October 17: REVERENCE AND WORSHIP (part 4 - WORSHIP)

. . . saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Revelation 14:7

And now we get to the final point of the verse: that of worship. This is life’s arena whereby the Creator is glorified through His people, and it is also where the archenemy works the hardest to wreak havoc. This verse describes exactly who it is that we are to worship: “Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Our Creator! Worship is a heart issue. Our desperately wicked hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) can be easily manipulated if we are not purposeful in guarding them. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Notice that the wording of the final phrase of our opening verse, made heaven and earth, the sea…, is lifted from the fourth commandment (see Exodus 20:11). In Jesus’s day, there was much confusion regarding how to keep the Sabbath. Many uninspired rules had been made up by religious leaders, ostensibly to help people know how to keep it. The effect was not only paralyzing, but it robbed the day of its intended joy of resting in the Lord, interacting with loved ones, and being refreshed (Exodus 31:17). The Pharisees had come to elevate their rules to such a degree that, as Jesus kept Sabbath according to its original and true intent, He was repeatedly accused of breaking it.

In the early centuries of the church age, another uninspired alteration came onto the scene regarding when to keep the Sabbath. Sabbath observance was shifted to the day most favored by unconverted pagans who had joined the church after Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313AD. It was an unsuccessful political ploy: an attempt to unite the disintegrating Roman empire. This day was popularly known among the pagans as “the venerable day of the sun” (compare to Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3; Jeremiah 8:2,7; Ezekiel 8:15-18). In the economy of the archenemy, it not only caused many to forget the LORD’s holy Day (Genesis 2:1-3, Isaiah 58:13), but it watered down the special yearly uniqueness of the Passover celebration/Resurrection Day, and also ‘watered down’ the meaning of baptism which was given to all repentant believers to “act out” their own death to sin and resurrection to new life: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

When Moses repeated the law in Deuteronomy, he used wording in the fourth commandment to remind the people of God’s role in redeeming His people by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (5:15). He is both Creator and Redeemer, deserving of our pure, devoted, and undiluted worship. This is what the Sabbath is all about. The devil seeks to downplay these essential characteristics of our Maker and Savior because he is unable to either create or save, but only counterfeits to divert worship. And he uses peer pressure as a form of coercion. Do not submit to this enemy who wants only to bring about your destruction. Instead submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, And of the son of man who will be made like grass? And you forget the LORD your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy . . . Isaiah 51:12-13

For further study: Nehemiah 9:6; Ezekiel 20:12; Daniel 7:25; Matthew 12:8; Luke 4:8; Philippians 4:7