Dancing to worship the Lord
Our good and perfect God has given us a body with the dexterity to move in the most graceful and dramatic of ways. Movement and dance can express our thoughts and emotions in ways that words cannot. In biblical history, we see that people danced during the feasts of the Lord and after the defeat of their enemies. The prophetess Miriam and other women danced to rejoice over God’s salvation as their former Egyptian slave masters drowned in the Red Sea. We see that King David leapt and whirled before the Lord in dance, as the ark of the covenant was brought back into Israel. Even John, the Baptist, leapt in his mother’s womb as she was filled with the Holy Spirit after Mary, Jesus’ mother, greeted her. All their worship involved movement. When we experience a touch from God and are filled with the Holy Spirit, we too will be moved to worship the Lord with not only our words, but also our bodies. Dance in worship will be restored to the Lord’s house before Jesus returns as seen from the prophetic meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Exodus 15:19-20 NKJV For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
2 Samuel 6:16 NKJV Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
Luke 1:41-45 NKJV And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
God ordained three feasts as ‘dance festivals’
When God established the nation of Israel as a special treasured people, He ordained several feasts for them to observe every year as holy ‘convocations’. The word ‘convocation’ conveys the idea of a rehearsal. God commanded Israel to ‘rehearse’ these feasts every year and it was a statute that they were to keep forever.
Deuteronomy 7:6 NKJV “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Leviticus 23:1-2 NKJV And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.
Leviticus 23:31 NKJV You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
What the people did not know at the time was that these feasts were a prophetic foretelling of Jesus’ time on earth. They were rehearsing celebrations of key messianic milestones hundreds of years before their Saviour was born!
Jesus fulfilled the first four feasts at His own coming, and is slated to fulfill the remaining three feasts at His second coming.
- Passover (Leviticus 23:6; Numbers 28:16-25) | The day Jesus had His last supper with the disciples and introduced communion
- Feast of Unleavened Bread ** (Leviticus 23:6) | Jesus was crucified as the sinless ‘spotless lamb’ was during this seven-day feast
- Feast of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10) | The day Jesus resurrected from the grave
- Feast of Weeks / Pentecost ** (Leviticus 23:15-22, Deuteronomy 16:9–10) | The day the Holy Spirit fell on all the disciples in the Upper Room
- Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24, Numbers 29:1–6))
- Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16,23:26-32, Numbers 29:7–11)
- Feast of Tabernacles ** (Leviticus 23:33–36, 40, 42–43; Numbers 29:12–40)
As the Son of God, Jesus observed the feasts His Father in heaven had commanded His treasured people to remember and honour. By doing so, He set an example for all of us to follow. We too are God’s special treasure.
Mark 14:12 NKJV Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?”
Titus 2:14 NKJV who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Out of these seven feasts, three of them** specifically required God’s people to gather at the Tabernacle or Temple to celebrate. At that time, many people were scattered far and wide in other nations but they would faithfully converge in Jerusalem three times a year for these feasts.
** The Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and Feast of Tabernacles.
These great feasts were not solemn events but boisterous and celebratory in nature. They were called “chagag” in Hebrew, which means “to celebrate, dance, keep, hold a solemn feast holiday.” Chagag involved moving in a circle, marching in a sacred procession, and reeling to and fro. These feasts were in essence, like ‘dance festivals’.
We often associate ‘holiness’ with solemness but this is not the picture God’s Word gives us. God’s holy convocations were joyous and jubilant, marked by song and dance.
Leviticus 23:4 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times
We also see this type of atmosphere in the Tabernacle that king David built. David appointed musicians with harps, cymbals, trumpets and flutes to create a joyous and celebratory atmosphere in the temple. There was often dancing with timbrels all day and all night long. Imagine walking past the Temple during those times. Who wouldn’t be drawn in to worship together in such an atmosphere!
1 Chronicles 16:4-7 NKJV And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obededom: and Jeiel with psalteries and with harps; but Asaph made a sound with cymbals; Benaiah also and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God. Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.
Psalm 150:1-5 NKJV Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
Here are some other examples of dancing in the Bible.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 NKJV A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
- Personal worship dances | King David is an example of someone who danced before the Lord regularly, as we can see from the Psalms he wrote | Psalm 30:11 NKJV You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
- Warfare dances | God’s people danced in times of war, praising God for being with them as they held their swords in their hands. | Psalm 149:3,6-7 NKJV Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;
- Victory dances | Women would come out of the cities to sing and dance to welcome their victorious warriors back home | 1 Samuel 18:6-7 NKJV Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced, and said: “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.”
- Celebratory dances | People who experienced a touch of God, such as the lame man who was healed, would leap around and praise God | Acts 3:6-9 NKJV Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.
The dance rehearsal for the big celebration when Jesus returns
Of the three “chagags”, the Feast of Tabernacles is a rehearsal before the promised Messianic age, where all nations will converge in the new Jerusalem to worship Jesus. Of all the God-ordained feasts that Jesus’ followers will celebrate, this is the one with the greatest prophetic significance to us.
