Worship

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  Worship in Genesis: Two
  Classes of Worshipers




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 3:1–13, 4:1–4, Titus
  1:2, Gen. 6:1–8, 12:1–8, 22:1–18, 28:10–22.

  I
      t has been said that, as human beings, we need to worship
      something. What we worship . . . well, that is a different matter,
      though it is one fraught with exceedingly important consequences,
  especially in the last days, when two groups of worshipers are made
  manifest: those who worship the Creator and those who worship the
  beast and his image.
     Yet, the seeds for that contrast can be seen early on in the Bible.
  In the story of Cain and Abel, two kinds of worshipers appear, one
  worshiping the true God as He is supposed to be worshiped and one
  engaging in a false kind of worship. One is acceptable, one is not, and
  that is because one is based on salvation by faith and the other, as are
  all false forms of worship, is based on works. It is a motif that will
  appear again and again throughout the Bible. One type of worship is
  focused solely on God, on His power and glory and grace, the other
  on humanity and on self.

  Worship in Eden
    Genesis 1 records the story of Adam and Eve in their new home.
  The Creator of the universe had just designed and formed a beautiful
  new planet, crowning His work with the creation of the first family.
  The world came from Him perfect; in its own unique way, earth must
  have been an extension of heaven.
    Genesis 2:1–3 then adds another element: the setting apart and
  making holy of the seventh day, an act tied directly to His work of
  creating the heavens and the earth, the act that forms the foundation
  of the fourth commandment—a day set aside for worship in a special
  way. Though Scripture does not say, one could imagine the kind of
  worship that these sinless beings, in the perfection of creation, gave to
  their Maker, who had done so much for them. (Little did they know, at
  that time, just how much He would end up really doing for them!)

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     After the Fall a whole lot of elements that certainly were not there
  before suddenly appeared. Just like that, in a moment of disobedience,
  the entire moral fabric of these beings changed. Instead of love, trust,
  and adoration, their hearts were now filled with fear, guilt, and shame.
  Instead of desiring His holy presence, they hid from Him. For Adam
  and Eve, their relationship with God, which surely impacted how they
  worshiped Him, had been shattered. The close and intimate commu-
  nion with God they once enjoyed (Gen. 3:8) would now take a dif-
  ferent form. Indeed, when God came to them, they “hid themselves”
  from His presence. So full were they of shame, guilt, even fear, they
  fled from the One who had created them.
     What a powerful image of just what sin did—and still does—to
  us.

   Think about times in your life when some experience, perhaps
   some sin, made you feel guilt, shame, and the desire to hide
   from God. How did this affect your prayer life? What did it do
   to your ability to worship Him with your whole heart? Not a
   pleasant feeling, is it?
                                                                         7

 Worship Outside of Eden
   After their expulsion, Adam and Eve began life outside the Eden
 paradise. Though the first gospel promise was given them there, in
 Eden (Gen. 3:15), the Bible does not show us any sacrifices being
 offered until after Eden (although one could extrapolate from Genesis
 3:21 something of that nature, the text itself says nothing about
 sacrifice or worship). In Genesis 4, however, with the story of Cain
 and Abel, Genesis for the first time explicitly reveals a sacrificial
 system.

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    Cain and Abel represent two classes of worshipers that have existed
 since the Fall. Both of them built altars. Both came to worship God with
 offerings. But one offering was acceptable to God and one was not.
    What made the difference? The answer has to be understood in the
 context of salvation by faith alone, the gospel, which was first given
 to Adam and Eve in Eden, though the plan itself was formulated
 before the world began (Eph. 1:4, Titus 1:2).
    Cain’s offering represented the attempt at salvation by works, the
 foundation of all false religion and worship. The fact is that the gap
 between heaven and earth is so great, so deep, that nothing sinful
 humans do could ever bridge it. The essence of legalism, of salvation
 by works, is the human attempt to do just that.
    In contrast, Abel’s offering of an animal reveals (however faintly)
 the great truth that only the death of Christ, the One equal with God
 (Phil. 2:6), could make the sinner right with God.
    Hence, we are given a powerful lesson about worship: all true
 worship must center on the realization that we are helpless to save
 ourselves and that all our attempts at salvation by works are mani-
 festations of Cain’s action here. True worship must be based on a
 realization that only through God’s grace can we have any hope of
 eternal life.

  Examine your own thoughts, motives, and inner feelings about
  worship. How Christ-centered is your worship, or might you be
  focusing too much upon yourself?

 Two Lines of Worshipers
   In Genesis 4, we start getting a hint of the moral degradation that
 was coming after the Fall. Lamech became a polygamist and then
 got involved in some sort of violence that brought fear into his heart.
 In contrast, Genesis 4:25, 26 shows that some people were seeking
 to be faithful, for at that time “men began to call on the name of the
 Lord” (NKJV).

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   Little by little, the two classes of worshipers began to merge (Gen.
 6:1–4). Yet, in spite of the great wickedness in the earth, there were
 holy men of giant intellect who kept alive the knowledge of God.
 Though only a few of them are mentioned in Scripture, “all through
 the ages God had faithful witnesses, truehearted worshipers.”—Ellen
 G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 84. The wickedness of the
 human heart, however, became so great that the Lord had to wipe
 humanity out and start over.
   Hence, the Flood.

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   How fascinating that the first thing Noah does is worship. And
 central to that worship is the sacrifice. This is the first record of the
 patriarchs building a place of worship, an altar on which to offer their
 sacrifices. Thus, before doing anything else, Noah acknowledges his
 total dependence upon the Lord and upon the coming of the Messiah,
 who will give His life in order to redeem humanity. Noah knew that
 he was saved only through God’s grace; without it, he would have
 perished with the rest of the world.

  How do you daily show your acknowledgment of God’s grace
  in your life? Or more important, how should you show that
  acknowledgment?
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 The Faith of Abraham Read Genesis 12:1–8. What do these verses reveal about Abram
 (later Abraham) and his calling by God?

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   Abraham, a descendant of Seth, was faithful to God, even though
 some of his relatives had begun conforming to the worship of idols,
 which was so prevalent in their culture. But God called him to sepa-
 rate from his kindred and his comfortable surroundings in order to
 become the father of a nation of worshipers who would uphold and
 represent the true God.
   No doubt he and Sarah influenced many to accept the worship
 of the true God. But there was another reason, too, why God called
 Abraham to father a new nation. “ ‘Because Abraham obeyed My
 voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My
 laws’ ” (Gen. 26:5, NKJV). And another as well: “And he believed in
 the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
   At the same time, however, Abraham had some crucial and painful
 lessons to learn.

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    As we have seen, the plan of salvation centers on the death of Jesus,
 God’s Son, and from the start this death was symbolized by the sacrifi-
 cial system of worship. While the Lord wanted people to use only ani-
 mals, in the pagan cultures folk actually sacrificed their own children,
 something that God said He hated (Deut. 12:31). Whatever powerful
 personal lessons about faith and trust Abraham learned through this
 trial, this act stands through the ages as an incredibly powerful symbol
 of the centrality of the death of Christ for salvation. Abraham, we could
 imagine, got a small taste of the pain that the death of Christ must have
 caused the Father, yet only through Christ’s death could humanity be
 saved.

  Dwell on the kind of faith that Abraham exhibited there. It is
  truly amazing; one hardly can imagine it. What should this
  teach us about the weakness of our own faith? 10

 Bethel, the House of God
    Jacob and Esau, like Cain and Abel, represent two classes of
 worshipers. Esau’s bold, adventuresome spirit appealed to his
 quiet, retiring father. Jacob, on the other hand, appeared to have
 a more spiritual nature. But he also had some serious character
 flaws. Jacob wanted the birthright, which legally belonged to his
 elder twin. And he was willing to become involved in his mother’s
 deceptive scheme to obtain it. As a result, Jacob fled in terror to
 escape his brother’s anger and hatred, never to see his beloved
 mother again.

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   This is the first mention in Genesis of “the house of God” (vs. 17).
 Though for Jacob it was only a pillar of stone, Bethel became a sig-
 nificant place in sacred history. Here Jacob worshiped the God of his
 fathers. Here he made a vow of faithfulness to Him. And here, like
 Abraham, he promised to return to God a tithe—a tenth of his material
 blessings—as an act of worship.
   Notice Jacob’s sense of fear and awe because of the presence of
 God. He must have understood better than ever before the greatness
 of God in contrast to himself, and thus the Bible records his attitude
 of fear, reverence, and awe. The next thing he does is worship. Here,
 too, we see a principle regarding the kind of attitude we should have
 in worship, an attitude that is revealed in Revelation 14:7, in the call
 to “fear God.”
   Worship is not about approaching God as you would some buddy
 or pal. Our attitude should be that of a sinner in dire need of grace,
 falling before our Maker with a sense of need, fear, and gratefulness
 that God, the Creator of the universe, would love us and do so much
 in order to redeem us.

  How much awe, reverence, and fear do you have when you wor-
  ship the Lord? Or is your heart hard, cold, and ungrateful? If
  the latter, how can you change?

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Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation,” pp. 47–51;
     “The Temptation and Fall,” pp. 60–62; “Cain and Abel Tested,”
     pp. 71–74; “After the Flood,” pp. 105–107; “The Test of Faith,”
     pp. 148–153; “The Night of Wrestling,” pp. 197–203, in Patriarchs
     and Prophets.

        “[Jacob’s] vow [at Bethel] was the outflow of a heart filled with
     gratitude for the assurance of God’s love and mercy. Jacob felt that
     God had claims upon him which he must acknowledge, and that
     the special tokens of divine favor granted him demanded a return.
     So does every blessing bestowed upon us call for a response to the 1        Author of all our mercies. The Christian should often review his past
     life and recall with gratitude the precious deliverances that God has
     wrought for him. . . . He should recognize all of them as evidences
     of the watchcare of heavenly angels. In view of these innumerable
     blessings he should often ask, with subdued and grateful heart, ‘What
     shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?’ Psalm 2        116:12.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 187.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 Dwell more on the topic of how righteousness by faith in what
      Christ has done for us should be at the center of all our worship.
      As you do, dwell on these questions: (1) Why do we worship
      Him? (2) What has He done that makes Him worthy of worship?
      (3) What purpose does our worship of God serve? 3

      l
      2 How can our worship services become a more effective tool in
      witnessing to the world who God really is and what He is like?
      What elements in worship, which we have considered in this
      week’s lesson, can be especially helpful in witnessing?

      l3 Review the story of Abraham’s giving his tithe to Melchizedek
      (Gen. 14:20). In what ways is tithing an act of worship? What are
      we saying to God when we return to Him our tithe?

      l
      4 Dwell more on the idea of fear and reverence in worship. Why
      is this an important element? What’s wrong with an attitude in
      worship that seems to put God on our own level, in which we
      relate to Him in worship with the same attitude we have toward
      a good friend and nothing more?




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  Worship and the Exodus:
  Understanding Who God Is




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Exod. 3:1–15; 12:1–36;   20:4, 5; 32:1–6; 33:12–23.

  I
      n speaking to the woman at the well, Jesus said, “ ‘You worship
      what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is
      of the Jews’ ” (John 4:22, NKJV). Imagine, worshiping what you do
  not know. In a sense, that is what almost all the world has done, or per-
  haps is doing now—worshiping what they do not know. When you see
  someone bowing down and worshiping a block of stone, thinking it will
  answer their prayers, you are seeing people worshiping what they do
  not know. That is, they are worshiping what they think can bring them
  salvation but cannot. In a more modern context, people who make gods
  out of power, money, fame, and self are, likewise, worshiping what
  they do not know. They are worshiping that which cannot save them.
    In the immediate Christian context, the question for us could be: do
  we know what we are worshiping? Do we know the Lord whom we
  praise and honor with our mouths? Who is He? What is His name?
  What is He like?
    This week we will look at early accounts of the children of Israel
  and how their encounters with the Lord reveal to us more about the
  nature and the character of the God we profess to serve and worship.
  After all, what sense does it make to worship what we do not know?

 Holy Ground
    It would be one thing for Moses, living in the wilderness, to see a
 bush burning. That itself might not be such a remarkable event; he
 probably had seen things like that before. What he most likely never
 saw before, however, was that the burning bush was not consumed:
 it kept burning and burning. At that moment Moses knew that he was
 seeing a “great sight,” something remarkable, even supernatural.

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   Right from the start, we see here something of the holiness of God
 and the attitude in which we need to approach Him. It was God who
 told Moses to take off his shoes, for this was holy ground. The Lord
 was making clear the distinction between Himself—the Lord—and
 Moses, a sinner in need of grace. Reverence, awe, and fear—these
 are the attitudes that are crucial for us in order to engage in true wor-
 ship.
   Another important point is the God-centeredness of this experience.
 Moses’ first response to God was, “Who am I that I should go?” The
 focus was on himself—his needs, his weaknesses, and his fears. Soon
 after, however, he shifts from himself to God and what God would do.
 How crucial that all worship centers on the Lord, not on ourselves.
   That leads to another crucial element in worship: that of salvation
 and deliverance. The Exodus from Egypt has stood symbolically for
 the salvation we all have in Christ (1 Cor. 10:1–4). God was not
 appearing to Moses just to make Himself known; He was appearing
 to him in order to let him know of the great work of deliverance that
 He was going to do on behalf of the children of Israel. In the same
 way, Jesus did not come to this earth merely to represent God and help
 us know more about Him. No, Jesus came to die for our sins, to give
 His life as a ransom, to die on the cross the death that we deserve.
 Through His death, of course, we know more and more about the
 character of God, but in the end Christ came to pay the penalty for our
 sins and thus give us true deliverance, the deliverance symbolized in
 part by what the Lord did for Israel in freeing the nation from Egypt.

  How much time do you spend thinking about the Cross and
  the deliverance we have been given through Jesus? Or do you
  spend more time thinking about other things, things that cannot
  save you? What are the implications of your answer?
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 The Death of the Firstborn:
 Passover and Worship
   “That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who
 passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he
 smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people
 bowed the head and worshipped” (Exod. 12:27).

   The Hebrew word translated “worshipped” in the above verse
 comes from a root that means “to bow down” or “to prostrate one-
 self.” The word itself almost always appears in a verb form that
 intensifies the meaning or that gives the idea of repetition. One
 almost could imagine a person bowing up and down, up and down,
 in reverence and awe and gratitude. Indeed, considering the context,
 that is not hard to see.

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    Unless covered by the blood, the children of Israel would face the
 loss of their firstborn. For them, the firstborn (usually meaning the
 oldest son) had special privileges and responsibilities, only to later
 be replaced by the Levites (Num. 3:12). Israel itself was deemed the
 Lord’s “firstborn” (Exod. 4:22), indicative of its special relationship
 to the Creator. In the New Testament, Jesus has been called the “first-
 born” (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18).
    Though the firstborn were spared here, in reality Christ “the first-
 born” was to die, a death symbolized by the blood placed over the
 doors of the houses. This act stands as a powerful representation of
 the substitutionary death of Jesus. He died so that the “firstborn,” in
 a sense all God’s saved people (see Heb. 12:23), would be spared the
 death they deserve.

  In Egypt the people had obeyed their masters out of fear; now
  they would learn that true worship flows from a heart filled
  with love and gratitude to the One who alone has power to
  deliver and save. How can you learn to better appreciate and
  love the Lord? How does sin tend to dampen that love?

 No Other Gods
    Imagine the scene: Mount Sinai enveloped in a thick cloud, quaking
 with thunder, lightning flashing, trumpets blasting. The people trem-
 bled. Smoke filled the air because the God of Israel had descended in
 fire upon the holy mount (Exod. 19:16–19). There amid the cloud and
 the smoke, He revealed Himself in awful grandeur. Then the voice of
 their Deliverer proclaimed the first four commandments, all of which
 are directly linked to worship.

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   The Ten Commandments begin with God’s reminder to the children
 of Israel of their deliverance. Only the Lord, the true God, the only
 God, could have done that for them. All other gods, such as the gods
 of Egypt, were false gods, human creations unable to save or deliver
 anyone. These “gods” also demonstrated selfish, demanding, and
 often immoral character traits that reflected their human origin. What
 a contrast to the Lord, the loving and self-sacrificing Creator and
 Redeemer. Thus, after centuries of being immersed in the crude poly-
 theism of a pagan culture, the children of Israel needed to know their
 Lord and God as the only God, especially now as they were entering
 into the covenant relationship with Him.

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  Ellen G. White wrote, “Whatever we cherish that tends to
  lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due
  Him, of that do we make a god.”—Patriarchs and Prophets,
  p. 305. Ask yourself: What, if any, are the gods in my life that
  are competing for affections, my time, my priorities, or my
  goals? What are they, and how can I remove them?

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 “These Be Your Gods . . .” Read Exodus 32:1–6 and answer the following questions:

 1. What event, what catalyst, first opened the way to this powerful
 expression of false worship? What lessons should we as Seventh-
 day Adventists take from it?

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 2. What was this false God made of, and what does that say about
 how fruitless this kind of worship is?

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 3. How did their worship of this statue contrast to their worship
 of the Lord?

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    They “rose up to play”; they “have corrupted themselves”; they
 “have turned aside quickly” (Exod. 32:6–8). Hardly seems to reflect
 the awe and reverence that is to mark true worship, does it?
    The mixed multitude (Egyptians who had chosen to accompany
 Israel in the Exodus or who were married to Hebrews) no doubt influ-
 enced the people and demanded of Aaron the form and style of worship
 familiar to them. When Joshua heard the noise from below, he came to
 Moses suggesting that there was war in the camp. But Moses, having
 lived in the royal court of Egypt, knew all too well what those noises
 were. He probably recognized the sounds of licentious revelry—the
 dancing, the loud music, the singing, shouting, and general confusion
 that marked their idolatrous worship (Exod. 32:17–22).
    When they worshiped the true God, they did so in humility and
 reverence. Now, worshiping before this calf of gold, they behaved
 like animals. They had “changed their glory into the image of an ox”
 (Ps. 106:20, NKJV). It does seem to be a principle of human nature that
 we rise no higher than that which we worship or revere.

