God-the Object of our worship

The God We Worship

To worship correctly, we must know who we are worshipping. We open this section with the thunderous declaration of Psalm 97:1-5:

​"The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth."

This passage in Psalm 97; paints a dramatic picture of the powerful and awe-inspiring reign of the Lord. It calls the earth to rejoice as God rules with righteousness and justice. The psalmist uses the imagery of a storm, with ominous clouds, darkness, fire, and lightning, to convey God’s might. The whole earth trembles at the sight of Him. And the mountains and Hills melt like wax at His presence. 
This is a fitting description and portrayal of the God we worship which is found throughout all of scripture. This image of an awe-inspiring God. creator and ruler whose glory fills the heavens and exercises lordship over the seas and mountains; is similar in description to that of Jehovah the apostle Paul paints in Acts 17. Thus, according to Paul; This great and terrible God is the one whom we worship:

“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;  Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:22-31)

The question of Knowing God has long been a matter of some controversy among many groups and religions. And even among Christians the exact nature and character of God is still debated. Yet, knowing God is essential to worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. Earlier in our study, we emphasised the point that there is a need-to-know God through His word. Because no one can truly claim to be worshipping God in spirit and in truth if they don’t have the Spirit of God. Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, one does not embrace the truth about God’s only son Jesus Christ. Who incidentally is the only way to God? 

How then does one come to know God, the object of our worship? The Westminster Catechism says: God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. This statement reflects the essence of the following verses:

Revelation 4:11: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Romans 11:36: For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Psalm 86:9:  All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

Psalm 73:24-26: Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

All of these passages describe God as the guide and source of all strength, all power, all glory, all majesty and might, implicitly linking Him to the purpose of life. 
In the wake of all the above, the catechism rightly concludes: Because of who God is in relation to mankind and the universe, which were both created by Him and for Him, ‘the chief end of man is to glorify God’. 
This statement is a foundational theological concept. It emphasises that the ultimate purpose and goal of human existence is to bring honour and praise to God. 
Brining glory to God is not just one of many purposes, but the primary and overarching aim of human life. Bringing glory to God intertwines two concepts that aren’t mutually exclusive. These concepts are to worship God and to glorify God. Unfortunately, glorifying God and worshipping God are sometimes fought over by dominion theology advocates and traditionalists as to which one is the primary purpose of mankind. Dominion theology advocates argue, that the chief purpose for which man was created is not to worship God but to have dominion. This is based on Genesis 1: 26, ‘And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth’. They further insist that the Kingdom of God is being established on earth now, through the actions of believers, rather than being solely a future event. They teach that it is therefore through Christians dominating principalities and powers and the world system where necessary that God is glorified. 
On the other hand, Traditionalists insist that based on Revelation 4:11, which says, ‘Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created’ That the primary purpose of our existence is to worship God in spirit and truth as the way to bring ultimate glory to Him. But the truth is that a heart that truly worships God will naturally overflow into a life that glorifies God through taking authority over all opposing forces of the devil. Thus, in reality, glorifying God and worshipping God are both indispensable aspects of a faith-filled life.  In this experience Worship of God is the internal foundation and glorifying God is the outward expression. 
That is why Psalms 89:6 reminds us, ‘All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name’, Thus, it is in worshipping God that men glorify him. It is as Philippians 2:10-11 says, ‘That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Therefore, as believers, we need to avoid these over emphases which make light of any portion of scripture to force a point. All things are indeed firstly created for God’s pleasure, and this provides a framework for all of life. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, ‘Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God’. 

It is necessary therefore to reject the dichotomy as to whether mankind in here to dominate the earth a or worship God and seek to know the God whom we worship. Hence, there is, much truth to be gleaned in understanding more about God, the object of our worship as outlined in the passage from Acts 17 which we cited earlier.

In this passage, two groups of philosophers encountered Paul. They were The Epicureans and the Stoics. Ministry Today magazine points out that the Epicureans pursued pleasure as the chief purpose in life, and valued most of all, the pleasure of a peaceful life, free from pain, disturbing passions and superstitious fears (including the fear of death). Though they did not deny the existence of gods, they believed that the gods had nothing to do with man.