As New Testament believers, we will be part of that Feast where the redeemed will “chagag” when Jesus comes back, as prophesied in Zechariah 14. We will dance, march in sacred possessions, and reel to and fro in celebration. Even nature will rejoice and clap their hands at the return of the Lord. What more those who love Jesus and have been waiting eagerly for His return? Many will be dancing with all their might, just as David did when the ark returned to Israel. It is time for believers to celebrate dance as part of their worship of Jesus, our Lord and coming King.
Revelation 21:9-10,24-26 NKJV Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God… And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
Psalm 98:4-9 NKJV Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, With the harp and the sound of a psalm, With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell in it; Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, And the peoples with equity.
2 Samuel 6:13-15 NKJV And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
The spiritual nature of dance in pagan cultures
Dance also plays a significant role in idol worship, witchcraft, ancestor worship, and various forms of the occult. One example from the Bible is the dancing that Moses discovered in the Israelite camp when some of them began to worship a golden calf, while he was away on Mount Sinai conversing with God. Another example is when the prophets of Baal leaped and danced around the altar for Baal, calling on their demon god from morning till noon. This is not too different from the tribal dances in different cultures today.
Exodus 32:17-21 NKJV And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said: “It is not the noise of the shout of victory, Nor the noise of the cry of defeat, But the sound of singing I hear.” So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
1 Kings 18:25-26 NKJV Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
Across the world, dance is used to summon ancestral spirits, animist spirits, weather gods etc. The earliest records of dance in China, for example, are associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals. The Chinese character for sorcerer, wu (巫) shows two dancing shamans with long sleeves communicating between the gods and people.
Dance is also used to initiate people into various groups, to re-enact idolatrous myths, to honour the dead, and to celebrate certain pagan festivals. We also see dance used in sex clubs as a tool of seduction or during hedonistic festivals to help people “let loose”. Some people fall into a hypnotic state as they dance to certain types of chanting or “enchanted” music.
How does this affect believers?
When Jesus died for our sins, He purchased our bodies with His blood and we grieve the Spirit of God when we participate in such dances or condone them. We are called to glorify God with our bodies and spirit, rather than be associated or yoked with such idolatry, because they are inspired by a different spirit (as Testimony 2 below demonstrates).
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NKJV Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”
If we have used our bodies in ungodly ways and desire to repent, we can simply go before our gracious Father, who is full of mercy, and ask for His forgiveness for our past ignorance and transgression.
Then we ought to pray to remove all footholds that we may have given unclean spirits, such as the Baal demons that the prophets called on as they danced. We do so by repenting of subjecting our bodies to dance and music that is idolatrous, cutting spiritual ties with those at the dance and the places we went to (particularly if there were “priests” involved), and the spirits honoured through the dance. Then we command all related unclean spirits to leave us in Jesus’ name. We will find that our spirits are refreshed as we do so.
Testimony 1: Using dance to express a heartfelt, wordless prayer
“A friend had been grieving over a breakup and could not be consoled. I did know what else to say to comfort her.
Then I remembered I had heard that we can use our bodies to express our prayers in ways that words alone cannot, so I decided to give it a try. I asked my friend if I could dance my prayer for her with some instrumental worship music in the background, and she agreed. She dances too and I felt she would appreciate such a prayer.
So I freely expressed my prayer through silent movement. I asked God to use a thread from heaven to mend her heart and brush off the burdens from her shoulders, and then to give her a new heart and a new hope, and to open a new path in front of her.
It was such a powerful experience for both of us! We felt the spiritual environment literally change around us. Things felt brighter and lighter.
My friend said she felt comforted and lighter afterwards. Thank God!”
Testimony 2: Discovering spiritual defilement from dancing in clubs
“In my 20s, I used to go clubbing every Friday night with my single friends. It was a way to catch up and de-stress after a week of work. Gradually, as my friends began to settle down, they no longer joined me. I found myself still going on my own to our “favourite club”. It wasn’t the drugs, alcohol or social scene that drew me, it was the dancing. I loved dancing to electronic music. The big negative of this was that I would go home smelling of cigarettes even though I don’t smoke.
I gave my life to Jesus in my 40s, and began to learn about spiritual things. By that time, I had stopped clubbing for over a decade.
When a friend told me that dancing in clubs invited unclean spirits into me, I would not believe her. What is wrong with dancing in a secular setting? It was not in a temple. But something unexplainable happened to me that changed my mind.
My husband and I were walking past a local music festival one night. We could hear all the different music performances within the fairground. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until I heard electronic music. I felt my body automatically being drawn to it and wanting to move and dance, even though my head didn’t want me to. It felt as if someone else was in control! There was definitely something spiritual going on.
When I went home, I immediately repented before God for dancing to ungodly music with hedonistic lyrics and cut all spiritual ties with all the clubs I had gone to. I felt relieved, as if something had left my body.
Now when I worship and praise God, I find myself swaying and moving with great joy and freedom. When I am alone, I break out into dance in my living room. I feel like the Lord has redeemed my inborn love for dance to be used to honour Him instead. It is a wonderful experience.”