Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Mar 1951

We see in Revelation 4. and 5. the force of what we pointed out in our previous article (which will appear only in the bound volume of Needed Truth) that "worship" is an abbreviation of "worthship," and that the Greek word for ~' to worship" (Proskuneo) means to crouch or prostrate oneself. In Revelation 4.9-11 we read

"And when the living creatures shall give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders shall fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship (Proskuneo) Him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy (Anios, worthy, estimable, deserving, meet for or due) art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power: for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created."

Here we have an illuminating exposition of what worship is. When the four living creatures give glory, honour and thanks to God, in which there is 'unfolded the essential worthiness of the Divine Being, the twenty four elders fall down and render " worthship "to God. In their" worthship "they acknowledge that God is " worthy." The English word" worthy "is practically the equivalent of the Greek word Asios, meaning that quality of a thing which renders it a thing of value, deserving of. In the presence of such eternal, unchangeable and inherent worth as is ever in the manifestation of the Divine Being, the four and twenty elders proclaim their own unworthiness. Can they sit on thrones with crowned heads in the light of the Divine Being whom the living creatures glorify? No, they fall down and worship, casting their crowns before the throne. This is in the truest sense worship (worthship), the negation and self-humbling of the creature before the Creator. This is fitting; it is His due. When one thinks of the pride and vainglory of puny man in contrast to this, of the pomp and circumstance of worldly rulers, one cannot hell) thinking of the day when God's glory will be revealed, when the rejected Son of Man will return again, in the glory of His Father with His angels, to render to every man according to his deeds (Matthew 16.27). Then man shall be humbled in the dust.

"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day."

"And man shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake mightily the earth."

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2.17, 19, 22. See also Revelation 6.12-17).

The worth of the Divine Being in Revelation 4.11 is seen in the fact of creation, for according to His will, or according to the A.V., for His pleasure, all things were created, but in Revelation 5. it is especially the worthiness of the Lamb that is on view. The question is asked in Revelation 5.2 by a strong angel, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" No one was found worthy, that is, no created being was worthy, and God had to fall back again upon Him whom He had already sent for man's redemption, even upon His Son, the Lamb of God. John who had been weeping was told, "Weep not: behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome, to open the book and the seven seals thereof." The worthiness of the Lamb causes the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders to fall down before the Lamb, and they sing a new song

"Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth" (Revelation 5.9, 10).

The old song is the song of creation, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38.7), but the new song is redemption's song concerning the work of the Lamb which He is accomplishing through His blood-shedding on Calvary. But whether it is the worth of the Creator or the worth of the Redeemer, this worth produces "worthship."

J. Miller | Mar 1951
Jottings