Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Worshipping the Lord”. Another look at “worship” this time from the perspective of the returning exiles. But given the covenant “promise” that those exiles just made, recorded in Nehemiah 9, it’s important for us to critically look at their understanding of it all. Their understanding of themselves, understanding of their God, their understanding of sin and what sin does to the individual and of what God really wants from us. Their understanding of worship, too. I cautioned us at the beginning of this quarter’s lesson study, to look critically at what is recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah. It is likely, I cautioned, that we will see the seeds of hypocrisy being sown in their day that would yield the harvest of outright hatred of God ~400 years later in Christ’s day. Although, the people in Nehemiah’s day really had no excuse for not knowing what is true… none of us have any excuse for not knowing, either.
The prophets who spoke and wrote before and during the time Israel was taken captive by Babylon had much to say about the hypocrisy that led to that captivity. As we read earlier this quarter, the scriptures, the writings that describe this hypocrisy were interpreted to these people in Nehemiah’s day. The people understood what had happened to them. They saw what had prompted such captivity. How God viewed “worship” that is only lip-service and not from the heart (just read Isaiah 1!). And what constituted true worship. As Hosea had said to them prior to this, God desires “mercy and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). A challenge repeated from Christ’s own mouth 400+ years later (see Matthew 9:13/ 12:7). It appears that this lesson was not learned in Nehemiah’s day. As we shall read in lesson 11 next week, the covenant promise the people made that we studied in lesson 7 And 8, and the great “worshipping” they performed that we are studying this lesson 10, was really useless for most who participated. Lesson 11 has us study their “backsliding” from that “worship” and from their very frail covenantal “promise”. Our songs of “worship” and our covenantal “promises” are really missing the mark. Because true “worship” is not a matter of songs of praise nor of formal congregational activity. True “worship” is how we live each moment of each day. And the true covenant is not our promise to God but His promise to us. Our part is not to promise to “do”, but to believe, trust, have true faith in God and His promise to us. We are totally incapable to “do” the covenant… incapable to “do” the works that are God’s. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).
We must read the Bible as a whole. We must see the misunderstanding of the people in Old Testament times that led to the misunderstanding and the rejection of God in New Testament times. Judaism is no more the religion of the Old Testament, as Catholicism is no more the religion of the New Testament. Actually, both Testaments proclaim the same gospel. A gospel that Judaism missed… and sadly, much of Christendom has missed. For at the heart of this misunderstanding lies the latent need for us sinners to keep self alive and well. So we make “worship” all about me. We make “covenants” all about me. We will not submit to God. “Submission” seems contrary to the “freedom from bondage” that God promises us. But our true freedom comes only from our submission with God, unto death. Christ’s death must be my death, too. Else self is still on the throne of my heart and the misunderstandings about me, worship, covenants, sin, salvation, the Gospel and especially all the misunderstandings about our God continue. God and His sovereignty of love can only rule in my heart if the seat of that ruler-ship is vacated…the pontiff of self is dead… and I purposely choose God to rule and govern my life.
What we are studying this quarter is a repeat of the Exodus generation. We are reading of those who came out of bondage (Egyptian and now Babylonian), those who worshipped God in song and praise (at the Red Sea crossing and now in Ezra’s day), those who heard the law spoken (first on Mt. Sinai and now in the rebuilt Jerusalem), those who made failed covenantal promises to God (at the foot of Mt. Sinai and now in Nehemiah’s day), and those who ultimately rejected God (then in the 40 years of wilderness wanderings and now, eventually, after 400 years at the crucifixion of Christ). Does this timeline also represent us? Do we believe we are freed from bondage, have we worshipped and praised God in song, have we heard the law, have we made promises? Alas, have we misrepresented God to ourselves and to others and will we ultimately reject God, too?
At this late date in Earth’s history, “the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). The “creation” has seen this only once so far… in the person of the Son. The “creation” needs to see this in all God’s “sons”. It is what creation and creation’s God is waiting for. May we be true “sons” is my prayer for us all. All of creation awaits with “earnest” longing. God help us all to prove true.
With brotherly love,
Jim