The Battle Over Worship

The entire great controversy between Yahushua and Satan, at its most basic level, is over the issue of worship. The day upon which you choose to worship, reveals which Deity/deity you are worshipping.

From Genesis to Revelation, this is a recurring theme. In the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, there is a very interesting passage explaining the reason for Satan's fall:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of El: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High (verses 12-14.)

It was in aspiring to be "like the Most High" that Lucifer broke the first and greatest commandment: "Thou shalt love Yahuwah thy Eloah with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment" (Matt. 22:37 & 38.) Lucifer did not want to simply be like Yahuwah in character; if that had been his desire, he would never have rebelled. Instead, he coveted the honor and worship that were due to the Creator alone.

The statement: "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation" is very revealing. The word here translated "congregation" is mo'ed.

Mo'ed means "appointed place of meeting." . . . The word mo'ed keeps its basic meaning of "appointed," but varies as to what is agreed upon or appointed according to the context: the time, the place or the meeting itself . . . The meaning of mo'ed is fixed within the context of Israel's religion (The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words.)

Mo'ed often designates a determined time or place without any regard for the purpose. Since the Jewish festivals occurred at regular intervals, this word becomes closely identified with them . . . Mo'ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself. [Yahuwah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of [Yahuwah's] people (Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, "Lexical Aids to the Old Testament," 1626, emphasis supplied.)

The word mo'ed, then, is commonly used to refer to worship times. Satan is saying, in Isaiah 14, that he will be like the Most High because he will sit on the mount of the congregation – the mountain of mo'ed, the mountain of worship. He will establish when to worship, and by virtue of exercising that power, steal the right to be worshiped.

The first time that mo'ed appears in the Bible is in Genesis 1:14: "And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years."

The word translated "seasons" is mo'ed. Right in the middle of Creation week, Holy Scripture records that one of the purposes of the lights in the heavens was for determining mo'ed – when the appointed time for worship should be. This is affirmed in Psalm 104:19 – "He appointed the moon for seasons." Again, the word "seasons" is mo'ed while the word "appointed" means to do, make or create. Yahuwah created the moon for the express purpose of establishing the times of worship.

Which times of worship? They are all listed in Leviticus 23. Most of the chapter is taken up with listing the yearly feasts: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles. However, the very first feast listed is the seventh-day Sabbath:

And Yahuwah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of Yahuwah, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of Yahuwah in all your dwellings (Leviticus 23:1-3.)

The word here translated "feasts" is, again, mo'ed: worship times.

Daniel 7:25 speaks of Satan's use of a religious and political power to try to change the law of the Heavenly Father: "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws." In the Knox translation, Satan's intent is stated even more clearly: "He shall insult the Most High, he shall torment/wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and he shall attempt to change the calendar and the ordinance." Satan, in his efforts to usurp Yahuwah's authority has not only thought to change times and laws – he has done it. He has masterfully diverted the attention of all those who sincerely desire to keep the true Sabbath. The focus has been on a Saturday versus Sunday confrontation. No one has seen that it is much larger than that. Counterfeit worship requires a counterfeit calendar. The Julian calendar, from which the modern Gregorian calendar comes, has usurped the original luni-solar calendar established by the Creator at the beginning of this world. The day on which you worship, calculated by which calendar you use, reveals whether you are pledging your allegiance to your Creator, or to that power, the deity of this earth, which has set itself up in opposition to the Yahuwah, the Creator of heaven, earth, the seas, and all that is in them.