  Notice how quickly and easily they compromised truth in their
  worship. Notice how quickly the local culture came in and
  turned them away from the true God. How can we make sure
  we, in our own worship, do not fall into the same trap? 18

 “Show Me Your Glory”
   In the golden calf experience, the people of Israel had broken their
 covenant with God; they had taken His name in vain by their sinful
 and false worship. Moses pled with God on their behalf (Exod. 32:30–
 33). Because of their terrible sin, God commanded His “stiffnecked”
 people to remove their ornaments so that He might “know what to
 do” to them (Exod. 33:4, 5). To those who, in humility, repented, the
 removal of their ornaments was a symbol of their reconciliation with
 God (Exod. 33:4–6).

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    Moses’ desire to see God’s glory was not one of curiosity or pre-
 sumption but came from a deep heart hunger to sense God’s presence
 after such blatant apostasy. Though Moses had not partaken of their
 sin, he was impacted by it. We do not live in isolation from other
 members of our church. What impacts one impacts others, a point we
 should never forget.
    Look carefully at Exodus 33:13. Moses says to God that he, Moses,
 wanted to “know Him.” Despite all that the Lord had done, Moses still
 sensed his own need, his own weakness, his own helplessness, and
 thus he wanted a closer walk with the Lord. He wanted to know bet-
 ter the God upon whom He was so dependent. How interesting that,
 centuries later, Jesus said, “ ‘And this is life eternal, that they might
 know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent’ ”
 (John 17:3). He wanted to see the glory of God, something that would
 make him realize even more his own sinfulness and helplessness and,
 hence, his utter dependence upon the Lord. After all, look at what
 Moses had been called to do; look at the challenges he had to face.
 No wonder he felt this need to know God.
    Here, too, we come to a crucial point about worship. Worship
 should be about God; it should be about us in humility and faith and
 submission, seeking to know more about Him and His “way” (Exod.
 33:13).

  How well do you know the Lord? More important, what choices
  can you make that will enable you to know Him better than you
  do? How can you learn to worship in a way that will give you a
  better appreciation of God and His glory?
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Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Law Given to Israel,”
     pp. 303–314; “Idolatry at Sinai,” pp. 315–330; “Satan’s Enmity
     Against the Law,” pp. 331–342, in Patriarchs and Prophets;
     Pss. 105:26–45; 106:8–23.

        “Humility and reverence should characterize the deportment of all
     who come into the presence of God. In the name of Jesus we may
     come before Him with confidence, but we must not approach Him
     with the boldness of presumption, as though He were on a level with
     ourselves. There are those who address the great and all-powerful and 1
     holy God, . . . as they would address an equal, or even an inferior.
     There are those who conduct themselves in His house as they would
     not presume to do in the audience chamber of an earthly ruler. These
     should remember that they are in His sight whom seraphim adore,
     before whom angels veil their faces. God is greatly to be reverenced;
     all who truly realize His presence will bow in humility before Him” 2
     —Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 252.
        “True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite great-
     ness and a realization of His presence. With this sense of the Unseen,
     every heart should be deeply impressed. The hour and place of prayer
     are sacred because God is there. . . . Angels, when they speak that
     name, veil their faces. With what reverence, then, should we, who are
     fallen and sinful, take it upon our lips!”—Ellen G. White, Prophets
     and Kings, pp. 48, 49. 3

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 Discuss these aspects of God’s character: His nearness to us—
      and His greatness, majesty, and holiness. Theologians refer to
      these two concepts as His Immanence and Transcendence. Think
      of ways that these two important truths about God both can be
      emphasized and balanced in our worship services.

      l2 What lessons can we learn from the tragic story of Israel’s
      worship of the golden calf and the serious consequences of
      worshiping false gods (visible or invisible)? What are some of
      the idols that are commonly worshiped in your society? What
      lessons do you see in this story for the church today, for us who
      have been waiting a long time for the Lord to come?

      l
      3 What about our worship services? How can they better help
      us sense the majesty, the glory, and the power of God? Or do
      they tend to bring God down to our own level?

      l
      4 What does it mean to know the Lord? If someone were to ask
      you, “How do you know the Lord?” how would you respond? In
      other words, how can a human being come to know God person-
      ally?
20

                          Paulina Dziegielenska (left) lives in Warsaw, Poland.

  The Sabbath and Worship




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Exod. 20:11, Deut. 5:15,
  Isa. 44:15–20, Rom. 6:16–23, Matt. 11:28–30.

  A
          s we saw in the introduction, Creation and Redemption are cen-
          tral to the first angel’s message and the theme of worship. The
          first angel calls us to the “everlasting gospel,” the good news of
  salvation in Jesus, a salvation that includes not only forgiveness of sin
  but power over it. The gospel, then, promises us a new life in Christ, the
  promise of sanctification, which itself is part of the process of salvation
  and Redemption (John 17:17, Acts 20:32, 1 Thess. 5:23).
    And, as we saw, the first angel’s message includes a special
  reminder that the One whom we are to worship is our Creator, the One
  who made us and the world we live in.
    Thus, linked to worship are the themes of Creation, Redemption,
  and sanctification. Not surprisingly, these three themes are revealed
  in the Sabbath, a crucial element in the events depicted in Revelation
  14, when the question faces all of us: do we worship the Creator, the
  Redeemer, and the Sanctifier or the beast and his image? The texts do
  not leave us any third option.
    This week we will take a look at the Sabbath commandment and
  how these themes are revealed in this day. As we study, ask yourself,
  how can we make these themes central to our worship experience?

 Creation and Redemption: The
 Foundation of Worship
   “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exod. 20:8). The
 words remember and memorial in Hebrew come from the same Hebrew
 root, zkr. When God said “Remember,” He was giving the people a
 memorial of two great events, one the foundation of the other.

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    Christ’s role as Creator is inextricably linked to His role as
 Redeemer, and every week the Sabbath highlights both of these roles.
 Not monthly, not yearly, but weekly, and without exception—that is
 how important it is. The One who designed and made us is the same
 One who delivered Israel from Egypt and who delivers us from the
 bondage of sin.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Creation and Redemption are at the foundation of all biblical truth,
 and they are so important that we have been ordered to keep the
 Sabbath as a reminder of these truths. From Eden, where the seventh
 day was first set aside, up until now, there have been people who have
 worshiped the Lord through keeping the seventh-day Sabbath holy.

  Think for a moment how important these two truths must be for
  the Lord to have given us a weekly reminder of them; so impor-
  tant that He commands us to devote one-seventh of our lives in a
  special kind of rest in order that we can better focus our attention
  on these truths. How can your Sabbath-worship experience help
  enhance your appreciation of Christ as Creator and Redeemer?
  ________________________________________________________
                                                                    23

 Remember Your Creator
    The Bible begins with the famous line, “In the beginning God created
 the heavens and the earth.” The verb “created,” bara, refers to actions
 of God only. Humans can build things, make things, create things, and
 form things, but God alone can bara. Only God can create space, time,
 matter, and energy—all part of the material world that we exist in. It is
 all here, only because God bara-ed it.
    Of course, how He did it remains a mystery. Science barely under-
 stands what matter itself is, much less how it was created and why it
 exists in the form that it does. What is crucial, however, is that we
 never forget for a moment where it all came from. “By the word of
 the Lord the heavens were made. . . . For He spoke, and it was done;
 He commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:6, 9, NKJV).
    Also, when an important project is finished, people like to cele-
 brate. For example, when we build a church, we dedicate it to God.
 Similarly, when God finished with the earth, He commemorated the
 event by setting aside a special day, the Sabbath.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Ever since the great controversy between Christ and Satan reached
 the earth, the enemy has tried to lead people to doubt or deny the exis-
 tence of the true God, the Creator. Through ignorance of His Word or
 denial of the evidence of His creative power, human intelligence seeks
 to find ways to explain our origins in ways other than from the Lord.
 All sorts of theories have been proposed. The most popular today, of
 course, is evolution, which posits random mutation and natural selec-
 tion as the means by which all life and intelligence exist. Someone
 recently presented a theory that we are all just computer projections
 and that we do not really exist but are merely the computer creations
 of some super-race of alien beings. In many ways, one could argue
 that the wooden gods Isaiah wrote about, which were worshiped by
 their own makers, are as good as many of the other theories of origins
 often presented as an alternative to the God of the Bible.

  If we truly accept the Sabbath for what the Bible says it is—a
  memorial of God’s six days of Creation—how can we be pro-
  tected from false ideas about our origins? Also, who would want
  to worship a God who used the vicious and violent process of
  evolution to create us, as some teach? 24

 Freedom From Slavery
    		
    As we have already seen, the Sabbath points not only to Creation,
 an important theme of worship, but also to Redemption. Deuteronomy
 5:15 tells us, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the
 Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an
 outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to
 observe the Sabbath day” (NIV). These words echo to the crucial theme
 of the first angel’s message, that of Redemption and salvation.
    And this redemption is symbolized by what the Lord did for the
 children of Israel through the Exodus. No god in Egypt had the power
 to stop this nation of slaves from escaping their bondage. Only the
 God of Israel, who revealed Himself in powerful miracles and His
 presence in majestic and blinding glory, had the ability to deliver
 them with “a mighty hand” and a “stretched out arm” (Deut. 5:15).
 God wanted them to remember “that the Lord Himself is God; there
 is none other besides Him” (Deut 4:35, NKJV). So, He gave them the
 Sabbath day to be a constant reminder of His great deliverance and as
 a reminder to us of the bondage from which Christ has freed us.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    The New Testament clearly teaches that the slavery of sin
 demands a powerful Savior, as did the Egyptian bondage of ancient
 Israel. That is what the children of Israel had in their Lord; and that
 is what we as Christians today have, as well, because the God who
 delivered them from their bondage is the same One who delivers us
 from ours.			
    If we ever needed a reason to worship the Lord, would it not be for
 the deliverance from slavery that He has won for us? The children of
 Israel sang a great song once they had been delivered. (See Exodus 15.)
 Thus, for us the Sabbath worship experience should be a celebration of
 God’s grace in freeing us not only from the legal penalty of sin (which
 fell upon Jesus on our behalf) but from the power of sin to enslave us.

  What does it mean to no longer be slaves to sin? Does it mean
  we are not sinful, or that we do not at times still sin? Most
  important, how can you learn to claim and make real the prom-
  ises of freedom that the gospel offers us?
                                                                    25

 Remember Your Sanctifier Read Exodus 31:13. What do you understand this to mean? How is
 it relevant for us today? What does it mean to have God sanctify
 us? How can we experience this process in our own lives?		

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Creation, Redemption, sanctification—they all are related. Creation,
 of course, is the foundation of everything (for without it there would
 be no one to redeem and sanctify). Yet, in our fallen condition, cre-
 ation is no longer enough; we needed Redemption, the promise of
 forgiveness for our sins. Otherwise, we would face eternal destruc-
 tion, and our creation would be forever over.
    Of course, inseparably linked to Redemption is sanctification, the
 process by which we grow in holiness and in grace in our lives. The
 word translated as “sanctify” in Exodus 31:13 comes from the same
 root word used in Exodus 20:8, when the Lord tells the people to keep
 the Sabbath “holy.” The same root appears in Exodus 20:11, which
 says that God “hallowed” or “made holy” the Sabbath day (see also
 Genesis 2:3, where God “sanctified” the seventh day). In all these
 cases the root, qds, means “to be holy,” “to set aside as holy,” to be
 “dedicated as holy.”
    God called Israel and set them apart as His holy people, to be a light
 to the world. Christ called His disciples to a mission of carrying the
 gospel to the world. Central to that task is the holiness and character
 of the ones spreading the message. The gospel is not just about no
 longer being condemned for our sins. As we saw yesterday, it is about
 being free from the bondage of our sins. It is about being new people
 in Christ and having our lives be living witnesses to what God can do
 for us here and now.

  Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. What is Paul saying here, and how can
  we relate this text to the themes of Creation and Redemption
  and the Sabbath? How can our Sabbath worship help us focus
  on these themes?

  _____________________________________________________

  _____________________________________________________

  _____________________________________________________ 26

 Resting in Redemption
   Creation, Redemption, and sanctification: we have all these in
 Christ, and they all are symbolized in a special way through the bless-
 ings of the Sabbath.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   The “rest” Jesus offered to people included emotional, psychologi-
 cal, and spiritual rest for those who were burdened with heavy loads,
 including the load of sin, guilt, and fear. In addition to the basic
 human need for physical rest, there is an equally important need for
 the mind and the spirit to have a change of pace—to rest from the
 burdens and the stress of daily living. God designed the Sabbath
 for precisely that. Studies have shown that productivity in the work
 place actually increases with a weekly break. Bringing closure to the
 usual routine of life enhances mental acuity and physical endurance.
 Further, the Sabbath provides the needed sense of anticipation that
 helps prevent boredom and fatigue.
   While anyone can say that they are resting in Christ, the Sabbath
 gives us a concrete and physical manifestation of that rest. The
 Sabbath stands as a symbol of the rest that we truly have in Him, in
 the salvation Christ has wrought for us.
   The Sabbath also meets us at the level of our emotional life. It gives
 us a sense of identity: we are created in the image of God, and we
 belong to Him because He made us.
   And just as God gave the marriage institution in Eden to meet the
 human need for horizontal intimacy, so He gave the Sabbath for verti-
 cal intimacy between the Creator and His creatures.
   The Sabbath promises fulfillment—what we may become through
 Christ’s work of restoration. It gives us hope for the future—the
 ultimate eternal Sabbath rest. But most important of all, the Sabbath
 meets us at the highest of all human needs, the need to worship
 something or Someone. God in His great wisdom has given us the
 Sabbath as a day set aside for worship, a day to spend in honor and
 praise of Him.

   What burdens are you carrying that you need to have rest
  from, and how can you learn to give them to Him? How can
  your Sabbath worship experience help you truly learn to rest
  in Him?
                                                                     27

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation,” pp. 44–51;
     “The Literal Week,” pp. 111–116, in Patriarchs and Prophets; “The
     Sabbath,” pp. 281–289, in The Desire of Ages.

        “God designed that [Sabbath] observance should designate [Israel]
     as His worshipers. It was to be a token of their separation from idola-
     try, and their connection with the true God. But in order to keep the
     Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. Through faith they must
     become partakers of the righteousness of Christ. . . . Only thus could
     the Sabbath distinguish Israel as the worshipers of God.”—Ellen G. 1        White, The Desire of Ages, p. 283.		
        “When the Lord delivered His people Israel from Egypt and com-
     mitted to them His law, He taught them that by the observance of the
     Sabbath they were to be distinguished from idolaters. It was this that
     made the distinction between those who acknowledge the sovereignty
     of God and those who refuse to accept Him as their Creator and 2        King.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 349.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 Dwell more on the idea of how true Sabbath keeping can
      protect us from many of the delusions regarding Creation.
      Think, for instance, about the final events regarding those who
      worship the beast as opposed to those who worship the Creator
      (see Revelation 14). How would a false understanding of our 3         origins—such as the idea that Jesus used evolution to create us—
      set people up to be deceived in the final days?

      l
      2 Go back over the question of Sabbath and worship. How does
      your church worship on Sabbath? Is the service geared toward
      exalting God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier? If not, what
      is the emphasis? How can we learn to keep the Lord as the focus
      of our worship experience?

      l3 Creation is central to all our beliefs. Why does nothing we
      believe as Seventh-day Adventists make any sense at all apart
      from God as the Creator? Creation is foundational to all that we
      believe, and the Sabbath is imbedded in the original Creation
      account. How do these facts help reveal just how pivotal and
      basic the Sabbath is? How does this help us better understand,
      too, how in the last days, when false powers seek to compel the
      worship that God alone deserves, the Sabbath will be so central
      to that final drama?




     28

  Rejoicing Before the Lord: The
  Sanctuary and Worship




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Exod. 25:1–9; Exodus 35;
  29:38, 39; 25:10–22; Deut. 12:5–7, 12, 18; 16:13–16.

  R
         ussian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote about a friend who, nearing
         death, explained his own loss of faith. The man said that from
         his childhood he had prayed, his own act of private devotion
  and worship before going to sleep. One day, after a hunting trip with
  his brother, they were getting ready for bed in the same room, and
  he knelt down to pray. His brother looked at him and said, “You still
  doing that?” From that moment on, the man never prayed again, never
  worshiped again, never exercised any faith. The words “You still
  doing that?” revealed just how empty and meaningless this ritual had
  been to him all these years, and thus he stopped.
    This story illustrates the danger of mere ritual. Worship needs to
  come from the heart, from the soul, from a true relationship with God.
  That is why this week we will look at the ancient Israelite sanctuary
  service, the center of Israelite worship, and derive what lessons we
  can from it about how we can have a deeper worship experience.

 “That I May Dwell Among Them”
    “ ‘You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your
 inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which You have made for Your own
 dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established’ ”
 (Exod. 15:17, NKJV).
    This is the first mention in Scripture of a sanctuary. It was sung as
 part of the song of deliverance by the children of Israel after their escape
 from Egypt. The verse talks not just about the sanctuary but implies that
 it will be God’s dwelling on earth. The Hebrew word translated “dwell-
 ing” comes from a root that means, literally, “to sit.” Was the Lord
 really going to dwell, “to sit,” among His people here on earth?

