"The LORD reigns,
He is clothed with majesty;
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved;
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The LORD on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.
Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns Your house,
O LORD, forever."
Psalm 93
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Good day, let's begin with prayer.......
"Dear LORD, I want to praise You for teaching us how to worship you properly in Your word, Lord. You alone are worthy of our praise and adoration. You alone are holy above all. Mighty is Your name above all the earth.
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Because You are holy, I am destroyed before You, Lord. I pray that You will forgive me for worshiping myself and other things above You. I know that this is sin. Please wash me clean and fil me with Your Holy Spirit this day. Teach me how to worship You.
I pray for each lady here this day. I pray that You will teach her how to worship You properly. Speak to her heart and show her more about You in today's lesson, Lord. May the Holy Spirit convict her of sin and bring her to Your word for cleansing. For You desire her obedience far more than her sacrifice.
In Jesus' name..........amen.
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Mount Gerzim
Mount Gerzim stands at 2,800 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. Ancient Shechem in central Israel was divided by two mountains: Gerzim and Ebal. Today, Shechem is modern day Jebel-et-Tor and Ebal is Jebel Eslamiyeh.
When the Israelites conquered central Israel, Joshua carried out the orders given by Moses and placed half the tribes on Mount Gerzim and pronounced a blessing. (Deut. 27:12). The other half he placed on Mt. Ebal and pronounced curses (Deut. 11:29 & Josh. 8:30-35). Joshua built an altar on Ebal.
After the Assyrians captured the Northern Kingdom, the mixed race of people began to worship the pagan gods mixed with the worship of Yaweh (2 Kings 17:33).
The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote that Alexander the Great gave permission to the Samaritans to build their temple on Mt. Gerzim.
A small Samaritan community worships there to this day, just as they did in Jesus' lifetime when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. (Trent C. Butler, Holman Bible Dictionary, 1991)
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John 4:20
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
After the northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 721 B.C., the Jews in Jerusalem and the Israelites living in Samaria split over theology. The Samaritans were mixing their pagan religion with the Laws of the Hebrew God. The temple that they built was destroyed in 130 B.C. but they continued to worship there.
This is the mountain that the Samaritan woman speaks of in this verse.
Having realized that the man she is speaking to is not ordinary, she is convicted of her sin of adultery and fornication......yet she chooses to change the subject to theology and proper worship.
Why??
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"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain......"
Take some time to think about the worship of God in your family when you were a child. Did it happen at all? Were you raised to worship God in any capacity? Do you worship this way still?
I was raised by two Roman Catholics until I was 7 yrs. old. The old ways of worship are hard for my parents to abandon. Sometimes the old ways of worship and theology come through. My mother tends to think of church as a means to salvation....just like the old days of her catholic upbringing. My father tends to lean on "good works" or deeds to make amends for his sins.
Even though my parents left the Catholic church and were saved and baptized into the Protestant teachings, they still find it hard to abandon the old teachings.
Since I was saved at age 7 and raised as a Protestant Christian, I have no old teachings to lean on....but sometimes the old life of sin I entered into when I was 18 still rears its ugly head.
Even though I lived in sin for those 2 1/2 yrs., I still attended church services because I wanted to be with other believers and I still wanted to be near God.
Please read:
Gen 4:1-7
After The Fall of Adam and Eve, the Lord blessed them with 2 sons. Even though Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden and even though they were forced to witness the results of their sin on Creation around them.....they still taught their sons to honor the Lord with sacrifices.
Imagine that! After all they had been through, they did not shake their fists at the Lord and curse Him nor did they turn their backs on Him and deny His existence. Instead, they chose to honor the Lord by teaching their children to worship Him.
Gen 8: 20-22
Noah was honorable in the sight of the Lord. After all he went through with the building of the ark (for one hundred years....) and being hidden in the ark with his family while the earth was destroyed around them, he still honored the Lord and taught his children to worship Him.
Gen 12:7
Abraham worshiped the Lord.
Gen 26:25
Isaac worshiped the Lord.
Gen. 35:1-2
The Patriarchs of the Bible left us a legacy of worship: strong Family Worship and its importance.
Puritan author James Alexander wrote of family worship:
"No man can approach the duty of leading his household in an act of devotion without solemn reflection on the place which he occupies in regard to them. He is their head. He is such by a divine and unalterable constitution. These duties and prerogatives which he cannot alientate. There is something more than mere precedence in age, knowledge, or substance. He is the father and the master. No act of his, and nothing in his character, can fail to leave a mark on those around him. This he will be apt to feel when he calls them about him to pray to God; and the more devoutly he addresses himself to the work, the more will he feel it" (Thoughts on Family Worship, 1847, p. 24).
Your husband is the head of your family whether he is a believer or not. If he is a believer, then praise God because submitting to him will be all the easier. After reading the preceeding paragraph, you can see why it is so important for us wives to lift our husbands up in prayer daily. They are the Spiritual Leaders of our homes. They are our Pastors. Pray for them.
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Life Application
"...you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
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Proper worship of the Lord is a foundation to our walk with Christ. We will soon read about how Jesus wanted the Samaritan woman to know that worship is more than just a place. Those of us who have Christ in our hearts already have the "place" to worship. If God looks upon us at all it is because He sees Christ in us.
Please read:
Eph 2:14-18
Improper worship of the Lord was a serious subject in the writings of Paul and the times of
Jesus.
Matt 15:1-9
Rom 1:18-24
Acts 17:22-31
Eph 4:17-19
But the Lord came that we may know how to worship Him:
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John 17:1-5
Here the Lord Jesus glorifies God with His obedience.
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John 17: 24-26
Here Jesus lifts up a prayer for all believers and gives us examples of how to pray.
We can know how to honor the Lord by reading scripture and praying scripture to the Lord because His words are perfect:
Ps 5:7
Ps 29:2
Ps 45:11
Ps 89:8-10
Ps 95:6
Ps 96
These are just some verses in the Bible that clearly show us how to venerate and honor the Lord with our voices. Find a quiet place at a quiet time of the day (for me it usually is when everyone goes to sleep and I am alone....) and read these verses to the Lord.....worship Him where He
may be found.
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Until next time..........
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"..He is first well-pleased with us in Christ, as we are found in Him and His righteousness; and then He is pleased with the righteousness that is in us. The Lord first has respect to the person, and then to his works, as we see in Abel's case in Genesis 4. So that though the inherent righteousness of the saints pleases God, yet it does not justify them before God; this is done by a more perfect righteousness, not in us, but upon us. Indeed, as to the point of justification, our inherent righteousness must be denied and rejected as well as our sins. 'All our righteousnesses are as filfthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6), and this holy Paul knew well, when he sought to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness."
-Obadiah Grew (1607-1689)
(The Lord Our Righteousness, 1669, p. 25)
Blessings,
Ruth
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