April 20, 2024
Worship, and the Law of First Mention
When you’re restoring something to its original condition, you have to get as much information as possible. Often-times, you have to break a thing apart, down to its components, and restore each part individually.
Restoring Advent Hymnody isn’t just a case of singing hymns, learning new hymns et cetera. Modern singing has lost its way on an important point: Singing is just one expression of worship, and many people do not know what true worship is.
If we discover what true worship consists of, we can begin to fix the musical issues in our houses and churches.
There is a rule of biblical study, gained from a Hebraic perspective of the Bible… it’s called the “Law of First Mention”. The rule is: The first mention of a word in the Bible sets the tone for the understanding of that word throughout the entire Bible.
The first instance of the word worship in the KJV and CJB (as well as other versions) is Genesis 22:5.
Avraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go there, worship and return to you.” (CJB)
In the first instance of worship in the Bible, there is no choir, no musical instruments, no congregation. There are just two men – a man and his son – getting ready to do something that was very difficult to do, yet was required of them by God.
The pattern of worship set here in Genesis is the movement of our hearts, minds and desires to what God wants. Modern imitations of worship have been changing that movement: hoping somehow that God will change to meet our desires. God has never accepted this… not even once.
We must make individual changes regarding this important issue. I encourage you to spend some time discovering what true worship is, and whether your personal (or corporate) worship is inline with the biblical patterns.
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