ChristianObserver.org » T.M. Moore – Daily Devotionals

Disciplining the Heart – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Giving (2)

thousandhills — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:01:09 +0000

Disciplining the Heart

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Giving (2)

Grace begins in the heart, or it is not grace at all.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12, 13

Grace begins in the heart, or it is not grace at all. In Psalm 50 God calls His people to assemble in worship before Him. They come together with all the requisite forms and according to all the appropriate practices and protocols. But He makes it clear to them that none of the externals of worship mean anything to Him apart from hearts devoted to thanksgiving and obedience (vv. 12-15). The grace God extends to His people must be acknowledged from the heart, with sincere gratitude and a determination to trust and obey Him, for all His commandments are for our good.

The ceremonial laws of Israel were given in order to train the people to fear the Lord and to love Him with all their souls and lives. By frequent and faithful use of sacrifices and offerings the people would be encouraged to search their hearts, first, to make sure they were giving cheerfully and not grudgingly, and, second, to settle in to the pleasure of God as He received their offerings. God did not need Israel’s sacrifices and offerings; however, it pleased Him for them to give them. These were His means for them to express their trust in and love for Him as they disciplined their hearts to conform to His purposes and will.

The ceremonial laws thus remind us that God looks on the heart. All our giving—whether to the Lord in worship or our neighbors in service—must be from the heart, or it is not of grace at all. As God looks on our hearts, so also must we, waiting before the Lord while He searches our hearts and renews us in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Pss. 139:23, 24; 51:10, 17). The first lesson of giving from the sacrifices and offerings God required is that all giving, as an acknowledgment and expression of grace, must be from the heart.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Reciprocity of Giving – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Law: Giving (1)

thousandhills — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:40:42 +0000

A Reciprocity of Giving

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Law: Giving (1)

The ceremonial laws remind us of the constant grace of God.

God’s Covenant with His people is all of grace. The purpose of the Law of God is to administer the grace of God in and among His people in such a way that love for God and love for neighbor are practiced consistently and sincerely. The ceremonial laws of Israel, being part of this larger legal framework, were also designed to keep grace flowing to and within the people of God. Fundamental to the ceremonial laws are various statutes and precepts designed to promote selflessness and giving on the part of God’s people. In practicing a life of giving—to God and to their neighbors—the people of Israel would thus reflect the character of God and maintain their privileged status within His Covenant.

God had reached out to Israel in grace. Nothing in the people of Israel commended itself to God, as if it were somehow to His advantage to associate with them (Deut. 7:6-8). Ultimately, binding His people to Himself would mean sending His only-begotten Son to die for their redemption, and the ceremonial laws point to and foreshadow this great sacrifice, as the writer of Hebrews observed (Heb. 7-9).

Having given freely of Himself and His promises to Israel, God determined to enrich their lives even by establishing them in a land of abundance and safety. But His blessing would only flow to them to the extent they were obedient to His Law, which mapped out the landscape of justice and love God requires within His Covenant people. The ceremonial laws—with their sacrifices, offerings, and tithes—encoded the principle of giving which is fundamental to the grace of God and the acknowledgment and expression of that grace among His people and before the nations of the world. These practices, faithfully obeyed, would have helped to keep the gracious nature of God’s relationship with His people continuously in view, thus encouraging and enabling them to embody that grace in gratitude to God and love for their neighbors.

We can see the principle of giving at work in the various sacrifices, offerings, and contributions required as part of the ceremonial laws of ancient Israel. And while we do not continue to practice all these statutes, still, the principle they encode is instructive to us today for guidance in how we must live within the framework of God’s gracious and eternal Covenant.

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The Principle Continues – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (7)

thousandhills — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:01:13 +0000

The Principle Continues

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (7)

The ceremonial laws continue to instruct us today in knowing the grace of God.

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:5, 6

As we have seen, the grace of God and the sinfulness of people are such that mediation is required for anyone to know the saving and sanctifying grace of God and His Covenant. Jesus Christ is the Mediator Who brings us into God’s Covenant, having fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law and borne all its judgments in His own body on the cross. He is now Ruler, Priest, and Prophet over His people, and all look to Him, speaking by His Word and Spirit, to guide them into all truth, set them free from the power of sin, and work in and through them that which is pleasing to God.

But Jesus has appointed mediators among His people today—in the homes, parents; in the churches, elders and deacons; in the community, magistrates. These all are servants of Christ for the sake of His grace. They must, like the ancient rulers of Israel, be appropriately qualified, set apart for their work, skilled in the stewardship of grace entrusted to them, and faithful to do only what the Lord has revealed and nothing more.

