Old Testament

Biblical Models of the Processional

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Traditional Christian worship often begins with a processional in which the officiants and other representative worshipers, such as the choir, enter the sanctuary. Processions may also occur outside the church on festive occasions. The procession is based on biblical models and is a way of proclaiming the victory and dominion of the Lord and of his Christ.

The history of religions contains abundant evidence of the use of processions in popular worship. The Old Testament alludes to processions of pagan worshipers with idols of their gods. When Isaiah says, “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden” (Isa. 46:1), he is portraying a procession featuring the idols of lifeless, burdensome divinities. The same image underlies the scorn heaped on false gods in Psalm 115:7: “They have … feet, but they cannot walk.” In contrast, Yahweh, the God of Israel, is “enthroned between the cherubim” (2 Sam. 6:2; Pss. 80:1; 99:1), over the guardian figures on the ark of the covenant. He “rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty” (Deut. 33:26); he “rides the ancient skies above” (Ps. 68:33).

Nevertheless, Yahweh could go in procession symbolically in those processions of worshipers into the sanctuary that was a feature of festival worship of Israel. Several of the psalms refer to these processions into the house of the Lord. In Psalm 100 the worshipers are invited to “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise” (Ps. 100:4). Psalm 24 appears to be a “liturgy of entrance” into the courts of the Lord in the form of a dialogue between the sanctuary gatekeepers and a group of worshipers in procession, possibly with the ark of the covenant. To the question “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?” (Ps. 24:3) the leaders of the procession respond with an affirmation of their fitness to stand in the sanctuary (Ps. 24:6); they then ask that the gates be opened so that the procession may continue and “the King of glory may come in” (Ps. 24:7, 9). This dialogue underscores the double symbolism of the festal procession: it is not the worshipers only who enter the holy place, but the Lord’s presence also symbolically enters the sanctuary that he might meet with his covenant people and receive their tribute of praise and worship. Psalm 68, which pictures a festal procession, underscores the point that the Lord and his people ascend the sacred hill together:

Your procession has come into view, O God,
The procession of my God and my King into the sanctuary.
In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
With them the are maidens playing tambourines.…
There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them,
There the great throng of Judah’s princes,
And there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali. (Ps. 68:24–25, 27)

Perhaps such processions were reenactments of the time David first had the ark brought up to the former Jebusite sanctuary in Jerusalem with great rejoicing and abandon as the king himself danced before the Lord (2 Sam. 6:12–19). In such celebrative acts Yahweh laid claim to his throne in Zion and his dominion over all the nations:

God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
The Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing to him a psalm of praise.
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne. (Ps. 47:5–8)

Festivals, and the processions that accompanied them, were occasions of joy and abandon in the Lord; with great longing the speaker in Psalm 43, apparently describing a circumstance in which he was unable to attend the festivals, remembers how he “used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng” (Ps. 42:4). After the Babylonian Exile, the reestablishment of Jerusalem as a fortified city where the worship of the Lord could be protected from enemies was the occasion of a procession of thanksgiving organized by the governor Nehemiah (Neh. 12).

As a small group surrounded by a hostile culture, the early church could not conduct worship on the scale of the festive gatherings familiar to the Jewish tradition. Nevertheless, the procession continued to have symbolic meaning for the New Testament writers. Jesus and his disciples had orchestrated a procession into the sanctuary at the beginning of the week, which was to climax in his death and resurrection; we must understand the purpose of this first Palm Sunday event in light of the symbolism of the Israelite processions in which the King and his servants come to establish his dominion in the place of worship. Note, for example, the cry “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38) and Jesus’ subsequent action in token of cleansing the temple of corrupt practices.

The concept of the procession led by a victorious king appears elsewhere in the New Testament. When Paul describes the ministry gifts of the ascended Christ (Eph. 4:7–13), he evokes the image of the procession pictured in Psalm 68 (Eph. 4:8; Ps. 68:18). Paul elsewhere alludes to the processions led by victorious commanders in which enemy prisoners were often paraded in humiliation; such processions were symbolic of the believers’ being taken captive by the triumphant Christ (1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 2:14). At the climax of the Revelation to John, the victorious Christ appears at the head of a procession of the armies of heaven; they follow the banner proclaims him “king of kings and lord of lords” (Rev. 19:11–16).

