Sacrificial Worship

I was teaching my Old Testament class this week from 1 Kings, and came across the story regarding the split in the Kingdom. Rehoboam was unwilling to ease off the people’s labor and caused the Northern Kingdom, led by Jeroboam, to begin a separate monarchy. But what is most intriguing is Jeroboam’s shrewdness in keeping the people from returning their allegiance back to the Southern Kingdom and Rehoboam. The law required all religious activity to take place in a central location in Jerusalem. Thus, people from all Israel were supposed to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem 3 or 4 times a year to offer up their worship.

Jeroboam realized that if the people returned to the Southern Kingdom they might waver. So he set up 2 golden calves in Bethel and Dan as worship centers for the Northern people. This way they would have no affinity for the South or reason for returning. He made worship convenient. Much of the sacrifice was taken out of the equation. The result was apostasy and idolatry.

As I read that story, I began to wonder: “Is our worship too easy? Where is the sacrifice? Have churches made worship too convenient?” I made it personal and tried to list the elements of the Sunday morning worship service that are sacrificial. I came up with very little. We talk about offering up a sacrifice of praise, but it seems to be a bit of a misnomer.

Instead of sacrifice, we do the exact opposite. We put time limits on the service. We try to appease everyone as much as possible. We make the service as convenient as possible. It seems wholly unlike the Old Testament or the few snippets we get from the New Testament. So I wonder, should our worship services be more sacrificial or is what we are doing satisfying to God? If you agree that there is not enough sacrifice, how can we make it more sacrificial?