There is always a BUT and the usual "crutch"
for
instrumental music as worship is 2 Chron 29:25-30, but this was for
the purification of the Temple and nation. Hezekiah the
king, the rulers of the city (29:20) and the clergy
constituted the only
"congregation." The
whole affair was in the court and not in the Temple. Only during the
burning of the goats did the Levites--ordained by the king and the Commanders
of the
Army--and
the priests
with the trumpets of God make a great crashing sound. Hezekiah
reaches back about 328 years for a pattern for cleansing the
temple in order to STOP A PLAGUE.
Blowing
120 trumpets, all of
the instruments of David and the singers and instrumentalists "making
one sound" (2Chr 5:13) of yelling or shouting can not be called
"music."
The
playing and sounding is
not called "worship." Worship was bowing or fall on your
face.
And
when they had made an
end of offering, the
king and all that were
present with him
bowed themselves, and worshipped. 2 Chron 29:29
The
singers continued to sing
but the instruments and harps are silent.
This
effected the
"consecration" of the king,
city
officials,
"buildings and grounds"
and clergy
before they could "come
near"
(29:31) and offer
sacrifices--outside of the typical CHURCH or HOLY PLACE.
The
implication is
that they WERE NOT
NEAR
and
could
not
offer sacrifices.
God sent a plague on the nation and temple and this sacrifice was
Hezekiah's bargain with God and was to clean up the NATION before
worship could resume. No one ever "comes near" God using instruments
in the Biblical
record.
While
hundreds of animals were
sacrificed without instruments the end result was:
"So
the service
of the house of the Lord was set in order."
Passover
was kept but no
more instruments.
After
the OFFICIAL worshipers
were consecrated, the Holy Place
(church) set in order and the Most
Holy Place was made ready for God's Spirit and there was no music
involved. There was never any "music" or even singing in the Holy
Place or Most Holy Place.
When
Christ came and was
sacrificed with mocking, His blood was shed "outside the camp" and He
took it into heaven itself for a one-time Atonement, believers can
come boldly into the Holy Place (church) for study and prayer (as in
the Synagogue). Jesus prescribed prayer in the "closet" and we can
come boldly before the throne of grace to meet God alone and IN
SPIRIT.
Unless
you, your clergy, city officials and buildings
and grounds are so polluted that God moves you back past the
Sacrifice of Christ and the Laver of cleansing, don't plan to use
Hezekiah for proof text for Spiritual worship. This would simply
prove that "you are yet in your sins." For more
on Hezekiah's Temple-Purging ritual as a Plague Stopping
ceremony.
Therefore,
we intend to show
that there can be no role for music in church or in our prayer closet
without invalidating Christ's procedure for sanctifying us BEFORE we
come into a learning and prayer.
Paul
agreed and
said that both worship and prayer are IN THE SPIRIT. The offering of
inarticulate vocal prayers in Corinth does not change the rule.
Background
to the Like the
Nation's Temple Animal Sacrifices for Dedication and Purification
Ceremonies.
When
Israel came out of Babylon
God offered them The Book of the Covenant. This was a covenant of
grace and sacrifices were voluntary as they had always been. The ten
commandments had 70 laws as enabling legislation.
However,
they rose up to play
at Mount Sinai. This was the musical idolatry Israel had practiced in
Egypt even as their ancestors had practiced in Babylon and their
descendants would practice in Canaanite Baalism--right in the
temple.
All
not of the tribe of Levi lost the right to come boldly before the
throne of Grace. They were all called STRANGERS. The Tabernacle which has
a pattern in heaven had no
musical Levites.
The
priests mediated animal
sacrifice and the Levites served the priests and not the congregation
nor God.
Later
when Israel rejected the
rule of God and demanded a temple like the nations it was so that
they could worship like the nations. Therefore, when looking at the
entire Monarchy, the nation and the temple remember that it was a
like
the
nation's temple
symbolic of rejecting God and His Word and rule in the heart.
The
animals were
slaughtered outside of the holy place (church) and the most holy
place (heaven).
During
the sacrifices and
burning the priests blew up to 120 trumpets and the Levites played
the INSTRUMENTS OF DAVID for the civil state made noise but not
music.
The
priests washed their BODIES in "great SEA."
Only
cleansed priests went into
the holy place (church)
The
seven-branched
candlesticks (up to 10) represented the 7 spirits of
KNOWLEDGE.
The
Showbread represented the
Bread of Life: the Word of Life.
The
incense represented the
prayers of the people--outside of the temple.
At
this phase there
was no need for "harps or trumpets" and indeed everyone was silenced.
They "held" their harps and offered their spiritual incense.
All
of the people offered their
own prayers in absolute silence.
Yearly,
the high priests went
into the Most Holy Place with the blood of the atonement.
The
Most Holy Place
was dark and silent. Except for the bells in one account the priest
did not speak but listened.
Jesus
said that we must pray in
the "closet" or pantry which would be dark and silent.
Worship
and prayer according to
Paul only occurs "in the spirit" or in the human mind. The Throne
Room is where God reveals Himself to us alone.
