Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Several weeks ago an interesting piece of mail was delivered to my house. In our mailbox was a letter from the census bureau telling me that we would soon receive a letter from the census bureau? There is no telling how much money was spent sending this letter telling us that another letter was forthcoming. Soon after that initial correspondence, we did receive another letter…this time it contained the census form. One political pundit wondered, “if they know how many letters to send to everyone across the United States, why do they need to spend millions of dollars to take a census?” It seems rather senseless. Have they lost their senses on these expenses?

In this article we will take a census of your beliefs about a very important concept that relates to our worship. The concept is “reverence.” When you hear the word “reverence,” what comes to your mind? When you hear the word “reverence,” do you think of it as a positive or a negative? Let's take a look at what the Scriptures have to say about this inner disposition of the heart.

Over the past 30 years, many churches have narrowly defined worship as a celebration. As Christians we do have much to celebrate, and worship can be a celebration, at times. “For everything there is a season…” But, if our only disposition in worship is to celebrate, then how do we deal with sorrow and mourning? How do we confront sin and a call to repentance? Can our worship be penitential in Advent and Lent if the only acceptable disposition is celebrative?

In the Old Testament there are examples of solemn assemblies where the sin of the people was brought to light, and a return to God was the focus of the event. Crying out to God for mercy would not aptly be described as a celebration. Joel 1:14 and 2:12-13 help us to understand the solemnity of these events. “Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. (2:13-14) "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

In worship that is always a party, we lose the capacity to deal with the solemn issues we have mentioned, and we may lose our sense of reverence in the Presence of our Holy God. Do you know why the Scriptures record the song of heaven as being, “Holy, Holy, Holy?” In Hebrew there are no words for good, better and best. In order to declare that something is to the “inth” degree, they use repetition. Holy, Holy, Holy means absolutely, perfectly, infinitely Holy. When Moses confronted Yahweh in the burning bush, what was Moses instructed to do? “Take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground.” We need to see God as pure holiness, and when we do, we will respond like Isaiah – “Woe is me…I am unclean.” In this realization we do not need a party, but a sacred assembly. Our gatherings for worship desperately need a revival of this kind of thinking. Rather than talking through the organ introit, we might just experience a holy hush as we enter the sacred space and as we focus on the Presence of our Holy God.

Just how important is reverence to our worship? Hebrews 12:28 describes our worship as a convergence of heaven and earth. We gather in the New Jerusalem, a euphemism for heaven, with the Lord, the angels and saints of all the ages where Jesus mediates the New Covenant in His blood. He goes on to say, (verse 28) "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe…" Did you catch it? We are to worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. A right disposition toward God is critical to worship that is acceptable to God.

When you come to worship, do you realize where you are? According to the passage we just read, we are around God’s throne of grace. Do you realize who is there – God, and the Lord Jesus, the company of angels, and the Church of the firstborn. Beloved – that is, in the best sense of the word, AWESOME!! And do you realize why we are there? We are there to worship God with reverence and awe.

I find it interesting to hear some of the discussions while walking through the church on Sunday mornings. Many engage in conversations about ballgames, current events, television shows, and a plethora of topics that are quite unrelated to the eternal purpose of our gathering. Oh that we might come before His Presence with “reverence and awe…” from the very moment we enter the sacred space set apart for worship.

In conclusion, let's look at Revelation 8:1. John is relating a vision of heaven in which the seventh seal of the scroll is opened by the Lamb. It says, “When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” Can you imagine all of heaven falling silent? This is the ultimate holy hush. The vision continues, "Next I saw seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne; and so from the angel’s hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints.”

We have discussed many times that the Temple in Jerusalem was intended to be a foreshadowing, a copy of or a model of the heavenly temple. The worship in the Temple was an imitation of heavenly worship. When the high priest would take the incense from the brass altar into the Holy Place, the people were instructed that “the time of the incense had come.” This is the activity Zechariah was involved in when the angel spoke to him about the birth of John. When the people heard this, they fell down spreading their hands in silent prayer. The temple fell silent for 30 minutes.

Can you imagine 30 minutes of silence in heaven? Can you imagine 30 minutes of silence in the Temple? Can you imagine 30 minutes of silence at your church on Sunday? How about three minutes? It would be really difficult to imagine it because our culture demands activity and diversion. Do you know what we really need? We need to “Be still and know that He is God.” Reverence is evident in heaven, in the Old Covenant Temple, and I pray that we will exhibit this most appropriate and Scripturally mandated attitude in our worship. Reverence must begin in each of our hearts. And it begins with understanding that, "The Lord is in His holy temple…let all the earth keep silence."