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   The God who delivered Israel was now going to dwell among them.
 The same God who was able to perform so many incredible “signs
 and wonders” (Deut. 6:22), the God who created the heavens and the
 earth, would now live among His people. Talk about the presence of
 God being near!
   On top of that, He was going to live in a building that fallen human
 beings had made. He, who spoke the world into existence, could have
 spoken the word and created a magnificent structure. Instead, He had
 His people intimately and intricately involved in the creation of the
 place not only for His dwelling but the place that would be the center
 of all Israelite worship.
   The Israelites didn’t make the sanctuary according to human stan-
 dards but “ ‘according to . . . the pattern, . . . just so you shall make it’ ”
 (Exod. 25:9, NKJV). Every aspect of the earthly tabernacle was to
 represent a holy God properly and be worthy of His presence.
   Everything about it was to inspire a sense of awe and reverence.
 After all, this was the dwelling place of the Creator of the universe.

  Imagine standing outside a building and knowing that inside
  that very structure, Yahweh, the Creator God, the Lord of the
  heavens and earth, was dwelling. What kind of attitude would
  you have, and why? What should your answer tell you about
  the attitude you should have during worship?
  ______________________________________________________
                                                                            31

  Willing Hearts
    As we saw yesterday, not only did the Lord choose to dwell among
  His people, He did so in a building that they were to make themselves,
  as opposed to something He created supernaturally. That is, He got
  them directly involved, an act that ideally would have drawn them
  closer to Him. Along with that, He didn’t miraculously create the
  material that would be used for the structure.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     Notice the emphasis on the word willing. God said, “whoever is of
  a willing heart” (Exod. 35:5, NKJV), and everyone “whose heart was
  stirred” (Exod. 35:21, NKJV) responded. This means that there was
  no fire and thunder and loud voice from Sinai commanding them to
  give these offerings. Instead, here we see the working of the Holy
  Spirit, who never forces Himself on anyone. Their willingness to give
  revealed a sense of thanksgiving and gratefulness. After all, look what
  the Lord had done for them.
     Also, notice that the people were not only willing to give to the
  work of building a sanctuary, but they did so with a spirit of joy and
  energy. They willingly gave material gifts, their time, their talents,
  and the work of their creative abilities: “All the women whose hearts
  stirred with wisdom . . .” (vs. 26, NKJV); “everyone whose heart was
  stirred, to come and do the work” (Exod. 36:2, NKJV).

    We often tend to think of worship as a group of people coming
  together to sing, pray, and listen to a sermon. And while that is true,
  worship is not limited to that. What the children of Israel were doing
  here was worshiping. Every act of self-denial in giving up their own
  material goods, or their own time, or their own talents for the cause
  of their Lord was an act of worship.

   Think about your own acts of giving—tithes, offerings, time,
   talent. How have you experienced what it means to worship
   through these acts? By giving of yourself, how are you enriched
   in return? 32

  The Continual Burnt Offering
     “ ‘Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the
  first year, day by day continually. One lamb . . . in the morning,
  and the other lamb . . . at twilight’ ” (Exod. 29:38, 39, NKJV).

    The daily offering of lambs, the “continual burnt offering” (vs. 42),
  was to teach the people their constant need of God and their depen-
  dence on Him for forgiveness and acceptance. The fire on the altar
  was to be kept burning day and night (Lev. 6:8–13). This fire could
  serve as a perpetual reminder of their need of a Savior.
    God never intended the daily offering of a lamb to be simply a ritual
  or routine act. It was to be a time of “intense interest to the worship-
  ers,” a time of preparation for worship, in silent prayer and “with ear-
  nest heart searching and confession of sin.” Their faith was to grasp
  the promises of a Savior to come, the true Lamb of God who would
  spill His blood for the sins of the whole world (see Ellen G. White,
  Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 353).

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     In Hebrews 10:5–10, Paul quotes Psalm 40:6–8, showing that Christ
  fulfilled the true meaning of the sacrificial offerings. He suggests that
  God had no pleasure in these sacrifices but that they were intended to
  be a time of sorrow for sin, of repentance, and of turning away from
  sin. Likewise, the giving of His Son as the ultimate sacrifice would be
  a time of terrible agony and heartrending sorrow for both the Father
  and the Son. Paul also emphasized that true worship must always flow
  from a forgiven, cleansed, and sanctified heart that delights in obeying
  the One who has made it all possible. “Therefore, I urge you breth-
  ren, . . . to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to
  God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1, NASB).
     Worship means, first and foremost, giving ourselves wholly and
  completely to God as a living sacrifice. When we give ourselves first,
  then our gifts, our praise, and our hearts will follow. This attitude is a
  sure protection against meaningless and empty rituals.

   Ask yourself these questions: Have I given everything over to
   Christ, who died for my sins? Or is there some corner of my
   heart or life that I refuse to let go of? If so, what is it, and how
   can I be willing to give it up?
                                                                          33

 Communion With God
    One of the key aspects of being a Christian, of having a saving rela-
 tionship with Christ, is that of knowing the Lord. Jesus Himself said,
 “ ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true
 God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ ” (John 17:3). As in any
 kind of relationship, communication is the key.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Above the sacred ark, which contained God’s holy law, and enshrined
 on the mercy seat dwelt the very presence of God in the Shekinah
 glory. There, “mercy and truth [were] met together; righteousness and
 peace . . . kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10). There, from the altar of
 incense in the Holy Place, the smoke ascended, representing the prayers
 of God’s people mingled with the merits and intercession of Christ.
   Amid all this is the promise: “And there I will meet with thee, and I
 will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the
 two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things
 which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel”
 (Exod. 25:22).
   God promised the people not just His presence; He promised to
 communicate with His people, to talk to them, to guide them in the
 ways that they should go.

    Today, of course, we do not have an earthly sanctuary, but we do
 have the promises of God’s guidance and presence in our lives if we
 surrender to Him. What believer has not seen the leading of the Lord
 at some point in his or her life?
    Here, too, is where worship comes in. We must worship the Lord
 in an attitude of submission, of surrender, of willingness to be led. A
 heart yielded to the Lord in prayer, submission, reverence, and surren-
 der, a heart sensing its own need of salvation, of grace, of repentance,
 is a heart that—full of worshipful praise to God—will be guided in
 the way that the Lord would desire. In the end, true worship should
 help you be more open to God’s leading because it should help you
 learn an attitude of faith and submission. There is nothing empty in
 this kind of worship. 34

  Rejoicing Before the Lord
     A substantial part of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers
  centers on the sanctuary service—its construction, its services, the
  sacrifices and offerings presented there, and the ministration of the
  priests. It was a very sacred and holy place. After all, it was not only
  the place where God Himself dwelt, it was the place where Israel
  came to be forgiven and cleansed of sin. It was the place where Israel
  learned and experienced the gospel.
     At the same time, we must not come away with the idea that
  Israelite worship was cold, sterile, and formal. The Lord had set very
  strict guidelines on what was to be done, but these guidelines were
  not ends in themselves. Rather, they were means to an end, and the
  end was that His people would be a holy, joyful, and faithful covenant
  nation that would teach the world about the true God (Exod. 19:6,
  Deut. 4:5–7, Zech. 8:23).

  _______________________________________________________

     One of the great struggles facing the church in our time today has
  to do with worship and worship styles. On one end, church services
  can be cold, formal, stale, and definitely without joy. The other danger
  is that emotions become the dominant factor: all people want to do is
  have a good time, “rejoicing” in the Lord at the expense of any kind
  of strict adherence to biblical truths.
     An important point to remember, a lesson that we can learn from
  the sanctuary model, is that all true worship, which should lead to
  rejoicing, must do so in the context of biblical truth. God gave the
  Israelites very clear, strict, and formal instructions regarding the con-
  struction of the sanctuary and its ministry and services, all of which
  were meant to teach them the truths of salvation, Redemption, media-
  tion, and judgment. And yet, at the same time, they were to rejoice
  before the Lord in their worship. This theme appears again and again.
  It should be clear, then, that one can be very strong in biblical teach-
  ing and at the same time have a joyous worship experience. After all,
  if the truths of salvation, Redemption, mediation, and judgment are
  not worth rejoicing over, what is?

   What is your own experience in rejoicing before the Lord?
   What does this mean to you? How can you have a more joyful
   worship experience? How can you make sure your worship
   experience is not similar to the man in this week’s introduction
   that Tolstoy told about?
                                                                        35

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Tabernacle and Its
     Services,” pp. 343–358; “The Sin of Nadab and Abihu,” pp. 359–362;
     “The Law and the Covenants,” pp. 367–373, in Patriarchs and
     Prophets; “The Lord’s Vineyard,” pp. 288–290, in Christ’s Object
     Lessons; “Ellen G. White Comments,” in The SDA Bible Commentary,
     vol. 4, pp. 1139, 1140.

       From the Holy Shekinah, “God made known His will. Divine mes-
     sages were sometimes communicated to the high priest by a voice
     from the cloud. Sometimes a light fell upon the angel at the right, to
     signify approval or acceptance, or a shadow or cloud rested upon the 1        one at the left to reveal disapproval or rejection.”—Ellen G. White,
     Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 349.
       “In them [His people] the Lord designed to dwell in His fulness
     in this world; not only in a general way by dwelling in a tent; but by
     so completely taking possession of their lives, as to show them, and
     through them the world, how the Messiah would be the dwelling-place 2        of God.”—F. C. Gilbert, Practical Lessons From the Experience of
     Israel for the Church of Today (Concord, Mass.: Good Tidings Press,
     1902), p. 351.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 How can you help others see that the giving of tithes and
      offerings is truly an act of worship? What are we compromising 3         when we do not tithe and do not give offerings?

      l
      2 Look at your own church services. Do they lean more toward
      the cold, formal, sterile, and joyless? Or do they lean more
      toward the emotional, toward excitement, and feeling? Or is
      there a good balance between the extremes? Discuss.

      l3 In an attempt to reach out to the nonchurched, some congre-
      gations radically have altered their worship services. While this
      could be a very good thing, what dangers should they be aware
      of, such as that of compromise and of watering down crucial
      biblical truths?

      l
      4 In some worship services, rituals have been performed a
      certain way for many years, and that is the reason given for not
      wanting to make any changes. How would you respond to the
      answer, “This is how we have always done it” when change is
      suggested and rejected?

      l
      5 The earthly sanctuary was a very sacred and holy place, the
      place where God Himself dwelt. At the same time, the children
      of Israel were to rejoice before the Lord there. What lessons can
36    we draw from these important truths about worship?

  Happy Are You, O Israel!

	




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Leviticus 9; 10:1–11;
  Rev. 20:9; Deut. 33:26–29; 1 Samuel 1; 15:22, 23.

  I
      n cultures focused on individuality, it is so easy to forget what
      must always be the starting point of all worship: the action of God
      in history. Authentic worship should be the Christian’s heartfelt
  response to God’s mighty acts, both in Creation and in Redemption
  (again, the first angel’s message motif). True worship comes from our
  response to God’s love and should impact every area of our lives. In
  the end, authentic worship is not just what we do on Sabbath; it should
  permeate all areas of our lives and not just in church.
     Especially in our desire to be relevant, it is so easy to shift the
  focus of worship solely onto ourselves, our needs, our desires, and our
  wants. And though worship should be personally satisfying, the dan-
  ger comes from how we seek to experience that satisfaction. Only in
  the Lord, only in the One who created and redeemed us, can we find
  true satisfaction, as much as is possible in a sinful, fallen world.
     This week we will look further at some of the lessons about true
  worship that we can learn from Israel’s history, both from the good
  things that happened and from the bad.

 The Dedication
   Seven days of consecration had passed (see Leviticus 8). On the
 eighth day the priests entered their sacred ministry in the sanctuary.
 They were starting a work that would continue (though not without
 interruption) for more than fourteen hundred years, a work that prefig-
 ured the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the true sanctuary
 where Christ now ministers on our behalf.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Verses 22–24 are especially fascinating. It is hard to imagine what
 must have gone on in the minds and hearts of Moses and Aaron as
 they entered the sanctuary and then came out, only to have “the glory
 of the Lord” appear before all the people. Though the text does not say
 what exactly happened, there were a lot of people in the camp at that
 time, and for all of them to have seen it means that it must have been
 something spectacular. Perhaps the glory was manifested by what
 happened next: “and fire came out from before the Lord and con-
 sumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people
 saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” (Lev. 9:24, NKJV).
   The tabernacle had been dedicated and the priests consecrated to
 the service of divine worship. Holy fire appeared as a token that the
 sacrifice had been accepted. The people responded in unison—with a
 shout of praise, and then fell on their faces in humility before the glory
 of God’s holy presence. What we see here is intense reverence, awe,
 and obedience; every detail of God’s commands were followed, and
 the Lord showed His acceptance of what they had done.

  Notice their reaction: they shouted and also fell on their faces.
  However intense the whole service was, their reaction was one
  of reverence, joy, and fear—all at the same time. How can we
  learn to manifest this kind of reverence and joy in our own
  worship services?
                                                                       39

 Fire From Before the Lord
   “Assisted by his sons, Aaron offered the sacrifices that God
 required, and he lifted up his hands and blessed the people. All had
 been done as God commanded, and He accepted the sacrifice, and
 revealed His glory in a remarkable manner; fire came from the Lord
 and consumed the offering upon the altar. The people looked upon
 this wonderful manifestation of divine power with awe and intense
 interest. They saw in it a token of God’s glory and favor, and they
 raised a universal shout of praise and adoration and fell on their
 faces as if in the immediate presence of Jehovah.”—Ellen G. White,
 Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 359. It is hard to believe that after
 something so dramatic, a terrible fall would immediately follow.
 One would have thought that with such a demonstration of God’s
 power, all the people, particularly the priests (especially priests as
 highly honored as these), would have fallen strictly in line. How
 foolish we are to ever underestimate the corruption of the human
 heart, especially our own!

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   The Hebrew wording in both Leviticus 9:24 and 10:2 was the
 same: “and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed” (9:24,
 NKJV). Consumed what? In the first case, the offering; in the other,
 the sinners. What a powerful representation of the plan of salvation.
 At the Cross, the “fire from God,” the wrath of God, “consumed”
 the offering, and that was Jesus. Thus, all who put their faith in Him
 never have to face that fire, that wrath, because a substitute did it
 for them. Those, however, like these priests, who reject God’s way
 for their own, will have to face that fire themselves (Rev. 20:9). The
 same glory that was revealed at the Cross will be the glory that,
 in the end, destroys sin. What a stark and unambiguous choice is
 before us all.

  In one sense, if you think about it, fire is fire. What is the dif-
  ference? Obviously, in this case, it was a big one. Think about
  not just how you worship but your life in general. What, if any,
  “strange fires” might you need to put out in your life? 40

 Happy Are You, O Israel
   Picture the scene: the faithful servant Moses, rebuked by the Lord
 for his outburst of anger, stands before the nation of Israel (Num.
 20:8–12).
   Later on, Moses knows that he is soon to die. How easily he could
 have wallowed in self-pity and frustration. Even then, however, his
 thoughts were for his people and for the future they were to face.
 Standing before the people as their leader for the last time, Moses,
 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pronounced a blessing on
 each tribe. He then ended with a benediction.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    The word Yeshurun is a poetic term for Israel (see Deut. 33:5, 26).
 It comes from a root word (yashar) meaning “upright” or “straight,”
 not merely physically but also morally. Job was described (Job 1:1)
 as “perfect and upright” (from yashar); see also Psalms 32:11, 97:11,
 and Proverbs 15:8. Hence, Moses is talking about what God’s people
 ideally should be like, those who have entered into a covenant rela-
 tionship with Him.
    As always, the key focus here is upon God’s acts on behalf of His
 people. All of the things that will happen to Israel—victory over enemies,
 safety, salvation, the fruit of the land—is theirs because of what the Lord
 has done for them. How crucial that they never forget these important
 truths. Among many of the things that worship can do for us is that it can
 be a constant reminder of what “the God of Jeshurun” has done for us.
 Praise, worship, and adoration—whether coming verbally from our lips
 or expressed in the thoughts of the heart and mind—can go a long way in
 helping us keep focused on God and not on ourselves and our problems.

  Think about all that you have to praise and worship the Lord
  for. Why is it so important to keep all these blessings, all that
  He has done on your behalf, before you at all times? Otherwise,
  how easy is it to fall into discouragement?
                                                                        41

 An Attitude of Surrender
    Worship, in the Bible, is serious business. It is not a matter of per-
 sonal taste, nor is it a matter of doing one’s own thing or following
 one’s own proclivities. There is always the danger of falling into dead
 rituals and traditions that become ends in themselves instead of the
 means to an end—and that end is true worship of the Lord in a way
 that changes our lives and brings us into conformity with His will and
 character (Gal. 4:19). We must be careful not to allow self-exaltation,
 sinful gratification, and a desire for personal glory to dictate how we
 worship.
    We now jump ahead a number of years in Israelite history and read
 a simple story that can help reveal to us how true worship can be
 expressed in the heart of a penitent soul.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   However much we must remember that God Himself should be the
 focus of our worship, we do not worship God in a vacuum. We are
 not worshiping a distant, far off, abstract being; we are worshiping the
 God who created and redeemed us and who interacts in human affairs.
 We are worshiping a personal God who intervenes in our lives in the
 most intimate ways, ways that will help us with our deepest needs if
 we allow Him 10.
    Hannah worshiped the Lord from the most hollow recesses of her
 soul. In a sense, we are all like Hannah. We all have heartfelt and deep
 needs that, in and of ourselves, we cannot meet. Hannah came before
 the Lord in an attitude of complete self-surrender. (After all, how
 much more self-surrender could one find than to be willing to give up
 your child?) We can, and should, come before God with our needs;
 but we always must make those needs subordinate to the Lord’s call-
 ing in our lives. True worship should flow from a broken heart totally
 aware of its own helplessness and dependence upon God.

  What are the broken places inside you? How can you learn to
  give them to the Lord?

  _____________________________________________________ 42

 Worship and Obedience
   “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt
 offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
 Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the
 fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stub-
 bornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected
 the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king”
 (1 Sam. 15:22, 23).

