The people of Israel had been at the base of My Sinai for almost a year. They were gathering material for the tabernacle for the moment they could begin to offer worship to God. The first instance of worship in the Bible was an animal slaughtered and sacrificed upon an altar. (Genesis 4.4). There was no music, no choir and no shouts of praise, just shaky blood-stained hands, and a carcass dead on an altar.  The worshipper was saying to God, “I offer this as a substitute for myself.”

The Hebrew word for sacrifice is “Holo” (from where we get the word Holocaust) and literally means slaughter; something that has been killed and offered to God.  A sacrifice couldn’t be used for anything but had to be consumed in the crackling fire.  Moses’ tabernacle contained some horrible sights; blood, knives, searing meat, smoke and cattle standing around to be killed, but later on King David changed all that.  David about 400 years later realised God would rather have the whole heart of a living man offered to Him (a living sacrifice) than the lifeless carcass of a bull or a goat. (Psalms 51:15-16).  As we worship, we place ourselves “upon the altar” as a willing offering to God; it is the sacrificing of our lives to the one who is worthy (Romans 12.1).  It is not necessarily musical in anyway.  Unlike praise you can’t see or hear worship. Worship is an attitude toward God, in the heart and spirit of a person.

We can come to church, sing, and shout praise to God but if there is no complete surrender, we haven’t worshipped. Only God can see worship and it is our worship that ratifies our praise.