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March Madness: Marching to Jerusalem (Worship)
David Jeremiah
*
Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses.
Deuteronomy 16:16a
Recommended Reading
Hebrews 10:24-25
*
Three times each year the men of Israel left their fields and flocks and traveled to Jerusalem to worship the Lord with offerings: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. If one lived in Judea, worship at the temple in Jerusalem was a regular possibility. But for those who lived elsewhere, at least three times each year they worshipped corporately in Jerusalem.
The worship began even before they arrived at the temple. A section of Hebrew psalms found in Psalms 120-134 in our Bibles is known as the Songs of Ascents. Most biblical scholars believe these songs were sung as the pilgrims marched from the plains of Israel to the heights of Jerusalem, ascending to the "Mountain of the LORD of Hosts, the Holy Mountain" (Zechariah 8:3). It may have seemed like madness to march from Israel's farthest borders to Jerusalem, but worship was at the heart of their spiritual life.
Don't let the busyness of your life keep you from the blessing that is found when the body of Christ gathers to worship the Lord together. The admonition in Scripture not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25) is for our good.
Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus.
John R. W. Stott
*
Read-thru-the-Bible
1 Samuel 16:1 -- 20:42
David Jeremiah
*
Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses.
Deuteronomy 16:16a
Recommended Reading
Hebrews 10:24-25
*
Three times each year the men of Israel left their fields and flocks and traveled to Jerusalem to worship the Lord with offerings: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. If one lived in Judea, worship at the temple in Jerusalem was a regular possibility. But for those who lived elsewhere, at least three times each year they worshipped corporately in Jerusalem.
The worship began even before they arrived at the temple. A section of Hebrew psalms found in Psalms 120-134 in our Bibles is known as the Songs of Ascents. Most biblical scholars believe these songs were sung as the pilgrims marched from the plains of Israel to the heights of Jerusalem, ascending to the "Mountain of the LORD of Hosts, the Holy Mountain" (Zechariah 8:3). It may have seemed like madness to march from Israel's farthest borders to Jerusalem, but worship was at the heart of their spiritual life.
Don't let the busyness of your life keep you from the blessing that is found when the body of Christ gathers to worship the Lord together. The admonition in Scripture not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25) is for our good.
Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus.
John R. W. Stott
*
Read-thru-the-Bible
1 Samuel 16:1 -- 20:42