Processions have been part of traditional Christian worship from ancient times. Many churches of the Protestant Reformation discontinued or restricted their use in an effort to refocus Christian worship around the proclamation of the Word. In recent years, however, evangelical and charismatic churches have begun to recover the biblical values in the pageantry of the processional, not only in congregational worship but also in street marches held in many communities as a public proclamation of the lordship of Christ.

Worship As Spiritual Warfare in the Old and New Testament

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Only recently, in its expanded awareness of entrenched spiritual evil, has the Christian church begun to recover the scriptural understanding of warfare in the realm of the spirit. The Bible clearly reveals the spiritual nature of the struggle against sin and the opposition of demonic powers to the gospel of Christ. As the celebration of the Lord’s dominion and victory, worship is a major weapon in the arsenal of spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Opposition to God in Scripture

The presence of evil in the created order is a given in Scripture. No explanation is offered for either its origin or its place in a world created and governed by a good, righteous, and all-powerful God; nevertheless, from the opening pages of the Bible, evil exists. And from the beginning of history, the Lord gives the job of overcoming evil to human beings. To a jealous and vengeful Cain he says: “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7).

The person of Satan appears both in the Chronicles and in the story of Job. In the first case, he is in an adversary relationship with Israel and moves David to disobey God by numbering the people (1 Chron. 21:1), an act that brings punishment on the entire nation. In the Job narrative, Satan is portrayed as a spirit being who talks God into letting him bring tragedy into the life of the most righteous man on earth (Job 1:6–2:7). It is commonly taught that the serpent who tempts Eve in the garden of Eden is really Satan, although the Genesis account does not make such a connection. John does refer to the devil as “that old serpent” in his Revelation and links him to the person of Satan, whom he also calls a dragon (12:9; 20:2). In Zechariah’s vision, Satan stands ready to accuse Joshua the high priest, who is before the angel of the Lord (Zech. 3:1). Indeed, his very name means “adversary” or “accuser,” and John refers to him as “the accuser of our brothers” (Rev. 12:10). Satan tempts Jesus to commit sin (Matt. 4:10), enters into Judas Iscariot and inspires him to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3), desires to possess Peter (Luke 22:31), and is said to have entered the heart of Ananias and led him to lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3).

John is obviously referring to Satan when he talks about the “prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), as is Paul when he refers to the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:2). At the conversion of Saul, the Lord describes Satan as the ruler of the kingdom of darkness to which human beings belong until God removes them from his control and places them in the kingdom of light (Acts 26:18). Peter says that Satan roams like a lion looking for people he can destroy (1 Pet. 5:8). He is wily (Eph. 6:11)1 and a deceiver (Rev. 20:10), always seeks an advantage (2 Cor. 2:11), and can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14).

In addition to the devil or Satan, Scripture reveals the existence of an unnumbered host of devils or demons who inhabit human beings, bringing with them various infirmities and bondages. Demons apparently require a body to dwell in if they are to function (Matt. 8:31; Mark 5:12). Paul writes to the Corinthians that demon spirits are the reality behind the idols worshiped by the heathen (1 Cor. 10:19–21).

What emerges from all this is the picture of an evil spirit called “the devil” or “Satan” who opposes God and desires to destroy his people and who reigns over a kingdom composed of God’s enemies. In some cases, at least, he is behind the propagation of evil in the world. This is the adversary whom Christians are told to conquer. Working with, and perhaps for, this major evil personality are lesser evil spirits called devils or demons.

Spiritual Warfare in Israel

For Israel, the enemy was a company of hostile neighboring nations that periodically threatened to overrun it. These were not spirits but very physical fighting men who came against Israel with swords, spears, and bows. However, behind these pagan peoples were spiritual forces associated with the practice of idolatry, fertility rites, child sacrifice, and other abominations. The Lord made it clear that it was not because of Israel’s righteousness that the Lord gave them victory but because the nations with whom they struggled were Yahweh’s own enemies. As his covenant people, Israel joined the Lord in fighting these wicked nations and driving them out of the Promised Land.