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Those verses unfold in the context of the continued downfall and
 apostasy of Saul, Israel’s first king. Saul was to attack and utterly
 destroy (the Hebrew word suggests “dedicated to destruction”) every
 person, every animal. God planned to use Israel to bring judgment
 on this wicked nation, the Amalekites, that in mercy He had delayed
 for some three centuries. Despite explicit instruction about what to
 do, Saul openly disobeyed (1 Sam. 15:1–21), and now he was going
 to reap the consequences of his actions. Samuel’s answer to Saul in
 verses 22 and 23 helps us better understand what real worship should
 be about.
    1. God would rather have our hearts than our offerings. (If He truly
 has our hearts, the offerings will follow.)
    2. Obedience is more pleasing to Him than are sacrifices. (Obedience
 is our way of showing that we understand what the sacrifices are truly
 about.)
    3. Stubbornness, insisting on our own way, is idolatry because we
 have made a god of ourselves, our desires, and our opinions.

  Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart as you ask your-
  self the following: In what areas in my life may I be choosing
  to follow my own desires and opinions rather than letting God
  lead me? What applications can I make to my worship experi-
  ence from the example of Saul in his fatal presumptions?

  _____________________________________________________
                                                                     43

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Sin of Nadab and Abihu,”
     pp. 359–362; “The Presumption of Saul,” pp. 616–626, in Patriarchs
     and Prophets.

       “God has pronounced a curse upon those who depart from His
     commandments, and put no difference between common and holy
     things.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 360. 1
       “[Saul’s] fatal presumption must be attributed to satanic sorcery.
     Saul had manifested great zeal in suppressing idolatry and witchcraft;
     yet in his disobedience to the divine command he had been actuated
     by the same spirit of opposition to God and had been as really inspired
     by Satan as are those who practice sorcery; and when reproved, he
     had added stubbornness to rebellion. He could have offered no greater 2
     insult to the Spirit of God had he openly united with idolaters.”
     —Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 635.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 Why is it so important in worship to truly keep Christ as the
      center? However subtle, what other things can come in and take
      our focus off the Lord as we worship? In what ways might we be
      in danger of using the Lord, or the name of the Lord in praise 3         and song, as merely a cover for the worship of something else?

      l2 What are ways that we can be hypocritical in worship? That
      is, what does it say about us if, when outside of church itself we
      act one way and then inside church we are full of praise and
      adoration and worship? Though none of us is perfect, shouldn’t
      the lives we lead be connected with the kind of worship we prac-
      tice? Sadly, some people go to church, “worship,” and then go
      home and abuse their spouses and children or engage in other
      evil behavior. How do such practices make a mockery of our
      worship?

      l
      3 Go back over the memory verse for this week and apply it in
      the context of worship. How can we be sure that we are not doing
      exactly what we are being warned against here?

      l
      4 How can you better learn the art of worship, the art of self-
      surrender to the Lord? How can you learn to draw closer to the
      Lord in your own private time of worship?




44

                           Jacqueline Thermil (left) pastors four churches in Haiti.

  Worship and Song and
  Praise


  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Ps. 32:1–5; 1 Chron.   51:1–6, 17; 1 Chron. 16:8–36; Rev. 4:9–11; 5:9–13; Phil. 4:8.

  K
           ing David’s life is recorded in the Bible for many reasons: not
           only does an important part of Israelite history center on his
           life and reign, but we can learn many spiritual lessons from
  him, both from his good deeds and his bad.
     This week we will start out using some examples from David and
  his life in order to delve more into the question of worship: what it
  means, how we should do it, and what it should do for us. For in
  David we can see many examples of worship and song and praise.
  These things were a crucial part of his life and of his experience with
  the Lord.
     Thus, it must be with us, as well, especially if we constantly
  remember that the first angel’s message is a call to worship. What
  does it mean “to worship”? How do we do it? Why do we do it? What
  role does music play in worship? What distinguishes true worship
  from false worship?
     These all are themes that we will touch on in various ways this
  quarter as we heed the call: “O come, let us worship and bow down:
  let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are
  the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Ps. 95:6, 7).

  Between Saul and David Read the following glimpses into David’s life before he became king:
  1 Samuel 16:6–13, 17:45–47, 18:14, 24:10, 26:9, 30:6–8. What
  does this tell us about David?

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     God chose Saul as the first king of Israel because he matched the
  description the people had requested. But when God chose David to
  be the next king of Israel, He reminded Samuel that the Lord looks on
  the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
     David was far from being perfect. In fact, some would argue that
  David’s later moral lapses were much more serious than Saul’s sins.
  Yet, the Lord rejected Saul but forgave even David’s worst mistakes,
  allowing him to continue being king. What made the difference?

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    God is in the heart business. He not only reads the heart—the
  center of thought, inner attitudes, and motives—but He can touch
  and change hearts that are open to Him. David’s heart yielded to the
  conviction of sin. He repented, and he patiently accepted the conse-
  quences of his sins. In contrast, whatever outward confessions Saul
  made, it was clear that his heart was not surrendered to the Lord. “Yet
  the Lord, having placed on Saul the responsibility of the kingdom, did
  not leave him to himself. He caused the Holy Spirit to rest upon Saul
  to reveal to him his own weakness and his need of divine grace; and
  had Saul relied upon God, God would have been with him. So long
  as his will was controlled by the will of God, so long as he yielded to
  the discipline of His Spirit, God could crown his efforts with success.
  But when Saul chose to act independently of God, the Lord could
  no longer be his guide, and was forced to set him aside.”—Ellen G.
  White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 636.

   Ask yourself, how does what goes on inside your heart differ
   from what people see of you on the outside? What does your
   answer say to you about yourself?
   ______________________________________________________
                                                                     47

 A Broken Heart, a Broken Spirit
   “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
 heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 51:17, NKJV). Think
 about these words of David, but in the context of worship. (After all,
 in ancient Israel, worship centered around the sacrifice.) Realize, too,
 that the word translated “contrite” comes from a Hebrew word that
 means “crushed.” What is the Lord saying to us here? How are we
 to understand this idea along with the idea that there should be joy in
 our worship? Why are these two contrasting concepts not necessarily
 contradictory?

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

     As Christians, we take it as a given (or at least we should) that all of
 humanity is fallen, sinful, degraded. This degradation and sinfulness
 includes each one of us, individually. Think of the contrast between
 what you know you could be and what you are; the contrast between
 the kind of thoughts you think and the kind you know that you should
 think; the contrast between what you do and what you should do,
 between what you do not do and what you know that you should. As
 Christians, with the biblical standard of Jesus before us, the personal
 realization of our true nature can be especially devastating. This is
 where our broken spirit and crushed and broken hearts come from. If
 those professing to be Christians do not see this, they are truly blind;
 most likely they have not had a conversion experience or have lost
 it.
     Yet, the joy comes from knowing that, despite our fallen state, God
 loves us so much that Christ came and died, offering Himself for us,
 and that His perfect life, His perfect holiness, His perfect character,
 becomes credited to us by faith. Again, the theme of the “everlasting
 gospel” (Rev. 14:6) appears. Our worship should center not just on
 our own sinfulness but on God’s amazing solution to it: the Cross. Of
 course, we need that broken and crushed heart, but we always need to
 frame that sad reality against the background of what God has done
 for us in Christ. In fact, the realization of how bad we are leads to
 joy, because we know that, despite our state, we can have eternal life
 anyway, and that because of Jesus, God will not count our transgres-
 sions against us. This is a truth that must always be at the center of all
 worship experiences, whether corporate or private.

 David: A Song of Praise and Worship
   David’s understanding of God and the salvation He offered shaped
 not only his own life but his spiritual leadership and influence over
 his people. His songs and prayers reflect a deep sense of awe for the
 God he loved and knew as a personal friend and Savior.
   According to 1 Chronicles 16:7, David presented to Asaph, his
 chief musician, a new song of thanksgiving and praise on the day
 that the ark was moved to Jerusalem. This praise psalm consists
 of two important aspects of worship: the revelation of God as One
 worthy of worship and the appropriate response of the worshiper.
 In this song, David first calls worshipers to active participation in
 worship.
   Read the entire song in 1 Chronicles 16:8–36. Notice how often
 the following action words and expressions are used, especially in
 the first part of the song: give thanks, sing, call on His name, seek
 the Lord, make known, talk of, declare, give glory to, proclaim,
 remember, and bring an offering. David then recited some of the
 reasons why God is worthy of our praise and worship.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   The covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was based
 on His ability, as their Ruler, to make them a great nation, to bless
 them, and to bring them into the Promised Land. Their part was to
 love, obey, and worship Him as their Father and God. However dif-
 ferent our context today may be, the same principle still holds.

  Meditate on the ways David calls us to worship God. In our own
  time, place, and context, how can these same ideas be reflected
  in our corporate worship of the Lord?

  ______________________________________________________
                                                                  49

 David’s Song
   “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
 shouted for joy” (Job 38:7).

   Second Samuel 22 records a song that David wrote in praise of the
 Lord. (Skim through the song and note the key elements and how
 they are linked to worship.) The key point here, and in so many other
 places in the Bible, is that this was a song. It was music. All through
 Scripture, we find music as an integral part of worship. According
 to the text above, the angels sang in response to the creation of the
 world.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Central to the theme of the songs and praise and adoration is Jesus
 as Creator and as Redeemer. If they sing about that in heaven, how
 much more so should we be doing that here on earth?
    There is no question that song and music and praise are part of our
 worship experience. As creatures made in God’s image, we share a
 love and an appreciation for music, as do other intelligent beings. It
 is hard to imagine a culture that does not use music in some way or
 another, for some purpose or another. Love and appreciation of music
 are woven into the very fabric of our human existence; God surely
 made us that way.
    Music has the power to touch us and move us that other forms of
 communication do not seem to have. At its purest and finest, music
 seems to lift us into the very presence of the Lord. Who has not expe-
 rienced, at some point, the power of music to bring us closer to our
 Maker?

  What has been your own spiritual experience with the power
  of music? What kind of music do you listen to, and how does it
  impact your relationship with the Lord?

  _____________________________________________________

  _____________________________________________________ 50

  “Sing a New Song to the Lord!”
     Unfortunately, though we have access to some of the themes and
  lyrics of divinely inspired songs, we do not have any of the music
  itself. Thus, using our God-given gifts (at least, those of us who have
  those gifts), we write our own music if not always our own lyrics.
  But as we all know, we do not do this in a vacuum. We worship in
  relationship to the culture we live in, a culture that to some degree
  influences us and our music. This can be a good thing, or this can be
  a bad thing. The hard thing is to know the difference.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    Over the years, the question of music and types of music in wor-
  ship has arisen in our church. In some cases, hymnal music has been
  given all but sacred status; in others, it is hard to tell the difference
  between what is being played in church and what is being played as
  secular music.
    What is important for worship music is that it point us to the noblest
  and the best, which is the Lord. It should appeal, not to the baser
  elements of our being but to the higher ones. Music is not morally
  neutral: it can move us to some of the most exalted spiritual experi-
  ences, or it can be used by the enemy to debase and degrade us, to
  bring out lusts and passion and despair and anger. All one has to do is
  look at what some of the music industry today produces to see power-
  ful examples of how Satan has perverted another of God’s wonderful
  gifts to humanity.
     Music in our worship services should have a balance of spiritual,
  intellectual, and emotional elements. The lyrics, in harmony with the
  music itself, should uplift us, elevate our thoughts, and make us long
  more for the Lord who has done so much for us. Music that can bring
  us to the foot of the cross, that can help us realize what we have been
  given in Christ, is the kind we need for our worship.
    Again, various cultures have different tastes in music, and music and
  musical instruments vary in our worldwide family. What is uplifting
  and encouraging to those in one culture might sound strange to those
  in another. Either way, how important it is that we seek the Lord’s
  guidance in having appropriate music for our worship services.
                                                                       51

Further Study: “Let the subject be made distinct and plain that
     it is not possible to effect anything in our standing before God or in
     the gift of God to us through creature merit. Should faith and works
     purchase the gift of salvation for anyone, then the Creator is under
     obligation to the creature. Here is an opportunity for falsehood to 1
     be accepted as truth. If any man can merit salvation by anything he
     may do, then he is in the same position as the Catholic to do penance
     for his sins. Salvation, then, is partly of debt, that may be earned as
     wages. If man cannot, by any of his good works, merit salvation, then
     it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner because he
     receives and believes in Jesus. It is wholly a free gift. Justification by 2        faith is placed beyond controversy. And all this controversy is ended,
     as soon as the matter is settled that the merits of fallen man in his good
     works can never procure eternal life for him.”—Ellen G. White, Faith
     and Works, pp. 19, 20.
        Music “is one of the most effective means of impressing the heart
     with spiritual truth. How often to the soul hard pressed and ready to
     despair, memory recalls some word of God’s—the long-forgotten
     burden of a childhood song—and temptations lose their power, life 3
     takes on new meaning and new purpose, and courage and gladness
     are imparted to other souls! . . .
        “As a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship
     as is prayer. Indeed, many a song is prayer. . . .
         “As our Redeemer leads us to the threshold of the Infinite, flushed
     with the glory of God, we may catch the themes of praise and thanks-
     giving from the heavenly choir round about the throne; and as the
     echo of the angels’ song is awakened in our earthly homes, hearts will
     be drawn closer to the heavenly singers. Heaven’s communion begins
     on earth. We learn here the keynote of its praise.”—Ellen G. White,
     Education, p. 168.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 In what ways do your culture and society impact the music in
      your church, or do you deny that it does?

      l
      2 Read the Ellen White quote in Friday’s study about music.
      How much of this do you experience with the kind of music that
      is part of your church’s worship service? What are ways that
      we can evaluate the role of music in our church services? How
      can your church members work together to make sure that the
      music is, indeed, uplifting and encouraging, fulfilling the role
      that it should?




52

  Worship in the Psalms
	



			




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Psalms 90:1, 2; 100:1–5;
  73; 49; 141:2; 20:3; 54:6; 78:1–8.

  T
         he Hebrew word translated “Psalms” comes from a root word
         that means “to sing with instrumental accompaniment.” Thus, the
         Psalms were songs, songs that were intricately part of the worship
  of Israel. Though we have the lyrics (the Psalms themselves), we do not
  have the music. How fascinating it would be to hear these songs, in their
  original tongue, sung with the music that first accompanied them.
    The Psalms themselves are rich and deep, covering a wide range of
  topics and emotions, dealing with everything from the corporate his-
  tory of Israel to the songwriter’s most intimate and personal pain. In
  that sense, they speak to us because, though as a church we are part of
  the long history that goes back to Israel, we also are individuals with
  our own private pain. It is doubtful that any of us could not relate at
  some time or another to some of the agony expressed in the Psalms.
  At the same time, though, it is crucial that we reach out and grasp the
  hope expressed in them.
    This week we will look at the Psalms and some of the themes found
  in them and how these themes relate to the question of worship and
  what it means for us today.

 Worship the Lord, Our Maker
   The psalms of praise describe who God is and why He is worthy
 of worship. They declare His greatness, and call worshipers to come
 with joyful adoration to honor Him.

    The same God who spoke the world into existence also gave the moral,
 physical, and social laws to govern the human family. The Old Testament
 Scriptures clearly identify God as both the Creator of the world and the
 Giver of the Written Law. The New Testament writers see Jesus Christ as
 the Creator and the Giver of the Law as well as the Word made flesh, who
 lived among His creatures in order to reveal the Father to them and to die
 as their Substitute. Thus, He alone is worthy of adoration and worship.
    Hence, we see in the Psalms one of the foundational principles of
 worship as seen in the first angel’s message (Rev. 14:7). We worship the
 Lord because He is our Creator, and directly tied to His role as Creator
 is His role as our Redeemer (Rev. 14:6). Creator and Redeemer—if
 these are not reasons to praise and worship Him, what are?

  How can you seek to get to know the Lord better through His
  created works?
  ______________________________________________________
                                                                       57

 Judgment From His Sanctuary
    While many psalms were written for public worship, many others
 are prayers of personal distress and suffering. These laments typically
 contain a description of the problem, the sufferer’s plea for help, and
 an affirmation of, and reasons for, the writer’s trust in God.
    In Psalm 73, the petitioner is angry that the wicked prosper and are
 at ease while he suffers injustice.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Judgment in the Psalms, as in the Bible as a whole, is a double-
 edged sword: deserved punishment on the wicked and the defense
 of the oppressed and humble (Pss. 7:9, 10; 9:7–12; 75:2; 94:1–3,
 20–22; 98:9). In Psalm 68:24, the wicked are pictured as watching
 God enter the sanctuary in a grand processional. God’s throne, repre-
 senting justice and mercy, is symbolized in the ark of the covenant in
 the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary. Thus, the sanctuary, the place
 of worship, becomes a haven of refuge for the distressed.
    Here, too, we see the theme of judgment echoed in the first angel’s
 message: “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him;
 for the hour of his judgment is come . . .” (Rev. 14:7). One of the things
 about God, about what makes Him so worthy of our worship, is that we
 can indeed trust that in the end, not only will judgment come but it will
 be just and righteous, nothing like the fallible and imperfect justice meted
 out even in the best human courts. From the death of Abel, whose blood
 cried out from the ground (Gen. 4:10), up through today and on to the last
 day of fallen human history, the crimes, the unfairness, and the inequities
 of this world do indeed cry out for justice. The good news is that we can
 trust that, in His time and way, God will make all things right, however
 hard it is for us to see and understand now (see 1 Cor. 4:5).