God’s people are no more at liberty in our day to seek God’s grace by their own devices than the people of Israel were in theirs. God determines the terms of grace. He appoints the means whereby He will draw us more closely to Himself, surround us with His glory, and transform us to glorify Him in our lives. If we would know the grace of God in our day, therefore, we must learn from the ceremonial laws to seek the proper mediators, engage the appropriate means, and wait upon the Lord to work in and through us unto the praise of the glory of His grace.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Means of Grace – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (6)

thousandhills — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:01:47 +0000

Means of Grace

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (6)

Follow the pattern!

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. Leviticus 10:1

We remember that God’s Covenant is all of grace. God designed it, and He knows what must be done, for the sake of His grace, in order to satisfy the demands of His holiness and the needs of His people. It is presumptuous—and dangerous—to offer to the Lord as a means of grace anything but what He has commanded. Nadab and Abihu learned this the hard way.

The ceremonial laws prescribe a wide variety of means by which the people of God might engage Him in His presence and glory and experience deeper levels of His grace. Prayers and incense, sacrifices and offerings, tithes and gifts, oaths and vows, things specially devoted to the Lord, Sabbaths and feasts—these ceremonies and practices all had their place in the life of an Israelite to remind him of his need for grace and to enable him to be restored in it. God expressly warned His people against taking His name in vain or incorporating any pagan practices or innovations in the worship they offered to Him.

The means of grace today have changed: Corporate worship, the Word of God, prayer, the sacraments, fasting, and so forth. But they remain the means God has prescribed, to be employed within a framework of life and worship directed by His Spirit, according to His Word, in the grace of His Son, for the praise of His glory.

This principle has been largely set aside in many churches today. Worship in many churches—not to mention disciple-making, the practice of discipline, the work of shepherding, and preaching—is determined more by the needs, interests, tastes, and experiences of the people, and the familiar practices of the surrounding culture, than by the holiness of God and the pattern of life and worship revealed in His Word.

While God does not strike us down as suddenly as He did Nadab and Abihu, do we assume that He has changed His mind about how we might gain access to His grace? We’re willing to substitute cheap spiritual thrills for entering the presence and glory of God, there to know His transforming and world-upending power. Consequently, we are content and growing as a community, but ineffectual in representing Christ or His power to our age. We are dying as a community as surely as Nadab and Abihu died. The only difference is that, living in the age of grace, God is bearing with us much longer, hoping that we will come to our senses, forsake the pig pens of this world, and make our way back to Him before it is too late.

Whether or not we will do so remains to be seen.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Work of Mediators – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (3)

thousandhills — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:01:14 +0000

Work of Mediators

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (3)

God’s mediators performed the duties of His Law for the sake of His grace.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them… ‘They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their god. For they offer the LORD’s food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.” Leviticus 21:1, 6

In a very real sense the mediators God put in place in ancient Israel—judges, priests, and Levites—were the key to the Law performing its work of sanctifying the people and bringing them into the presence of God and His grace. Without judges to understand, teach, and interpret the Law, civil society would more quickly have become what it was during the period of the judges. And without faithful priests and Levites, the worship of God would have been neglected, and paganism would undoubtedly have sprung up in all the cities of the land.

The lesson here is simple but crucial: The Law of God requires faithful, careful, and exemplary leaders who will attend diligently to all the details of God’s Law, so that the Law might perform its gracious and sanctifying work among the people of God. Unless the teachers of the Law study and teach it, men will not be able to know sin or how to love their neighbors as themselves. Unless those entrusted with the ministry of the Word and sacraments are faithful in their duties, how shall the people grow in knowing the Lord or participating in Him?

While all believers have responsibility for understanding and keeping the Law of God, a special burden is laid on those who are entrusted with mediatorial roles within the community of God’s people (Ezek. 34:1-10). Rulers must teach and judge. Ministers must preach and preside over the service of worship. Deacons must serve. And all must be done according to the principles and precepts of the Law of God, and all the Word of God, so that holiness and righteousness and goodness may flourish among the people of God (Rom. 7:12).

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Qualifications of Mediators – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

thousandhills — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:01:43 +0000

Qualifications of Mediators

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

God’s mediators were expected to exemplify His holiness and grace.

“You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.” Leviticus 21:8

God established a unique system for putting in place the mediators Israel required in order to know Him and experience His grace more fully. On the civil side of Israel’s life, each community was responsible to appoint elders to rule in the gates of the city. These were to be men of judgment and ability who would be able to understand and teach the Law, applying it to all the circumstances of life in an Israelite community (cf. Exod. 18:19-23; Num. 11:16-30).