In that sense, then, Israel’s battles constituted spiritual warfare and were often won with spiritual weapons. An example is the attack that Joshua led against the city of Jericho. The Lord gave Joshua the battle plan, which consisted of a series of seven processions around the city, with the Levites bearing the ark of the Lord and the priests blowing trumpets. On the seventh day Israel paraded around Jericho seven times, the priests blew the trumpets, the people gave a great shout, which brought down the walls, and Israel walked in and took over the city without opposition (Josh. 6:8–20). There are numerous indications in the narrative that this is a covenant-related assault. In the first place, it is carried out over a period of seven days, with seven processions on the seventh day. Seven is the number that signifies the covenant relationship in general and God’s covenant with Israel in particular. In the second place, the ark of the Lord, which symbolizes his presence, goes with the procession. As the great King of the covenant, Yahweh is, in effect, leading the armies of Israel into battle against his enemies. The blowing of trumpets and the final shout are declarations of victory; Israel is acclaiming the power and authority of its King, which constitutes praise.

Jehoshaphat’s war with the nations of Ammon, Moab, and Mt. Seir is also a covenant conflict and is won with spiritual weapons. Upon hearing that he is about to be attacked, the king goes before the Lord and appeals to him for deliverance on the basis of the covenant. “O Lord, God of our fathers,” he prays, “Did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” (2 Chron. 20:6–7). Yahweh responds through a prophet who tells King Jehoshaphat and his frightened subjects that they will not have to fight in the battle but need only go out against the enemy the following day and watch the Lord give them victory. Jehoshaphat puts the army in array, appointing singers to go ahead of the fighting men to praise the Lord for his covenant love. As soon as the singers begin to magnify the Lord, he causes the enemy nations to start killing one another until all are destroyed. Jehoshaphat and his army return home in triumph and joy, carrying their weapons of warfare: psalteries, harps, and trumpets. The fear of God falls on the surrounding nations, and Israel enjoys a period of peace.

Isaiah describes the judgment that the Lord will bring upon Assyria because they have pillaged his covenant people. Once again the victory will be wrought through the praises of Israel. Isaiah writes:

The Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm, and hail. The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his scepter, he will strike them down. Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing rod will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. (Isa. 30:30–32)

In all of these accounts, Israel does battle and the Lord brings judgment on the powers of evil through musical praise. The war is being fought in the supernatural realm as it is carried out on the earth.

Two of the psalms specifically refer to praise as the means by which God brings victory and deliverance. David sings of the praise of children, which puts to silence the enemy and the avenger (Ps. 8:2). Psalm 149 contains a graphic description of the effect of the praise of God’s people on his enemies:

Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King.
Let them praise His name with dancing:
Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
Let the godly ones exult in glory;
Let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishment on the peoples;
To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute on them the judgment written;
This is an honor for all His godly ones.
Praise the Lord! (Ps. 149:1–9 NASB)

The high praises of God in the mouth of the worshiper and the two-edged sword in hand (see Eph. 6:17; Rev. 1:16) effectively bind the rulers of wickedness, rendering them powerless. In this way, the believer participates in the reign of the Lord over the earth. It is through his praising God with song and dancing that the powers of evil are brought into subjection.

The “prayers of David son of Jesse” (Pss. 2–72), and many other psalms, are primarily concerned with the struggle between the Lord’s faithful worshiper and the wicked. In these psalms, the enemy is not just any difficult person but is specifically one who opposes the person speaking, who is usually the king. Since Israel’s king, and David in particular was the representative of its covenant with Yahweh, opposition to him was tantamount to an assault on the Lord. Thus, the one who troubled the king became an enemy of Yahweh. Typical of these psalms is the idea that praise and victory are inextricably linked. David understood praise as a throne God’s people build for their King, from which Yahweh reigns over the nations and brings salvation. In crying to the Lord for protection and deliverance, he sings, “Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned [“sits upon,” yashav] upon the praises of Israel” (Ps. 22:3 nasb).

