Exploring The Mind of God (Hebrew Word Study)نموونە

Air Kiss

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  (John 4:23 KJV)

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.    —Ingrid Bergman

As I have traveled around visiting various churches, I have found that many of the worship leaders were apparently hired or given the position to lead worship solely due to their musical ability. Many worship leaders tend to lack a biblical perspective on the nature of worship. I remember one worship leader who felt sorry for a worship leader in another church who could not find a good drummer. He truly felt that without a drummer, their worship would suffer. (I wanted to ask if he felt such empathy for King David, who did not have the benefit of electric guitars and keyboards.) My point is that it seems even our leaders spend little time trying to understand what true worship really is. Most tend to go with what seems to work or what others are doing. But who am I to criticize? I find myself disappointed in a worship service if they don’t play music to my liking.

What Is True Worship?

How can we identify true worship? I think of the woman at the well, who was from Samaria and was under the impression that worship could take place only in a certain geographical location. Her worship leaders said Samaritans could worship on a specific mountain, but the Jews said worship should take place in Jerusalem. Even in those days, people differed on the correct way to worship. But Jesus revealed to this woman what true worship is. (See John 4:5–26.) He told her that worship is not a geographical location, but rather a matter of the heart, and that true worshippers “worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”

The Greek word translated “worship” in John 4:23 intrigues me. The word is proskyneo, which is a compound word, combining pros, denoting “throw” or “toward,” with kyneo, meaning “kiss.” Thus, to worship is to essentially throw a kiss to God.

It is helpful to look at some cultural background regarding this Greek word. In the Aramaic, the word is segad, which comes from a term borrowed from Middle Egyptian. When the Egyptians worshipped their gods, they would breathe onto the idol through their nostrils, and that was considered an “air kiss.” So, air passing through the nostrils became known as segad, or an air kiss. Later, in the Greek, it was known as a proskyneo, which, being interpreted, means “to worship.”

Purified Motives

In Genesis 2:7, when God created the first human being, He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the nashem, or breath, of life. Yet, when we worship God “in spirit and in truth,” we are not worshipping God with our nashem, or natural breath, but with rucha, which is the Hebrew word used for the Ruch Kodesh, or the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot worship the Lord. If we allow the Spirit to take control of our lives, He will draw from us our love for God.

In Mark 9:39, Jesus said something interesting about an individual who was not one of His disciples but was casting out demons in His name: “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me” (NASB). Jesus indicated that if you are working and performing miracles in His name, such service will purify your motives.

I sort of censured worship leaders at the beginning of this study, so let me qualify my statements with the following: There may be some worship leaders who are frustrated rock star wannabes or who merely desire to show off their talents. There may also be worshippers who seek to impress others with their holiness by loud expressions of praise or performing physical contortions. If they are expressing the name of Jesus, then perhaps, rather than hinder them, we need to let the Holy Spirit purify their motives. For it is only by the Holy Spirit that any of us can worship God in truth.

In Aramaic, the word for “truth” is sharara, which means “to be tightly bound together.” It is like strands of fabric tightly bound with each other to form a rope. Sharar is the word used to express that tight bonding, a bonding that nothing can break. When we segad, or worship God, giving Him an air kiss and sharing the life of His Spirit with Him, we create a bond with the Lord that can never be broken.

Therefore, worship is segad sharara, that is, allowing the Holy Spirit to bind us tightly with God. The more tightly we are bonded with God, the more we will know His mind; and the more we know the mind of God, the purer our motives will become.