Family Worship in the Old Testament

What is first and greatest commandment?

To love God with all of our being.

What are some characteristics of love?

• devotion
• closeness
• preoccupied - always thinking about the other person

What does the Church do to demonstrate that love for God?

• Missions/outreach
• Fellowship
• Worship
• Discipleship
• Ministry/Service to others

What are some signs that we don't love God the way we should?

• Don't serve Him or otherse
• Wilfully disobey - actively choosing not to do what God wants us to do.
• Don't live as believers.  Would the world know you're a Christian by your actions?
• Don't love each other - we can't hate our brother and love God.

 

First, two verses explaining how God feels when we do not offer Him the worship He desires.

Isaiah 1:11-15

11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Amos 5:21-23

21 "I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.

(emphasis is from Randall)

3 Kinds of worship

1. Corporate
2. Individual - sabbath, quiet time, constant prayer
3. Family Worship, devotins, instruction

We discussed some statistics on what happens when people leave the church.  The majority of people who leave church have no plans to ever return. For college students, the stats are even worse.  So what can we do as parents to help prepare our children for leaving home and having a strong faith? Worship as a family is one helpful area.

Deuteronomy 12:18-19

18 "But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.19 "Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

Notice who is present during the gathering - the whole family (servants were considered part of the family during those days).

Joshua 8:35

35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

2 Chronicles 20:13

13 Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD.

Nehemiah 12:43

43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

Acts 2:46-47

46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church* daily those who were being saved.

In the original language, "house to house" can also be translated "in each one's house"

 

Family Worship in the New Testament

The Priority of Family Worship

Deuteronomy 32:46-47

46 and he said to them: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe-all the words of this law.47 "For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess."

Instruction to children is important because they need to have a firm foundation for their faith.  If we do not teach them the faith, they will learn exactly what we teach them - nothing (or that faith is not important and thus should not be part of our lives).  We don't let our children touch a hot stove or run into the street.  Why should we treat their faith any differently?

 

Male Headship is God's Plan

Ephesians 6:1-4

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

v1 - "Parents" is actually the word for parents, not addressed to a dad or mom, but a set of one mom and one dad.

v2 - The mom and the dad are listed separately.

v4 - The word here specifically talks to male fathers, nobody else.

So what do we do if there's no dad in the picture? Perhaps we can have a stand-in for dad to train spiritually, such as a grandfather or uncle. If no relatives are available, perhaps a close friend of the family.  If there's still nobody, the job falls to the mom, but it's implied that a male role model who is strong in his faith is important in order to bring up children in instruction of the Lord.

The Talmud says that a father is bound to teach his son. The Gentile practice in those days was for the mom or servants to teach children; fathers were normally absent from the educating role in Gentile homes.

 

Consequences of Male Passivity

Genesis 3 - the temptation and fall of man.  Adam had a chance not to follow, but did so anyway.

Discipline of children and example is important in upbringing, but we need to intervene at times:

• When kids are led astray by ideas, thoughts, images, peer pressure.
• TV is a source of bad ideas and teaching against God. Can use as teaching moments to explain why certain things aren't good for us.  We tolerate things as adults that we won't let our kids watch. However we need to be better about having similar standards as our kids.  If something is harmful for them, why is it then okay for us?

We also need to discuss our actions and those of the children "off-hours" and work together as mom and dad to raise our children and intervene appropriately.  Often one parent will not know the whole story and each can share what they know.

1 Samuel 2:29

29 'Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?'

We need to step in when the children are not honoring God. Eli did step in to rebuke his sons, but their sins were so great and flagrant that God took the priesthood from them (and their lives).

Isaiah 39:6-8

6 'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the LORD.7 'And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'"8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!" For he said, "At least there will be peace and truth in my days."

Men today are prone to put careers first at the expense of their families.  This is very easy as we feel that we are providing for our families, but we are not meeting their non-financial/material needs.  Wealth and possessions are of value, but not eternal value.

 

Jeremiah 44:15-19

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying:16 "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!17 "But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.18 "But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine."19 The women also said, "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' permission?"

Here, the men knew what was going on and did not put a stop to it. Women answered Jeremiah, saying that they would keep on doing as they had been, worshiping the "queen of heaven".

Pagan religions at this time regularly included prostitution, homosexuality, and child sacrifice as major practices of their religion.  This is despised by God, and is part of the reason behind His instructions to wipe out some of these peoples.  Israel would often get ensnared in these practices of the land they were in rather than being a holy people. When times were rough, they would try out the pagan practices rather than trust in God and fall further into them until they were as bad or worse than the pagans.

Men had not done their duty to pass on God's word to their children. When the tough times came to the next generation, the men did not have the foundation to make wise choices and let the pagan women make the choices. The faith was passed on poorly to one generation and not at all to the next one, resulting into a fall into paganism.  The book of Judges details this process in the early days of Israel, ending with the killing of most of the tribe of Benjamin and the sad phrase, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

 

Background for this verse - El is the word used for the one true God, but as pagans began to worship El, El faded into background and Bal/Asherah rose among them, eventually replacing El completely. One of these was the "queen of heaven".

 

Coming next week - Ephesians 5, 6; Deuteronomy 6