Spiritual Warfare in the New Testament

For the New Testament believer, the enemy is not so much wicked persons as ungodly systems and the demonic powers behind them. When Jesus calls down curses on the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 23:13–36), he is denouncing the Judean religious establishment which has rejected him. However, when individuals from within that system came to him, he received them. Indeed, the battle between Yahweh and the wicked has now become a contest between Jesus and Satan, who is described as a predatory beast who goes about looking for ways to destroy God’s people and His plan of salvation for them. Paul describes it as a power struggle between two opposing kingdoms (Col. 1:13), and John uses the metaphor of light and darkness in picturing their conflict (John 1:4–5; 3:19–21).

The ministry of Jesus and his disciples dealt a blow to Satan even before the Crucifixion sealed his doom. The Lord spent a great deal of time during his brief ministry in delivering demon-possessed people and healing their afflictions. On more than one occasion he sent his disciples out to do the same. When the seventy had returned from preaching the Good News of the kingdom and exulted to Jesus that even the demons were subject to them in his name, the Lord replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

As he approached the moment of betrayal, Jesus warned his disciples that “the prince of this world is coming”; but, he added, “he has no hold on me” (John 14:30). This was probably a reference to Jesus’ spiritual struggle in Gethsemane, during which he engaged in a battle so intense that it caused him to sweat drops of blood. Jesus’ response to this attack was to fall on his face before God and pray until the victory was effected and he could go forth in assurance and submission to the Cross.

John quotes Jesus, just before the crucifixion, as he predicts the imminent casting out of Satan. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31). Christians understand, therefore, that Satan’s defeat is already accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. John confirms this in the Revelation when he says of Michael and his angels (who seem to be synonymous with “our brothers” in verse 10) that they overcame Satan “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:7, 11).

In his instructions to the disciples just prior to his ascension, Jesus promised all baptized believers power over evil spirits and their effects (Mark 16:16–18). Christians do not need to fear a defeated Satan or any of his forces. Jesus made a public show of their humiliation in his death and resurrection (Col. 2:15). It is important to remember, however, that God’s people are not fighting human beings who may be under Satan’s control but the demonic forces that enslave them (Eph. 6:12). “The weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:4–5). The name of Jesus, invoked in worship and praise, establishes God’s sovereignty over Satan and renders him powerless.

Dance in the Old Testament

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Dance is a regular feature of Israel’s festive worship and is viewed as an act of obedience to the Lord, for his praise and glory.

References to dancing abound in the Old Testament. Actual accounts of dancing reflect thoughtful, deliberate acts of offering praise to God. Several obvious references to dancing occur in the English versions of the Bible. Psalm 150:4 commands us to praise God in dance (Hebrew maḥol). In this same verse, we find justification for using organs and stringed instruments. The word ‘ugav, translated as “organ” (kjv) or “pipe” (nasb), is used only four times in the Bible, whereas there are many references to dance. If one cannot use Psalm 150 to advocate deliberately dancing before God, perhaps the church should also remove organs and other musical instruments from its corporate worship. The fact is that the musical instruments listed in Psalm 150, including organs or pipes, are not mentioned at all in the New Testament. Thus, if dance is forbidden because it is an Old Testament phenomenon, the use of musical instruments, being in the same category, should be forbidden as well. Psalm 150 advocates dancing, along with the use of instruments, as an act of obedience in regular corporate worship, rather than out of a spontaneous response prompted by extraordinary events.

The Hebrew Old Testament uses a number of words for dancing. These include gil, “circle in joy, dance”; maḥol and the related term mƒḥolah, “dancing”; pazaz, “leap”; raqad, “dance, skip about”; ḥagag, “celebrate, dance”; ‘alatz, “rejoice, exult, leap”; karar, “whirl, rotate.” Although the word gil actually indicates twirling, rotating, or dancing in a circle, it is usually translated as “rejoice” in the English versions. The psalmist uses this word in the phrase, “Let the earth rejoice” (Ps. 97:1 nasb). If even the earth as it spins on its axis is obeying the Old Testament command in this New Testament era, God’s redeemed creation should also honor the Creator by spinning in worship.

