Worship in past times
WORSHIP, down to the seventeenth century, meant to: show due honor and respect, to human beings as well as to God.

The man sitting in the lowest place
Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee" (Luke 14:10) means simply "you will be honored. …"

The servant who would be sold fell and honored the king
The servant who "fell down and worshipped" his lord, who had commanded that he be sold, simply "fell on his knees, imploring him" to have patience (Matthew 18:26).

To the church in Philadelphia the promise is given that "those of the synagogue of Satan will come and bow down before your feet" (Revelation 3:9 RSV). Wyclif translated John 12:26, "If any man serve me, my father shall worship him"; Tyndale changed the last clause to "him will my father honor," and this is the wording of the subsequent versions.

The translation problem in the Old Testament
The problem of translation in the Old Testament is complicated by the fact that the Hebrew verb shahah may mean bow down, make obeisance, or worship. Coverdale rendered 1 Kings 2:19, "The king stode up, and wente to mete her, and worshipped her." KJ has, "The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her." An Aramaic verb of similar range appears in Daniel 2:46, where KJ says that "the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel" and RSV has "… and did homage to Daniel."

The translation problem in the New Testament
In the New Testament the Greek verb proskuneoµ means to kneel or prostrate oneself in honor or supplication of a human being, or to do this in worship of God. The problem of the translator is to find the right English word in the light of the context.

Cornelius fell to worship Peter
For example, Cornelius fell down at Peter's feet and worshiped him as a messenger of God, but Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am a man" (Acts 10:25).

The word worship concerning Jesus
Where homage is paid to Jesus Christ, RSV translates proskuneoµ by "worship" in

The wise men worshipped
Matthew 2:2, 8, 11 (the visit of the wise men); Matthew 4:9, 10 and Luke 4:7, 8

The devil tried to get Jesus to worship him
The temptation by the devil); Matthew 14:33, Mark 5:6, John 9:38 (explicit recognition that he is the Son of God and the Son of man);

The disciples worshipped Jesus after his resurrection
Matthew 28:9, 17 (meetings with his disciples after his resurrection). In cases of personal requests made of Jesus, it translates proskuneoµ by "kneel before" (Matthew 8:2; 9:18;

Gen 22
Verses 1-3
Here is,
I. The time when God made Abram this gracious visit: When he was ninety-nine years old, full thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael.

1. So long, it should seem, God's extraordinary appearances to Abram were intermitted; and all the communion he had with God was only in the usual was of ordinances and providences. Note, There are some special comforts which are not the daily bread, no, not of the best saints, but they are favoured with them now and then. On this side heaven they have convenient food, but not a continual feast.

2. So long the promise of Isaac was deferred. (1.) Perhaps to correct Abram's over-hasty marrying of Hagar. Note, The comforts we sinfully anticipate are justly delayed. (2.) That Abram and Sarai being so far stricken in age God's power, in this matter, might be the more magnified, and their faith the more tried. See Deu. 32:36; Jn. 11:6, 15. (3.) That a child so long waited for might be an Isaac, a son indeed, Isa. 54:1.

II. The way in which God made this covenant with him: The Lord appeared to Abram, in the shechinah, some visible display of God's immediate glorious presence with him. Note, God first makes himself known to us, and gives us a sight of him by faith, and then takes us into his covenant.

3. Abraham fell on his face before God
III. The posture Abram put himself into upon this occasion: He fell on his face while God talked with him, v. 3. 1. As one overcome by the brightness of the divine glory, and unable to bear the sight of it, though he had seen it several times before.

1. Abraham learned respect for God
2. Abraham learned not to treat God's presence with contempt
3. Abraham learned to honor God's word
4. Abraham learned to be humble before God
5. Abraham learned that God did not fail him
6. Abraham learned to wait upon God
7. Abraham learned that God is in charge
8. Abraham learned about God's Holy Presence

Other men fell on their faces before God
Daniel and John , were also acquainted with the visions of the Almighty, Dan. 8:17; 10:9, 15; Rev. 1:17.

