Meeting together with people to worship God can be a blessed experience that is better than the sum of the individuals worshipping separately. The culture of heavenly worship always includes infinite numbers of beings delighted to join together in adoration of their Creator God. As our Quarterly notes on page 89, "Worship is a response of our faith in God for His mighty works: first, for creating us, and, second, for redeeming us." It is important to note that only human beings can praise God for the latter, because Jesus only redeemed human beings. Only human beings can sing the song of Moses and the Lamb:
"And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God,
and the song of the Lamb, saying,
'Great and marvelous are Thy works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Thy ways,
Thou King of the nations.
'Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?
For Thou alone art holy;
For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE THEE,
For Thy righteous acts have been revealed.'"
(Rev.15:3, 4; New American Standard Bible)
The statement "all the nations will come and worship," is a statement of unity. When the "righteous acts" of the Lord have been fully preached and appreciated, there will be true unity of worship and the prediction of Isaiah 45:23 will be fulfilled.
"I have sworn by Myself,
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance."
(See also Rom. 14:11 and Phil. 2:10.)
1 Thessalonians 4:3 tells us that the will of God is our sanctification. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Does this mean every human will be saved so they go to heaven? No, in spite of what many have come to believe, there will be people who will be lost. The message of 1888 says that:
"... the Word of God teaches--that 'the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men.' Titus 2:11, RV. God has wrought out salvation for every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn it and throw it away. The judgment will reveal the fact that full salvation was given to every man and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession." [1]
The Bible clearly teaches that there will be many who follow the way Pharaoh chose after receiving information from Moses that the God of heaven, Jehovah, existed and was in control of events on the earth.
"Although each of the Egyptian plagues increased Pharaoh's stubbornness and hardness of heart, he and his officials had to admit that the plagues were acts from 'the finger of God' (Exod. 8:19), and they let Israel go free to the promised land (Ex. 12:31-32)." [2]
Pharaoh finally relents and tells Moses and Aaron: "Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, 'Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also'" (Ex. 12:31, 32).
Notice that Moses and Aaron had consistently told Pharaoh they wanted to leave to "worship." Imagine how different it would have been if Pharaoh had acknowledged that all people belonged to Jehovah instead of telling Israel to "get out from among my people." All Egypt could have joined in worship together as the people of Nineveh did when their king led them in repentance. This could have happened but Pharaoh chose to "spurn" the blessings which would have come to him and his people. All people, even those that God had given to Pharaoh to rule over, are in reality God's people.
After depriving his people of the blessings of worshipping together with the people God had chosen, Pharaoh selfishly asked that Moses and Aaron "bless me also." This is an acknowledgement that he, Pharaoh, the mighty leader/god of Egypt needed blessings from Jehovah.
At the end of time, we are told that every knee shall bow, admitting the sovereignty of Jehovah, but like Pharaoh, they will eventually seek to attack and kill God and those whose faith in Him is genuine and humble. The Egyptians could not have participated in unified worship of the true God without acknowledging the gods they had made for themselves were impotent to save them.
Modern Israel makes the same mistake today when we insist on adding anything to our righteousness than what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. But, if we are crucified with Christ, and not worshipping through our own efforts, there will be unity of worship among us.
--Arlene Hill
Endnotes:
- E. J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, p. 14; CFI ed. (2016).
- Ranko Stefanovic, Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the Book of Revelation, second ed., p. 478; Andrews University Press (2009).