The verb ḥul can mean travailing in childbirth, which involves a twisting or writhing motion, or “to dance in a circle of joy.” The translators of the King James Version of the Bible chose the first usage for Psalm 96:9: “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him, all the earth,” and the New American Standard Bible renders the verse, “tremble before Him.” The context of Psalm 96:9 clearly requires the second usage; the verse should read, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; dance with joy before him, all the earth.” The psalmist is inviting the people of the whole earth to come before God in holy worship, demonstrating their joy through dance.

A final Old Testament term to be considered here is samaḥ. The word appears 150 times in the Old Testament as “rejoice.” According to Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament (Merrill F. Unger and William White, Jr., eds. [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1980]), samaḥ “usually refers to a spontaneous emotion of extreme happiness which is expressed in some visible and/or external manner.… The emotion represented in the verb … is sometimes accompanied by dancing, singing, and playing musical instruments.”

Some teachers contend that since dancing was performed outdoors in the worship of Israel, it is not proper to engage in it within the church building. Old Testament believers worshiped outside because only the priests had access to the tabernacle and temple. Now, however, the veil of the temple has been torn from top to bottom, and all Christians are members of the kingdom of priests who can worship “inside” the Holy of Holies, offering the incense of praise and worship to God. Worshiping indoors would have been physically impossible in ancient Israel since the community numbered some three million and could not have been accommodated in any building. (In addition, the climate in the eastern Mediterranean region makes it possible for many activities to take place outdoors that, in colder and wetter climates, are not usually convenient.) Many churches are now building edifices that accommodate the growing crowds, with areas specifically designed for praise and dance. As a biblical basis for doing so, they cite Psalm 150: “Praise God in his sanctuary; … Praise him with tambourine and dancing” (Ps. 150:1, 4).

The Role of the King in Old Testament Worship

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Despite the predominant function of the king as a military leader, the Bible records many occasions when the kings of Israel and Judah fulfilled a significant role in the leadership of the nation’s worship.

The King As Warrior

In the ancient world, kings were primarily military leaders, commanding their armies in warfare (Gen. 14:8–9:2; Josh. 12; 1 Sam. 11:1; 2 Sam. 8:1–6; Job 15:24; Prov. 30:29–31). The kings of Israel and Judah were no exceptions; their major preoccupation was the defense of their nation or the conquest of neighboring kingdoms. Their association with warfare, as well as their lack of priestly status, normally precluded their involvement in the leadership of worship. Saul, fresh from victory over the Philistines, felt the wrath of Samuel because he had offered a burnt offering himself when Samuel’s arrival at Gilgal was delayed (1 Sam. 13:8–14). David was told not to build the temple because he was a man of war who had shed much blood (1 Chron. 22:8; 28:3). Uzziah was successful in warfare and strengthened Judah’s defenses; when he presumed to burn incense to the Lord in the temple, however, he was opposed by the priests and became leprous (2 Chron. 26:16–21).

The King As Covenant Mediator

The religious problem of the Israelite monarchies was that, in terms of the covenant, Yahweh himself was king. Indeed, the covenant structure of Israelite worship was modeled after that of the ancient Near Eastern treaty between a “great king” and his vassals, a pattern that placed the Lord in the position of the king. Worship focused on the kingship of Yahweh, as in the “enthronement psalms” (Pss. 29; 47; 93; 95–99). The ark itself was a visible symbol of Yahweh’s kingship. Moreover, the treaty-covenant structure also placed his worshipers in the position not of slaves but of vassals or subkings—a “kingdom of priests,” among whom the earthly king was one worshiper among many, subject like all others to the covenant laws. Thus the covenant theology of divine kingship acted as a corrective to any spiritual pretense on the part of the ruler and served as a platform on which the prophets, especially, might stand in rebuking and correcting an errant monarch. Thus, Elijah could throw back in Ahab’s face the epithet “troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17–18); and Isaiah could accuse Ahaz of trying the patience of God (Isa. 7:13).