Note, (1.) God graciously condescends to talk with those whom he takes into covenant and communion with himself. He talks with them by his word, Prov. 6:22. He talks with them by his Spirit, Jn. 14:26. All his saints have this honor.
(2.) Those that are admitted into fellowship with God are, and must be, very humble and very reverent in their approaches to him. If we say we have fellowship with him, and the familiarity breeds contempt, we deceive ourselves.
(3.) Those that would receive comfort from God must set themselves to give glory to God and to worship at his footstool.
IV. The general scope and summary of the covenant laid down as the foundation on which all the rest was built; it is no other than the covenant of grace still made with all believers in Jesus Christ, v. 1. Observe here,

1. What we may expect to find God to us: I am the Almighty God. By this name he chose to make himself known to Abram rather than by his name Jehovah, Ex. 6:3. He used it to Jacob, ch. 28:3; 43:14; 48:3. It is the name of God that is mostly used throughout the book of Job, at least in the discourses of that book. After Moses, Jehovah is more frequently used, and this, El-shaddai, very rarely; it verifies the almighty power of God.

He is a God that is enough; or, as our old English translation reads it here very significantly, I am God all-sufficient. Note, The God with whom we have to do is a God that is enough.
[a.] He is enough in himself; he is self-sufficient; he has every thing, and he needs not any thing.

[b.] He is enough to us, if we be in covenant with him: we have all in him, and we have enough in him, enough to satisfy our most enlarged desires, enough to supply the defect of every thing else, and to secure to us a happiness for our immortal souls. See Ps. 16:5, 6; 73:25.

2. Walk before me, and be thou perfect, that is, upright and sincere; for herein the covenant of grace is well-ordered that sincerity is our gospel perfection. Observe,

THE WORD RELIGIOUS IS TO QUICKLY THROWN OUT
(1.) That to be religious is to walk before God in our integrity;

Websters dictionary re·lig·ious
1. Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity.
2. Of, concerned with, or teaching religion.
3. Extremely scrupulous, an uneasy feeling arising from conscience or principle that tends to hinder action.]

Thesaurus meaning
1. (adj.) Relating to or denoting religious organization or authority:
o ecclesiastical o churchly o episcopal o ministerial o synodic
o synodical o ordained o priestly o rabbinical o sacerdotal
o ecclesiastic Of or relating to sacrament: o sacramental o holy
o liturgical o ritualistic o sacred o ceremonial Of or relating a saint:
o saintly o beatific o saintlike o holy o blessed o sanctified

Walk perfect before me
A. It is to set God always before us, and to think, and speak, and act, in every thing, as those that are always under his eye.

B. It is to have a constant regard to his word as our rule and to his glory as our end in all our actions, and to be continually in his fear.

C. It is to be inward with him, in all the duties of religious worship, for in them particularly we walk before God (1 Sa. 2:30), and to be entire for him, in all holy conversation. I know no religion but sincerity.

D. That upright walking with God is the condition of our interest in his all-sufficiency. If we neglect him, or dissemble with him, we forfeit the benefit and comfort of our relation to him.

E. A continual regard to God's all-sufficiency will have a great influence upon our upright walking with him.

1. God reveals the purposes of his good-will to his people by degrees.
2. The blessing of the Lord makes fruitful, and adds no sorrow with it.

GEN 22
Verses 1-2
Here is the trial of Abraham's faith, whether it continued so strong, so vigorous, so victorious, after a long settlement in communion with God, as it was at first, when by it he left his country: then it was made to appear that he loved God better than his father; now that he loved him better than his son. Observe here,

I. The time when Abraham was tried (v. 1): After these things, after all the other exercises he had had, all the hardships and difficulties he had gone through. Now, perhaps, he was beginning to think the storms had all blown over; but, after all, this encounter comes, which is sharper than any yet. Note, Many former trials will not supersede nor secure us from further trials; we have not yet put off the harness, 1 Ki. 20:11. See Ps. 30:6, 7.

