Did you ever stop to think . . .

Did you ever stop to think about the fact that the worship of Yahweh predates any codified forms of worship of Him?

Let it sink in.

Good. Now that you've thought about it for a second, you're probably saying "Well, yeah, cause Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all worshiping God before Mosaic Law was put down in writing." And to that I would say that's true; but there's more. Given a little more thought you would probably come up with Melchizedek, the king of Salem talked about in Genesis 14 and Hebrews 7, who was called a priest of God and to whom Abraham presented a tithe as tribute to God. So, Melchizedek was obviously also a worshiper of Yahweh before a written religion existed. You might also think about Job: if you didn't know, Job (by scholars best estimates) was a contemporary of the patriarchs. This means he, too, worshiped God without a written prescription to follow. And, it also means that he did a good enough job of worshiping and loving God that He chose to allow Job to be tried by Satan while He was off forming the nation of Israel through the patriarchs.

So, what on the face of God's green earth is Euphrony getting at?

Good question. I was thinking about this this week, and my thoughts turned to wondering this: what did worship of Yahweh look like before a canonical set of scriptures existed, over which we could argue the meaning, ad nauseam? (I'm not trying to say that scripture is bad - far from it, I cherish the words God has passed on to us. It's just that I'm trying really hard to not make my religion worship of that scripture rather than worship of God. So I think about questions like how Job or Abraham or Adam or Enos worshiped Yahweh.)

Me, I cannot help but think that the worship of someone like Job was characterized by compassion, love and generosity, conversation with God, care for mankind, and humility (like the denial of the importance of my own plans in favor of whatever God brings to my life). Sure, I bet there were "traditions" even then, but somehow I like to believe that it was less fractious than it is these days.

I was also thinking that this is what we have been talking about for the last 40 days, with the 40 Day Fast. And it is what we try to talk about all the time on Inspired to Action. Setting aside myself to save the life - temporal and eternal - of God's children in need of Him. It's been a great 40 days, and I hope that everyone reading this on my goofy blog has also been following along, at least some, with the great things that the 78+ people have had to talk about - talking about the work of God, the worship of God, and the needs of His children here on earth.

What do you think? Have you ever considered these questions? What do you think worship was like pre-Bible? What have been your impressions of the 40 Day Fast - have you been inspired to do something?