  Have you seen injustice? Have you been the victim of injustice?
  What are ways that you can learn to trust in God, to trust in
  the promise of ultimate and righteous justice that is so lacking
  in the world now? 58

 “Like the Beasts That Perish”
    As we saw yesterday, and as we all know too well, so much unfair-
 ness and injustice reign in this world. A relatively small percentage
 of people live in luxury, in contrast to vast multitudes who struggle to
 barely eke out an existence. The gap between the rich and poor seems
 steadily to grow; and what makes it worse is that so often the rich
 get richer by exploiting the poor. All through the Bible, the Lord has
 warned about this exploitation and injustice. Those who are guilty of
 such exploitation, and who do not repent and turn away, will have a
 lot to answer for on Judgment Day.

    It is so easy to get caught up in the things of this world, especially
 if you have many things in this world as do the rich. Yet, as the psalm
 says, and as we all should know by now, the things of this world are
 so fleeting, so temporary, so easily lost. Overnight, everything you
 have worked for, everything you have struggled to attain, everything
 that is important to you, can be taken away, lost, destroyed. We all
 live on the edge of a precipice, at least in this life. Fortunately, as this
 psalm shows, and as so much of the rest of the Bible attests, this life
 is not all that there is.

  Do you ever find yourself jealous of those who have more than
  you do? If so, why is it so important to surrender those feel-
  ings to the Lord? How do such emotions interfere with your
  spiritual life, with your relationship to God, and your faith in
  general? How can focusing on Jesus, the Cross, and salvation
  help free you from the tyranny of jealousy?
  ______________________________________________________
                                                                         59

 Worship and the Sanctuary
    “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the
 lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Ps. 141:2). What
 imagery is being used here? What is this verse pointing to?
 _______________________________________________________

  The entire Old Testament sanctuary service centered on the concept
 of sacrifice. However much the enemy of souls perverted it, even to
 the point where people were sacrificing their own children in order
 (they believed) to appease an angry god (or gods), the sacrificial
 system was intended to point to the death of Jesus on behalf of all
 humanity. It was to show the futility of our own works to save us; it
 was to show that the cost of sin was the life of an innocent victim; it
 was to show that the Lord had a plan whereby sinners could be for-
 given, cleansed, and accepted by the Lord through His grace.
    It is no wonder, then, that many of the psalms, so central to Israel’s
 worship, would use images and examples from the sanctuary service.
 See Pss. 20:3, 43:4, 51:19, 54:6, 118:27, 134:2, 141:2.
    Dwell on the sanctuary service: the sacrifice of the animals, the
 ministry of the priests, the furniture in the courtyard, and the Holy and
 Most Holy Places. What sacred truths can we draw from this earthly
 and temporary system about the work of Jesus on our behalf? Why
 should these truths be so central to our worship of the Lord?
 _______________________________________________________

    The author’s point is that it is through Christ, not through the death
 of animals, that we have salvation. Only through Christ is there true
 forgiveness of sin. The whole earthly system was merely a precursor
 to what Jesus would do on behalf of all humanity. He was telling his
 audience, most likely Jewish believers in Jesus, that they needed to
 look away from the earthly system and instead focus their attention
 and worship on Jesus. In other words, though the whole sanctuary
 service was to point to Christ, as believers they needed to move away
 from the symbols toward the reality, which was Jesus and His minis-
 try for them in the heavenly sanctuary after His atoning death.

  How can we be sure that we do not make worship and the
  things of worship ends in themselves? How can we make sure
  that every aspect of our worship points us toward Jesus and His
  work on our behalf? 60

 Lest We Forget!
   Three of the longer psalms, Psalms 78, 105, and 106, are great
 hymns that were to be sung or recited to remind Israel of God’s lead-
 ing in the past.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   One of the ways God reveals Himself is through history. Yet, each
 generation must experience Him anew based on that history. For that
 reason, not only music but the proclamation of the Word of God in wor-
 ship is vital to both old and new generations to keep before them His
 past leading. Psalm 78 is a warning that history must not repeat itself,
 but at the same time it is a heartwarming reminder of God’s gracious
 dealings with His wayward people. There seems to be an urgency in
 the imperative promise, “Telling to the generation to come the praises
 of the Lord, and His strength” (vs. 4, NKJV). Psalm 105:2 calls us to
 “Sing psalms to Him” and “Talk of all His wondrous works” (NKJV;
 emphasis added).
   The longest poem in the psalter, Psalm 119, contains the frequent
 refrain, “Teach me thy statutes,” indicating the importance of Scripture
 as the basis for teaching godly living and righteousness. Paul echoes
 this thought when he instructs the young preacher, Timothy, “All
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
 for reproof, for correction, for instruction” (2 Tim. 3:16, NKJV).
   Paul charges Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2, NKJV).
 To neglect proclaiming the Word in worship is to dilute the power of
 the gospel to reach hearts, to change lives, and to enrich the worship
 experience of believers.

  How often have you had the experience of the Lord doing some-
  thing wonderful and miraculous in your life, only to quickly
  forget it and show fear and lack of faith when a new crisis
  arose? Whether in corporate worship or in your own private
  worship, how can you learn to keep fresh in your mind God’s
  leading in your life? Why is this so important to do?
                                                                      61

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Creation,” pp. 44–51,
     in Patriarchs and Prophets; “Poetry and Song,” pp. 159–168, in
     Education; “Forgetfulness,” pp. 107–115, in Testimonies for the
     Church, vol. 8.

        “The Book of Psalms fulfills a unique role in the Bible. . . . [The
     Psalms] function in the Scriptures as the heartbeat of Israel’s religion.
     In this book of prayers the covenant people found their stairway to
     heaven. It reaches from the lowest depths of human agony and suf- 1        fering to the highest joys of communion with God. Laments and cries
     of despair exchange with hymns of thanksgiving and praise. . . . This
     living interchange between man and God is perhaps the deeper reason
     why the Book of Psalms has been cherished as the invaluable jewel in
     the Hebrew Bible by seekers after God in all ages.” Further, they are
     a “disclosure of God’s own heart. . . . They stand as inspired examples 2        of how God desires us all to respond by faith to the authentic revela-
     tions of Himself and of His deeds in the books of Moses.”—Hans K.
     LaRondelle, Deliverance in the Psalms (Berrien Springs, Mich.: First
     Impressions, 1983), pp. 3, 4.

Discussion Questions:
      l1 It is one thing to trust in the justice of God’s ultimate judg-

      l2 Discuss more the question at the end of Wednesday’s lesson
      regarding worship and the forms of worship in church. How is
      it possible that things such as music, preaching, liturgy, and so
      forth could become ends in themselves as opposed to being the
      means of pointing us toward the Lord? So often, we can mistake
      the symbols for the reality behind the symbols. How can we pro-
      tect ourselves against this danger in our own worship services?




62

  Conformity, Compromise,
  and Crisis in Worship




  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 6:5, Jer. 17:5, Deut.
  12:8, 13:18, 1 Kings 11:1–13, 1 Kings 18, Mal. 3:16–4:6.

  I
      n 1954, novelist William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies,
      a fictional account of a group of English children stranded on a
      deserted island after a plane crash. Golding used this story as a
  modern parable about the inherent evil in human beings. What made
  the narrative so powerful was that he used children, supposedly the
  essence of innocence, to make his point about just how corrupt, evil,
  egotistical, and violent humanity is at heart.
     Christians, of course, would say, So tell us something we don’t
  know. Human evil and sinfulness are part and parcel of the Christian
  message. The Bible is unambiguous on that point. But while the idea
  that evil is bad is quite uncontroversial, what is not so uncontroversial
  is the question, “What is evil?” Not everyone agrees on that.
     This week, as we continue to look at the question of worship, we
  are going to look at a certain kind of evil that has brought devastating
  consequences to God’s people and to humanity in general. We can
  view what this evil did to ancient Israel, but we need to ask the impor-
  tant question about just how susceptible we are to it ourselves.

 In Different Eyes Read the following texts. What is the one point that they all have
 in common? Why is it so important for us to always keep this
 in mind? Gen. 6:5, Jer. 17:5, John 2:25, Rom. 3:9–12. What kind
 of things exist in your culture that could cause you to forget this
 fundamental truth?

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    All through Scripture, we are warned: the human heart is deceit-
 ful; people are corrupt; do not look to others; no one is immune from
 evil. With the exception, of course, of Jesus, who never sinned, few
 characters whom the Bible pays much attention to are pictured as
 morally unscathed.
    One does not need Scripture, either, to see just how corrupt human-
 ity is. History, newspapers, the daily news, indeed, even our homes,
 and at times our own hearts should suffice to show us the morally
 decrepit state of humanity. What should be scary for us to remember
 is that if a perfect being, as Lucifer originally was, could choose evil,
 even in the perfect environment of heaven; if other perfect beings, as
 Adam and Eve were, could choose evil, even in the perfect environ-
 ment of Eden—then what about ourselves? We are born with corrupt
 and fallen natures, and we carry those natures with us in a fallen and
 corrupted environment. No wonder evil comes so easily, so naturally,
 to us. It is wired in our genes.
    We have to be careful, however, in our understanding of what
 evil is. Some things are so manifestly evil, so manifestly bad, that
 anyone—whether a believer in God or not—would deem them as
 evil. Evil, however, can be much more subtle. Things that the world
 or our culture and our society might view as fine, as normal, as just
 the way things are, could be precisely what the Bible condemns as
 wrong, sinful, even evil.

  Contrast Deuteronomy 12:8 with Deuteronomy 13:18. What
  crucial difference is being made here? Why is this difference so
  important for us to understand?
   What are some things your own society does not condemn
  that are clearly condemned by the Bible? More important,
  how much has society impacted you and the church in regard
  to these issues? That is, what things clearly condemned in
  Scripture might the church take too lightly, directly as a result
  of the influence of society? Bring your answer to class on
  Sabbath.
                                                                      65

 The Art (and Evil) of Compromise
    Politics, it has been said, is the art of compromise. The word art in
 this instance is very important, for compromise can be a very subtle,
 nuanced action on the part of the person doing it. A good politician
 is someone who can get the people to concede points, to compromise
 positions, and often not even realize that they are doing just that. In this
 context, then, there is no doubt that Satan is the best politician around.
    All through the Bible, we find examples of this evil—the evil of com-
 promise. Not that every compromise is evil, of course not. In a certain
 sense, life itself is a kind of compromise. Instead, compromise becomes
 another manifestation of human evil and corruption when those who
 should know better fall away from the truth that God has given them.
    For example . . .

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Perhaps the most revealing phrase in this block of texts is the state-
 ment that it was “when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away
 his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4). In other words, it did not
 happen overnight. The faithful, dedicated, and godly man revealed in
 the Bible did not suddenly, out of nowhere, turn away from the Lord.
 Instead, the change happened bit by bit, over time; a little compromise
 here, a little there, each step taking him further and further from where
 he should have been until he was doing something that the Solomon
 of his earlier years no doubt would have been horrified to see.
   Look, too, at what his compromises did to worship in Israel. They
 had a negative impact that would last for generations and beyond.

  Every now and then you hear stories about people who left the
  Seventh-day Adventist Church years ago, severed ties with it com-
  pletely, and then came back, only to be shocked by some of the
  changes that they saw in areas such as theology, standards, and
  worship. Though that might not be bad in every case, it might
  very well be bad in some. How can we know the difference? 66

 Counterfeit Worship
   In 1 Kings 11, Ahijah came to Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant, with a
 message that he would become king over ten of the tribes of Israel (vss.
 26–31). But the prophet made it clear to Jeroboam that his success would
 depend on his faithfulness to God’s commandments (vss. 37, 38).
   Unfortunately, Jeroboam listened only to what he wanted to hear
 and he forgot the conditions of success. He was all too ready to lead in
 the revolt (1 Kings 12:16–20), and almost immediately he took steps
 to prevent his subjects from returning to Jerusalem to worship.

   Look at the account of Jeroboam’s setting up a counterfeit religion
 that would eventually separate Israel from the worship of the true
 God in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25–33). Notice how this new worship
 resembled the worship of the true God and at the same time contra-
 dicted most of the clear counsel of Yahweh:

   1. Offered sacrifices and ordained non-Levite priests (vss. 31–33).
   2. Made calves of gold to worship (vs. 28).
   3. Made Bethel a place of worship (vs. 29).
   4. Made Dan a place of worship (vs. 29).
   5. Instituted a rival feast to the Feast of Tabernacles (vs. 32).
   6. Built shrines on high places (vs. 31).

   Counterfeit money cannot deceive unless it looks like the real thing.
 In the same way, Jeroboam knew that his false worship must have many
 of the same elements of worship that the people were accustomed to,
 though he eventually declared, pointing to the golden calves, “ ‘Here are
 your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” (vs.
 28, NKJV).

  It is so easy from our perspective today to look back and won-
  der, How could they have fallen into such blatant apostasy? On
  the other hand, humans have an incredible capacity to deceive
  themselves (it is all part of our fallen and corrupted nature),
  and we deceive ourselves if we think we are not just as vulner-
  able as they were back then. Look at yourself, your lifestyle,
  your mode of worship. What might you be doing that is, in
  principle, not a whole lot different from what happened here?
  How willing are you to make changes, if need be?
                                                                      67

 Elijah and the Prophets of Baal
    Things went from bad to worse in the north, especially when it came to
 the question of worship under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. It is against
 this background (see 1 Kings 17–19) that we come to the famous story of
 the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Here, we can
 see just how far compromise had taken them.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    It must have been quite a scene: these prophets of Baal wailing,
 leaping, crying (who knows what kind of music might have accom-
 panied their ritual), prophesying, even cutting themselves and spilling
 their own blood as part of their worship of Baal. These were certainly
 hyped-up people, full of zeal and passion for their faith and their god,
 a zeal and passion that testified to the sincerity of their beliefs.
    Today, too, some Christian worship services could remind one at
 times of something like this: a lot of emotion, a lot of hype, and a
 lot of noise. Though we want to avoid worship services that remind
 people of funerals, we also do not want worship services that remind
 them of priests of Baal at Mount Carmel either. Some seem to think
 the more sounds they make, the louder the music, the more emotional
 excitement generated, the better the worship service. Yet, that is not
 what worship is about.
    Perhaps one of the most important lessons from this account is
 that all worship must be focused on the true Lord, on the Creator.
 True worship needs to be grounded in the Word of God, pointing the
 worshiper to the Lord and His activity in history. In contrast to all the
 bedlam of the priests of Baal, Elijah prayed a simple prayer, “ ‘Hear
 me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord
 God’ ” (vs. 37). This was no Elijah show. It was about worshiping the
 true God in contrast to any and all false ones, regardless of the form
 they take.
    Our worship services should always present worshipers with the
 question that Elijah asked Israel: “ ‘How long will you waver between
 two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, fol-
 low him’ ” (vs. 21, NIV). Our worship experience should force us to
 look inside our hearts and see where our true love and devotion are:
 on the Lord or on anything else. 68

 The Elijah Message
   “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and
 the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth
 him not” (Mal. 3:18).

    For all the drama, Elijah’s confrontation with the 150 prophets on
 Mount Carmel boiled down to one question for the people gathered
 there with them: “ ‘How long will you waver between two opinions?
 If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him’ ”
 (1 Kings 18:21, NIV). However specific the context was, it really asks
 a question that each individual must answer for herself or himself:
 Do we worship and follow the true God or not? We might be able to
 “waver between two opinions” for only so long, but sooner or later we
 all come down on one side or another.
    At the end of time, when the great controversy is over, all humanity
 will have been forever divided into one of two classes: “between him
 that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Mal. 3:18). As Jesus
 so bluntly and clearly said it: “ ‘He that is not with me is against me:
 and he that gathereth not with me scattereth’ ” (Luke 11:23). How
 much plainer could He be?

 _______________________________________________________

    Just as John the Baptist, whom Jesus referred to as “Elijah” (Matt.
 17:11–13), had a message of reformation, repentance, and obedience,
 Malachi makes it clear (Mal. 4:1, 5) that “Elijah” will again come just
 before the end of sin and evil. The book of Revelation proclaims to the
 last generation a message of warning, a call to obedience, and a call
 to worship the Creator God. As with Elijah on Carmel, people will in
 a very dramatic way have to make the most important choice of their
 lives, a choice that is filled with truly eternal consequences. The good
 news is that even before these final events unfold we can make daily
 choices that will greatly prepare us to be on the Lord’s side when the
 climactic battle between good and evil unfolds among the nations.

  Think about the daily choices you’ve made (perhaps in the
  past few days), even on the smallest of things (see Luke 16:10).
  Judging by those choices (and the compromises that might be
  manifest in those choices), which of the two sides are you choos-
  ing? Dwell on the implications of your answer.
                                                                     69

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “Jeroboam,” pp. 99–108; “Na-
     tional Apostasy,” pp. 114–116; “Elijah the Tishbite,” pp. 119–128;
     “The Voice of Stern Rebuke,” pp. 139–142; “Carmel,” pp. 143–
     154, in Prophets and Kings.

       “The apostasy prevailing today is similar to that which in the
     prophet’s day overspread Israel.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and
     Kings, p. 170.
       “God has many thousands [in this age] who have not bowed the 1
     knee to Baal . . . [and] many who have been worshiping Baal igno-
     rantly, but with whom the Spirit of God is still striving.”—p. 171.
       A. W. Tozer, a well-known preacher of the twentieth century (he
     died in 1963), often preached against the worship of the “god of
     entertainment,” suggesting that no matter how hard they try, churches
     cannot compete with the world’s idea of entertainment. It is the cross 2
     of Jesus Christ, says Tozer, not entertainment, that will win souls to
     Christ. See A. W. Tozer, Tozer On Worship and Entertainment, com-
     piled by James L. Snyder (Camp Hill, Penn.: Wing Spread Publishers,
     1997), pp. 108, 109.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 In class, discuss your answer to Sunday’s question. How
      much has your society impacted the church’s views on the moral 3         issues of the day?

      l
      2 The descriptions of Baal worship hint that it was highly
      entertaining, which could help explain its popularity. How can
      we restore the sense of awe and reverence for God in our worship
      rather than encouraging expectations of being entertained?

      l
      3 How has the Seventh-day Adventist Church changed in the
      past twenty years? In your opinion, in what ways has it changed
      for the better, and in what ways not? If time should last, what
      do you think the Seventh-day Adventist Church will be like in
      twenty years? Try to imagine what your local church’s worship
      service will be like.

      l
      4 Think about how drastically the nation of Israel fell into
      apostasy. Again, none of this happened overnight. The devil, if
      nothing else, is patient. How can we protect ourselves individu-
      ally, and the church as a whole, from slowly but surely going the
      same way as Israel?