The Stoics, on the other hand were pantheists. They believed that everything was God and that God was in everything. They placed great emphasis on moral sincerity and a high sense of duty. They cultivated a spirit of proud dignity and believed that suicide was better than a life lived with less dignity. They insisted that all things, whether good or evil, were from God, and so nothing should be resisted. They believed there was no particular direction or destiny for mankind.

Imagine therefore the shock when Paul comes to these philosophers, men thinking deeply about how things work, what's real, and what's right, and challenges their theology about God. He mocks their inability to recognise the true God, even though they had built an image to him.  
The story behind that the inscription to the unknown God was said to have originated six hundred years before Paul.  It was during the time, when a terrible plague came on the city and a man named Epimenides had an idea. He let loose a flock of sheep through the town, and wherever they lay down, they sacrificed that sheep to the god that had the nearest shrine or temple. If a sheep lay down near no shrine or temple, they sacrificed the sheep TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Thus, Paul said to those in Athens, that not knowing God and attempting to worship Him meant that they were worshipping in ignorance.  Let me issue a caution here to believers. As children of God, don’t take it for granted that people know the God we are speaking about when we speak about God.  We need to tell them exactly who God is. Paul's statement to those on Mars Hill who were worshipping the unknown God in ignorance goes like this:

‘Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.’ (Acts 17:22-31)

Paul needed to make God known unto them. Those learned men on Mars Hill did not know of God’s omniscience, His omnipresence or His omnipotence. They did not know of God’s infinite greatness or His incomprehensible perfection. In their minds, they thought of God as like an image, like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

Paul warned them that in the time of ignorance God winked or overlooked. Meaning that He was patient with those who lived without the full knowledge of God. However, Paul went on to emphasise that with the coming of Jesus, this period of excusable ignorance had run its course and now God was demanding all people everywhere to repent as he had already selected a day of judgment.

Paul statement thus indicated a shift in God's attitude towards humanity; making it clear that whereas before He overlooked the people's ignorance about His true nature and plan when the message was coming to mankind through the angels and prophets; that since He is now sending the message through Christ His Son, he no longer pardons ignorance.

The writer of the book of Hebrews echoes a similar theme: ‘God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Hebrews1:1-3).

Thus, after having spoken to humanity through Jesus Christ, God now commands all people everywhere to turn away from sins and turn towards Him, thus marking the start of a new era of accountability, where humanity is expected to respond to God's revealed truth.

Yet, the reason today people still don’t worship God is simply because they don’t know God. Some have absolutely no knowledge of the true and living God. Thus, they don’t worship Him. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14).

Then some have an incorrect understanding of God. Like those on Mars Hill, they have been misled into believing in a god, or gods, other than the true and living God. It is as Jesus said, rather than being taught the truth of who God is and what He is like and what He requires of humanity, they have been told lies in Jesus’ name. (Matthew 15:9) ‘But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’

Sadly, the vast amount of spurious and incorrect teaching of who God really is continues to do a great disservice to the persons of the Godhead. That is why Paul is at pains to say, ‘Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone’ (Acts 17:29). Paul is here emphasising that our responsibility as children of God is to get it right concerning who God is. As he said, because we are His offspring, we need to have the same nature that He has. We need to walk in the Spirit as He did. And, since we are His offspring, we are responsible for having the right ideas about God. Hence, believers must reject the notion that gold or silver or stone or some other precious things can truly represent the true and living God. 

That was why God told Moses, ‘Don’t make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of me because there is absolutely nothing that can truly represent me’ (Exodus: 20:4). When God gave this command to the people through Moses, not to make unto themselves any images or likeness of Him, it seemed as if it was customary for pagan nations to make replicas of their deities. Thus, in giving this prohibition, God is distinguishing Israel from the other nations around them. As the Reformation Study Bible points out:

Israel was to be distinguished from the other nations by worship that did not make use of images of God. Images are forbidden, not because there can be none, since God made mankind in his own image (Gen 1:26, 27), but because God must reveal Himself. He is not subject to human imagination. In His own time, God did provide His own Image -Jesus Christ is the true image of God in Bodily form (Col 1:15, 2:9).

Today, in spite of these prohibitions, some people still conjure up images of holiness, godliness and God himself in their own minds. They sometimes mistakenly associate white garments with holiness or ideas of angels with truth. They associate man-made images including pictures of ‘Jesus’ or the crucifix with divinity; or clear skies or pure water with sainthood. But like the people to whom Paul spoke in Acts 17, they have no real understanding of the true and living God.