II. The author of the trial: God { el-o-heem'} The all Ruling great and true God tempted him, not to draw him to sin, so Satan tempts (if Abraham had sacrificed Isaac, he would not have sinned, his orders would have justified him, and borne him out), but to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise, and honor, and glory, 1 Pt. 1:7.

III. The trial itself. God appeared to him: as he had formerly done, called him by name, Abraham, that name which had been given him in ratification of the promise. Abraham, like a good servant, readily answered, "Here am I; what says my Lord unto his servant?''

Probably he expected some renewed promise like those, ch. 15:1, and 17:1. But, to his great amazement, that which God has to say to him is, in short, Abraham, Go kill thy son; and this command is given him in such aggravating language as makes the temptation abundantly more grievous.

When God speaks, Abraham, no doubt, takes notice of every word, and listens attentively to it; when Abraham's faith is to be tried, God seems to take pleasure in the aggravation of the trial.

1. The person to be offered. (1.) "Take thy son, not thy bullocks and thy lambs;'' how willingly would Abraham have parted with them by thousands to redeem Isaac!

No, I will take no bullock out of thy house, Ps. 50:9.
I must have thy son: not thy servant,

Not the steward of thy house, that shall not serve the turn;

2. The place: In the land of Moriah, three days' journey off; 50 MILES so that he might have time to consider it, and, if he did it, must do it deliberately, that it might be a service the more reasonable and the more honorable.

mo-ree-yaw'; to look at each other, face

A. RAAH
from 7200 and 3050; seen of Jah; Morijah, a hill in Pal.:- Moriah. 1) to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider 1a1) to see 1a2) to see, perceive 1a3) to see, have vision 1a4) to look at, see, regard, look after, see after, learn about, observe, watch,

B. yaw; contr. for 3068, and mean. the same; Jah, the sacred name:- Jah, the Lord, most vehement. comp. names in "-iah," "-jah."

3. The manner: Offer him for a burnt-offering. He must not only kill his son, but
1. kill him as a sacrifice,
2. kill him devoutly,
3. kill him by rule,
4. kill him with all that splendor and service, with all that calm and patience of mind, with
which he used to offer his burnt-offerings.

OFFERING
(4503), "meat [cereal] offering; offering; tribute; present; gift; sacrifice; oblation." The KJV characteristically translates the word as "meat offering," using it some 40 times in this way in both Leviticus and Numbers alone. The word "meat" in this KJV use really means "food"; the RSV'S rendering, "cereal offering," generally is much more accurate. Offering is found some 200 times in the Old Testament.

Offering occurs for the first time in the Old Testament in Gen. 4:3: "… Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord." This use reflects the most common connotation of Offering as a "vegetable or cereal offering."

Offering is used many times in the Old Testament to designate a "gift" or "present" which is given by one person to another.

Jacob offered his brother gifts
When Jacob was on his way back home after twenty years, his long-standing guilt and fear of Esau prompted him to send a rather large "present" (bribe) of goats, camels, and other animals

The Moabites gives king David gift
Years later when David conquered the Moabites, they "became servants to David and brought gifts [tribute]" (2 Sam. 8:2).

The wicked sons of Eli
The animal sacrifices, which were misappropriated by the wicked sons of Eli were simply designated as "the offering of the Lord" (1 Sam. 2:17). In each case "offering" is the translation of gifts.

The order of the offering
Such offerings included oil and frankincense, which were burned with the grain. Similarly, the "meat [grain] offering" could be in the form of finely ground flour upon which oil and frankincense had been poured also. Sometimes the oil was mixed with the "meat [cereal] offering" (Lev. 14:10, 21; 23:13; Num. 7:13), again in the form of fine flour. The priest would take a handful of this fine flour, burn it as a memorial portion, and the remainder would belong to the priest (Lev. 2:9-10). Ways to be made without leaven, but were to be mixed with salt and oil (Lev. 2:11, 13).

The prophet Malachi sees the worship of the nations as an offering
Offering provides an interesting symbolism for the prophet when he refers to the restoration of the Jews: "And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots … to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord" (Isa. 66:20). In his vision of the universal worship of God, even in Gentile lands, Malachi saw the offering given as "a pure offering" to God by believers everywhere (Mal. 1:11).

