Collegiate Examinations and Worship

I had quite a knack for taking tests back in my college days at UCLA. I certainly was never the smartest guy in class, and I usually found the first few lectures of the academic quarter to be quite intimidating. The professors would expound on concepts that were so foreign to me, that when my classmates raised their hands to ask questions, not only would I not understand the answers, I could not even understand the questions. Over the course of the weeks, these same classmates would form study groups and discuss minutiae, meet with the professors in their offices during scheduled office hours, and spend endless hours quizzing each other before examinations. They would also make audio recordings of the lectures and purchase lecture notes written by former students who clearly knew the subjects. Meanwhile, I mostly studied alone, as I was by nature a fairly shy and solitary creature. I rarely purchased lecture notes, and my few tape recordings of lectures were of poor quality. My preparation for examinations consisted mainly of listening to the lectures, reading parts of textbooks, and reviewing the largely illegible scribbles in my class notes. On the day of examination, as my classmates desperately huddled with their books and notes to gain any last-minute advantage, I realized that there wasn't much more that I could do to prepare for the test, so I would simply close my eyes, hum the Rocky theme music in my head, and hope for the best.

More often than not, I would ace the test, and outperform virtually every one of my classmates whom I initially found to be intimidatingly smart. It wasn't because I studied harder – it was because I studied smarter. Instead of trying to remember every detail of the course material, I was often able to discern from the lectures whether the professor considered certain concepts or facts to be important. By listening for signs of emphasis, repetition and the amount of time devoted to certain parts of the syllabus, I was able to identify those that were likely to be in the tests, and spent my time more efficiently by concentrating my studying efforts on the essential material.

In the same way, it is possible to discern from God's word what He deems of vital importance, and in the record of His dealings with the Israelites in the desert, worship clearly took top billing. When God called Moses into Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights, Moses received detailed instructions on how God was to be worshiped, from the details and designs of the tabernacle, the utensils for making offerings, and proper protocol for offering sacrifices, even to specifications of the high priest's underwear (Exodus 25-31). God did not instruct Moses on the Ten Commandments or how to govern the people while he was cloaked by smoke in the mountain. God spoke about worship, and worship alone.

When we worship God, we acknowledge and declare His words through the prophet Isaiah,

“I am the LORD, and there is no other,

apart from me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5a)

The subject of worship is emphasized in the Bible, repeated throughout the Bible, and occupies many chapters and verses in the Bible. May we be discerning in our studies and realize its primacy in our life's journeys.