The following is an excerpt taken directly from the book entitled "With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship" by D.G. Hart and John R. Muether. It comes from the chapter about a "Worshiping Community" and is found on pages 55-57. (Note, this is also the book that our men's study has been using for their Saturday mornings).
The church in this world is a pilgrim people, in complete dependence on God for protection and sustenance as they cross through this wilderness on their way to the promised land. Believers need the manna of eternal life that only the “ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God” provide [in other words: the Word preached, the miraculous power of Prayer, and the Sacraments faithfully administered]. Here we need to remember how similar our circumstances are to those of the Israelites at the time when Moses sang praise to God for deliverance from the house of Egypt.
In 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul writes, “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as [the Israelites in the wilderness] also craved” (10:6). In other words, the example of Israel’s pilgrimage in the wilderness was written for the church. And in worship Christians must see themselves as the wilderness people of God. Just like the Israelites, we have been saved, and we enjoy now the benefits of salvation. But we have not reached our final destiny, the promised land, which is to be with Jesus Christ in glory, to live and worship in the heavenly Jerusalem. In a spiritual sense, then, we are just like the Israelites. We live in the “in-between times,” what theologians describe as the “already/not yet,” the age between Christ’s ascension into glory and his second coming. Hebrews makes the connection between the Old Testament and New Testament church explicit. The Old Testament saints were “strangers and exiles on the earth” who “desire[d] a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13,16). Christians, too, wait for the city which is to come. “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Heb. 13:14). Similarly, when Peter calls the church God’s chosen people, he also recognizes that New Testament believers live in a spiritual wilderness, by referring to them as “aliens and strangers” (1 Peter 2:9-11).
In this pilgrimage of being conformed to the image of Christ, believers find themselves in a condition like that of the Israelites. We are weak and frail, tempted and threatened by the hardships of the journey, and constantly tempted to give up. Here the account of the Exodus is again very instructive. What follows the narrative of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea (chap. 14) and Moses’ song (chap. 15) are instructions for the provision of manna, including the practice of Sabbath-keeping, reinstituted after centuries of neglect under slavery (chap. 16). Israel had to master these rules and follow God’s commandments precisely… Being an Israelite then would have been difficult; God’s instructions were new and unusual to that generation. Those who failed to prepare for the Sabbath would go hungry. They would also eventually grumble at Moses because the diet was monotonous. But this was the pattern that God designed to sustain his people throughout the wilderness. As the Bible records, “The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years” (Exod. 16:35). Here, too, are lessons for Christian piety and the practice of worship because the gathering of the saints in worship is the means that God has established to gather and perfect the church until united with her Lord in the new heavens and new earth. Like the Israelites, we need to master the rules for worshiping him. Like the Israelites, we avoid worship or ignore God’s instructions for worship at the peril of growth in grace.
D.G. Hart and John R. Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2002), pp. 55-57.
In 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul writes, “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as [the Israelites in the wilderness] also craved” (10:6). In other words, the example of Israel’s pilgrimage in the wilderness was written for the church. And in worship Christians must see themselves as the wilderness people of God. Just like the Israelites, we have been saved, and we enjoy now the benefits of salvation. But we have not reached our final destiny, the promised land, which is to be with Jesus Christ in glory, to live and worship in the heavenly Jerusalem. In a spiritual sense, then, we are just like the Israelites. We live in the “in-between times,” what theologians describe as the “already/not yet,” the age between Christ’s ascension into glory and his second coming. Hebrews makes the connection between the Old Testament and New Testament church explicit. The Old Testament saints were “strangers and exiles on the earth” who “desire[d] a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13,16). Christians, too, wait for the city which is to come. “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Heb. 13:14). Similarly, when Peter calls the church God’s chosen people, he also recognizes that New Testament believers live in a spiritual wilderness, by referring to them as “aliens and strangers” (1 Peter 2:9-11).
In this pilgrimage of being conformed to the image of Christ, believers find themselves in a condition like that of the Israelites. We are weak and frail, tempted and threatened by the hardships of the journey, and constantly tempted to give up. Here the account of the Exodus is again very instructive. What follows the narrative of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea (chap. 14) and Moses’ song (chap. 15) are instructions for the provision of manna, including the practice of Sabbath-keeping, reinstituted after centuries of neglect under slavery (chap. 16). Israel had to master these rules and follow God’s commandments precisely… Being an Israelite then would have been difficult; God’s instructions were new and unusual to that generation. Those who failed to prepare for the Sabbath would go hungry. They would also eventually grumble at Moses because the diet was monotonous. But this was the pattern that God designed to sustain his people throughout the wilderness. As the Bible records, “The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years” (Exod. 16:35). Here, too, are lessons for Christian piety and the practice of worship because the gathering of the saints in worship is the means that God has established to gather and perfect the church until united with her Lord in the new heavens and new earth. Like the Israelites, we need to master the rules for worshiping him. Like the Israelites, we avoid worship or ignore God’s instructions for worship at the peril of growth in grace.
D.G. Hart and John R. Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2002), pp. 55-57.
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