16:16-17
“Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him. 17 All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God."

Observations:
A vital part of Israel's worship revolved around the concept of sacrifice and offerings they were commanded to present to the Lord at regular intervals throughout the year as an expression of their alliegence to Yahweh and their recognition of their covenant relationship with Him. On special occasions God required His people to celebrate Him with week long festivals in recognition of how he had saved them (Passover), His provision (Harvest), and His guidance (Tabernacles) in their lives. At each of these festivals God made it a point to ensure that no one ever came before Him empty handed by commanding them to bring a proportionate offering to the amount God had blessed them with. Why? Because worship isn't really worship unless you bring something to offer.

Application:
We can call a lot of different things "worship" but only in the sense that we are giving something back to God in recognition of what He has given to us. Just because we sing the words doesn't mean we have worshiped God. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because their worship had become nothing more than empty words (Matthew 15:8). Feeling good about Gods presence doesn't mean we have worshiped Him. It's not until we have given of ourselves that we have truly worshiped in Spirit and in truth. If you leave church feeling like you didn't get anything out of it, you've missed the whole point. Worship is not about what we get but about what we give to God because He gave everything to us (1 John 4:10). Worship is our response to God, not Gods response to us. When we begin to view worship as an act of giving to God and offering to Him what He deserves, then and only then will we come to know and love Him (Romans 12:1-2).

Prayer:
Father, may we always come prepared to become the offerings that are pleasing to You. Help us to give back to You the sacrifice you require- the love and obedience that demonstrates that we belong to You. Amen.


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