The First Worship Service – Worship Gone Wrong

 Introduction

Many of us, when we read the first few chapters of Genesis, feel like we have a good grasp of what is happening in the text. God creates the world in six (literal 24-hour) days. God creates Adam and Eve. God enters into what theologians have coined the Covenant of Works (or Covenant of Life), promising life upon the faith of Adam expressed through obedience (not eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil prematurely), and threatening death upon breaking the covenant (eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil prematurely).[1]The serpent deceives Adam and Eve and thus break the Covenant. Yahweh pronounces the Protoevangelion, "I will put enmity between your seed and her seed" (Genesis 3:15). Adam and Eve are sent out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24). If we are good students of the Bible, we might even point out that the revelation of the Trinity in its first three verses (Genesis 1:1-3). All in all, Genesis 1-3 is straightforward. But what if I were to tell you something huge is happening in this passage? And what if I were to tell you that that huge thing happening in this passage is a worship service? The very first worship service? A worship service that went terribly wrong. The beginning chapters of Genesis give us a microcosmic picture of what Yahweh desires for His creation, to take dominion of the world, re-creating and shaping it to conform to the Kingdom of God. Part of that commission, and I would argue, the spearhead of this commission, is the worship of the people of God. When God's people gather to worship our Triune God, attending to the symbols God has given us (God's people, God's Word, and God's Sacraments), the world is changed. And that is what we see here in Genesis. When Yahweh came into the Garden, He came so that Adam and Eve would worship Him. But, because of sin, this first worship service, though instructive for us, is a worship service none of us would want to have been a part of.[2]

It’s a worship service gone wrong.

The Day of Worship

It can be strongly argued from the text, that much time had not elapsed between the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin. After Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the text tells us that Adam and Eve "heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze" (Genesis 3:8 CSB).[3]Another way to render "the evening breeze" is "in the wind of the day." The word "wind" in Hebrew is ruach, the same word used for the Holy Spirit. So, it can be argued, that when Yahweh comes into the Garden, He is coming in "the Spirit of the Day." God is coming by His Spirit to meet with God's people. We, as Western Reformed Christians, confess that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore, where the Spirit is, the Father and the Son are. Yahweh coming into the Garden, is the Triune God appearing before Adam and Eve for a worship service, and this service is taking place on the day of rest, and in the Spirit of our God.[4]

The Call to Worship

We know from Genesis 3 that when Yahweh comes to the Garden, Adam and Eve hide themselves from Him (Genesis 3:8). This should not be the case. When our God comes to visit His people on the Day of the Lord (or the Day of the Spirit), we should not hide from Him, but should long for Him. "As a hart pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."[5] But because of sin, Adam and Eve are not longing for Yahweh, they are hiding from Him. Therefore, when God appears, He is not calling longing children to Himself, He is calling enemies hiding in the shadows to Himself (what marvelous grace!), “Where are you?”

This is a worship service gone wrong.

All worship is a dialogue between the one, true, and living God and His people. God acts and speaks by His Word, and we respond. Even in their sin, when Yahweh called to Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" the response should have been like Samuel, "Here I am; you called me . . . Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:8; 10). But instead, Adam's response is "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."

This scene is a worship service gone wrong.

Confession of Sin

Yahweh has called Adam and Eve to Himself for worship. He knows they are in sin, and He calls them, by His Word, to confess their sins. "Then he asked, 'Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'" The right response of Adam should have been, "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your mercies blot out my rebellious transgressions. Thoroughly wash me from my liability and from my failure cleanse me, for my rebellious transgressions I myself acknowledge, and my failure is before me continually. Toward You, toward You alone, have I failed and what is evil in Your eyes I have done, in order that You may be righteous in Your word, and be pure in Your judgment."[6]But instead of confessing his sins to Yahweh, he passes the buck to Eve.

This is a worship service gone wrong.

God then turns His attention to Eve and calls her to confess her sins. "So the LORD God asked the woman, 'What have you done?' and the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate'" (Genesis 3:13). It is argued that Eve also passes the buck of her guilt to the serpent and that she was wrong for doing so. But I don't think this is true. The Apostles rightly interpret these passages, and make it clear that Eve was indeed deceived by the serpent (1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Corinthians 11:3). She is guilty of disobeying Yahweh, but her disobedience is in tandem with being deceived. After the serpent twisted God's Word, we read that "the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom" (Genesis 3:6). We as God's people, should always pursue that which is true, good, and beautiful. This tree was all of those things. Many believe the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a "bad tree" but the text does not tell us that. Quite the opposite. This fact is another reason why I and others believe Adam and Eve eventually would have been able to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree was good for food, beautiful to see, and granted wisdom to those who partake. These are good things, and they would've been given to Adam and Eve, just not yet. Eve wasn't deceived into eating from a bad tree but eating from a good tree prematurely. But I digress.

This is a worship service gone wrong.

The Sermon

What is happening in worship? It is God communing with His people. How do we commune with each other on the most basic level? We speak to each other. This happens in our worship every Day of the Lord. God comes, we commune with Him through prayers and songs, and then we sit down to listen to God speak to us through the sermon.

