Middletown New York Seventh day Adventist Church

Friday, December 4, 2015

Lesson 11 The Covenant December 5-11, 2015

Lesson 11December 5-11

The Covenant

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week's Study: Gen. 9:1-17; 12:1-3; Gal. 3:6-9, 15-18; Exodus 24:1-18;Jer. 31:31-34; 1 Cor. 11:24-26.

Memory Text: 'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah' (Jeremiah 31:31, NIV).

Although the Bible speaks of covenants in the plural (Rom. 9:4, Gal. 4:24), there is only one basic covenant, the covenant of grace, in which God bestows salvation upon fallen beings who claim it by faith. The idea of plural covenants arises from the various ways God has restated the essential covenant promise in order to meet the needs of His people in different times and settings.

But whether it's the Adamic covenant (Gen. 3:15), the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, Gal. 3:6-9), the Sinaitic covenant (Exod. 20:2), the Davidic covenant (Ezek. 37:24-27), or the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), the idea is the same. The salvation God provides is a gift, unmerited and undeserved, and the human response to that gift-in a sense, humanity's holding up its side of the deal-is faithfulness and obedience.

The first mention of the New Covenant is in Jeremiah, in the context of Israel's return from exile and the blessings that God would grant them. Even amid calamity and trouble, the Lord extends to His wayward people the offer of hope and restoration.

Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 12.

SundayDecember 6

God's Covenant With All Humanity

We look at how bad the world is today; that is, we see all the evil in it, and yet God still bears with us. Thus, we can only imagine just how bad things must have been in order for the Lord to destroy the whole world with a flood. God had given men His commandments as a rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 91.

Read Genesis 9:1-17. What covenant was made between God and humanity, and how does it reflect God's grace toward the creation?

The covenant God expressed to Noah was the most universal among the biblical covenants; it was with all humanity, and it included the animals and nature too (Gen. 9:12). Also, this was a one-sided arrangement: the Lord didn't impose any requirements or stipulations upon those with whom He was establishing the covenant. He simply was not going to destroy the earth with water again, period. Unlike other covenants, nothing was conditional about it.

God then sealed His covenant with a visible sign, that of a rainbow, which symbolizes the covenant promise that the earth will never be destroyed by a flood again. So, anytime we see a rainbow, the mere fact that we are here to see it is, in its own way, a vindication of this ancient covenant promise. (After all, if we had been wiped out in a universal flood, we wouldn't be here to see the rainbow!) Amid the constant sin and evil here on earth, at times we are blessed with the beauty of the rainbow, a sign of God's grace toward the whole world. We can look up at it and draw hope, not only from just how beautiful it is in and of itself, but also because we know that it's a message from God, a message of His love toward our wretched planet.

Dwell upon the grandeur and beauty of a rainbow. Especially in light of what the Bible tells us about the rainbow, in what ways can it draw us toward God, toward transcendence, toward something greater than what this mere earth itself offers?

MondayDecember 7

The Covenant With Abraham

Read Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-5, 17:1-14. What do these texts tell us about what the Lord intended to do through the covenant He made with Abraham?

The Abrahamic covenant of grace is fundamental to the entire course of salvation history. That's why Paul used it to help explain the plan of salvation as it was fulfilled in Jesus Himself.

Read Galatians 3:6-9, 15-18. How does Paul connect the covenant made with Abraham to Jesus and to salvation by faith alone?

Through Abraham's seed-referring not to his many descendants, but in particular to one, Jesus (see Gal. 3:16), God would bless the entire world. All who would be a part of Abraham's seed, which happens by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:29), would find that Abraham's God would be their God as well. Even back then, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Gal. 3:6). Abraham was no more saved by works than the thief on the cross was; it's always and only God's saving grace that brings salvation. Abraham fulfilled his end of the covenant promise. His obedience revealed the faith that took hold of the promise of salvation. His works didn't justify him; instead, the works showed that he was already justified. That's the essence of the covenant and how it is expressed in the life of faith (see Rom. 4:1-3).

Dwell upon the great truth that your hope of salvation comes only from the righteousness of Jesus credited to you by faith. What great hope and joy can you derive from this wonderful provision made in your behalf?

TuesdayDecember 8

The Covenant at Sinai

How was the covenant made between Israel and God at Mount Sinai? Exodus 24:1-18

Moses and some leaders went to Mount Sinai. These leaders included Aaron and his two sons, who represented the priests; and the 70 elders and leaders, who represented the nation. The men accompanying Moses had to stop from afar, but Moses was allowed to go on up to where God appeared.

