No tabernacle?...No temple?...Denied!

Once in the promised land and when the temple was constructed, the temple-worship was a continuation of the tabernacle-worship.

When Jerusalem was attacked and the temple destroyed, the Isrealites were forced to make changes to the way they worship.

With no sanctuary, no cult, no focus point, the Isrealites had to find some other way...

The torah.

They gave this book the central role, its laws and scriptures THE most important thing.

Synagogues are not mini version of the original temple, these were just meeting places for fellowship, praying and reading the torah.

This continued until Jerusalem was theirs once again and the temple was rebuilt. The temple served its purpose the same as the 1st until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Worship was forced to change with times and situations, however it's centre and heart did not.

In the western world we have seen many changes in our attitude to worship and some of these changes have been widely recieved as positive and some not so (stupid dancing with ribbons!).

This is the end of my study on WORSHIP. I have no idea what to look at next, if anyone still reads this (welldone!) and has any ideas or something they wanna study & learn with me, then drop a comment and let me know!

Love you X

Tabernacle

During the patriarchal time (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph) worship is mainly informal.

There are no set patterns of worship.

There is no fixed location for worship.

Patriachal worship is spontaneous.

Worship truely begins (for the Isrealites) after God's act of deliverance, the Exodus.

The passover is not only a way of remembering, but also an act of worship.

At mount Sinai God revealed the ways in which worship should be expressed.

Sacrifice played an important role in Isrealite life and then also gave them a focus point to offer these sacrifices . . . the tabernacle.

Now this gave the people a very visual impression of God. The tabernacle was a portable temple and shrine that could be packed up and moved from place to place.

The main thing I want to stress to you at this point in the exodus story is that God showed them the way by a cloud and fire. The Isrealites didn't know who long they would be staying in one place or when it would be time to leave.

They may set up camp and stay for a couple of hours, or months.

They were totally dependant on God.

Love you X