God crated man to be in His presence (Eden), to fellowship worship Him. There is no shalom in life when we do not give God proper worship. We connect with God through altar worship (a sacred space or thing dedicated for God).

Leviticus 22 expounds on how the Israelites were supposed to worship God in a way that depicted His Divine nature.

In verse 2 God demanded respect and honour from the priests who were handling the sacred items brought to his altar. The offerings were not to bring shame to His Holy name for, “He is the LORD.”

Verse 3: No one would be allowed to make offerings when unclean, and verse 6 shows that in such a case, priests would have to bath first.

v7: After bathing, one could have fellowship with God by partaking/eating the show bread (a foreshadow of Jesus)

***Likewise, today we can only have fellowship and proper worship through cleansing of the Holy Spirit.

Verses 4-8 lists how one would be unclean or defiled in the Old Testament. Jesus in Matthew 15:18-20 shows how one can be defiled in the New Testament. What Jesus meant was that, God is interested with the motive far beyond the physical rituals. Cleansing is only possible when one confesses sin according to 1 John 1:9.

Verses 17-25 expounds on deep truths about the kind of animals were to be brought for sacrifice or as an offering. This shows that God wants us not to assume anything when coming into his presence. **God is that keen to details**

– Only perfect animals were to be sacrificed.

– Animals with defects were not acceptable as sacrifices because they did not represent God’s Holy and Perfect Nature.

– The sacrificial animals had to be without defect/blemish in order to foreshadow the sinless sacrifice of Jesus.

– This shows that true worship is giving God our best of time, talents, tithes rather than what is tarnished or common.  This demonstrates God’s supreme worth.

***What kind of Quality does God see in your WORSHIP??

We see s selfless act of Devotion by women paying homage to Jesus before his crucifixion.

• Luke 7:36 – 50 An immoral woman wipes Jesus feet with her tears and hair and anoints him with expensive oil. She actually interrupts a parts in order to worship Jesus, and she receives forgiveness of sin.
• Matthew 26:6-13 An unnamed woman worships Jesus by wiping his feet with her tears and hair. Jesus said, this woman did a good thing.
• Mark 14:3-9 An unnamed woman worships Jesus by wiping his feet with her tears and hair, and pours expensive oil on him.
• John 12:1-8 Mary worships Jesus by wiping his feet with her tears and hair, and opens/breaks her bottle and pours expensive oil and the whole house was filled with fragrance.

***The spirit of Cain now in Judas opposed these women devotion. He became angry for he was only thinking about money** His heart was far away from Jesus. This spirit even today opposes true worship – the spirit of the Anti Christ.

In 2 Samuel 24:18-25, David refused to offer a sacrifice to God that cost him nothing. A sad reality today, how we come to worship God empty handed and empty hearted.

Effects of Defiled Worship:

Malachi 2:13 and 1:10 – God was no longer looking with FAVOUR upon the Israelites sacrifices because they did not meet his standards.  As a result, they would fill the altar of God with tears and wailing, but he would not listen. Actually he had commanded that the temple door be shut for he no longer desired their worship.

Amos 5:21 – 27 – God hates hypocritical worship, for he knows men’s motives beyond rituals. He said, for 40 years, the Israelites were not worshiping him, though in pretext it appeared so. Rather, they were worshiping Idols.

Isaiah 1:11 – 17 – God called their worship meaningless for they were worshiping him with their lips only, but their hearts were far from him.