We have seen the refrain throughout, "This is a worship service gone wrong." And the same is true here.

God's sermon to Adam and Eve, if they had not fallen into sin, would have been a wonderful time of communion. But instead, Adam and Eve AND the serpent, receive a sermon of judgment.

**As a side note, the fact that the serpent (the enemy of God representing the enemies of God's people) is addressed in this worship service should show us that in our worship services, though we are God's covenant people gathered, the wicked are addressed also. Our worship is the shaking off of the dust of those outside our church doors. It is a sign of judgment against those who will not come, and welcome Jesus Christ.**

God's sermon is a sermon of judgment. He curses the serpent. He curses Eve. He curses Adam. This sermon should have been a sermon of blessing, but instead, it is a sermon of judgment.

This is a worship service gone wrong.

The Communion Meal

Many theologians have rightly pointed out that the two trees in the middle of the Garden of Eden are sacramental trees. God tells Adam that He has given him every tree in the garden for food, and this would have included the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were free to eat from the Tree of Life and should have eaten from this tree instead of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I have written on the subject of feasting in worship here. Yahweh has so designed the worship of Him to always end in a meal, and that is seen here. Yahweh has come in His Spirit to dwell among His people. He has called His people to worship. He has called them to confess their sins. He has communed with them by His Word. And now it is time for feasting . . . or it should have been. "The LORD God said, 'Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever'" (Genesis 3:22). What should have been a beautiful feast with Yahweh, has now become a non-existent meal. God is keeping Adam and Eve's hands from reaching out to the Sacramental Tree of Life.

This is a worship service gone wrong.

**As ANOTHER side note and a very important one at that, I have always been a proponent of weekly communion, and I believe this passage actually argues in favor of weekly communion. We see here to NOT have communion is a sign of judgment. In the Bible, God takes away sacramental meals from His people as a sign of judgment. So to limit God's people to monthly, quarterly, or yearly communion, is to communicate in a strange way that God's people are under judgment. I believe that is one of the many factors that feed into why we treat the Lord's Table so strangely. All of that to say, come to the Lord's Table weekly! Thank you for stopping and listening to me on my soap box!**

Benediction

Just as Yahweh called Adam and Eve into His presence, and not under the right circumstances, so Yahweh sends Adam and Eve out, and not under the right circumstances. We see throughout Scripture that God's people are always a "sent out people." Sent out with God's blessing to go out into the world to be God's blessing to the world. But even then, we are blessed and sent out into the world, only to joyfully return to the Lord's presence to be strengthened and renewed and sent out again. That is not what happens in the Garden. "So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve, though graciously clothed (and thus forgiven), they were not blessed by God to go out into the world to be a blessing to the world, and to return to the Garden. They were "drove" out. Chased out of the house. Could you imagine, after church, the elders and deacons literally chasing and shooing people out of church? That's what happened here. This was a benediction of judgment, not a benediction of blessing. And this was a benediction of no return.

This is a worship service gone wrong.

Conclusion

What do we take away from all of this? The main point is to show that from the earliest pages of Scripture, even under sinful circumstances, God has revealed to us that worship is of the highest importance to God. Worship has a liturgical structure, and we see that structure continually throughout Scripture and it has its genesis (pun intended) in Genesis 3. Though it is a worship service gone wrong, it is still a worship service. It should help our understanding of the nature and shape of worship. Worship is the Triune God coming to us by and in the power of His Spirit. It is God who calls His people to worship Him. It is God who calls us to confess our sins. It is the God who speaks His Word to us. It is God who feeds us with His food. And it is God who sends us back into the world as a blessed people to bless other people and bring them back into God's presence to do it all over again until the world is filled with the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

Finally, we see a worship service gone wrong in Genesis 3, that should propel us forward, to long for the Day of the LORD, when the seed of the woman crushes the head of the serpent, and creates a new people, who can worship God in Spirit and in Truth. And we know that this has happened through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through His life, death, and resurrection, we do not attend worship services gone wrong, but we, "in view of the mercies of God . . . present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship" (Romans 12:1). Jesus Christ is our High Priest who has entered the Holy of Holies, the throne room of God and has brought us near to God by His blood. On the Day of the Lord (or the Day of the Spirit) God gathers us together by His Word, and we longingly respond with "Amens," communing with God with His Word and with His Table. We have access to God through Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Believe this and rejoice!

Notes:

[1] I am of the same theological opinion as men such as James B. Jordan, Peter Leithart, etc. who believe that Adam eventually would have been allowed to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, after growth in grace and maturity, and all by faith in the Triune God.

[2] This article is very much in the vein and teaching of James B. Jordan’s Ten Principles of Worship.

[3] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are in accordance with the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), Holman Bible Publishers: Nashville, 2017.

[4] Credit is due to James B. Jordan for this interpretation.

[5] James B. Jordan, Psalms: Book 2, Theopolis Bible Translations No.2, Theopolis Institute: Birmingham (2019), Psalm 42.

[6] Ibid., Psalm 51.