70

  “Trust Not in Deceptive
  Words”: The Prophets and
  Worship

  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Mic. 6:1–8, Isa. 6:1–8,
  Isa. 1:11–15, Isa. 58:1–10, Isaiah 44, Jer. 7:1–10.

  R
          ussian author Ivan Turgenev, in his story Fathers and Sons,
          put these words in the mouth of a character: “The life of each
          of us hangs by a thread, an abyss may gape beneath us any
  minute, and yet we go out of our way to cook up all sorts of trouble for
  ourselves and to mess up our lives.”—Fathers and Sons (New York:
  Signet Classics, 2005), p. 131.
     Of course, the Lord offers a better way to live. He offers us the
  opportunity to follow Him, to love Him, to worship Him, and hence to
  spare ourselves many of the problems that we would otherwise bring
  upon ourselves.
     Yet, merely professing to follow the Lord is not what the Christian
  life is about. This week, we will look at what a few prophets said
  about those who thought that their “worship” of the true God, in the
  true temple on the true Sabbath day, was all that mattered, regard-
  less of how they lived the rest of the week. As the prophets show,
  this is a deception, a good way to “cook up all sorts of trouble for
  ourselves.”

 A Thousand Rams?
    Unlike every other religion, the religion of the Bible (both Testaments)
 teaches that salvation is by grace alone. Nothing we do can ever make
 us good enough to be accepted by God. Our good deeds, however well-
 intended, however Spirit-inspired, can never bridge the gap that sin has
 caused between God and humanity. If good works could save us, if
 good works could atone for sin, if good works could pay our debt before
 God, if good works could reunite fallen humanity with the Creator,
 then Jesus never would have had to die for us, and the plan of salvation
 would be something radically different from what it is.
    As it stands, only the death of Jesus credited to us by faith, only
 the righteousness of Christ, which He wrought out in His life, which
 is then given to all who truly accept it, can save the sinner. Sin is so
 bad, so contrary to the basic principles of God’s government, which
 is based on love and free choice, that nothing less than the death of
 Christ could solve the problem created by sin.
    All that being said, the Bible is clear that what we say, what we do,
 and what we think all matter, and these thoughts and actions reveal
 the reality of our experience with God.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Those who claim to be children of God but who fail to show justice
 and mercy to their fellow men are acting out the spirit of Satan no
 matter how piously they may adhere to the forms of worship. On the
 other hand, those who walk humbly with their God will not neglect
 the principles of justice and mercy, nor will they scorn the proper
 forms of worship. God is looking for true worshipers who are willing
 to demonstrate their love for Him by obedient lives, motivated by
 humble hearts. What do all the right prayers, all the right styles of
 worship, and all the right theology mean if the person is nasty, unkind,
 arrogant, unjust, and unmerciful to others?

  What do you think is more important: correct theology or cor-
  rect actions? Can you have your theology right and yet treat
  others in a poor manner? What hope can you cling to if, per-
  haps, you see yourself revealed in the above texts?
                                                                        73

 The Call of Isaiah
   While Hosea, Amos, and Micah were warning Israel of their immi-
 nent danger, Judah seemed to be prospering under the reign of several
 good kings. King Uzziah (also known as Azariah) was known and
 respected among the nations for his wise leadership and accomplish-
 ments (see 2 Chron. 26:1–15). But, as often happens, his success
 became his downfall. Humility was replaced by pride and devotion
 by presumption (see vss. 16–21).
   The people of Judah appeared to be prospering spiritually as well.
 The temple services were well-attended with a formality of religious
 fervor. Yet, many of the same evils that afflicted the people of Israel
 were fast corrupting the kingdom of Judah. It is at this time that the
 Lord calls Isaiah to His special work.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Try to imagine Isaiah’s overwhelming reaction to this heavenly
 revelation of the glory of God. Suddenly, he sees his own sins and the
 sins of his people stand out in bold relief against the spotless purity
 and the majestic holiness of Almighty God. No wonder he reacted as
 he did! It is hard to imagine anyone doing otherwise.
   Here we see played out before us a crucial and foundational truth
 regarding the state of humanity, especially in contrast to the holiness
 and glory of God. We see an attitude of repentance, of a willingness to
 acknowledge one’s own sinfulness, one’s own need of grace.
   Think for a moment what our worship services would be like were
 they to elicit in the worshipers a sense that they have been in the pres-
 ence of our Holy God, which in turn makes them deeply aware of their
 own sinfulness and need of His saving grace and cleansing power.
 Imagine if the singing, the liturgy, the prayer, and the preaching
 worked together in a way to lead us each time to faith, to repentance,
 to cleansing, and to a willingness to cry out, “Here I am; send me.”
 That is what worship should be about.

  Imagine yourself standing in the physical presence of Jesus.
  That is, if He were standing in the flesh right before you. What
  would your reaction be? What would you say? Or do? What
  about His promise to us in Matthew 28:20? What does that
  promise mean to us now, on a practical level? 74

 No More Vain Oblations
    It is easy to forget that so much of the writing of the Old Testament,
 especially the writings of the prophets, was written as admonitions
 and warnings to God’s covenant people, to the ones who were His
 “true church.” Most of these people professed to follow the true God,
 had a basic understanding of biblical truths (at least much more than
 their heathen neighbors), and knew the right things to say and do in
 worship. Yet, as becomes very clear to anyone reading the prophets,
 all this was nowhere near enough.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    The answer is found, really, in the few verses that follow (Isa.
 1:16–18), which in many ways is similar to what we saw in Sunday’s
 lesson on Micah. No question, the church is for sinners, and if we had
 to wait until we were perfect before we could worship the Lord, then
 none of us would worship Him.
    But that is not what the Bible is saying here or what it ever says. It
 is saying that God is more interested in how we treat others, especially
 the weak and helpless among us, than He is in all sorts of religious
 rituals, even the ones He instituted.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Fasting is a form of self-denial of which Jesus had much to say. But
 some kinds of fasting are nothing but a vain show. It is a symptom of
 hypocrisy, which covets the privileges of obedience while detesting
 its responsibilities. Self-denial, motivated by love for God, ministers
 to those in need. This is the kind of fasting (self-denial) that honors
 Him; this is the kind of life that leads to the kind of worship that He
 does not despise, a worship that shows the sinner that, just as he or
 she has been the recipient of grace and undeserved love, so, too, he
 must dispense grace and undeserved love to others. That is the kind of
 self-denial that reveals true faith (Luke 9:23), the kind of self-denial at
 the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
                                                                        75

  Profitable for Nothing?
    South African writer Laurens van der Post once wrote about what he
  called “the burden of meaninglessness,” this sense some people have
  that, when it was all said and done, what, if anything, did their lives
  mean? Sooner or later, they will be dead, and anyone who knew them
  will be dead, and before long all memory of them will be forever gone
  too. In such a scenario, what do our lives mean, what can they mean?
  How easy it can be to get the sense that so much of what we do has no
  real meaning, no real lasting importance.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    However much Isaiah was writing for his time and culture and peo-
  ple, look at how relevant the principles are for us today. The Lord, He
  alone is the Creator, He alone is our Redeemer, He alone can save us,
  thus He alone is worthy of our worship and our praise. Isaiah mocks
  those who create idols with their own hands, gods of their own mak-
  ing, and then bow down and worship them—things that are, indeed,
  “profitable for nothing.”
    And yet, as silly and as foolish as all that seems to us, are we not in
  danger of doing something similar, of dedicating ourselves, our lives,
  our time, and our energy into things that, in the end, are “profitable
  for nothing,” that cannot answer the deepest need of our souls now,
  and that surely cannot redeem us from the grave at the end of time?
  How crucial that we watch and pray, that, as Paul said, we examine
  ourselves to see whether we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). Sabbath
  worship, if done right, can remind us in a special way about why we
  should worship only the Lord. Worship should be a time that espe-
  cially reminds us of what is important in life, what truly matters, and
  what is temporal, and even “profitable for nothing.”

   We all know the danger of making idols out of money, power,
   prestige, and so on. What about the danger of making idols out
   of things such as church, the pastor, our own ministries, or even
   our own faithfulness or lifestyle or piety? Think this through 76     and bring your answer to class on Sabbath.

 “This Is the Temple of the Lord, the
 Temple of the Lord. . . .”
   The southern kingdom of Judah had its spiritual ups and downs,
 times of reform and times of outright apostasy. Yet so often, even
 during the worst spiritual times, there was an outward show of piety
 and worship that was not acceptable to the Lord. How careful we need
 to be not to fall into the same deception ourselves.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    Look especially at verse 4. In one sense, the speakers were right.
 This was the “temple of the Lord,” the place where the Lord’s name
 was to dwell, the place where the sacrificial system—which God
 Himself had instituted—was performed, the place where the great
 truths of sacrifice, salvation, cleansing, and judgment were taught.
 After all, these were the covenant people. Their God was the true
 God, and they had more light and more truth, corporately, than their
 pagan neighbors around them had. None of this can be disputed, and
 yet, the Lord obviously was not pleased with them or their worship.
 In fact, He called out the words, “This is the temple of the Lord,
 the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”—what? “Deceptive
 words?” They were deceptive, not because that was not the temple of
 the Lord but because the people believed that simply by coming to
 the temple of the Lord and worshiping there that they were safe, they
 were saved, they were doing all that was required.
    With all the light that we have been given, in what way might we
 as Seventh-day Adventists be in danger of making the same mistake
 these people made? Think through possible parallels between them
 and us and how, if we are not careful, we could fall into a similar
 deception. What possible “deceptive words” might we be in danger of
 trusting in, words that on the surface are true ( just as that was, indeed,
 “the temple of the Lord”) and yet could lead us into making the same
 kind of presumptuous errors?


                                                                        77

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Call of Isaiah,” pp. 303–
     310; “Hezekiah,” pp. 331–339; “Deliverance From Assyria,” pp. 349–
     366; “Manasseh and Josiah,” pp. 381–391; “Jeremiah,” pp. 407–421,
     in Prophets and Kings.

       “In Isaiah’s day the spiritual understanding of mankind was dark
     through misapprehension of God. . . .
       “In losing sight of the true character of Jehovah, the Israelites were
     without excuse. Often had God revealed Himself to them as one ‘full
     of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy 1
     and truth.’ Psalm 86:15.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings,
     pp. 311, 312.
       “In the vision that came to Isaiah in the temple court, he was given
     a clear view of the character of the God of Israel. ‘The high and lofty
     One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,’ had appeared
     before him in great majesty; yet the prophet was made to understand 2
     the compassionate nature of his Lord. . . .”—p. 314.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 In class, go over your answer to Wednesday’s final question.
      What are some “good” things that we can make into idols? How
      do we know when something has become an idol?

      l
      3 Think about the worship services in your local church. Do
      you come away with a sense of the awe and majesty of God in
      contrast to your own sinfulness and need of grace? If not, what
      could be changed in order to help the church as a whole have,
      to some degree, the experience that Isaiah had? (See Monday’s
      lesson.) Why is that so important?

      l
      4 How many things do you do in your life that are “profitable
      for nothing”? How much time do you spend basically “wasting
      time,” doing things that, in and of themselves, are useless, vain,
      and basically “profitable for nothing”? How can you learn to
      make better use of the limited time we all have here in this life?


78

                          Hensley Dyer (left) lives in New Zealand.

  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Ezekiel 8, Daniel 3, Jer.
  29:10–14, Haggai 1, Zech. 1:1–6, Nehemiah 1.

  I
      t is very hard from our perspective today—removed as we are by
      more than one thousand nine hundred years from the final destruc-
      tion of the Jerusalem temple—to understand just how significant
  the temple was in the Jewish nation’s national and religious life.
  It was the apex of worship, the center of their ethnic and religious
  identity. It was where the Lord said He would dwell and rule in the
  midst of Israel. It was where the follower of YHWH found cleansing,
  forgiveness, grace, and reconciliation.
     Because it was, truly, the Lord’s house, many people disbelieved
  the prophetic warnings that it would be destroyed by Babylon. How
  could the Lord allow His sacred temple to be obliterated? We only
  can guess at the shock when, indeed, as the prophets warned, the
  Babylonians razed it. And yet, even amid all the devastation, the Lord
  promised that the nation would be restored, the temple rebuilt, and
  Israel given another chance to fulfill her prophetic destiny.
     This week we will look at some of the issues regarding worship dur-
  ing the time of the exile and, then, the promised restoration.

  “Son of Man, Have You Seen . . .?”
    Apostasy does not happen overnight; whole peoples do not fall away
  in a day, a week, even in a year. The process is much slower; a little
  change here, a little compromise there; a little less rigidity in order to
  keep up with the times, or to be relevant, or to fit better with the trends
  of society and culture. Bit by bit, step by step, and before long, a whole
  nation is doing things that, perhaps a generation or two ago, would have
  been looked upon in horror. Such was the fate of ancient Israel and
  Judah; such was the fate of early Christianity. Such can be the fate of
  any church, including ours, that does not carefully and jealously guard
  the sacred truths and practices given it by the Lord.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    The secret sins, indulged by priests and elders, were the abominable
  and repulsive worship practices of their culture. Those who should
  have been leading God’s people in true worship were adapting that
  worship to the sinful and corrupt customs of their time and environ-
  ment, thus bringing the abominations of the surrounding culture
  into God’s holy sanctuary. How ironic that only the coming of the
  Babylonian army would bring an end to the desecration of God’s
  temple, and then only by destroying it.

  _______________________________________________________

     These people must have turned so far away from the Lord that they
  believed He did not see them or that He did not care about their prac-
  tices. The Lord, who again and again showed His care, His nearness,
  and His desire for obedience, now was deemed to have forsaken the
  land? How careful we need to be, because sin will harden our hearts
  and poison our minds until we rationalize even the most horrific
  practices.

                                                                         81

 Worshiping the Image
    As we have touched on all through this quarter, the final test in
 the last days deals with the question of worship (Rev. 14:1–12). All
 humanity will be split into two camps: those who worship the Creator,
 the One who made the heavens and the earth, and those who worship
 the beast and his image. Even though this sequence in the prophetic
 picture has yet to unfold, one could argue that, even now, all the world
 is divided into two camps: those who are faithful to the Lord and those
 who are not. There is no middle ground either: we are on one side or
 the other.
    With this in mind, the story of the three Hebrew boys in the book
 of Daniel becomes quite relevant. It is not just a dramatic story of a
 supernatural rescue of those faithful followers of YHWH. It becomes,
 instead, a symbol, a type, for the test of worship that will come upon
 the world just before the second coming of Christ.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   The second commandment, the one forbidding idolatry (Exod. 20:4–6),
 was at issue here; the fourth commandment (Exod. 20:8–11), the Sabbath
 commandment, will be the outward issue in the last days. How interesting
 that these both are commandments that were changed and tampered with
 by the beast power itself (see Dan. 7:25). Both commandments are tied
 in directly with worship; the second forbids the worship of idols, while
 the fourth shows why one should not worship idols, and that is because
 the Lord of nature, not nature itself, is the One who created and redeemed
 them (see also Deut. 5:12–15).
   In both cases, too, there is an earthly political/religious entity that wants
 the worship and fealty owed only to the Lord, and in both cases this
 power is willing to resort to violence in order to get that “worship.”

  Think through what it means to worship something. Is it always
  wrong to worship anything other than the Lord? If not, why
  not? Might there be some things that we can worship without
  sinning, without violating God’s law? If so, what? If not, how
  can we make sure we are not worshiping anything other than 82    our Lord?

  “Consider Your Ways” Read Jeremiah 29:10–14. What does this tell us about the character of
  God? What hope can we, in our own context, take from these texts?

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    After seventy years, as foretold, the Lord began the restoration of
  the exiles back to the Promised Land. Israel was to be given another
  chance to fulfill her prophetic destiny.
    Central to that role was, of course, the temple, the sanctuary,
  the place where the entire plan of salvation was taught through the
  types and symbols of the service. Here the work and mission of the
  Messiah, through which the whole world could have salvation, was
  prefigured (see John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:19; Heb. 8:1, 2).
    Yet, the work of rebuilding the temple did not go as smoothly or as
  quickly as it should have. Forces, internal and external, got in the way,
  and the work was delayed. This was not as the Lord would have it, and
  He spoke through Haggai to let the people know His displeasure.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    How easy it is to let worldly toils, worldly desires, even worldly
  needs get in the way of our spiritual responsibilities. The Lord let
  them know that they would never have true satisfaction apart from
  their devotion to Him and the work He had given them to do. All
  too often we can, in our own way, make the same mistake, getting
  so caught up in the ways of the world that we neglect what should
  be first and foremost in our lives: our relationship with God. Maybe
  the Lord is saying to us, either corporately or individually, “Consider
  your ways.”

   Consider your ways. What do your ways, your actions, the
   things you do, and don’t do—what do they say about your rela-
   tionship to the Lord? In what ways might you be guilty of the
   same things as the people depicted here in Haggai?