In the case of priests and Levites, it pleased the Lord to reserve these offices to descendants of the tribe of Levi. Within that tribe one household—Aaron’s, through Zadok—would serve as priests, and all others would serve alongside the priests in assisting roles. The Levites and priests were set apart for the service of the Lord by tribal descent and by special ceremonies designed to highlight their unique callings as mediators of God’s grace to His people. They were not to own property among the people but would be dispersed throughout all the towns and cities and supported by the tithes and offerings of the local people.

Thus, while many from the tribes of Israel might aspire to serve as mediators of everyday justice to the people of God, only members of the tribe of Levi, those specially chosen, called, prepared, and set aside by God, could function as mediators in performing the duties of the ceremonial laws.

In the Church today all believers are called to be mediators of God’s grace—to serve as judges and priests—to one another (John 7:37-39; 1 Pet. 2:9, 10). Nevertheless, the need still exists to set aside certain ones to serve as judges and rulers and others to manage the teaching and administering of sacraments for mediating the grace of Lord Jesus Christ to His people. The lesson of the ceremonial laws is that we must not try to do without such offices, as they are essential to ensure the flow of God’s grace to His people. At the same time, we must have clear standards and procedures for those who aspire to such offices which are in keeping with the purposes of God in mediating His grace to His people.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Mediators – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (3)

thousandhills — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:01:07 +0000

Mediators

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (3)

Priests and Levites served to mediate God’s saving grace to His people.

In order to help His people know deeper fathoms of His saving grace, God established a variety of “mediators” within His people, men whose calling it was to function in ways that enabled people to escape their sin and become more fully immersed in God’s grace. Special obligations for holiness and special ceremonies acknowledging the “sanctified” status of these individuals made it clear that they had been called to their mediatorial roles by God Himself and performed those roles only at His pleasure. The judges and elders who ruled in the towns and cities of Israel served to mediate the blessings of the civil law to the people of Israel. And the priests and Levites performed the duties of the ceremonial laws in order to provide cleansing and renewal from sin.

All these various mediators were assigned specific duties according to the demands of God’s holiness and the sinfulness of the people. God is holy, and He requires His people to be holy. But His people are not holy, at least, not perfectly so. Thus, they must be ever helped and assisted in the journey toward holiness through teaching and interpreting the requirements of holiness and the performance of such judgments and ceremonies as conduce to holiness.

In the case of the civil laws, teaching and judging made it possible for the people to walk in the way of God’s blessing. In the case of the priests and Levites, maintaining the Lord’s dwelling in the midst of His people and performing the offerings, prayers, and sacrifices God required provided the means by which the people could be renewed in God’s grace after a spiritual manner. The judges and priests/Levites operated in separate spheres but for the same ends. Indeed, often the decision of each was required to mediate the full measure of God’s restoring grace to His sinful people.

God’s people are sinners, and we cannot lay hold on His grace through our own efforts. Our sin simply prevents us from doing so, as Paul so ably explained in Romans 7. We need mediators—teachers, pastors, parents, magistrates, and others—who can help us break free of the constraints of sin and become more deeply immersed in our salvation.

And above all, of course, we need the one Mediator between God and men, even our Lord Jesus Christ, without Whose mediation on the cross and at the Father’s right hand, no other mediators would avail us one whit. The ceremonial laws—as all the Law of God—consistently point us toward Him.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Sin and Grace – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

thousandhills — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:01:56 +0000

Sin and Grace

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

Only grace can overcome our sinful and rebellious ways.

“Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” Deuteronomy 5:29

God’s grace toward human beings reaches them in two “intensities,” we might say. The first “intensity” is God’s everyday provision of life, sustenance, and other forms of benefit, which comes day by day to all people, irrespective of their relationship with Him. This intensity of God’s grace is certainly experienced by all people; however, it is not acknowledged as grace by them all. This is what theologians refer to as “common” grace. There is nothing “common” about it, however, except that it extends indiscriminately to all human beings and all creatures. Nothing could exist apart from the continuous grace of God.

The deeper “intensity” of God’s grace is that which arrests and captures the soul and establishes a human being in a conscious, willing, and growing relationship with God, so that God is known, feared, obeyed, loved, and served. The fact that all human beings are conceived and born in sin means that a special effort on God’s part is required to immerse human beings more deeply into this level of His grace—what theologians often refer to as saving or special grace.