The theological “problem” with the preeminent kingship of Yahweh was partially resolved in Judah by the theological solution of royal sonship, in which the earthly ruler was seen as the adopted son of Yahweh, and as his vice-regent in government. In Psalm 2, for example, the king speaks prophetically, repeating the Lord’s decree of adoption: “You are my Son; today I have become your Father” (Ps. 2:7). Possibly such materials were composed for the coronation ceremonies, when the Lord would declare, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps. 2:6). Psalms 72, 101, and 110 also may relate to the same occasion, as might other passages, such as Isaiah’s oracle, “to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders” (Isa. 9:6). The identification of king and priest is clear in the prophetic declaration, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4). Here the psalmist relates the Judean monarch to the Canaanite Melchizedek, who had ruled at the same site in Jerusalem as “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High” (’El ‘elyon) and to whom Abraham had offered a tithe (Gen. 14:18–20).

As the anointed representative of the Lord, the Judean king was seen by Old Testament writers as a mediator of the covenant between the Lord and his people. The prophet Nathan announced a special covenant relationship between the Lord and the dynasty of David (2 Sam. 7:5–17), proclaiming that his house and kingdom would endure before the Lord. This covenant, however, was made with David as “ruler over my people Israel” (2 Sam. 7:8). David understood “that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel” (2 Sam. 5:12). Thus the Davidic covenant was a localized manifestation of the basic covenant between Yahweh and his worshipers, with the king serving in the role of mediator. This role was most adequately filled by David himself, but the theology of the Davidic covenant continued to undergird the Judean monarchy and was foundational to the work of the major Judean prophets in their vision of the maintenance and restoration of the covenant (cf. Isa. 9:6–7; Jer. 30:8–9; 33:14–26; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24–28) so that the postexilic prophet Zechariah could proclaim that “the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the Lord going before them” (Zech. 12:8).

Accordingly, despite the restrictions placed on the king as an officiant in sacrifice, the biblical history records occasions when the Judean king legitimately exercised personal leadership in the worship of the Lord. David is most remarkable for his intimate devotion to Yahweh, expressed in his dancing before the ark (2 Sam. 6:14) as it was being brought, at his direction, to Zion, or in his composition of worship materials as the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam. 23:1 NASB ). David instituted and organized the Levitical, prophetic worship of the “tent of David” and had the vision for the erection of the house of the Lord (2 Sam. 7:2; 1 Chron. 22). It was left to Solomon, his son, to carry out the actual construction of the temple (1 Kings 5–7; 2 Chron. 2–4). As a priestly king, Solomon personally officiated at the dedication of the sanctuary (1 Kings 8:12–21; 2 Chron. 5), offering extended prayer (1 Kings 8:22–61; 2 Chron. 6) and sacrifices (1 Kings 8:62–66; 2 Chron. 7:1–11).

Kings As Reformers of Worship

Later kings functioned as organizers or reformers of worship and played a secondary role as officiants. Asa carried through a reform instigated by prophecy and led the people in a renewal of the covenant (2 Chron. 15:8–15). Faced with an enemy invasion, Jehoshaphat led the people in penitential worship and instructed the Levitical musicians to lead the army into battle singing praise to the Lord (2 Chron. 20:18–21). Hezekiah, the first king since the time of David to receive the biblical historian’s unqualified commendation (2 Kings 18:1–6), purged the worship of Yahweh of some of its Ba’alistic accretions. Later in the history of Judah, Josiah led the people in a renewal of the covenant, reading aloud the Mosaic Law and covenant (2 Kings 23:1–3). He also purified Israelite worship of its pagan and occult flavor and reinstituted the celebration of the Passover (2 Kings 23:21–23). Sadly, the reforming kings of Judah were in the minority. Most Judean rulers did little to protect the integrity of the covenant of Yahweh. The situation was even worse in the northern kingdom of Israel, where Jeroboam I and Ahab with his consort Jezebel took the lead in the falsification and perversion of worship.

The Priest As Worship Leader in the Old Testament

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In the directives of Moses, priests were specially commissioned for the role of representing the people before the Lord and thus occupied a central position in the worship life of the covenant people.