‘The Athenians acknowledged in their altar inscription that they were ignorant of God, and so Paul gave evidence of their ignorance. However, Paul declared such ignorance to be culpable’ (Stott). In other words, you have no excuse for not getting to know God for yourself, especially when you want to talk about worshipping Him. The artistic representations we have of the man Christ Jesus, whether white, black or mixed, are all false images. They are best avoided. The Bible itself, tells us plainly that even in His earthly appearance, God incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ: had no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him (Isaiah 53:2).

This signifies that the Suffering Servant Jesus Christ, was not physically striking or outwardly attractive. The lack of form and comeliness doesn't mean ugliness, but rather that there was nothing about His physical appearance that would immediately draw attention or make Him appear worthy of admiration or desire based on His looks. Hence all those pictures in our homes supposedly representing Jesus and how he looked can be thrown away. 
Yet The truth is That this God, not robed in regal splendour crafted by man’s hands, is so Awesome, so glorious, so enormous, so gigantic, so ginormous that king Solomon at the dedication of the temple declared: But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1 Kings 8:27 and 2 Chronicles 6:18). 
A temple cannot contain God. He is boundless. He is everywhere, filling all time and space. God cannot be restricted nor contained. God is invincible as He is invisible.

The terms we used to describe God are andromorphic terms, which describe God as having human form, but God has no human form. God has no hands, no feet like ours. He is a Spirit. The angels around God’s throne are awesome and scary, not cosy, cuddly and mushy. They are not just passively and prettily dressed in white, smiling and singing softly and sweetly. There is thunderous praise.  Revelation 4:8 specifically describes the four living creatures surrounding God's throne, each having six wings and being ‘FULL OF EYES AROUND AND WITHIN’. It is felt that these eyes symbolise divine insight, omniscience, and constant vigilance, reflecting God's all-seeing nature and perfect knowledge. God is awesome. He is the only one who is awesome.

I try never to use the word awesome except in relation to God. Today, too many trivial things, from food to sex to hanging out, are described as awesome. Almost 15 years ago, the Holy Spirit led me to prepare a sermon, which I still have entitled ‘Only God is Awesome’. It traces the use of the concept of the term ‘awesome’ and how it went from being used strictly to describe things divine to being used to define created things. That is an abomination. Isaiah 40:15 declares: Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Only God is awesome. Only things directly relating to God are awesome. Only an encounter with God may be described as awesome.  God told Moses I am so awesome you can’t see me and live: 

And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.  And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.  And he said, thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live (Exodus 33:18-20).

Do we really know the God we say we are worshipping?  The psalmist declares: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee (Psalm 139:7-12). Even the crooked Balak was forced to acknowledge: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).
But what is even more interesting about the passage and this awesome God, which Solomon said that heaven nor earth could contain, is the fact that during the dedication of the temple, Solomon sacrificed around a staggering 144,000 animals. He sacrificed 22,000 Bulls and 120,000 sheep plus grain offerings over 7-14 days, AND GOD ACCEPTED EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT. God accepted the aroma of the sacrifices. God did not say, “No, this is a waste”, as Judas said to Mary when she anointed Jesus’ feet with the alabaster ointment (John 5:12:1-6).

God, in allowing Solomon to do it, was saying, “YES!  Go ahead and do it. Do it. I deserve it. I AM the only One who deserves it. Lavish it on Me. Lavish your praise on Me. Lavish all your worship on Me. Lavish all your sacrifices on Me. Give your life to Me. I am the only One who deserves it. Everything in this universe is Mine anyway. They are all Mine anyway. The gold is Mine, the silver is Mine, the earth is Mine. It’s all Mine. Sacrifice to Me.”  Imagine that this humongous sacrifice, rather than being too much, still couldn’t even begin to satisfy the glory of such a great, big, powerful God.

History has uncovered some interesting facts concerning the massive sacrifice, Solomon presented to God. According to ‘hermeneutics.stackexchange.com, each animal was ritually sacrificed, and a portion was dedicated to the LORD, and the remainder was given to the priests and the people. It was enough to feed a vast multitude for two weeks. It's worth remembering that a sacrifice in the Old Testament was usually not a whole burnt offering. Usually, it involved killing the animal, the priest sprinkling some of its blood on the altar and taking a portion for himself, and then the person making the offering eating the rest of it (probably with his household). Even over seven days, that's 20000 animals/day or a sacrifice every 4 seconds. If an animal takes 2 hours to be cremated, that's 12 shifts of 1666 animals each, excluding the time between shifts. That hollowed area in the middle of the court must have accommodated 1666 animals at the very least.