Moses later came and affirmed the covenant with the whole nation. He proclaimed what God had spoken to him, to which the nation answered with the following words: All the words which the Lord has said we will do. (See Exod. 24:3, NKJV.)

Of course, as sacred history has shown and as our own experience often proves, it's one thing to make the claim to be obedient; it's quite another to reach out in faith and surrender in order to harness the divine power that gives us the grace to do what we say we will.

Read Hebrews 4:2. How does this verse explain Israel's failure? How can we learn to avoid the same mistake?

Only by faith and by grasping the promises that come by faith can we be obedient, an obedience that is expressed by loyalty to God's law. Obedience to the law was no more contrary to the everlasting covenant in Moses' time than it is in ours. The common misperception about the law and the covenants, which usually arises from reading Paul, stems from a failure to take into account the context in which Paul was writing, that of dealing with his Judaizing opponents. They wanted to make the law and obedience to it, central to the faith; Paul, in contrast, wanted to make Christ and His righteousness the central component.

How often have you said, All that the Lord has told me, I will do? only to fail to follow through? How does this unfortunate reality make the promise of grace so much more precious? What hope would you have without it?

WednesdayDecember 9

The New Covenant: Part 1

Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What do these texts mean both in their immediate context and in ours today?

Jeremiah uttered these words amid the greatest crisis the people had yet faced: the coming Babylonian invasion, when the nation was threatened with all but certain extinction. Here again, however, as in other places, the Lord offered them hope, the promise that this was not going to be the ultimate end, and that they would have another chance to thrive in the presence of the Lord.

So, the first promise of the new covenant found in the Bible is in the context of Israel's eventual return from Babylonian exile and the blessing that God would grant to them upon that return. Just as the breaking of the covenant made at Sinai (Jer. 31:32) brought them into exile, so the remaking of this covenant would preserve them and their hope for the future. Like the Sinai covenant, the new covenant would be relational, and it would include the same law, the Ten Commandments, but now written not just on tablets of stone but in their minds and on their hearts, where it should have been all along.

The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone is written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of going about to establish our own righteousness, we accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us. Then the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit will bring forth 'the fruits of the Spirit.' Through the grace of Christ we shall live in obedience to the law of God written upon our hearts. Having the Spirit of Christ, we shall walk even as He walked.-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 372.

Under the new covenant, their sins would be forgiven, they would know the Lord for themselves, and they would obey God's law through the power of the Holy Spirit working in them. Old covenant in shadows and in symbols, new covenant in reality, salvation was always by faith, a faith that would reveal the fruits of the Spirit.

ThursdayDecember 10

The New Covenant: Part 2

The prophecy of Jeremiah about the new covenant contains a double application: first, it refers to Israel's return to God and His bringing them home; second, it refers to the work of Jesus the Messiah, whose death ratified the covenant and would change the relationship between humans and God. It's in the New Covenant that we get the fullest expression of the plan of salvation, which before had been revealed only in shadows and types (Heb. 10:1).

Read Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:24-26. How do these texts link back to Jeremiah's prophecy?

The broken body of Christ and His shed blood were revealed in the Old Testament in the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. The juice of the vine represents the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, revealed in the New Testament. The work of Jesus did not begin with the New Testament; it embraced the Old as well, and in the communion service we can see the link that unites what Jesus has done all through salvation history.

The bread and the juice, then, provide the shortest summary of that salvation history. Though they are just symbols, it is still through these symbols that we understand God's incredible work in our behalf.

The Communion service points not just to Christ's death, but also to His return, without which His death would be all but meaningless. After all, what good would Christ's first coming be without the second, when we are resurrected from the grave (1 Thess. 4:16, 1 Cor. 15:12-18)? Jesus established the link when He said, But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom (Matt. 26:29). No question, Christ's first coming is inseparably tied to His second. The first finds its ultimate fulfillment only in the second.

Next time you partake of the communion service, think about Christ's vow not to drink of the fruit of the vine until He does so with us in the kingdom of God. How does that make you feel? What does that say about the closeness that Christ seeks with us?

