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Why Worship Is Due God, May 29
Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you
may know that I am the Lord your God.
Ezekiel 20:20
, NKJV.
In
Revelation 14
, human beings are called upon to worship the Creator; and
the prophecy brings to view a class that, as the result of the threefold message, are
keeping the commandments of God. One of these commandments points directly
to God as the Creator. The fourth precept declares: “The seventh day is the sabbath
of the Lord thy God: ... for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
sabbath day, and hallowed it” (
Exodus 20:10, 11
)....
“The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever
present the true reason why worship is due to God”—because He is the Creator,
and we are His creatures. “The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of
divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and
no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on
the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the
Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must
never be forgotten.”—
J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath
, chap. 27.
It was to keep this truth ever before the minds of people that God instituted
the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to
be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as
its sign and memorial. Had the Sabbath been universally kept, the thoughts and
affections of humans would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence
and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel.
The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, “him that made
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” It follows that the
message which commands mortals to worship God and keep His commandments
will especially call upon them to keep the fourth commandment.—
The Great
Controversy, 437, 438
.
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