According to the historian Josephus: at a Passover-feast at Jerusalem in Nero’s time, the priests counted 256,000 sacrifices, confirming the capacity of such large numbers. This means the temple and whatever possible surrounding areas to house the animals were large enough to accommodate such high numbers. (Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1987). The works of Josephus: complete and unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson. (Wars of the Jews 6.425)

God is a fearsome and awesome God who demands worship not when we feel like it but at all times. He said to Moses and Aaron, “Burn incense to me morning and evening”, signifying perpetual priestly and temple worship. It was also a continuous, perpetual offering, a sign of the ongoing presence of God in the sanctuary. ‘And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.  And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.’ (Exodus 30:7-8)

Then there are those who do not know God and worship God. This is not that they don’t know there is a God. The Bible clearly says that nature, conscience and reason all point to the fact of the existence of God. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork’ (Psalm 19:1). Rather, it is their stubborn refusal to acknowledge God, because to acknowledge God is to recognise the need to submit to Him. An atheist, therefore, is not someone who doubts the existence of God as much as he/she is someone who refuses to acknowledge the existence of God despite the light of conscience, nature and reason. (John Owen)

In reflecting upon these three categories of persons listed above, those who simply don’t know God, those who have an incorrect understanding of God, and those who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge God even though they have an awareness of Him, we see the same result. Because they don’t know God, they don’t worship God. 
It was King Nebuchadnezzar who asked: Who is this God that shall deliver you out of my hand? Daniel 3: 14-15 says:  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

The question highlights the power and authority Nebuchadnezzar believed that he had. As far as he was concerned, he believed that he was the most powerful person on earth, having already conquered all the nations and their gods, and there was no one left, man nor God, who could deliver anyone out of his hand. 
It is a reminder of the encounter that took place between Moses and Pharoah when Moses told Pharoah to let the children of Israel go in Exodus 5:1-3: it reads: And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, ‘who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.’ 
But after God showed who was really Boss, ‘Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.  Take your flocks and herds as well, just as you have said, and depart! And bless me also.’ (Exodus 12:31-32)
Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor Pharoah, both very powerful rulers in their own right; knew the God they were meddling with. Today, I fear that many of us, believers and non-believers alike do not know the God that we are meddling with. The way we live and the things we do suggest that we have taken it for granted that God is like some aged, kind, mild, loving, benign old man, having no significant effect, harmless, and gracious, and of a gentle disposition. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The light of scripture reveals: 

Knowing the God of the Bible as He is described in scripture:

A) God is Terrible in Majesty. Job 37:22, This reads: ‘A golden light comes from the north. A terrifying majesty is with God.’ This describes God's presence and power in a way that evokes both awe and fear. The verse emphasises God's overwhelming and all-encompassing majesty, suggesting that His presence is inescapable and His power is beyond human comprehension. This imagery evokes the idea of God's radiant glory, often associated with theophanies (God's appearances to humans in a tangible form that can be perceived) in the Old Testament. The north is sometimes depicted as a place of God's dwelling or the source of spiritual power. The term, ‘A terrifying majesty is with God,’ highlights God's overwhelming power and authority, which inspires both awe and fear in humans. The term ‘majesty’ can refer to God's sovereign rule and the splendour of His presence. This verse resonates with other passages in the book of Job and elsewhere in the Bible that describe God's power and majesty, such as Job 9:10-12. In essence, Job 37:22 paints a picture of God as a magnificent and powerful being whose presence is both awe-inspiring and daunting.

B) God is Awesome in Glory ‘The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handworks’ (Psalms 19:1). David begins by asserting that all of creation displays the glory of God. The entire heavenly panorama—the sun, stars and planets are telling the story of His glory. The vast expanse of creation is the work of God’s skilful hands. 

