7/9/2008 9:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Communing with God
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Exodus 24:9-11
Message of the verses: “9
¶ Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab
and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel
11 Yet He did not
stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel
This SD
begins a new chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s book, and it also begins a new section in
the book of Exodus, the section on the tabernacle and the priesthood. In Dr. Wiersbe’s book he inserts an interlude
to prepare his readers for what is coming.
In this interlude he reminds his readers that the book of Exodus is not
arranged topically, for information about the priesthood and the tabernacle is
distributed through Exodus 35-39 as well as Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. He suggests that God may
have done this to keep the reader reading all of the material in order to read
and understand all of it. There will be
a different kind of outline as I go through Dr. Wiersbe’s book because he will
break it down into different themes and therefore I will, as usually is the
case for me, follow the outline in his book.
For more
info on this interlude look at pages 229 and 230 in Dr. Wiersbe’s book.
The main
point in the outline that I am following is entitled “God summons us to worship
Him” (Exodus 24:9-18) I will quote a
portion from this section, “Worshiping God is the highest privilege and the
greatest responsibility of the Christian life, because God is the highest Being
in the universe and the One to whom we must one day give account.”
The first
sub-section is entitled “Climbing higher,” and in this section Dr. Wiersbe
explains the position of those who went up with Moses on the mountain and those
who stayed on the ground, and goes on to speak of a spiritual meaning for
believers today: “All of this is an
illustration of the important truth that we must grow in our worship experience
with the Lord, and we are the ones who
decide how ‘high’ we will go.”
Believers today can choose to stay at the base of the “mountain” or by
God’s grace and the faith of the individual believer decide to climb higher on
the mountain, even to the point of seeing the glory of God as Moses and some of
the others were privileged to do.
God
commanded Israel to worship from a far, but that is no the case of believer
today: “19 ¶ Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence
to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated
for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have
a great priest over the house of God, 22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one
another to love and good deeds, 25 not
forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:19-25) “Draw near to God and He will draw near to
you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded.” (James 4:8)
And now I
get to the section from the verses I am studying today, “Communing with God.”
I suppose I
may as well start out with the hard part of this section, which is in verse ten
where the text says that they “saw the God of Israel.” I would like to quote a verse from John’s
Gospel, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the
bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Anytime when I see verses in the Scriptures that seem to contradict each
other, as in this case, I think that there is something that I do not know, and
then begin to further study to find out what it is that I do not know, and the
reason that I do this is because the Bible does not contradict itself
ever. Dr. Wiersbe says that it was some
of God’s glory that these men say. Moses
asked the Lord if He could see Him, and the Lord only passed by behind Moses,
for if someone would look upon the face of God in all of His glory he would die
because a man in his human flesh cannot look upon the face of God and
live. “And above the firmament that was
over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire
stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance
of a man above upon it.” (Eze. 1:26)
These men
went on to have a fellowship meal that climaxed the ratifying of the
covenant.
At this time I would like to make
one more quote from a note in Dr. Wiersbe’s book, a note that goes along with
one of the themes of my life, which is balance or keeping one emphasis
(emphasus) on the right syllable, (saliable):
“God is both transcendent and immanent, high above us and close to us,
and we must maintain a balanced outlook in our theology and our worship. If we overemphasize the transcendent, we may
try to worship a God so far away that He’s beyond helping us, but if we stress
only the immanent, we may try to be unduly familiar with God that we fail to
honor His greatness. The secret is
balance.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are two things that have been of great
meaning to me as I studied this lesson today:
1. I want to worship the Lord in
the highest manner that I can, as Moses worshiped Him on the mountain, and
2. I want to keep my perspective of who
God is in balance, not seeing Him as so far away that I cannot come near to
Him, and not bringing God down to my level, which at times I have done, and
realize that was wrong.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Keep my worship in balance.
Memory verses for the week: Exodus
20:1-3
- Then the Lord spoke all theses things saying,
- “I am
the Lord Your God who brought you out of the
- “You shall have not other gods before me.
7/9/2008 10:51 AM
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