The Development of Worship in the Bible

One of the best ways to introduce the idea of diachronic development is to focus on what we mean by each of these words. Our English term “diachronic” derives from two Greek words: first, the preposition dia which often means “through,” or “throughout”; and second, the Greek noun chronos which means “time.” Diachrony is a concern with the passage of time.

In the first place, worship began in the days of Adam and Eve when God set them within his holy garden. Listen to the record of Genesis 2:15:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

The language used to describe Adam and Eve’s work in the Garden is unusual. It appears elsewhere in the Pentateuch in places like Numbers 3:7-8 and 8:26, where Moses described Levitical service in the tabernacle. Moses’ use of the language of tabernacle worship to describe Adam and Eve in the Garden indicates that Moses saw a typological connection between the Garden of Eden and the tabernacle. This typology is confirmed by the fact that the architecture and decorations of the tabernacle itself reflected the paradise of the Garden of Eden.

The way Moses described the activities of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden indicates that the theological structure of worship began with the Garden of Eden. When humanity was cast out of the Garden, a diachronic development in worship took place. As the examples of Abel, Seth, Noah and Abraham indicate, God called for his people to continue worshiping him outside of the Garden by building altars for worship in different places.

Later when God called Israel out of Egypt and made a covenant with them at Sinai, another significant diachronic development took place in worship. Israel’s worship was centralized at the tabernacle around the ark of the covenant, God’s royal footstool on earth.

Then, once Israel had settled in the land, another diachronic development in worship took place. God called for his people to transfer the ark of the covenant and to worship at the permanent structure of the temple in Jerusalem.

Finally, after the Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel announced a new revelation regarding worship. He predicted that after the exile an even greater temple would be built when David’s kingship and Jerusalem were restored. Not surprisingly, during the days of Zerubabbel, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah insisted that those who had returned to the land of promise after exile were to build a new temple for the worship of God.

So, then we see a serial typology among the various theological structures of worship beginning with the Garden of Eden, and extending to the temple of Zerubabbel.

As we know God ordained a system of animal sacrifices and worship to deal with the reality of sin in the world, first at the Tabernacle and later and the Temple in Jerusalem.

In Colossians 2:17, Paul identified the type of Old Testament ceremonial law as “a shadow of the things that were to come.” His metaphor of shadow suggests that the ceremonies of the Old Testament resulted from realities in Christ as the one in whom every facet of Old Testament hope found fulfillment."