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Commentary on "Rejoicing Before the Lord: The Sanctuary and Worship"
Day 5: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - Communion With God
Overview
This lesson is about “communion with God”. It focusses on the Exodus 25 directions for building the ark and the mercy seat an points out that God said He would commune with them from there. The lesson then points out that God has promised to lead His people and says that this is where worship comes in. Worshiping in an attitude of submission, surrender, and willingness to be led will “should help you learn an attitude of faith and submission.”
Observations
Today’s lesson again misses the point that communion with God depends upon being His person. Israel, we must again state, was God’s nation. He chose them and redeemed them from Egypt by His own sovereign decision. The Israelites did not do anything to obtain God’s favor; He saved them and made them His own by His own decree. Moses was God’s chosen leader and mediator between Himself and the Israelites, and He honored God and worshiped Him as an outgrowth of the relationship God has established with him.
The lesson suggests that human worship leads people into proper attitudes of reverence and respect for God. In fact, the Teachers Comments, p. 51, asks, “How can we discern that our worship is losing its meaning, and what can we do to bring it back?” “What can we do to keep our worship a vital communication between ourselves and God?”
Before we can analyze our worship, we must decide what to do with Jesus. If we have accepted His blood as payment for our sin, if we have repented of our complete sinfulness and admitted we need a Savior, then we have been born of the Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14) and He testifies with our spirits that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16). When we know we are born again and moved from death to life (Jn. 5:24), worship becomes natural.
Of course, life can become overwhelming, and we may lose our intensity and natural feelings of worship. Nevertheless, when we are born again, the Holy Spirit does not leave us even when we become distracted and overwrought. Worship is our right and privilege when we are born again. Even when we don’t feel close to God, we can choose to worship Him, and we will again experience His immanence.
If one is not born again, however, worship will not result in “closeness”. It may draw one to desire God, but it will not result in intimacy because unless a person is born of the Spirit, he is not and cannot be intimate with God.
In such a case, a person’s proper response to God is to repent and submit to Him and receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior and Lord. Then he will be able to worship and rejoice before Him.
Summary
- Israel and Moses were God’s chosen, redeemed people. Worship was natural for them because they already were His.
- Unless we receive the Lord Jesus and are born of the Spirit, we cannot worship Him. Unless we are His and He is ours, we cannot rejoice because we are not connected to the Source of life.
- Only if a person receives Jesus can he be intimate with God.
- We can worship and rejoice only when we are alive with the life of God.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised July 18, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
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