FridayDecember 11

Further Thought: As we saw, the Bible teaches that the rainbow is a sign of God's covenantal promise never to destroy the earth by water again. Sure, thanks to science, we now know that a rainbow occurs when sunlight is both refracted and reflected in drops of water, dispersing the light at various angles. Light enters a raindrop at one point, is reflected off the back of that drop at another, and leaves at another, creating the colors that we see. Poet John Keats feared that science would unweave a rainbow, but even if we could parse, measure, predict, and quantify everything about a rainbow down to the innards of each photon and the underbelly of every quark, what would that prove other than that we understand better the natural laws God used to create the signs of this covenant promise? Science might one day be able to explain everything about how rainbows are made-even to 25 digits to the right of a decimal point-but it can never explain why they are made.

We, though, know why. Because God created our world in such a way that when sunlight and mist are in right relationships to each other, the mist breaks up the light by refracting and reflecting it at different angles that create bands of electromagnetic waves which, when reaching our eyes, imprint the image of rainbows in our minds. And He did it (the why that science can never explain) to remind us of His covenant promise that never again would He destroy the earth by water.

Discussion Questions:

What are some other crucial truths, revealed by the Bible, that science can never teach us? In fact, could you argue that the most important things we know could never be revealed by science? If so, what truths would they be?
In class, go over the crucial relationship between faith and works in the plan of salvation. That is, what is the role of faith, and what is the role of works, and how do they relate to the Christian experience?
What does it mean to say that the law is engraved on our hearts? How does this idea show the perpetuity of the law, even under the New Covenant?

Inside Story~

Cry of the Kalahari—Part 2

The desert sun streamed down mercilessly as the little man crept forward with his bow. From his thin, wrinkled appearance one might suppose he was in his seventies, but his body was accustomed to the scarcity of food and water, and his reflexes were lightning fast.

Steeped in the accumulated wisdom of his ancestors, he cautiously moved closer to the small herd of grazing buck. When he was close enough he fitted a poisoned arrow to his bow, aimed carefully, and let the arrow fly. It found its mark, but the buck's hide was tough and the arrow didn’t penetrate deeply. The buck looked around, then charged the Bushman, catching him on its terrible horns and tossing him until his intestines hung out of his abdomen, covered with sand and grit. After the buck left the Bushman staggered to his feet and, clutching the dirty mass to himself, headed for the only help he knew, the Adventist hospital miles away!

He was barely conscious when he reached the hospital compound. The horrified staff rushed him to the operating room, marveling at the desperate stamina that had brought him there. The surgeon prayed earnestly as he cleansed the intestines, replaced them in the abdominal cavity, and sutured the gaping wound closed. He knew that only God could heal the Bushman.

With careful nursing and much prayer he eventually recovered and returned to his family, leaving the hospital staff to wonder if he had also learned of God's love during his hospital stay.

Several months later, a little man with a horrible scar on his abdomen came to the hospital bringing a four-foot chain of beads, painstakingly handcrafted with primitive tools, as his expression of gratitude to the doctor who had saved his life.

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help to establish a Seventh-day Adventist primary school in Botswana. Please plan to give generously on the Thirteenth Sabbath, or anytime on our secure website: giving.adventistmission.org.

___ Dr. K. Seligman is a practicing physician in Gaborone, Botswana.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Pastor Dyman Giving Thanks 2015

November 27, 2015 From the Desk of Your Pastor

My dear Friends at Middletown Seventh-day Adventist Church!

Every year around this time, I watch the Thanksgiving food enthusiasts close their eyes and lick their lips in anxious anticipation of a scrumptious feast. But I never join them. The truth is, turkey is not my meal of choice. And pumpkin pie doesn't thrill me. The same goes for the stuffing. So, despite the hype, I have to admit that Thanksgiving fare generally under-whelms me. But this year I was actually looking forward to it. And it had little to do with the actual meal. Of course I was happy to spend one more Thanksgiving with my mom, brothers and sisters from Michigan, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn. But that’s not why I anticipated Thanksgiving so much this year.

I must confess that the real reason for my unusual anticipation was… in catching myself to become forgetful. Yes. At some point this year, I caught myself plainly forgetting to thank God for some basic facts of my life. Like, for the air I breathe. When was the last time I thanked Him for the breath of fresh air? Or for the eyes that can still read without glasses. For the brain that still remembers who I am. For the setbacks that have formed me and made me stronger. For the Internet, where I can learn about pretty much anything online. For the indoor plumbing that not only provides convenience, it spares from diseases. For the mistakes that were forgiven. For my name which gave me an identity and a place in this world…

Every time I find myself forgetful, I hear the voice of an eight-year-old named Christina, who had cancer of the nervous system. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought long and hard and finally said, "I don't know. I have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I have everything!" The kid is right.

