Update Your Worship
Good morning,
2 Kings 16:10 “And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.”
The backslidden king of Judah had turned to a heathen king for help instead of turning to the living God – this was one of many problems Ahaz had.
He loved seeing a heathen altar with beautiful carvings and style, and he had drawings of it made to send home. The old altar was built by Solomon around 300 years earlier. When someone entered the temple, the first thing they saw was the altar; this was where the sacrifice died, where blood was shed, where fire burned, and a sober picture was made of death and suffering caused by sin.
vs. 11 “And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus:”
The next problem was the backslidden preacher who took orders from the godless king. It was not the job of the king to dictate the actions of the priest. The priest stood in the place before God and was to follow the Lord and His Word. Job security and popularity are tragic motivations for any pastor in any era.
Many religions had sacrifice as part of their worship, so Ahaz adopted some heathen styles of worship in the temple of God. After all, that 300-year-old altar needed to be updated. (Today, they might have brought in fancy lighting and a band.)
The next problem was the removal of the altar of God to a place of insignificance.
vs. 14 “And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.”
The king took the altar of God and moved it to the side, out of the way. He brought in the new altar and positioned it right in front where it was very visible to everyone who came into the temple.
The old time religion was not wrong, but he needed to move it out of the way for a more palatable form of worship.
vs. 15 “…and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.”
Just in case he needed to talk to God or to get advice, the old altar was not far away; if needed, he could go there to enquirer of the Lord. He knew the old one had the presence of God, the touch of the Eternal King. Ahaz did not want to totally lose the old religion, but just as the title, Baptist, it did not have the appeal of new ideas. In our area, trading preaching for teaching and study groups has replaced preaching and altar calls because it “fits our world” more comfortably.
The wrong was not simply replacing the old altar with a new one but the manner in which it was adopted; they went to the world and to the heathen to get their directions and ideas. Making a small change or some area a bit more comfy – is it really all that bad?
The fact is that appearance matters! Where we get our ideas for style matters! Arranging our style of worship after the style of worldly or godless people is tragic yet common today.
Look at the praise teams and their dress. They did not get their clothing style from the old time religion. If they were at a city park no one would know they were Christian. (I often doubt that they are.)
Watch the body movements of contemporary singers and musicians and tell me they are not fashioned after the altar of “Damascus.” I remember years ago walking by a music store in a mall, there was a video playing of a famous female vocalist. Just prior to going to the mall, we visited a Christian book store. (This is something I had to stop doing years ago.) They also had a female vocalist on a television, and with the sound turned down, you could not tell which one was the Christian. Both were sensuous in movements, both were dressed to draw the eyes of men to their bodies, and with sound muted, neither would have caused someone walking by to think anything spiritual.
When we remodeled our auditorium, we wrestled much over using chairs rather than pews. We decided on chairs for several reasons, but I like that some of our folks said things like, “Preacher, pews just say church.” As long as our members are guarded and willing to voice their old-time ideas, we may just stay right for the next few decades. In revising our school handbook, the point of girls blouses was discussed and the idea of sleeveless or sleeves being the standard was disputed. I like that our folks pushed to keep the sleeveless style out of our school. It is not a conviction, just a safeguard – and that is a reasonable way to look at life.
Worship? Do not try to make it more appealing to the lost world around us. One thing is sure: change does not stop right where it enters. You can read on in the chapter to see which other “old ideas” were “cut off” in one place and taken down in another. Perhaps the worst part was their next step – they “turned” their worship “FOR THE KING OF ASSYRIA” (2 Kings 16:19).
Pastor