C) God is Overwhelming in Holiness and Power. Revelation 20.11 says ‘From whose face the nations fled away’.  God knows everything. ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. ‘But the very hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Matthew 10:29-31). Psalm 147:4-6 says: He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

D) God is Sovereign in the Universe. Psalm 93:1 states, ‘The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.’ This verse declares God's sovereignty and power, highlighting His authority and the stability of the world He has created. It further underlines the permanence of His creation, demonstrating His unwavering control and protection. The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.  A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. (Psalm 97: 1-6)

E) God is Unbending in Righteousness- Matthew 22: 1-14 tells the story of the man invited to the wedding feast of the king’s son. The man came in not having on his wedding garment and was rejected and thrown out into ‘outer’ and utter darkness.  This man, without the wedding garment, who was thrown out, serves as a caution to those who accept God's invitation to transform their lives. They need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, signifying a change in their hearts and actions.   

F) God is Fearful in Praise, Doing Wonders. Exodus 15:11-13 says: ‘Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?  Thou stretchedst out thy right, hand, the earth swallowed them. Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?’ This phrase from Exodus 15:11 is also part of a song of praise and celebration for God's deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians. The verse ‘There is no one like you, O Lord, among the gods’ highlights God's unique greatness and power, contrasting Him with the many gods worshipped by the Egyptians. The phrase emphasises the following points: 1. God's Uniqueness– It asserts that God is distinct and superior to all other deities. 2. God's Power– It showcases God's ability to perform wonders and deliver His people, demonstrating His power over the gods of Egypt. 3. God's Holiness– It declares God's holiness, emphasising His moral perfection and distinct nature from the other gods. 

G) God is Unmatched in Greatness. God created all things, and not a single molecule is wandering loose in the universe. ‘He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names’ (Psalms 147:4). Isaiah 40:26 says: ‘Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth’. In Revelations 22:13, God says: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.’ There is no god like Him. There was never a god before Him. There was never any god like Him, past or present, and there will never be any god like Him.  Before time began to begin, there was God, and God wants us to understand that and remember that and to know therefore that it is a privilege to worship Him. Thus, God gets angry when we don’t honour Him. God is angry when we put other things before Him. The very first commandment in scripture is: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ (Exodus 20:3 & Deuteronomy 5:7). This command demands the exclusive worship of God, because God says He will not share His glory with another. ‘I am the LORD; that is my name: and my glory will I not give unto another, neither my praise to graven images’ (Isaiah 42:8). This verse affirms that God, who is the Lord, is the only one worthy of glory and praise, and He will not share His glory because none share His attributes. God must be worshipped and Him alone. The verse thus unmistakably emphasises God's unique and exclusive claim to glory and praise, establishing Him as the sole source of worship and honour.  God also gets angry when we doubt His Promises. He said concerning Israel: So, I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest (Hebrews 3:11-19). These words by God take us back to Kadesh-Barnea, a location in the Sinai Desert where the Israelites camped for a long period and faced various challenges, including a lack of water and complaints about their situation. Dr Ed Cole, author of ‘Maximised Manhood’, reminds us that the children of Israel stumbled at Kadesh Barnea and were kept out of Canaan because of unbelief. Hebrews 4 warns us to fear, ‘lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’ 

H) God, in His greatness, is highly displeased when we doubt His greatness, and if we persist in this state of unbelief, we shall not easily escape. God is also angered when men refuse to acknowledge Him for who He is. John Owen, in his wonderful text ‘Spiritual Mindedness’, reasons that all spiritual thoughts come from God and return to God. He is the centre. ‘For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever’ (Romans 11.36). Thus, He is highly displeased when we don’t acknowledge Him. That is because God is infinite. He is the only supreme and absolute power there is in the universe. All other beings and creatures are inferior to Him. Therefore, when we deny God’s existence, we reject the origin and source of all goodness, truth and life itself. Henceforth, it is futile to expect help from inferior beings when the highest and noblest have already been rejected. As Simon Peter answered when Jesus asked the disciples if they too would abandon Him, to which Peter replied: ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life’, John 6:68. Yet despite these irrefutable facts, we read Psalm 14:1 where: ‘The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God’.  Such a stance, therefore, prompts a great and powerful God to say in Proverbs 1:7: ‘I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh’. This passage is a warning to those who reject wisdom and choose to live without fear of the Lord. In this Proverb, wisdom is personified as God and God as wisdom. In it, those who reject God reject wisdom. As a result, God will watch with disinterest when the inevitable consequence of rejecting wisdom starts to play out. The words “laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh” highlight the severity of the judgment that will befall those who have refused to heed wisdom. 