Sin keeps even those who know the Lord from being ever more fully immersed in the riches of His saving grace. The ceremonial laws teach us that God desires us to know deeper experiences of His grace, and, to that end, He provides means whereby we may escape the ravages of our sin and be bathed afresh in the saving grace of the Lord.

All human beings sin. They who deny their sin, or decline God’s path to redemption (preferring, as it were, to remain among the leeks and onions of Egypt), will not escape their sin into the saving grace of the Lord. They will continue to know His everyday grace until they die, for God continues to be gracious toward them in spite of their wickedness (Ps. 52:1). They who follow God as He delivers them from slavery to sin will continue to sin nonetheless; thus, they will require means whereby they may increasingly hope to escape the power of sin and become more completely immersed in the grace, presence, knowledge, and glory of God. The ceremonial laws teach us to hope that God will supply whatever we require in order to know Him more fully.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Antecedent Grace – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Law: Mediation (1)

thousandhills — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:01:59 +0000

Antecedent Grace

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Law: Mediation (1)

Everything about God’s Covenant is all of grace.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Exodus 20:2

The now-eclipsed ceremonial or religious laws of ancient Israel still have much to teach us today. Thus far we have seen that these statutes and rules encourage us to seek the presence of God, that we might enter into His glory and participate in Him. They also initiate a pattern of sound worship, helping us to understand how we may approach our holy God in ways that please Him and benefit us as His people. Thus, while we no longer keep the ceremonial laws, we may study them with benefit to discover abiding principles and practices to help us grow in our relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything about God’s Covenant—within which His Law was given—is all of grace. Grace is the experience of God’s love which comes to us in many ways and is the basis of our ability to know and love Him. The ceremonial laws show us the antecedent nature of God’s grace: His grace comes to us first, then draws us into Him and His blessings. Human beings do not earn God’s grace; they receive it and, if they are faithful, acknowledge it in thanksgiving, praise, and obedience.

We can see this in the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt. God was not obligated to bring His people out of Egypt by anything other than His promise to do so (Gen. 15:14). He was not obligated to make such a promise except on the basis of the promise He had previously made to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3) to create from his offspring a great people and to give them a land of their own. But God was not obliged to this by anything other than His promise to Adam and Eve that He would deliver them from the effects of their rebellion through an offspring to be born at a later time (Gen. 3:15), and He was not obligated to promise even that except by His original plan and determination to fill the world He had created with His glory and goodness (Gen. 1:31).

Everything God does toward His creation, toward human beings, is all of grace. Our continuing existence is not the result of inexorable “laws of physics” but of the steadfast love and faithfulness of Him Who sustains the world and all things in it by His Word of power.

As we read and meditate on the ceremonial laws of Israel—and we should do so regularly—let us be conscious and alert to the ways they instruct us in the grace of God and what we can learn from them concerning how that grace is mediated to us.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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Qahal – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Presence of God (5)

thousandhills — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:01:39 +0000

Qahal

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: The Presence of God (5)

God’s presence is more powerfully known when His people assemble as one body before Him.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Exodus 19:17

It pleased God that His people should gather to Him from time to time. He provided Sabbaths and feast days for the assembling of the people, and these would have been a reminder of their first assembly before Him at Mt. Sinai (Exod. 19ff). At that first assembly the people came seeking the Lord and waiting to hear His instructions for them. They were His chosen and redeemed ones, and He would be glorified in and through them. But they must come together to learn what He requires, and, subsequently, to be renewed in what they had learned.

Assembling before the Lord is an important part of what it means to be His people. We will look more closely at the Lord’s Sabbaths and feasts in a subsequent installment in this series. Suffice it for now to say that these special times of assembly provided a heightened focus on God and His goodness, and served to remind the people of who they were and what they owed to God. As the qahal of the Lord—His assembly of chosen and redeemed ones—Israel’s gathering before Him was indispensable to their success in following Him, and this is no less true in our day.

But when we come to assemble before the Lord we must not come in any way other than that outlined for us in the ceremonial laws. We come to God in fear and trembling, even though we know a Mediator exists to protect us from His wrath. We come with offerings to give for His pleasure and honor, which we season with singing and praise and thanksgiving. We offer up prayers like incense, that it might be pleasing to Him. And we wait to hear how He would instruct us, that we may go forth with His benediction, renewed in His glory and set to glorify Him in our daily lives.

The writer of Hebrews admonished even his persecuted readers not to forsake assembling together for worship (Heb. 10:25). Assembling as God’s qahal is integral to our identity as His people and to our ability to know and refract His presence in the world.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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