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Orange Immortal [67936]
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Accepting that they mean different things, which does God prefer?
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Nov 3, 2025, 2:54 PM
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Being worshipped? Being obeyed? Or being loved?
When I think of worship, it's hard for me to understand why God would desire to have people bowing and swooning and acknowledging his greatness. Seems more like the kind of thing ancient, insecure warrior kings would want.
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Re: Accepting that they mean different things, which does God prefer?
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Nov 3, 2025, 6:12 PM
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What an interesting question.
There are cases where God says he loves us, like Jer 31:3
"The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love..."
And people, like Moses and others, who tell US to love God, like in Deut 6:5.
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
But I can't find anywhere where God says he WANTS love. He gives it, and he will accept it, but he doesn't seem to want, or need it. Worship, or obedience, on the other hand...
Jeremiah 12:17
"But if they will not listen, then I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it," declares the Lord.
Leviticus 26:14
"But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength."
Ezekiel 18:30
"Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways... Repent!"
Lots and lots of examples of God wanting worship and obedience.
If I had to rank them I'd say Obedience, then Worship, then Love.
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Re: Accepting that they mean different things, which does God prefer?
Nov 3, 2025, 6:24 PM
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On a related note, God is pretty picky about worship and sacrifices (just ask Cain and Abel, right?)
Isaiah 1:11 "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offerings... I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats."
Jeremiah 7:21 "Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, but this is what I commanded them: OBEY my voice, and I will be your God."
Amos 5:21-23: "I hate, I reject your festivals; I do not delight in your assemblies. Even if you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them."
So everything has to be just so, and you have to mean it, not just go through the motions. So I'll still stick with Obedience, Worship, and Love, in that order.
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Re: Accepting that they mean different things, which does God prefer?
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Nov 3, 2025, 6:44 PM
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On warrior kings, yeah, I definitely see that.
That was the power structure at the time, and for a long time to come. Big man, little man. Even in carvings and illustrations, size=power.
Who's the most important guy in this picture, and who's the least important:
So it's in those terms that the Hebrews (and Babylonians, and Egyptians), etc., tried to explain forces they could not understand. They had to use terms they COULD understand (just like Opie.) And so, you get interpretations like a gargantuan THOR riding through the universe on a chariot.
Now, that particular description (or any other one for that matter) has no real bearing on whether God actually exists or not. But, it is a description of the forces or powers they perceived to be attributed to, or evidence of, God.
The thinking probably went, "I know when I strike an anvil it makes a loud sound. So, thunder must be a REALLY big guy, with a REALLY big hammer, striking an anvil in the sky. What other explanation for thunder could there be? Big sound = Big man, or God."
But again, God could very well exist independent of ALL our attempts to describe him. Whether we do so via Chariot riders in the sky or burning bushes or floating clouds or lotus plants in ponds. We are limited not only by our senses, and our mind, but our descriptive examples, as well.
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Orange Immortal [67936]
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And that's sort of my point.
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Nov 3, 2025, 7:11 PM
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We have created God in OUR image, or at least based on how we imagine the most powerful being in existence would be.
And I agree 100%, that doesn't by any means mean that God does not exist and is just something we've made up. It just means that it's likely that we're just doing the best we can to describe him.
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