And what about you? What do you do when you ever catch yourself forgetting to be thankful for the ‘small staff’? What about reminding you of a12 year old boy named David. David was born without an immune system. He underwent a bone marrow transplant in order to correct the deficiency. Up to that point he had spent his entire life in a plastic bubble in order to prevent exposure to common germs, bacteria, and viruses that could kill him. He lived without ever knowing human contact. When asked what he'd like to do if and when released from his protective bubble, he replied, "I want to walk barefoot on grass, and touch my mother's hand."

Why do we forget to be grateful for the simplest things of life anyway? Why do we tend to take them for granted? I don’t know. What I do know now is that one Thanksgiving holiday per year, (even if it is a Brooklyn Thanksgiving!) will not compensate for the year of forgetfulness. (Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Have a Year of Thanksgiving!

Dr. Victor Dyman

Friday, November 27, 2015

Lesson 10 The Destruction of Jerusalem Nov 28-Dec 4 2015

Lesson 10November 28-December 4

The Destruction of Jerusalem

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week's Study: Ezekiel 8:1-18, Rom. 1:22-25, Jer. 37:1-10, Jer. 38:1-6,Jer. 29:1-14, Dan. 9:2.

Memory Text: Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper (Jeremiah 29:7, NIV).

Within a few short years the king of Babylon was to be used as the instrument of God's wrath upon impenitent Judah. Again and again Jerusalem was to be invested [surrounded] and entered by the besieging armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Company after company-at first a few only, but later on thousands and tens of thousands-were to be taken captive to the land of Shinar, there to dwell in enforced exile. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah-all these Jewish kings were in turn to become vassals of the Babylonian ruler, and all in turn were to rebel. Severer and yet more severe chastisements were to be inflicted upon the rebellious nation, until at last the entire land was to become a desolation, Jerusalem was to be laid waste and burned with fire, the temple that Solomon had built was to be destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah was to fall, never again to occupy its former position among the nations of earth."-Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pp. 422, 423.

As we have seen, and will see, none of this came upon them without plenty of warnings and pleadings by the prophets, especially Jeremiah. Their refusal to obey brought only ruin. May we learn from their mistakes!

Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 5.

SundayNovember 29

Weeping for Tammuz

Though Jeremiah might have felt very much alone at times, he wasn't. God had raised up Ezekiel, a contemporary, among the captives in Babylon, in order to comfort and to warn the exiles as well as to confirm what the Lord had been speaking through Jeremiah all these long and hard years. Through his ministry, Ezekiel was to warn the captives against the folly of believing the false predictions of an early return from Babylon. He was also to foretell, by various symbols and messages, the devastating siege that would eventually befall Jerusalem because of the people's refusal to repent and turn away from their sin and apostasy.

Read Ezekiel 8:1-18. What was the prophet shown? What does this tell us about how powerful the prevailing culture can be, and how it can impact even the most sacred things? What warnings should be here for us?

No matter how often, and clearly, the writings of Moses and the prophets warned against idolatry and worshiping other gods, these verses show that this is exactly what was being done, even within the sacred precincts of the temple. Weeping for Tammuz was a lamentation ritual for a Mesopotamian god. No wonder 2 Chronicles said: Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:14).

Look carefully at Ezekiel 8:12. The translation about the chambers of their own imagery is a little ambiguous. It could mean the chambers where they stored their own idols, or it could mean the chambers of their own imagination, their own hearts. Either way, the elders, the leaders, had fallen so far that they said the Lord didn't see what they were doing, that the Lord had abandoned them. It is another way of saying, The Lord doesn't care about these things; they aren't important. Right there, in the sacred precincts of God's temple, these people engaged in the grossest idolatry, doing everything that they had specifically been forbidden by God's words to do. Even worse, in their own minds they justified their deeds. Here we see again what Paul meant when he talked about those who worshiped the creation instead of the Creator (see Rom. 1:22-25).

MondayNovember 30

The Unhappy Reign of King Zedekiah

Zedekiah, whose name means righteousness of Yahweh, was the last king on the throne of Judah before its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. At first he seemed to have been willing to obey the words of Jeremiah and submit to the Babylonians. However, this attitude did not last.