A pertinent Question for us: The God we are presenting to men, is he the true and living God in the Bible or are we presenting some other God who is so desperate to get people into the kingdom that He takes anyone who doesn’t meet His standard? 

John Metcalfe says that it takes the awakening of the conscience when all is stripped away for men to see God as He truly is.  Thus, if men’s consciences have not been awakened, they cannot see God as being holy and majestic. That is why the unsaved or the unregenerate cannot worship because with darkened eyes and consciences, they do not know God nor appreciate God. Before being awakened to our reality as to who God is, our reality is but a dream, but unfortunately, that dream of what God is like is our reality. But with the awakening of the conscience by the word of God and the Spirit of God, the dream is shattered, and we come face to face with the dreadful God as Jacob did in the book of Genesis, as he went out from Beersheba toward Haran at the advice of God:

And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.  And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.  And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;  And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.  And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.  And he was afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.  And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.  And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,  So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:  And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. (Genesis 28:10-22)

Note what happens after Jacob awakens to the truth of who God is. His dream is shattered. He realises who God is. When this happens, he is afraid, and he says in Genesis 28.17, ‘This place is dreadful, this place is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.’  There is no way that we can become awakened to the truth of who God is and not be filled with Godly fear. There is no way we can be awakened to the reality of who God is and still be irreverent or naive in God’s presence and approach holy things without a degree of fear and trembling. Not fear born of dread but fear and nervousness born of reverence. When awakened to the truth of God, you realise that wherever you are that God is there with you. So, you know that whatever you do, you do it in the full glare of heaven. As John Owen says, ‘meditating on God means imagining that God is right there in the room. A very present help in time of trouble, but also a reminder that God is always right there with you in the room when you sin.’ An awakened mind, therefore, cannot help being shocked on realising that in every circumstance, God is there sitting, watching, and weeping when we fail, because we are sinning in the full glare of His presence.

Note the other three things Jacob does immediately after his awakening. He worships the dreadful God, he vows, and he commits to sacrifice.  In worshipping (vs 18), he takes the stone he had used for a pillow, he sets it up, and he pours oil upon it. He worships, then he makes a vow. He entrusts himself to God’s protection while committing himself to transformation. He says, “God, if you keep me safe and help me get home again, then God, I commit to serving you. I will no longer be a thief and a supplanter, a crafty man. I will make you my God and my Lord”. He also says, “God, I will sacrifice. I will give you 10 per cent of everything you give me back to you, because I understand that all things come from you and return to you.”  Few things show our character as much as what we are prepared to do with our money. Thus, when the realisation as to who God is really hits home, man’s conscience is awakened, his mind becomes clear, his priorities change, and his goals are sanctified.

The tragedy is that today we have those who claim to know God but have no reverence for Him. They fail to worship Him as He deserves. There is no Holy fear. They treat the things of God with contempt. They make light of and make mockery of the sacred things of God. And so, because they do not know Him, God in anger and disgust is saying as he did in Malachi: 

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name?  Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar; and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.  And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.  And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts.  Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.  For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.  But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.  Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus, ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord.  But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. (Malachi 1:6-14)

Thus, as in Malachi’s day, men go on dishonouring God rather than worshipping God. This is partly because we have church leaders today who, rather than teach the word of God and preach the whole counsel of God, teach their own ideas or fantasies. It is therefore, as Jesus said in Matthew 15:9, ‘in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’.
The hard question we therefore really need to ask is: Do we who profess to know Him really know him? Today, we have people who say they are worshipping God, yet doing things and asking God for all kinds of things contrary to the teachings of scripture.  Reason suggests that they don’t really know Him. Thus, they don’t worship Him because they can’t. As Metcalfe reminds us, the awakening of the soul is profound. The conviction is deep. This is because it is God himself who does it. The natural man knows nothing about it. These spiritually discerned things are foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually discerned. Thus, the inability of the unsaved or unregenerate man to worship God persists because he cannot and will not worship a God he does not know. We need to get to know who this God is that we may worship Him. Do you know him?

The psalmist gives us three impeccable reasons why we should worship God. He says, ‘As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him’. (Psalm 18:30). When thoroughly broken down, this verse reminds us: 

1. As for God, his way is perfect; 
2. His word is flawless; 
3. He shields/protects all who take refuge in him. Amen!