   ______________________________________________________
                                                                       83

 Your Fathers, Where Are They?
   The rebuilding of the temple took approximately twelve years.
 Ezra 5:1, 2 refers to Zechariah as one of the “prophets of God helping
 them.” His emphasis, like Haggai’s, was upon the glory that would
 one day inhabit the temple.
   Yet, as often is with prophecy, the promises are not unconditional.
 Humans, given free will, must make the choice to obey the Lord, to
 do what He commands, not as a means of salvation but as a means of
 showing the fruit and the benefits of salvation.
   Human freedom is an unspoken assumption all through the
 Scriptures. People have the option to choose whom they will serve
 and worship, and the fulfillment of the promises is incumbent upon
 the choices that people make. The Bible is filled with wonderful
 promises to any and all who faithfully seek and serve Him.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Some of the most poignant words in that text are found in verse 5.
 “Your fathers, where are they?” In other words, learn from the mis-
 takes of those who came before you; do not do what they did; learn
 from the past, learn from what happened before you.
   Here is where the ministry of the pastor in the pulpit can come in.
 Here is where the pastor can, in the role of the prophets, point the
 people to the Lord’s leading, to His promises, and to the conditions of
 those promises. The preaching of the Word should not cause theologi-
 cal confusion or controversy: it should be Christ centered, pointing to
 what the Lord has done for us, what He offers to do for us, and what
 He will do for us, all on the condition that we come to Him in faith
 and repentance. That is essentially what Zechariah is saying to the
 people here: repent, turn from your evil ways, learn from the past, and
 put your hope in the Lord and the promises of the Lord for the future.
 In the same way, today, with the revelation of what the sanctuary
 service was all about (the life and death and high priestly ministry of
 Jesus), we should come to the Lord and worship Him in an attitude
 of faith, repentance, and obedience. Again, though obedience cannot
 save us (it is way too late for that), there is no such thing as salvation
 without it, regardless of how flawed our obedience tends to be. 84

 Nehemiah’s Prayer
   Despite all the promises of restoration, things were not going well
 in Jerusalem. The people faced obstacle after obstacle, many of them
 as a result of their own disobedience. The prophet Nehemiah, while
 serving the Persian king, received word about the situation there and
 responded with fasting, mourning, and prayer. His passion and con-
 cern for the situation clearly are revealed in the first chapter of the
 book that bears his name.

   1. Why would Nehemiah, who as far as we know was faithful,
 include himself among those who had sinned against the Lord? See
 Dan. 9:5, 6.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   2. What kind of prayer is this, and why is this kind of prayer so
 important? See Exod. 32:31–34, James 5:16.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   3. In what ways is the conditionality of prophecy revealed in this
 prayer?

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   4. On what basis does he make his appeal to the Lord on behalf of
 the people? In other words, why should the Lord listen to this appeal?
 See Gen. 12:1–3; Exod. 6:4, 5.

 _______________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________

  Write a prayer of intercession for the Seventh-day Adventist
  Church today and bring it to class on Sabbath and compare what
  you write. What do our answers tell us about how we perceive the
  various spiritual needs of the church? More important, how can
  we help bring about whatever reforms we deem necessary?
                                                                    85

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Return of the Exiles,”
     pp. 551–566; “The Prophets of God Helping Them,” pp. 567–581;
     “Ezra, the Priest and Scribe,” pp. 607–617; “A Spiritual Revival,”
     pp. 618–627; “Instructed in the Law of God,” pp. 661–668;
     “Reformation,” pp. 669–678, in Prophets and Kings.

        “The season of distress before God’s people will call for a faith that 1
     will not falter. His children must make it manifest that He is the only
     object of their worship.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 512;
     emphasis supplied.
        “There is constant danger that professing Christians will come to
     think that in order to have influence with [worldly people], they must
     to a certain extent conform to the world. But though such a course may 2
     appear to afford great advantages, it always ends in spiritual loss.”
     —p. 570; emphasis supplied.
        “In the work of reform to be carried forward today, there is need
     of men who, like Ezra and Nehemiah, will not palliate or excuse sin,
     . . . neither will they cover evil with a cloak of false charity. . . . They
     will remember also that in the one who rebukes evil the spirit of Christ
     should ever be revealed.”—p. 675. 3
Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 Read the prayers of intercession for the Seventh-day Adventist
      Church that were written in response to Thursday’s lesson.
      What can we learn from each of these prayers? What do people
      perceive as the greatest need of the church at the present time?

      l
      2 What lessons can we learn from our own church fathers (and
      mothers)? That is, what important spiritual lessons can our own
      Seventh-day Adventist history teach us?

      l3 What are ways in which we, as a church, in our efforts to
      reach out to the surrounding culture, are in danger of compro-
      mising crucial truths? Why are we so often blind to it when it
      happens?

      l
      4 While there is always the danger of compromising ourselves
      in an attempt to be relevant, there is also the danger of locking
      ourselves in beliefs or practices that, perhaps, need refining or
      changing. How can we know what is immutable and unchange-
      able, in contrast to that which can and should change with the
      times?




86

  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 1:46–55, 4:5–8, Deut.
  11:16, John 4:1–24, Luke 19:37–40.

  A
          s we have seen all quarter, the first angel’s message is a call to
          proclaim the “everlasting gospel.” At the center of that gospel
          is Jesus, the incarnate God, the God who through forces and
  means that our minds cannot even begin to grasp came into this world
  as a human being.
     Think through what this means: the God who created all that was
  created (John 1:1–3) became a human, and in that humanity lived
  a sinless life and then offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of
  all humanity. When you think about the size of the cosmos, the bil-
  lions of galaxies, each composed of billions of stars, and to believe
  that the One who created all this was Jesus, it defies the human
  mind; it is something so incredible we barely can comprehend it.
  No wonder Paul wrote: “For the preaching of the cross is to them
  that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power
  of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).
     With a truth like this before us, it is no wonder we want to worship
  such a God. This week we will explore themes of worship and praise
  as revealed in the ministry of the incarnate Christ, the Creator who
  took upon Himself the form and the flesh of the created.

 Mary’s Song of Praise and Worship
    Though Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been the subject of an
 intense amount of religious interest through the centuries, most of that
 interest is tradition derived from a host of sources that are not rooted
 in Scripture.
    Nevertheless, in the question of Christ’s coming to earth, Mary
 played a crucial and pivotal role: in her womb the Savior of the
 world was miraculously conceived; in her womb He grew into the
 infant Jesus. Looking back with all the hindsight and light given us
 in the New Testament, we only can marvel at the miracle. Though no
 doubt knowing that she was part of an incredible event that was to
 have important consequences for her people, the young Mary most
 likely had no real idea of what she was going to be part of. She knew
 enough, though, that she could marvel at the amazing circumstances
 that had so radically changed her life.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   This song of praise and worship is filled with allusions and images
 taken from the Old Testament, the only Scripture that she would have
 known. Here we can see her giving glory to the Lord and acknowledg-
 ing His leading not only in her own life but among her own people, as
 well. Her allusion to Abraham is, clearly, a reference to the covenant
 the Lord made with His people; she is praising God for His promises
 to them and sees those promises as her hope and her people’s hope
 for the future.
   Again, however much she did not know, she knew enough to see
 the working of the Lord. For that, she was thankful and worshipful.
   		
  How much of the miraculous do you see in your own life?
  Might it be there and yet you are just too hard, too closed, too
  wrapped up in yourself to see it as you should?

  _____________________________________________________

  _____________________________________________________
                                                                     89

 Worship and Serve
   “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed
 unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And
 the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the
 glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I
 will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me,
 Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
 him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:5–8).

    Imagine Jesus, after 40 full days of hunger, weariness, self-denial,
 and privation, now facing the open and blatant temptations of the devil.
 It is not hard to imagine just how beautiful all “the kingdoms of the
 world” in their “power” and their “glory” must have appeared to Jesus
 in this temptation. Satan has been a master at making the things of this
 world always look so charming, so pleasant, so fulfilling, which is why
 people so readily fall for the deception this world presents.

    All through the Old Testament, the concept of worshiping false
 gods and serving them is linked. “And lest thou lift up thine eyes
 unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the
 stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship
 them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all
 nations under the whole heaven” (Deut. 4:19; see also Deut. 11:16,
 Ps. 97:7, Dan. 3:12). Basically, you serve what you worship; hence,
 how important it is that you worship only the Lord.
    Thus, we see a crucial point about worship. It is hard to imagine
 someone who worships the Lord in faith, in surrender, in humility
 and love and fear, at the same time serving other gods, whatever form
 they may come in. Worship, then, can be a protection for us against
 idolatry. The more we worship the Lord, even in our private devotion,
 the better protected we are against serving self, sin, and all the other
 forces vying for our service.

  Think about this idea more: what we worship is what we serve.
  How have you seen that principle manifested in your own life?
  How can your worship experience help you stay focused on
  serving only the Lord? 90

 Worshiping What You Know Not
    As we have seen numerous times, even with all the intricate and deep
 forms of worship that the Lord had instituted for Israel, it was not the
 forms alone that the Lord cared about. The forms and traditions and
 liturgy were all means to an end, and that end was a person surrendered
 in body and mind to his or her Creator and Redeemer. It is much easier,
 however, to make one’s religion a series of formulas, traditions, and
 outward acts than it is to daily die to self and surrender in humility and
 faith to the Lord. This fact surely goes a long way in explaining why the
 Bible spends a lot of time dealing with those whose hearts aren’t right
 with God, regardless of how “correct” their forms of worship are.
    This, too, was a problem that Jesus dealt with when here in the
 flesh.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    In pointing out some of her deepest secrets, Jesus got the woman’s
 attention. He then used that moment to point her to something better
 than what she had. Jesus uses the powerful phrase “Woman, believe
 me” in order to show her that true worship went far beyond the
 outward forms and places of worship. “This mountain” was Mount
 Gerizim, where the Samaritans had built a temple. Of course, that
 would be what one would expect a Jew to say to a Samaritan.
    But Jesus did not stop there. He included even Jerusalem, the site
 of the sacred temple that He, Himself, had picked. Thus, early on in
 His earthly ministry, Jesus was, in a very broad way, pointing to what
 He later came right out and said in reference to the temple, “There
 shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown
 down” (Matt. 24:2). In all this, Jesus was working to give the woman
 the “living water” (John 4:10), which is Himself. He wanted her to
 see that a personal relationship with her Creator and Redeemer was
 the foundation of worship, and certainly not the forms and traditions
 of her faith, which had deviated from the true religion of the Jews.
 His reference to Jerusalem (John 4:21), however, proved that He was
 pointing to something even beyond the system of sacrifice and wor-
 ship that He Himself had created.

  In what ways can all the aspects of your worship experience
  help you deepen your relationship with God?
                                                                       91

  The True Worshipers
    “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers
  shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
  seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23).

     After pointing the Samaritan away from specific places of worship
  and then telling her of the superiority of the Jewish faith over hers,
  Jesus then tells the woman about “the true worshipers.” In verse 21,
  Jesus said that the hour “is coming” when people will not worship
  either in that mountain or in Jerusalem; in verse 23, however, He says
  that the hour “now is” that all true worshipers will worship in spirit
  and in truth. In other words, do not look to some past glory, and do
  not look to some future event. Rather, the time “now is” to give the
  Lord the worship He deserves, and through that worship, experience
  the love, the grace, and the salvation that He offers.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     Jesus here is calling for a balanced form of worship: a worship that
  comes from the heart, that is sincere and deeply felt, that comes from
  the love and the fear of God. There is nothing wrong with emotions in
  worship; after all, our religion calls upon us to love God (1 John 5:2,
  Mark 12:30), and how can that be separated from emotions?
     At the same time, God calls upon His true worshipers to worship
  Him “in truth.” God has revealed His will, His truth, His law—truth
  that we are expected to believe and obey. True worshipers will love
  God, and from that love seek to serve Him, obey Him, and do what is
  right. Yet, how can they know what is right without knowing the truth
  about faith, obedience, salvation, and so forth? The idea that beliefs
  do not matter, that only a sincere spirit matters, is misguided. It is only
  half of the equation. Correct beliefs do not save, but they will give us
  a greater understanding of the character of God, and that should make
  us love and serve Him all the more.

   Is your worship more spirit than truth, or more truth than
   spirit? How can you learn to incorporate and balance both
   these aspects of worship? 92

  Worshiping at His Feet
     Throughout the long years of Christian history, the church has been
  divided over the issue of Christ’s divinity. Was He truly the eternal
  God, One with the Father since eternity? Or was He created later,
  a being who came into existence through the creative power of the
  Father?
     Though early on in our own church, some confusion on this matter
  existed, Ellen G. White made it very clear years ago what her position
  was—a position that, as a church, we have fully accepted today:
     “ ‘His name shall be called Immanuel, . . . God with us.’ ‘The light of
  the knowledge of the glory of God’ is seen ‘in the face of Jesus Christ.’
  From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father;
  He was ‘the image of God,’ the image of His greatness and majesty,
  ‘the outshining of His glory.’ It was to manifest this glory that He came
  to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of
  God’s love,—to be ‘God with us.’ Therefore it was prophesied of Him,
  ‘His name shall be called Immanuel.’ ”—The Desire of Ages, p. 19.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    Jesus was very clear in His response to Satan (Matt. 4:10) that
  the Lord alone should be worshiped, which leads to the important
  point shown in the texts above: Christ never refused their worship.
  No example is given in the numerous times when people worshiped
  Him where He told them, Don’t worship Me, point your worship only
  toward the Father. In fact, the opposite is the case.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     The point here is to reiterate a theme seen all this quarter, which
  is how crucial it is that Jesus be the center and focus of all our wor-
  ship. Every song, every prayer, every sermon, everything that we do
  should, in one way or another, ultimately direct our minds toward
  Christ, the incarnate God who offered Himself as the sacrifice for our
  sins. Worship that leaves us with a sense of awe, love, and reverence
  for our Lord is worship that is no doubt pleasing in His sight.
                                                                        93

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “God With Us,” pp. 19–26,
     in The Desire of Ages.

       “Not by seeking a holy mountain or a sacred temple are men brought
     into communion with heaven. Religion is not to be confined to exter-
     nal forms and ceremonies. The religion that comes from God is the
     only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we
     must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew 1
     the mind, giving us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It
     will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true
     worship. It is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit.”—Ellen G.
     White, The Desire of Ages, p. 189; emphasis supplied.
       “One equal with God, acted as servant to His disciples. . . . He to
     whom every knee shall bow, He whom the angels of glory count it 2
     honor to serve, bowed down to wash the feet of those who called Him
     Lord.”—p. 649.

Discussion Questions:
      l
      1 The religious leaders of Christ’s day claimed to know the
      Scriptures but were oblivious to the greatest miracle in history,
      the birth of the Messiah. Meanwhile, the wise men of the East 3         came looking for Him in the right place at the right time. What
      significance does this story hold for us today as Christians, and
      as a church? How can we avoid the mistakes of the people in
      Christ’s day, as we see the prophecies of the last days being
      fulfilled?

      l
      2 Talk about the deity of Christ, why that is so important to
      our faith and worship. What do we lose if we, in any way, make
      Christ anything other than fully God?

      l
      3 Think again about Mary and what must have been going
      through her mind at this incredible turn of events. Think how
      much she didn’t understand and how hard some of this might
      have been for her (being pregnant without ever knowing a man
      certainly must have been stressful). And yet, even amid all this,
      she was able to praise the Lord and worship Him, despite so
      many unanswered questions, so many troublesome thoughts, so
      many unknowns. How can we learn to do the same: to worship
      and praise the Lord amid times of uncertainty and unknowns?
      In fact, why might that be of all times the best time to be whole-
      heartedly in an attitude of worship?




94

  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Acts 1:1–11, 2:14–41,
   17:15–34, 18:1–16, 1 Corinthians 13.

  S
         oon after Christ returned to heaven, the early church began to
         expand and grow. At first, it almost was exclusively Jews who
         were accepting Jesus as the Messiah and coming into the ranks
  of believers. Indeed, at first, many of the believers thought that the
  gospel was only for the Jews, which showed how much they still had
  to learn.
     At Pentecost, after Peter’s preaching and altar call before a multi-
  tude of Jews (Acts 2), “Then they that gladly received his word were
  baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three
  thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). This text alone shows the fallacy of the
  idea that all the Jews rejected Jesus.
     Yet, we would be mistaken to look back on the early church as
  some sort of idyllic time of worship and praise. Though in a radically
  different context, the early church struggled with some of the same
  issues we struggle with today, issues that could and would impact
  everything about their faith, including worship.
     This week we will take a look at a few instances from the early days
  of Christianity and some of the challenges the church faced as it grew,
  and we’ll seek to learn from the good things and, also, from the bad.

 Many “Proofs”
    From a human perspective, Jesus’ earthly ministry did not look so
 successful. Though He had attracted a fairly popular following while
 alive, it did not catch on en masse. Many leaders rejected Him, and
 of course, the Romans crucified Him, causing His closest disciples to
 scatter and flee.
    Things looked pretty bad until His resurrection and then Pentecost,
 when suddenly His followers found a new boldness to proclaim their
 crucified Master as the Messiah of Israel. It was only after the resur-
 rection of Jesus, in fact, that the early church started to take off.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    One of the most interesting parts of this section is verse 3, in which
 Luke states that Jesus presented them with many “proofs.” Some ver-
 sions use the phrase “infallible proofs,” which is somewhat overstat-
 ing the case. Another translation calls it “convincing proofs,” which is
 the less problematic translation. The point here is that the believers in
 Jesus were given powerful evidence, “proof” of Jesus as the Messiah.
 Considering the daunting task that He had called them to and all the
 opposition that they would face, they needed all the proof they could
 get. The good news is that the Lord will give us all the reasons we
 need for faith, all the reasons we need to believe in things that we
 do not fully understand. As we see in these texts, the disciples still
 did not fully understand the Lord’s intentions regarding the nation of
 Israel, even after all this time with Jesus. We need to learn to worship,
 praise, and obey the Lord, despite all that we do not understand.