Read Jeremiah 37:1-10. What was Jeremiah's warning to King Zedekiah?

Under pressure from his subjects, most likely the nobility, Zedekiah ignored the warnings of Jeremiah and made a military alliance with the Egyptians instead, in hopes of staving off the Babylonian threat. (See Ezek. 17:15-18.) As he had been duly warned, salvation didn't come from the Egyptians after all.

Read Jeremiah 38:1-6. What happened to Jeremiah (again) because of his proclaiming the word of God to the people?

As Jesus said, 'A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house' (Mark 6:4). Poor Jeremiah again faced the wrath of his own countrymen. Like the rest of the nation, though, Jeremiah couldn't say that he hadn't been warned. In this case though, the warning was about the trials that he would face if he stayed faithful, which he did!

How difficult it must have been for Jeremiah, too, because he was accused of weakening the morale of the nation. After all, when the people were facing an enemy from without, whom they wanted to fight against, and Jeremiah had been going around for years and years saying it's a lost cause, that they couldn't win, and that even the Lord was against them-it's understandable that you would want to shut him up. So hardened in sin, they didn't hear the voice of the Lord talking to them; indeed, they thought it was the voice of an enemy instead.

However difficult the pit was, think about how much harder it was for Jeremiah to hear the charge against him that he was seeking the hurt, not the welfare, of his own people. What's it like to be accused of hurting the very ones you are trying to help?

TuesdayDecember 1

The Fall of Jerusalem

The siege of Jerusalem began in earnest in January, 588 b.c., and lasted until the late summer of 586 b.c. Jerusalem had been able to hold out for more than two years before Jeremiah's prophetic words were fulfilled, and the Babylonian troops broke through the wall and destroyed the city. Starvation was so bad inside the walls that the defenders lost all strength and couldn't resist any longer. King Zedekiah fled with his family, but in vain. He was captured and taken to Nebuchadnezzar, who had his sons executed before his eyes. We can read much of this sad story in Jeremiah 39:1-10.

Read Jeremiah 40:1-6. What is the significance of the words of Nebuzaradan to Jeremiah?

How fascinating that this pagan commander understood the situation so much better than did Jeremiah's own people! Obviously the Babylonians knew something about Jeremiah and his work, and they were treating him differently than they did the others, such as Zedekiah (see Jer. 39:11-12). Just why this pagan leader attributed the demise of Jerusalem to the Lord as a punishment for the sins of the people rather than to the superiority of his own gods over Judah's, the text doesn't say. Whatever the reason, it's a startling testimony to how, even amid such unnecessary calamity, the Lord had revealed something about Himself to the pagans.

What choice would Jeremiah make-go with the captives to Babylon, or stay behind with those remaining? Neither prospect would be particularly appealing, considering the circumstances for them all. Certainly, though, the spiritual needs of both groups would have been great, and Jeremiah could minister wherever he went. Jeremiah decided to stay among the group that remained behind in the land, with the poor people who no doubt were going to need all the encouragement and help that they could get (see Jer. 40:6-7).

How can you learn to minister to others, regardless of the situation you are in? Why is it important, even for yourself, that you minister in whatever way you can?

WednesdayDecember 2

All Your Heart

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jer. 29:13, NIV). What has been your own experience with this promise? What does with all your heart mean?

The Lord knows the beginning from the end. Even while people in Jerusalem were still fighting the Babylonians, still hoping that the words of the false prophets were true, the Lord was using Jeremiah to speak to the future, to speak to those who were already in Babylon and to those who would eventually be there. And what words he spoke!

Read Jeremiah 29:1-14. How is the love and mercy of God revealed in these texts?

Here was a true message of grace, unlike the false message of grace that the people had heard from the prophets who told them that their exile would be over in short order, even just two years. That was not God's plan, and it was not going to happen. Instead, based on the clear teachings of Moses, they had to accept that this was their fate, at least for now; but just as Moses had said, if they repented, they would be restored to the land.

Read Deuteronomy 30:1-4. How do these texts reflect what Jeremiah said to the people? (See also Deut. 4:29.)

We have been given the prophetic gift in the wonderful ministry of Ellen G. White. How can we be sure that we don't show the same attitude toward her today that many (but not all) had toward Jeremiah?

