Prlajaran 9 _ Rabu 24 Ogos_

Wednesday
August 24
Profitable for Nothing?
South African writer Laurens van der Post once wrote about what he called “the burden of meaninglessness,” this sense some people have that, when it was all said and done, what, if anything, did their lives mean? Sooner or later, they will be dead, and anyone who knew them will be dead, and before long all memory of them will be forever gone too. In such a scenario, what do our lives mean, what can they mean? How easy it can be to get the sense that so much of what we do has no real meaning, no real lasting importance.
With these thoughts in mind, read Isaiah 44. Then, on the lines below, summarize the essence of those verses, particularly as they relate to the question of worship and what people worship.
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However much Isaiah was writing for his time and culture and people, look at how relevant the principles are for us today. The Lord, He alone is the Creator, He alone is our Redeemer, He alone can save us; thus, He alone is worthy of our worship and our praise. Isaiah mocks those who create idols with their own hands, gods of their own making, and then bow down and worship them—things that are, indeed, “profitable for nothing.”
And yet, as silly and as foolish as all that seems to us, are we not in danger of doing something similar, of dedicating ourselves, our lives, our time, and our energy to things that, in the end, are “profitable for nothing,” that cannot answer the deepest need of our souls now, and that surely cannot redeem us from the grave at the end of time? How crucial it is that we watch and pray, that, as Paul said, we examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). Sabbath worship, if done right, can remind us in a special way about why we should worship only the Lord. Worship should be a time that especially reminds us of what is important in life, what truly matters, and what is temporal, and even of what is “profitable for nothing.”
We all know the danger of making idols out of money, power, prestige, and so on. What about the danger of making idols out of things such as church, the pastor, our own ministries, or even our own faithfulness or lifestyle or piety? Think this through and bring your answer to class on Sabbath.