1. Hebrew Worship: God Came • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 1 1. Hebrew Worship: God Came Our project of battling the Egyptian Curse and bringing in the Egyptian Blessing over the SLG tribe is far from over. We had some strong initial successes but then the enemy unleashed some counter strategies, and our warfare prayers have not had as much power lately. They have tended a bit toward information and petition, not power. With that in mind, we are changing our tactic as well and focusing on how God taught the spiritually illiterate Hebrews how to worship Him. Each of these blessings will be very personal from my life. I encourage you to take the time to dig in and dress up the concepts with real life experiences from your own journey. The beginning point for the journey toward skilled and variegated worship was the burning bush. And the core point here is that God came to Moses, on his turf, without Moses specifically asking. The God Who Responds is emotionally immense for us. The Hebrews in the brickyards were crying out to God for intervention. The evidence is that Moses felt himself somewhat alienated from the God of his fathers, and consigned to simply exist – surviving without thriving in the wilderness. Against that backdrop, the God Who Initiates is a monumental object of our worship. Imagine world history if God had waited for Moses to ask Him to come explore Moses’ apparently lost birthright! Historically there are a few examples that touch me emotionally in a very deep place. I suggest you explore your own Biblical Hall of Fame and draw out the stories that dance and sparkle for you. These are mine and while I try to be contagious for those who have no spark, if you already have a hot spot for the God Who Initiates, by all means use your own stories. -Pre-creation. And the earth was without form and void . . . Into THAT ugliness, God came. He didn’t send an angel. He didn’t look from heaven. He came. He moves toward brokenness with fierce in- tentionality. Before He made anything beautiful, He came and savored the full awfulness of the awful. God came! I can worship on THAT theme. -Abram had lived carefully as a Giver who was a resident alien in the land, with no civil rights and no standing army. When Lot got himself in trouble, Abram rescued him and, in the process, disrupted the equilibrium he had created. He now had a price on his head and some serious enemies among the neighboring kings. Next spring, there would be trouble.