ThursdayDecember 3

The Seventy Years

Jeremiah's prophecies should have had a double effect on the thinking of the captives: on the one hand they should not believe what the false prophets were saying, and on the other hand they should not be dispirited. He asked his captive countrymen to pray for Babylon. This request might have surprised those who had been deported. What Jeremiah was asking from the captives was unheard of in the earlier history of Israel. It had been absolutely unknown to pray for an enemy who had done what the Babylonians had done to them, God's chosen nation. The prophet broke all their understandings regarding the temple and Jerusalem; they could pray in a pagan country, and the Everlasting God would listen to them.

Notice, too, what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 29:7: that the prosperity of their host nation will mean their prosperity, too. As aliens and strangers in the land, they were especially vulnerable if things went badly in the nation in general. All through history, we have seen sad examples of intolerance becoming especially bad when a nation faces hard times; people look for scapegoats, those whom they can blame, and minorities, or aliens, often become easy targets. It is an unfortunate reality.

What wonderful hope is given to the exiles in Jeremiah 29:10? (See also Jer. 25:11-12; 2 Chron. 36:21; Dan. 9:2.)

Everything the Lord had said would happen had happened, so, they had every reason to trust that He would fulfill this prophecy as well (Jer. 29:10). Why 70 years would be the exact time of their exile we don't know, though it clearly is linked to the idea of Sabbath rest for the land (see Lev. 25:4, 26:34, 43). What's so important about this prophecy is that, if they had taken in faith and submission, it would have given the captives great hope and assurance of the Lord's complete sovereignty. Despite appearances, despite the terrible calamity that befell them, they could know that all was not lost, and the Lord had not left them. They were still the covenant people, and the Lord wasn't through with them or the nation of Israel. Redemption was available there for all of those ready to meet the conditions.

What prophecies give you great hope for the future? Which ones strengthen your faith and help you learn to trust the Lord for whatever will come?

FridayDecember 4

Further Thought: We are in continual danger of getting above the simplicity of the gospel. There is an intense desire on the part of many to startle the world with something original, that shall lift the people into a state of spiritual ecstasy, and change the present order of experience. There is certainly great need of a change in the present order of experience; for the sacredness of present truth is not realized as it should be, but the change we need is a change of heart, and can only be obtained by seeking God individually for His blessing, by pleading with Him for His power, by fervently praying that His grace may come upon us, and that our characters may be transformed. This is the change we need today, and for the attainment of this experience we should exercise persevering energy and manifest heartfelt earnestness. We should ask with true sincerity, 'What shall I do to be saved?' We should know just what steps we are taking heavenward.-Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Book One, pp. 187, 188.

Discussion Questions:

As we saw, Jeremiah told the people to seek the Lord. How do we do that? What if someone were to say to you,I want to know God for myself; how do I find Him? how would you reply?
Dwell more on this idea of why, historically, the prophets had been so mistreated and misunderstood in their own time. What should and could this teach us about how we relate to the ministry of Ellen G. White? Think about her in the context of what Jesus said here: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets (Matt. 23:29-31, NIV).
Dwell more on the final question at the end of Thursday's study. Many Bible prophecies have been fulfilled in the past, and from our perspective today we can see that they were fulfilled. In what way can these fulfillments help us to trust that the ones yet future to us will be fulfilled as well?

Inside Story~

Cry of the Kalahari—Part 1

Heat waves danced above the burning sands. A tiny, black Bushman strode purposefully eastward across the vast Kalahari Desert, glancing frequently at a small gray cloud in the sky ahead. Sekoba was obeying instructions given to him in a dream. An angel had directed him to look for a man named William, who would teach him about the true God.

As wise men once followed a star, so Sekoba followed the cloud until it stopped over a village. But when he told the inhabitants of the village about his dream they mocked and laughed at him. That night the angel appeared again and told him to continue his eastward journey. After traveling over the desert for nearly a month, Sekoba found Pastor William Moyo, who had been prepared for his coming through a dream.

For several weeks Pastor William taught Sekoba about God. In turn the Bushman told a marvelous story of God's guidance. As a young man he had felt a strong impression that he must learn to read and write, so now he was able to read Pastor William's Bible for himself. Several years earlier when hungry lions were killing many cattle, he felt impressed that a higher power controlled the lions. When he prayed to this power the lions left the area. When he heard of Christianity and began seeking God in earnest, an angel in a dream had led him to Pastor William.

