Your worship should be violent. Just sounds wrong, doesn't it? Violent? Really?
I came across a comment which led me to do some research and the answer to my question was... yes. In a way... our worship should be a bit violent. Just not in the traditional sense. Check this out...
Habakkuk 3:18 says "I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." There are two words here which I'd like to unpack.
The first word is "exult". The Hebrew here means to be jubilant and rejoice, which is to express feelings of great happiness and triumph. It means to me exuberant and gleeful. The word in the Greek, which can be found throughout the New Testament (Matthew 5:12; Luke 1:47; John 5:25, etc.) means to be full of joy. In fact the word literally means to get so glad that one would jump in celebration! Jump! Rejoice means to jump for joy!
The second word is "rejoice". Habakkuk uses a similar word to "exult". But it has a slightly different meaning. The word here means to "spin around under the influence of a violent emotion". Did you catch that? A violent emotion!
When we read God's word, talk to him through our week, give over to him our burdens and worries, we can then come before him in worship experiencing a deeper love for him. A love which manifests itself in deep seated emotions that must be expressed. And that expression will be displayed in outward ways. Even what we in our often reserved churches would consider "violent". Yes, we look at our English translations and sometimes say, "Well I am rejoicing, but you just can't tell... it's on the inside." But we must remember that from the view of scripture our worship, when true, will manifest itself in some outward way... at least part of the time. The language in the Jewish culture (which is not ours) expresses outward emotions. Violent expressions. Jumping even! And it's not a random mention in scripture.
In scripture:
The root for "exult" is mentioned in Hebrew 16 times.
The root of "rejoice" is mentioned in Hebrew 45 times.
The generic English translated word "rejoice" appears in the NIV more than 150 times between OT and NT.
Jesus rejoiced as well. When his disciples return from their mission to heal the sick and cast out demons Jesus rejoiced in what God had done. The meaning of the word here? Jesus jumped for joy! He was filled with exceedingly great happiness which caused him to burst forth with praise! (Luke 10:21)
Imagine the scene when Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. People are waving branches. People are yelling and shouting praise. They are going crazy! Picture them jumping up and down rejoicing Jesus' coming. It's like a rock concert! Yet the religious tell Jesus he must rebuke them because they are creating a scene. Jesus response? I tell you, if they were silent, the very stones would cry out. (Luke 19-38-40) I think Jesus might like a good Christian rock concert!
Let's rejoice. Let's jump for joy. Let's express our love for God in "violent" ways. Let is never be said of us that our lack of rejoicing caused the rocks to cry out.
worship Him 24/7...
scott
I came across a comment which led me to do some research and the answer to my question was... yes. In a way... our worship should be a bit violent. Just not in the traditional sense. Check this out...
Habakkuk 3:18 says "I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." There are two words here which I'd like to unpack.
The first word is "exult". The Hebrew here means to be jubilant and rejoice, which is to express feelings of great happiness and triumph. It means to me exuberant and gleeful. The word in the Greek, which can be found throughout the New Testament (Matthew 5:12; Luke 1:47; John 5:25, etc.) means to be full of joy. In fact the word literally means to get so glad that one would jump in celebration! Jump! Rejoice means to jump for joy!
The second word is "rejoice". Habakkuk uses a similar word to "exult". But it has a slightly different meaning. The word here means to "spin around under the influence of a violent emotion". Did you catch that? A violent emotion!
When we read God's word, talk to him through our week, give over to him our burdens and worries, we can then come before him in worship experiencing a deeper love for him. A love which manifests itself in deep seated emotions that must be expressed. And that expression will be displayed in outward ways. Even what we in our often reserved churches would consider "violent". Yes, we look at our English translations and sometimes say, "Well I am rejoicing, but you just can't tell... it's on the inside." But we must remember that from the view of scripture our worship, when true, will manifest itself in some outward way... at least part of the time. The language in the Jewish culture (which is not ours) expresses outward emotions. Violent expressions. Jumping even! And it's not a random mention in scripture.
In scripture:
The root for "exult" is mentioned in Hebrew 16 times.
The root of "rejoice" is mentioned in Hebrew 45 times.
The generic English translated word "rejoice" appears in the NIV more than 150 times between OT and NT.
Jesus rejoiced as well. When his disciples return from their mission to heal the sick and cast out demons Jesus rejoiced in what God had done. The meaning of the word here? Jesus jumped for joy! He was filled with exceedingly great happiness which caused him to burst forth with praise! (Luke 10:21)
Imagine the scene when Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. People are waving branches. People are yelling and shouting praise. They are going crazy! Picture them jumping up and down rejoicing Jesus' coming. It's like a rock concert! Yet the religious tell Jesus he must rebuke them because they are creating a scene. Jesus response? I tell you, if they were silent, the very stones would cry out. (Luke 19-38-40) I think Jesus might like a good Christian rock concert!
Let's rejoice. Let's jump for joy. Let's express our love for God in "violent" ways. Let is never be said of us that our lack of rejoicing caused the rocks to cry out.
worship Him 24/7...
scott