  Think about the powerful evidence we have for our beliefs, on
  all the good reasons for the logic of our faith. Notice, too, the
  use of the word faith. What does faith imply? That is, what good
  reasons do you have for having faith, a belief in something that
  you do not fully understand?
                                                                      97

 The Preaching of the Word
   A great part of the Protestant worship tradition has been the preach-
 ing of the Word. A sacred responsibility falls upon the one given the
 task to feed the sheep, to teach and to preach and to exhort and to
 encourage. Music, liturgy, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, and foot wash-
 ing all have their place, but, perhaps, nothing’s more important than
 what is preached from the pulpit during the worship hour.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   What an experience it must have been, hearing the fisherman Peter
 preach with such power and authority. His words did not show any
 kind of waffling, any kind of doubt, but rather revealed the Spirit
 working through Him. All through his homily, Peter never wavers,
 but using the Scriptures (then, only the Old Testament) he preaches
 with power the gospel of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Messiah,
 who is now “ ‘exalted to the right hand of God’ ” (Acts 2:33). It is
 amazing how, in such a small number of sentences, he covers such an
 incredible amount of information, everything from the outpouring of
 the Holy Spirit, to repentance, to the Second Coming.

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

    No doubt, this must have been a very special worship service. Yet,
 at the same time, we have the same promises that they had. We have
 the same Bible (and now the New Testament, as well) that they had,
 and we have the same Lord who offers us the same Spirit. Why, then,
 shouldn’t we have worship services with the kind of power we see
 here? What is holding us back? 98

  Paul on Mars Hill
    In the days of the early church, we can see another example of
  the issue of worship, and of what people worship—this time in the
  ministry of the apostle Paul when he was in Athens, the place where
  three of the world’s most influential philosophers (Socrates, Plato,
  and Aristotle) once lived.
    What a different audience Paul had to deal with here than Peter did
  years earlier before all those devout Jews in Jerusalem!

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    One of the most obvious differences is that, unlike Peter, Paul here
  does not quote the Bible. In fact, he quoted a pagan author instead.
  At the same time, notice how Paul appealed to logic and reason: look
  around at the created world, he was saying, and you will see power-
  ful evidence of the Creator God. He was starting out, using a kind
  of natural theology and pointing to the natural world as a reason to
  believe in the Creator God.
    It is interesting to note the issue of worship here. These people
  were worshiping something that they did not understand. Paul sought
  to take that devotion and worship and turn it away from idols and
  other vain things and toward the living God. Humans seem to have an
  innate need to worship something, anything, and Paul here seeks to
  point them to the only thing truly worthy of their worship.

   In what ways can our worship services be better able to reach
   out to those who do not have a biblical background, who do
   not start with the same premises we do? How can we make our
   worship services more seeker-friendly?
                                                                     99

  Worship “Contrary to the Law”
     Worship is not just about what you do in church on Sabbath.
  Worship encompasses aspects of our whole faith: what we believe,
  what we proclaim, how we act. Central to worship is the idea of the
  Lord as our Creator and our Redeemer. Everything about worship
  should flow from this fundamental and sacred truth. Again, worship
  is primarily about God and the actions of God in history. Authentic
  worship should draw participants into a closer walk with their Lord.
  It should lead us to a sense of awe, reverence, repentance, and love
  for Him and for others.
     Though we always should be thinking about the Lord (Luke 21:36,
  Ps. 1:2), worship time should be something special, something unique.
  We cannot, however, rely on the church itself or on the worship leaders
  themselves to provide that kind of experience for us, however much
  of a role they can play. In the end, it comes down to ourselves and the
  attitude we bring to church with us on Sabbath.
     At the same time, as we have seen all quarter, worship is a means
  to an end, not an end in itself. Our worship does not save us; rather,
  our worship is one of our responses to being saved.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     It is fascinating that Paul was charged with persuading people
  toward a different kind of worship, a worship “contrary to the law”
  (vs. 13). (Even the Jews who believed in Jesus at times leveled a simi-
  lar accusation against Paul.) The point in Acts 18 is that these people
  were so caught up in tradition, so caught up in how things were done
  in the past, so caught up in the forms of worship, that when Paul
  presented them with the One who was the whole purpose of their
  worship, the One whom they worshiped without knowing it, the One
  whom all the worship services really pointed to—they rejected what
  he said. So caught up were they in the law itself, they missed the One
  to whom the law pointed.
     Again, though our circumstances today are radically different from
  Paul’s back then, we need to be careful not to allow our forms and
  traditions to get in the way of what our faith really should be about.
  Any worship that does not lead us directly to the Cross is misguided.

  Love Conquers All
    It is so easy, from our perspective today, to look back at the early
  church as some sort of model of harmony and peace, an example of
  what true worship was all about. Unfortunately, New Testament his-
  tory is so similar to Old Testament history in that both show just how
  far fallen we all are.
    Take, for example, the church in Corinth, which Paul established on
  his second missionary journey. A commercial hub, known for its luxury
  and wealth, Corinth was also a center of one of the most sensual and
  degrading religions of that era. Influenced by their culture, immorality
  and dissension had invaded the church. And yet, as bad as it was, it was
  not the only problem there. Paul addressed other issues that were causing
  factions to develop in the church, including idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14) and
  the seeming overemphasis of the gifts, especially the misuse of the gift of
  tongues for self-seeking motives (1 Corinthians 14).

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

    Paul suggested that no profession we make, no mighty miracles,
  no charismatic gifts, and no piety or zeal will profit us unless there is
  a heart filled with love for God, confirmed by love for one another.
  That, says Paul, is the ultimate gift for which we should seek, which
  may not be substituted with anything less.
    Spiritual gifts are helpful, and Christians should use their gifts to
  honor God and to build up the church in unity. But never should any
  spiritual gift be used for display of self, personal gain, or in a disor-
  derly way in worship or otherwise.
    In the end, a church filled with loving, dedicated Christians will
  exert an influence and power that extend far beyond the weekly wor-
  ship service.

   How much does unselfish love for others impact your daily
   life? That is, how much of your own time and energy do you
   spend on seeking to minister to others? How much of self are
   you willing to renounce, all for the good of other people? It is
   not so easy, is it?
                                                                        101

Further Study: Ellen G. White, “Pentecost,” pp. 35–46; “The Gift of
      the Spirit,” pp. 47–56; “Exalting the Cross,” pp. 201–210;
      “Corinth,” pp. 243–254; “Called to Reach a Higher Standard,”
      pp. 309–322, in The Acts of the Apostles.

         “Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to
      God; it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
      God; . . . it is walking by faith . . . it is relying on God with unques-
      tioning confidence, and resting in His love.”—Ellen G. White, The
      Acts of the Apostles, p. 51. 1            “What was the strength of those who in the past have suffered per-
      secution for Christ’s sake? It was union with God, . . . with the Holy
      Spirit, . . . with Christ. Reproach and persecution have separated many
      from earthly friends, but never from the love of Christ.”—p. 85.
         “[These] consecrated messengers . . . allowed no thought of self-
      exaltation to mar their presentation of Christ. . . . They coveted neither 2         authority nor pre-eminence.”—p. 209.
         “By idolatry he [Paul] meant not only the worship of idols, but
      self-serving, love of ease, the gratification of appetite and passion.”
      —p. 317.

Discussion Questions:
       l
       1 In class talk about all the reasons we have for faith. What
       “proofs” do we have for what we believe? What rational and logi- 3
       cal evidence do we have that helps affirm us in our beliefs? At
       the same time, what are the challenges to our faith? In the end,
       even despite these challenges, why do we believe what we do?

       l
       2 Think about some of the most powerful worship services you
       ever have attended. What made them so special, so powerful?
       What elements in particular made the difference? How could
       these elements be brought into your local church worship, if they
       are not there already?		

       l
       3 What are some of the potential ways in which our worship
       services actually could impede our view of Christ and the Cross?
       How can we make sure that nothing is allowed to do that?

       l
       4 Dwell more on 1 Corinthians 13. What concrete steps could
       your church take to manifest the love that Paul talks about
       here?




102

  Sabbath Afternoon				 Read for This Week’s Study: Rev. 1:13–18, Job 42:1–6,
  Rev. 19:1–5, Revelation 13, 14:6–12.

  F
         ew books of the Bible hold as much mystery and fascination as
         does Revelation. It is filled with incredible images of beasts and
         dragons and fire and earthquakes and plagues and armies and
  frogs and cities and falling stars and so forth.
     And yet, amid all the drama, the theme that repeatedly appears is
  worship. Whether dealing with the final crisis regarding those who
  worship the beast and its image, or revealing beings in heaven who
  sing praises to God, Revelation comes back again and again to wor-
  ship: worship of Him who “liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 5:14),
  worship of Him “which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou
  has taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned” (Rev. 11:17), and
  worship of the One who is to receive “glory and honour and power”
  (Rev. 4:11).
     In short, Revelation reveals what we have been looking at all quar-
  ter: that the Lord alone, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Judge—is
  worthy of our worship and praise.

 “I Fell at His Feet as Dead”
    Perhaps one of the greatest revelations we have been given of the
 majesty and power of God has come to us through astronomy. Most of
 the ancients had no idea of the size and expanse of the cosmos. In the
 twentieth century, with the incredible advances in various telescopes,
 we have been given a view of the universe that would have baffled
 most of the ancients. Indeed, we ourselves are baffled by it, by the
 size, by the distances, and by the incredible number of galaxies and
 stars. We barely can wrap our minds around it all.
    And here is the amazing thing: only something greater than the
 cosmos could have created the cosmos, in the same way that only
 something greater than a painting could have created the painting.
 Thus, the God whom we worship, the God whom we serve, is the
 Creator of the universe; hence, He is greater than it all.
    Who, then, are we in contrast to such a God?

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

 _______________________________________________________

   Though both these men were given only a partial revelation of the
 Lord, what they saw was enough to greatly humble them. There was
 fear, reverence, awe, and a sense of repentance in their reactions.
 How could there not be? They were getting a view of the Creator
 of the universe; more so, they were sinful beings getting a view of a
 sinless and holy God. No doubt, a realization of their own sinfulness,
 their own unrighteousness, their own filth, rose up in them before the
 presence of the Lord.

  How should our worship services elicit in us a similar reaction?
  That is, shouldn’t we be given a sense of the presence of God,
  which should humble us? At the same time, how crucial that the
  Cross be lifted up before us as our only hope of salvation.

  ______________________________________________________
                                                                  105

  Holy, Holy, Holy . . .
    		
    Though the book of Revelation still holds many mysteries, the
  dominant motif comes through time and time again, and that is, of
  worship. All through Revelation are scenes of various beings wor-
  shiping the Lord.

  Rev. 5:8–14______________________________________________

  Rev. 7:9–12______________________________________________

  Rev. 11:15–19____________________________________________

  Rev. 15:1–4______________________________________________

  Rev. 19:1–5______________________________________________


     Among all the things that Revelation can teach us, one thing should
  stand out: what happens on earth impacts heaven, and what happens
  in heaven impacts earth. Heaven and earth are, as we have been told,
  closer than we might think. Revelation shows us just how close.
  Indeed, time and again the beings in heaven are worshiping God for
  what He has done on earth.
     What, too, are the themes of praise and worship seen here but
  themes we have been looking at all quarter? The Lord as Creator, the
  Lord as Redeemer, the Lord as Judge. He is praised for His holiness,
  He is praised for the shedding of His blood, He is praised and wor-
  shiped for His power, for His might, and for His honor. He is praised
  for His justice and judgment and for the salvation He offers.

   Think again through the plan of salvation, of what it means and
   what God has given us through it. Don’t we have so much to
   praise Him for? Whatever your struggles, whatever your trials,
   take time every day to praise the Lord for all that you have to
   be thankful about. It will change your life.

   ______________________________________________________ 106

 Revelation 13
    From the introduction onward, we have seen how the final end-time
 crisis will center on the question of worship. The issue of worship is not
 a small matter. The eternal destiny of souls hangs on it. This crucial truth
 becomes more apparent in what unfolds in Revelation 13 and 14.

   1. What is the historical context of these verses? What are they talk-
 ing about historically and prophetically?
 _______________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________

  2. How often does the theme of worship appear in this chapter?
 What does that tell us about how central it is?
 _______________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________

   3. Where is the gospel, the salvation offered to us in Christ, pre-
 sented in this chapter?
 _______________________________________________________
 _______________________________________________________

    From the beginning of the great controversy, Satan sought to
 subvert the authority and power of God. The battle that he started in
 heaven is now being played out on the earth. This chapter shows the
 enemy’s work through history, through the powers presented there,
 and how it will climax in the final crisis surrounding the issue of wor-
 ship: all those who do not worship the beast and his image will face
 economic and physical persecution. Even though Satan knows that
 he is defeated, even though, at the Cross it was over for him, he still
 continues to fight, still continues to seek deceiving as many as he can,
 and he will do so right up to the end.
    Yet, in the midst of all this, we have Revelation 13:8, which refers
 to Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”; that
 is, even before all this began on earth, the “everlasting covenant”
 (Heb. 13:20) had been in place, offering all humans the opportunity
 for salvation. Those who truly have accepted that salvation, whose
 names are in the book of life, shall not worship the beast or his image.
 They are worshiping, instead, the One who “washed us from our sins
 in his own blood’ (Rev. 1:5), and we will no doubt be doing the same,
 worshiping Him, in heaven, as well.
                                                                        107

  Revelation 14
    Revelation 14 opens with what? A heavenly scene, showing the
  144,000 who were “redeemed from the earth” (vs. 3). It starts out with
  a vision of the future, of what it will be like, at least for this group,
  when they stand before God in heaven. And though the text doesn’t
  come right out and say it, this certainly seems to be a depiction of
  some sort of heavenly worship.
    Thus, Revelation 14 continues the theme of worship found in
  chapter 13. These people didn’t worship the beast and his image but
  instead are seen worshiping their Lord in heaven.
    The chapter then returns to earth, picking up where chapter 13 left
  off, where those who worshiped the beast and his image were shown
  in contrast to those who would not, those whose names were written
  in the book of life.

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________

     These verses are rich and ripe with truth: Creation, Redemption, judg-
  ment, salvation, the gospel, obedience, faith, the Ten Commandments,
  and mission. Here, too, we can see the fiercest warning in all the
  Bible, and it centers on the question of worship: “And the smoke of
  their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest
  day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
  receiveth the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:11).
     As Seventh-day Adventists, we understand how central to this
  whole issue the seventh-day Sabbath is, which is so tied in with
  Creation and with worship. We worship the Lord because He is the
  Creator, and the Sabbath has been and still remains the foundational
  mark, or sign, of His role as Creator.
     Though we still do not know when, and how, these issues will be
  brought to the forefront, we can be sure that they will. How crucial it
  is, then, that we be ready, not only to stand firm for the truth but also
  to be able “to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of
  the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15). 108

Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “The Impending Conflict,”
      pp. 582–592; “The Final Warning,” pp. 603–612, “The Controversy
      Ended,” pp. 662–678, in The Great Controversy.

         “Worship is bending low before our Maker, recognizing and
      acknowledging His holiness and our creatureliness. It is submitting to
      His sovereignty, responding to His majestic presence.”—Richard M.
      Davidson, Andrews University, Worship in the Old Testament (used 1         by permission of the author), p. 3.
         “The Psalmist states: ‘Serve the Lord with fear [awe]; rejoice with
      trembling’ (Ps. 2:11). In worship we recognize the awesome majesty
      and infinite power of the King; we remember that ‘Our God is a con-
      suming fire’ (Deut 4:24; Heb 12:29) that would instantly consume
      us if it were not for the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus who was 2         ‘consumed’ on the altar of Calvary in our place.
         “Thus our worship will keep a balance between joy and awe. It
      will be a holy joy. . . . Our worship must have awesome depth . . .
      yet vibrant joy.”—p. 30.
         “The redeemed raise a song of praise that echoes and re-echoes
      through the vaults of heaven: ‘Salvation to our God which sitteth upon
      the throne, and unto the Lamb,’ verse 10 [of Revelation 7]. . . .
         “In all that shining throng there are none to ascribe salvation to 3         themselves, as if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness.
      Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the burden of
      every song, the keynote of every anthem, is: Salvation to our God and
      unto the Lamb.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 665.

Discussion Questions:
       l
       1 In class, discuss in more detail the plan of redemption, the
       miracle of the Incarnation, the sinless life of Jesus, His death on
       our behalf, and the promise of His second coming. Why does all
       this make Christ so worthy of worship?

       l2 What are ways that we worship the Lord when we are not in
       church service? If we are not worshiping the Lord all the time,
       can we truly worship him for a few hours on Sabbath? Discuss
       your answer.

       l
       3 What are some good things that we could be in danger of
       worshiping?




110

      Paul’s letter to the Galatians has been compared to spiritual
   dynamite, and rightly so. Along with Romans, no other book in the
   Bible has sparked as much revival and reformation. What is it about
   Galatians that has made it such a backbone of spiritual revival?
   Unlike any other book in the Bible, Galatians addresses a number
   of themes crucial to the Christian soul. It tackles issues such as
   freedom, the role of the law in salvation, our condition in Christ,
   and the nature of the spirit-led life.
      Next quarter’s Bible study guide, The Gospel in Galatians by
   Carl Cosaert, invites us to journey with the apostle Paul as he
   pleads with the Galatians to remain true to Jesus and gives us a
   chance to reflect on our own understanding of the gospel. It is our
   hope that God’s Spirit will spark a spiritual revival in our hearts as
   we rediscover what God has done for us in Christ.

   Lessons for the Visually Impaired The regular Adult Sabbath School
   Bible Study Guide is available free each month in braille and on audiocassette to sight-
   impaired and physically handicapped persons who cannot read normal ink print. This
   includes individuals who, because of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, paralysis, accident,
   and so forth, cannot hold or focus on normal ink-print publications. Contact Christian
   Record Services, Box 6097, Lincoln, NE 68506-0097.

                                                                                     112