Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
2 Kings 18:1–7
“[Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan)” (v. 4).
Reformed Christianity, as we have noted, has discerned in the second commandment not only a prohibition against graven images—images constructed for the purpose of worship—but also the principle that we should have biblical justification for what we do in worship. Not everything that human beings call “worship” is necessarily pleasing to the Lord, even practices associated with the corporate praise of the one true God. We see this throughout Scripture. For instance, when the Israelites built the golden calf, they sincerely believed that they were worshiping Yahweh, the God who had redeemed them from Egyptian slavery. But the Lord condemned their worship practices (Ex. 32). Consider also the example of Nadab and Abihu, who offered “unauthorized fire before the Lord.” Ostensibly, they had the right motives in following their unapproved liturgy, but God rejected their worship and even destroyed them (Lev. 10:1–3).
These examples and others indicate that it is not enough to have good motives in designing worship. We must also have biblical warrant for what we do when we worship God as a corporate body of believers. Furthermore, because we are sinners, we should expect that from time to time errors will creep in to our worship. We must correct errors according to biblical principles; worship must be conducted with reverence and awe in a manner agreeable to divine revelation. This was the case throughout the old covenant, and passages such as 1 John 5:21 and Revelation 2–3 indicate that the beliefs and worship of the new covenant church can be corrupted as well.
Today’s passage records one instance of reform that took place under the old covenant. When King Hezekiah ascended the throne of Judah, he had to reform the worship of the people by tearing down idolatrous shrines throughout the land (2 Kings 18:1–7). He even had to destroy an image that God had commanded Moses to build, the bronze serpent, to reform worship according to the law of God, for the people had been worshiping it (2 Kings 18:4; see Num. 21:4–9).
When the church’s worship deteriorates into idolatry, we must take action to purify the liturgy and bring its practices back in line with the Word of God. The iconoclasm (destruction of images) that Hezekiah had to engage in during the eighth century BC is not always required in order to reform worship, but there should always be a concern on the part of God’s people and especially church officers that we worship in a manner agreeable to the Scriptures.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
In some churches, the attitude toward worship has become that just about anything is acceptable. There is, of course, a measure of freedom that churches have as they make their worship agreeable to Scripture, but we must take care that this freedom does not become a license for whatever we think is best in the liturgy of the church. God alone prescribes how He is to be worshiped.
For Further Study
- 2 Chronicles 29
- Nehemiah 13
- Matthew 21:12–13
- 1 Corinthians 10