The whole heart
The whole burnt offering" was the total surrender of the heart and life of the offerer to God.
All legitimate sacrifices had to be presented before God at His altar, and all of them involved burning to some degree. Thus they may all be called fire offerings.
Exod. 29:18:
"And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord."

Verses 3-10
We have here Abraham's obedience to this severe command. Being tried, he offered up Isaac, Heb. 11:17. Observe,
I. The difficulties, which he broke through in this act of obedience. Much might have been objected against it; as,

1. This sacrifice was against the law of God
It seemed directly against the preliminary law of God, which forbids murder, under a severe penalty, Gen ch. 9:5, 6. Now can the unchangeable God contradict himself? He that hates robbery for burnt-offering (Isa. 61:8) cannot delight in murder for it.

2. The worst kind of murder
It would be not only murder, but the worst of murders.
If God insist upon a human sacrifice, is there none but Isaac to be the offering, and none but Abraham to be the offerer? Must the father of the faithful be the monster of all fathers?

3. God gave him no reason for it.
When Ishmael was to be cast out, a just cause was assigned, which satisfied Abraham; but here Isaac must die, and Abraham must kill him, and neither the one nor the other must know why or wherefore.

4. How would this consist with the promise?
Was it not said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called? But what comes of that seed, if this pregnant bud were broken off so soon?

5. How should he ever look Sarah in the face again?
With what face can he return to her and his family with the blood of Isaac sprinkled on his hands.

Note, God's commands must not be disputed, but obeyed; we must not consult with flesh and blood about them (Gal. 1:15, 16), but with a gracious obstinacy persist in our obedience to them.

II. The several steps of obedience,
1. He rises early, v. 3. Probably the command was given in the visions of the night, and early the next morning he set himself about the execution of it-
did not delay,
did not demur,
did not take time to deliberate; for the command was valid, and would not admit a debate.

Note, Those that do the will of God heartily will do it speedily; while we delay, time is lost and the heart hardened.

2. He gets things ready for a sacrifice, and, as if he himself had been a Gibeonite, it should seem, with his own hands he cleaves the wood for the burnt-offering, that it might not be seen when the sacrifice was to be offered. Spiritual sacrifices must thus be prepared for.

3. It is very probable that he said nothing about it to Sarah. This is a journey, which she must know nothing of, lest she prevent it. There is so much in our own hearts to hinder our progress in duty that we need, as much as may be, to keep out of the way of other hindrances.

4. He carefully looked about him, to discover the place appointed for this sacrifice, to which God had promised by some sign to direct him. Probably the direction was given by an appearance of the divine glory in the place, some pillar of fire reaching from heaven to earth, visible at a distance, and to which he pointed when he said (v. 5), "We will go yonder, where you see the light, and worship.''

5. He left his servants at some distance off (v. 5), lest they should interpose, and create him some disturbance in his strange oblation; for Isaac was, no doubt, the darling of the whole family. Thus, when Christ was entering upon his agony in the garden, he took only three of his disciples with him, and left the rest at the garden door.

Note, It is our wisdom and duty, when we are going to worship God, to lay aside all those thoughts and cares which may divert us from the service, leave them at the bottom of the hill, that we may attend on the Lord without distraction.

6. He obliged Isaac to carry the wood (both to try his obedience in a smaller matter first, and that he might typify Christ, who carried his own cross, Jn. 19:17), while he himself, though he knew what he did, with a steady and undaunted resolution carried the fatal knife and fire, v. 6.

Note, Those that through grace are resolved upon the substance of any service or suffering for God must overlook the little circumstances which make it doubly difficult to flesh and blood.

7. Without any ruffle or disorder, he talks it over with Isaac, as if it had been but a common sacrifice that he was going to offer, v. 7, 8.

8. It was a very affecting question that Isaac asked him, as they were going together: My father, said Isaac; it was a melting word, which, one would think, would strike deeper into the breast of Abraham than his knife could into the breast of Isaac.