January 25, 2007

Worship

Category: Bible - OT - Genesis,Theology - Liturgical :: Permalink

The life of Adam and Eve was … to be completely circumscribed by worship.  On the first day, they were to appear before the Lord in the Garden to worship and commune with Him, to enter into His sabbath rest.  Empowered by God’s blessing, they were to go about their royal tasks for six days, only to return at the end of the week to offer themselves and their works to the Lord for His evaluation and judgment and to be refreshed for another week of royal labor.  The life of Adam and Eve displays human history in miniature.  Human history began in the Garden with Adam and Eve worsihping God, and will end with the church gathered in a glorious temple-city.  Worship is the alpha and the omega of human life and history. — Peter Leithart, The Kingdom and the Power, pp. 27-28.

By the way, in case you’re wondering about “the first day” here, I think what Leithart means is that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, and so their first full day of life would have been the seventh day, when they, as the children of the Father, would have shared in the Father’s rest.

I’m not sure Adam and Eve did actually worship God on the seventh day or had a proper first week.  I suspect the Fall happened right away instead.  But Leithart is correct that the pattern set up here in Genesis is the pattern of world history, beginning and ending with worship and rest.

Posted by John Barach @ 11:31 am | Discuss (0)

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