The Role of the Priest

The proper role of the priest in worship was to officiate in sacrifice and offering in order to to propitiate the Deity on behalf of the worshiper. Whereas the prophet was the spokesman of the Lord, the priest represented the people before God. The prophet was privy to the counsels of God in virtue of the word that came to him by the Spirit (Amos 3:7–8; Isa. 61:1; Ezek. 6:1; 2 Pet. 1:21). The Word of the Lord burned like a fire within him (Jer. 20:9). With the priest, access to the Deity was by a careful process of consecration (Lev. 8–9), wherein enough of the overpowering holiness of the Lord was communicated to him so that he could safely approach the divine and awesome presence; otherwise, he would risk being struck down in wrath as a trespasser in forbidden territory.

The priest’s consecration rendered him “holy to his God” (Lev. 21:7 NASB), that is, set apart from the ordinary or the profane. For this reason, special conditions were placed on his life-style. He was not to defile himself by contact with a corpse, except that of a close family member (Lev. 21:1–4), nor cut his beard nor shave his head (Lev. 21:5), nor marry a woman who had been a prostitute or was divorced (Lev. 21:7). The priest who served at the altar needed to be free of physical defects and deformities (Lev. 21:16–21). He was not to drink wine during his time of ministering before the Lord (Lev. 10:9–10).

As one thus set apart, the priest could “draw near” (hiqriv) to the Lord officiate in sacrifice, and place the offerings on the altar. His vocation was to minister (sheret) before Yahweh, performing the service (‘‡vodah) of the house of the Lord, whether it was the service of the altar or the service of song and prayer. But the priest’s activity could extend beyond the performance of sanctuary rites. Indeed, because the number of members of the priestly families of the tribe of Levi was far greater than that required for the service of the house of God, many had to reside in outlying areas far from the sanctuary, making a living from agriculture and from the tithes of local residents (Deut. 14:28–29; Neh. 10:37).

As we have seen, a number of the prophets were of priestly descent. The Levitical priests functioned also as teachers, instructing the people in the traditions of the Lord’s covenant (Deut. 17:9–11; 24:8). They were the recognized custodians (Jer. 18:18; Ezek. 7:26) of the Law of God, or Torah, a word that actually means “teaching” or “instruction.” When the people were without a “teaching priest,” the worship of the Lord lapsed into a state of decay (2 Chron. 15:3). Ezra the priest was “a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6), whose desire was to teach the Law to Israel. In fact, the Persian ruler Artaxerxes commissioned him for this very task (Ezra 7:25). The priesthood preserved the covenant traditions in both oral and written form and probably was responsible specifically for transmitting the historical and instructional material found in the Pentateuch. Ezra also produced the history of the Chronicler (i.e., Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah), which could have been based on archival records deposited at the sanctuary, as well as on the books of Samuel and Kings.

The High Priest

A special aura surrounded the high priest. He might marry only a virgin from a priestly family (Lev. 21:10–14). A person accused of manslaughter was safe from the avenger in a designated city of refuge, provided he did not leave the city until the death of the high priest in office at the time (Num. 35:25–28). It was the role of the high priest to enter the Most Holy Place, or inner sanctuary, on the Day of Atonement with fire from the altar, incense, and blood from the sacrifices (Lev. 16). The high priest also had the sacred lot, by means of which he executed a decision in difficult cases of judgment (Exod. 28:30; Neh. 7:65).

The high priests periodically worked with Judean kings in programs for the reform and restoration of worship. For example, during the interregnum of Athaliah, the priests concealed the young Joash, heir to the Davidic throne, in the temple; Jehoiada the high priest played a key role in the coup d’état that restored the Davidic monarchy and in the religious restoration that followed (2 Kings 11). When the temple was being repaired early in the reign of Josiah, Hilkiah the high priest found the neglected Book of the Law in the temple and brought it to the attention of the king. The discovery led to a renewal of the covenant and the restoration of temple worship (2 Kings 22:1–23:25). In the postexilic period, the prophet Zechariah saw a vision of Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor, who was in the Davidic line, as “the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth” (Zech. 4:14). Encouraged also by the prophet Haggai (Hag. 2:4), Joshua and Zerubbabel worked together to rebuild the house of God (Hag. 1:14). Ezra, priest, and scribe of the Law, led the people in an extended act of confession, the renewal of the covenant, and a pledge to support the service of the house of God (Neh. 8–10).