And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14: 17
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
Deuteronomy 11:10-21
Worship plays an important role in our Christian life and the first thing I want you to notice is what the prophet Zechariah unveiled to us
No worship = No rain
In the Scriptures, rain is very important and very symbolic of
- Open heaven
- Harvest
- Blessings
Worship will open the rain over your life and bring rain in its due season thus breaking the spirit of delay.
Gather corn wine and oil
Eat and be full
Combining the two portions of the Scriptures from Zechariah and and Deuteronomy, we can conclude
- No worship = no rain
- No rain = Shut or closed heaven
- Closed heaven = plague
- Closed heaven -= no land yield
- No land yield = no harvest
- No harvest = perish quickly
God is the one who gives rain and he does so because of our worship. So worship is consequential and we want to define what it is. I want to define worship to you from Hebrew, Greek and english in order for you to have a rounded understanding of worship.
Hebrew definition
Worship : שָׁחָה shâchâh, shaw-khaw'; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.
Shâchâh was the first and more prominent used in the Hebrew Scripture for the word worship.
A - To worship is to position yourself as an inferior(lesser) before a superior (greater)
B -Worship is a condition of the heart, an internal disposition that manifests externally.
C- We were created to worship God.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4: 11
Another Hebrew word for worship is Cagad meaning to prostrate oneself. The word prostrate has the following explanations
- Lying at length, or with the body extended on the ground.
- Lying at mercy, as a supplicant.
- Lying in the posture of humility of adoration.
Greek Definition
The Greek word for worship is Proskuneo (pros-koo-neh’-o) a combination of two Greek words, Pros meaning to or towards and kuneo meaning to kiss . It also means,
- To kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand; to fawn or crouch to – ie to prostrate oneself in homage,
- o kiss forward
English Definition The English word worship is revealing and enlightens our understanding. Worship comes from the Anglo-Saxon compound word, weorthscype.
The first part of this word, weorth, speaks of "worth, value, or respect."
The second part, -scype or -scipe, meant "to shape or to build something and ship.’
When the two words were combined into weorthscype, it formed a word which meant "to shape or build worth, value, or respect.”