Uncut Worship, volume two
By Dr. Frederick K. Price Jr.


In our last lesson, we found that God tested Abraham by telling him to offer up his son, Isaac. Let's pick up at Verse 5.

And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."

I can never get enough of this.  Isaac is Abraham’s son, the son God promised him, the son whom he loved.  It would be difficult to let him go.  Perhaps Abraham was in denial.   And yet, that's not why he said ". . .  we will come back to you," meaning that he and the boy would return.

He told the two other young men that they were to stay there with the donkey, “. . . the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."

But Abraham, how will the two of you come back when the Lord told you to sacrifice your son?

This is why the Bible teaches concerning the faith of Abraham in Romans, chapter 4, verse 17, which speaks of God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

Let’s consider this about Abraham and Sarah, his wife:  Sarah’s womb was dead, and Abraham’s body was dead.  And yet the Lord told Abraham “you will have a son.”  Actually, he would not only have a son, but he would have sons in the sense that nations would come from his loins.  In fact, nations were in him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed.

It was from him that the child of promise would eventually come, and once He came, all who believed on Him would be blessed.  The Lord changes not and cannot lie, and Abraham had an understanding of who God was from a wee lad.

Abraham knew that even though his father was a pagan who worshiped other gods, sold idols and trinkets in the name of other Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Chaldean, Assyrian, and Acadian deities.

No, Abraham stuck with what Grandpa Noah had instilled in his three sons.  He didn't deviate from the God who spared Noah and his family.  He had an understanding of who God was, but not the type of encounter that he had with God at the age of 75 when God told him to leave his father's house and go to a land that I will show you.

 Further, God promised him that He was going to give him a child.

God said, basically, I'm going to give you a child and, once again, in you all the nations or families of the earth will be blessed. Nations will come from you. 

If God said it, that means it’s settled.  And not only did He say it, but He had the audacity to cut a covenant with Abraham.  They entered the covenant the same way we humans enter into covenant with each other, full ceremony and everything.

That meant Abraham could not lie, and whatever God had he also had.

So, you wonder why Abraham told his two young men that he and his son would come back to them after God told him to offer his son as a sacrifice, which meant to kill him.

The answer is that Abraham was fully convinced.  Paul says in Romans 4 that Abraham was also strengthened (or strong) in faith that he believed what God had said He was also able to perform.

What did God say to Abraham?  God told him that he would have a son, and that son would be his heir.   God also told him that nations would come from him, and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.  That was God’s word to Abraham.

God loves to hear His Word.  He doesn't watch over our word.  He watches over His Word. He doesn't perform our word.  He performs His Word.  He doesn't send our word.  He sends His Word.

Our word doesn't always accomplish what it is sent to do; His Word does. Our word doesn't always prosper; His Word does.  Our word is nothing without His Word.  That's why I make sure that my words are His words. Angels move when they hear His Word.

Angels don't heed His voice. They heed the voice of His Word.  God likes to hear His Word.

Jacob, later in the Genesis account, would have a moment when he would go to God and remind Him of what He had said, which is why Jacob knew that his brother Esau wasn't going to kill him.   Likewise, Abraham reminded the Lord of what He had told his grandfather in Hebrews 11.

That tells us Abraham was fully convinced that either God would stop him from killing his son, or if he did kill his son, God would raise him from the dead.

Why?  Because a dead boy can't be an heir or produce nations from his loins.  That's why Abraham told the two young men, "We'll be back.” He was going up to the hills of Mount Moriah and would either kill his son, or God was going to stop him from killing his son

“If I do sacrifice him, He's going to raise him from the dead. But we'll be back,” was Abraham’s thinking.  Abraham was fully convinced.  That’s faith. He was fully convinced that what God said He would do.

Genesis 22:5:  And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

It is interesting that God told him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering.  And Abraham called that worship.  He called the burnt offering worship.

Because the offering would ascend.  This is the first time we see the word worship.

Here's what it means: it means to depress (not in depression), but have pressure applied to you.  It means to prostrate.  It means to bow down.  It means to crouch.  It means to fall down, to push or pull down into a lower position.  Depress also means to reduce the level or strength of activity in something.  So, we see that there is (or can be) bodily movement in worship.

To worship is to pay obeisance, to give reverence, to be made to stoop.  And you worship something.  You bow down before something that is superior, which makes you the inferior.

That's what worship means, and the first time we see it in the Scriptures is in Genesis 22:5.

Abraham's offering was worship.  Something he offered or was going to offer or was willing to offer to God is referred to as worship.  There is nothing here that implies Abraham was going to bow down, although the word also means that.

Bowing down is a form of worship, but every act or form of worship doesn't require bowing.

Now, let's fast forward to the last time we see this word in the Bible, which is in Revelation 22.  We will begin at verse 6.  Verse 5 ends the description of New Jerusalem.  Then we get to verse 6:

Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.”

Who said what to whom? This angel, or celestial, said this to John:

"These words are faithful and true."  And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

And then Christ speaks:  "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book


     
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