How
the PEOPLE lost their
right to approach God without Clergy
John
Chrysostom
agrees to prove that God was not demonstrating His grace under the
Law but was allowing them to play out their musical idolatry begun in
Egypt and used at Mount Sinai to spit in the face of God:
"Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in
the book of the Prophets, O ye
house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by
the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the
tabernacle of Moloch,
and the star of your god Kemphan (Saturn), figures which ye made
to worship them:
"The
cause of
sacrifices! "And I will carry you away beyond Babylon." (v. 43.) Even the
captivity, an
impeachment
of their
wickedness! "But a
Tabernacle," say you, "there was (the Tabernacle) `of Witness.'" (v. 44.) (Yes,) this
is why it was: that they
should have God for
Witness: this was
all.
"According to the
fashion," it says, "that was shown thee on the mount:"
Yet,
because of their sin,
the Tabernacle became like the nation's temple. The Levites would
kill you if you tried to approach God.
Plato,
in Phaedrus, comparing musical love to the inspired
"madness" of
religious prophets notes that the arts will not get you into the
temple:
The
third
kind
is the
madness of those who are possessed by the Muses
(Musical
poets);
which
taking hold
of a delicate
and virgin
soul,
and there inspiring
frenzy,
awakens lyrical
and all other numbers;
with
these adorning the myriad
actions of ancient
heroes for the
instruction of posterity (prophecy)
But
he who, having no touch of
the Muses'
madness in his
soul, comes to the door and
thinks
that he will
get into the temple
by the help of art-
he,
I say, and his poetry are
not admitted; the sane
man
disappears and is nowhere when he
enters into rivalry with the
madman.
Later,
You
say, "We want
to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world,
who serve
wood and stone."
But what you have in mind will never happen. Eze.20:32
Robert
Jamieson notes that the "people" were excluded
from the Tabernacle as they were later from the temple:
Numbers
2:47-54. But the
Levites . . .were not numbered among them--They were obliged to keep
a register of their own. They were consecrated to the priestly office,
which
in
all
countries has been
exempted customarily, and in Israel by the express authority of God,
from military service.
The
custody of the things devoted
to the divine service was assigned to them so
exclusively,
that
"no stranger"--that is, no person, not even an
Israelite of any
other tribe,
was allowed, under penalty of death, to approach these [Nu 16:40].
Hence
they encamped
round the
tabernacle in order
that there should be no manifestation of the divine
displeasure among the
people.
Thus
the numbering
of the people was subservient to the separation of the Levites from
those Israelites who were fit for military service,
>
and
to the practical
introduction of the law respecting the first-born,
>
for whom the tribe of Levi became a
substitute [Ex 13:2 Nu
3:12].
Numbers
3:5-10. Bring the tribe
of Levi near--The Hebrew word "bring near" is a sacrificial term, denoting the
presentation of an offering to
God; and the use of the word, therefore,
in
connection with
the Levites, signifies that they
were devoted as an
offering
to the
sanctuary, no longer to
be employed in any common offices.
They
were subordinate to the priests, who alone enjoyed the
privilege of entering the holy
place;
[this
means that they cannot
accompany us into the Holy Place as we offer the sacrifice of our
lips]
but
they were
employed in discharging many of the humbler duties which belonged to the
sanctuary, as well as in
various offices of great utility and importance to the religion and
morals of the people. Commentary by ROBERT JAMIESON
Everyone
not of the tribe of
Levi (priests or Levites and others) was a stranger and no longer
members of
God's Covenant family:
To
be a memorial
unto the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come
near to offer incense before
the Lord; that
he be not as Korah,
and as his company: as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses.
Numbers 16:40
Numbers
18: 2-7. thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi--The departments of the
sacred office,
to be filled respectively by the priests and Levites, are here
assigned to each.
To
the
priests was committed the
charge of the
sanctuary and the altar,
while
the Levites were to take
care of everything else about the tabernacle. The Levites were to
attend the priests as
servants--
bestowed
on them as
"gifts" to aid in the service of the tabernacle--
while
the high and dignified
office of the priesthood was a
"service of gift."
"A
stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a
Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the
sacred office, should incur the penalty of
death.
ROBERT
JAMIESON
All of the older generation
perished in the
wilderness and Amos and Stephen note that they did not cease
worshiping the starry host which was essentially Satan
worship.
Later, in Canaan
the elders "fired" God and
demanded a king like the nations so that they could worship like the
nations. God warned that the kings would lead them into destruction
and they would perish like the nations:
Ben Sirach in
Ecclesiasticus
48:
6. who brought
kings down
to destruction, and famous
men from their
beds;
7. who
heard rebuke
at Sinai and judgments of vengeance
at Horeb;
8.
who
anointed
kings to inflict
retribution,
and prophets to
succeed
you.
O
Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself; but in me is
thine help. Hosea 13:9
I
will be thy
king:
where is any
other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom
thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10
I
gave thee a
king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea
13:11
Therefore,
David, the
Monarchy, the Temple, Sacrifices and Musical "noise" are a PATTERN of
trying to find God while rejecting His Word.
Table
of
Relationships
Animal sacrifices with loud
instruments were
not spiritual but they were symbolic of the sacrifice of Christ which
was prophesied to be accompanied with musical mocking.
Therefore, the Temple was a
"like the nation's
temple" but it attempted to do by natural means what Christ would
accomplish to create a SPIRITUAL TEMPLE which had a Holy Place where
God dwells collectively in His body, the church. In addition, God
dwells by faith in the individual member's own personal spirit which
is the Most Holy place where we meet god: church is synagogue or
school of the Bible, the human spirit is the PLACE where we worship
in spirit and in truth.
