Worship and Exhaustion

And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. (Exodus 19:15)

I have thought to revisit my ‘series’ on Gospel music, especially what is normally called worship. I want us to expand our minds to include what we may have never come across or even conceptualized.

Why is it that men were forbidden to have sex with their wives before they went to meet with God on the mount? Does it mean that sex defiles? Is sex sinful? Is sex dirty?

Of course not. God is the creator of sex. And He can’t create something that is wrong or dirty in any way. The fact that He created it before the fall means that it was perfect as His other creation was. Sin simply introduced an impurity to something God had created in its perfection, not transformed it into something else.

The simple reason God forbad sex before worship is that sex is draining.

You see, sex in its element is a complete union of two people. That is why the Bible calls them one flesh. Their bodies, souls and spirits are united in that single act of sex. And the participation of the whole person is exhausting. That explains why harlots and other sex maniacs must be infested with demons to be able to perform at that level. They are therefore dependent on the empowering of the evil one to have the required energy levels to perform.

But sex does not just exhaust. Formed within its borders, it releases a relaxation and rest to enable one to sleep in contentment. Again we are talking about the whole person.

Since the sex act is meant to bond two people, the whole aspect takes quite some time so that the couple can be able to relax in each other’s presence. I think that is the reason God brought exhaustion in the whole thing. The body is drained of energy, the soul is drained of emotional engagement and the spirit is drained of other pursuits. Then the two can easily and comfortably rest in each other’s arms, completely vulnerable.

That is why God warns Israel against sex before coming to meet Him on the mount.

It therefore means that exhaustion is not conducive to worship, at least the God of the Bible. He expects all our faculties intact before we approach Him in worship, and even in the process of worship.

Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: (Leviticus 10:9)

Alcohol consumption compromises judgment just as exhaustion. It seems very likely that those priests may have had a tipple in the tabernacle (remember there were such offerings) before offering that profane fire before God that led to their death. That may be the reason it was the first command God gave after the deaths of those two.

Physical exertion produces fatigue. And fatigue compromises judgment.

Have you ever wondered why on the Sabbath and any holy day work was abolished, with the punishment of death for its breach? They could not even cook or light a fire anywhere in their dwellings. Remember that they picked manna for two days before the Sabbath?

Why do you think God is so strict on those days?

It makes it very clear that God knows that physical exertion compromises worship as it weakens a person’s spiritual alertness required for worship.

Sex, not wives, felled Solomon. And his fall was first in the dimension of worship. Sex felled Samson as it made him forget his purpose.

Wine brought down Lot and made Noah curse his grandson. It compromised their spirits.

And physical exertion in worship diverts worship to another god, the one who patiently waits for the slightest slip to engage. And he has been from old times and has felled enough as to have perfected his technique.

Have you wondered why people leave discos many times to engage in sexual escapades? What is there that arouses sexual desire to such levels that caution is thrown to the wind?

I dare say that all that physical activity and sights and sounds opens one to the devil. They therefore will unwittingly respond to his lead to sin.

Does it also happen in spiritual circles? How many times have you heard of used condoms being found in churches and their compounds after concerts? It is interesting that some churches closed overnight prayer meetings for the same reason. Interesting enough they used to invite an entertainer (I won’t call them worshipper) to help them stay awake. You wonder why someone needs to be kept awake yet they came of their own volition to pray!

Worship and dance are incompatible.

If like I mentioned in the last post about worship, the priest, who was exposed to fire and smoke, was not expected to sweat, what do you think is the expectation for the other worshippers?

Yet what do we see today? Dance is the selling point of ‘Gospel’ CDs. Remove the dancing and the music will not sell.

Yet from the Bible we know that it was the idol worshippers who were involved in those energetic exertions.

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. (1Corinthians 10:7)

There is a place for dancing in praise, but not such as will open our systems to exhaustion and the evil one’s input due to that.

God expects our worship to be sober at all times. Look at this verse in the light of what I have shared.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1Peter 5:8)

But like I said when I had started on the topic, we threw our history in protest and were left with nothing. We are therefore borrowing our worship from the world because it is more developed than ours. Or don’t you wonder like me how seamlessly someone can shift from secular to sacred and back (or the other way round) without much effort. They see the light and start singing ‘gospel’, then they see something else and return to secular and can even see another light and resume ‘gospel’ again.

We willfully forget that they worship a different god. The worship they lead is to another god. They are just transferring the disco into church and composing compatible lyrics to support the corruption they are introducing.

Let us not be deceived