Can’t I Worship How I Want?

1 Samuel 5:1-7:2 

The Israelites have just had anEpic Fail in which they tried to use the Ark of the Covenant as a lucky charm to defeat the Philistines and well, things went just about the opposite of what they had planned. The Philistines have taken the Ark and put it in the temple of their best god, Dagon. They actually show some respect for the Hebrew God but certainly don’t want to worship on His terms. Chapter 5 actually has some comic relief as we see the large statue of Dagon falling on its face before the Ark several times and even falling apart before the Ark (representation of God’s presence). Kind of embarrassing right?

To make matters worse, the city Ashdod (where the Ark is) is plagued with tumors so they pass the Ark off to Gath only to have the same thing happen. As you might imagine when they tried to pass it on to another city, its leaders were none too happy and so they devised a way to send it back to Israel. Though they don’t know how to worship God properly, we see them take great care and respect in trying to transport the Ark back to Israel and rid themselves of the curse God put on them. If only Israel had been or would be as respectful. 

As the Ark returns to Israel in chapter 6, we see the Israelites not show God the proper holy respect that He has demanded and many are even struck dead for not handling the Ark properly. Only when people start dying do they start to freak out and seek more carful action. They put the Ark in a guy’s house nearby (probably a Levite) and there it stays for years. Not in the Tabernacle, not in a temple, just in some guy’s house. This place where the glory of the Lord is supposed to be embodied is just shuffled away somewhere for years. Not until David takes the throne is anything done about it and we haven’t even got to Saul’s kingship yet. 

Lesson: Our heart attitude is, of course, important when we worship God, but He still cares about how we worship Him as well. We no longer worship Him with the Ark of the Covenant, or with animal sacrifices, or with the help of priests, but that doesn’t mean that we can just do whatever we want. Just simply following your heart will lead to wrong and sinful worship. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We need to seek God through His word and come before Him carefully, intentionally, and respectfully. So, how do you worship, who do you worship and how will you worship?