After Sekoba had learned the good news of the gospel he took Pastor William back with him to tell the rest of his family and prepare them for baptism. And that is how, at a camp meeting in 1948, the first converts among the Bushmen were baptized.

The Bushmen are a short race, averaging about five feet in height, who traditionally wander in small groups, hunting and gathering wild fruit. They are a nomadic people who have learned to survive in the harsh desert region of Botswana.

Botswana's climate is generally arid; the Kalahari Desert, which covers the southwestern part of the country, receives less than nine inches of rain a year. For many years they have had contact with Seventh-day Adventists through the dedicated doctors at Kanye Hospital. In the next Inside Story, Dr. K. Seligman tells of one encounter.

To be continued.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org

Friday, November 20, 2015

Lesson 9: Jeremiah's Yoke November 21-27 2015

Lesson 9November 21-27

Jeremiah's Yoke

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week's Study: Jer. 16:1-13; Hos. 1:1-3; Jer. 27:1-18; Dan. 4:25; Jeremiah 28:1-17; 2 Tim. 4:3-4.

Memory Text: And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23).

As we have already seen, God's prophets preached not only through words but also through object lessons. At times the prophets had to live out the messages; it was another way to get the point across.

Thus, Jeremiah again was called to live out the words he was to deliver. First, he had to wear a wooden yoke. Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck (Jer. 27:2). That had to have been a burdensome task, even under the best of circumstances; in this case, it became harder because a false prophet challenged what Jeremiah said. This week we can get a powerful look at truth and error contending for the hearts and minds of the people. We will see, too, how a message of grace can also be a false message.

Jeremiah also was forbidden to enter into mourning when others mourned and rejoicing when others rejoiced. In these cases, the point was to help the people realize what was coming because of their sins, and so to repent and obey, lessening the doleful consequence of their sinful actions.

Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 28.

SundayNovember 22

A Solitary Life

No question, Jeremiah's lot in life wasn't an easy one (he would be the first to admit it too!). Things, though, were even harder than we might have imagined.

Read Jeremiah 16:1-13. What was the Lord's message to Jeremiah here? However harsh, in what ways would it have been a blessing to the prophet? (Compare with Hos. 1:1-3.)

In contrast to Hosea, who was to marry a harlot in order to show just how corrupt the relationship had become between the Lord and Israel due to the nation's spiritual harlotry, Jeremiah was to refrain from marriage and from having children altogether. This was something rather rare and extreme for that time and culture. In Israel, starting a family was very important for every young man. Besides the love and companionship between spouses, it was also important to carry on the family name. Why did God forbid Jeremiah from starting a family? So that his own life would be an object lesson on how terrible that time would be when families broke up and when the pain of separation became a heavy burden on the survivors. Jeremiah's lack of family life was a constant warning and lesson for his contemporaries.

Jeremiah's solitary lot extended into other areas as well. He was forbidden to enter a house where there was mourning; this would symbolize the people's unwillingness to respond to God's calls for repentance and revival.

Along with times of mourning, he was not to join their festivals of joy and celebration. This was to symbolize the coming time when the Babylonians would bring an end to all of their joy and rejoicing.

In these ways, the human bonds that are forged, whether in mourning or joy, would be denied Jeremiah. His life and the sorrows of his life were to be object lessons. If only the nation would learn from them!

How should this account help us learn to appreciate the human support that we enjoy getting from others, or that we give to others? However important this support, how can we learn that, ultimately, our best support comes only from the Lord?

MondayNovember 23

Jeremiah's Yoke

Read Jeremiah 27:1-18. What is the message of the Lord to the people? Why would this seem treasonous to many who heard it?

The yoke Jeremiah had to put on his body was an unmistakable sign of the humiliation that the nation suffered; it's what we call a military occupation. (In Deuteronomy 28:48 and 1 Kings 12:4, the idea of a yoke appears as an expression of oppression.) Jeremiah had to experience physically what the Babylonian invasion meant. The wooden yoke Jeremiah put on his arms and shoulders was one and a half meters long and eight centimeters thick. The essence of his message was that if a country revolted against Babylon, the Lord would take it as if the country had revolted against Him, and the rebellious would suffer as a result.

Though there is some ambiguity in the original texts, it seems that Jeremiah did not have to make a yoke only for himself, but also for the envoys of foreign countries who had come to Jerusalem and were plotting against Nebuchadnezzar-despite the Lord's warnings not to. The natural response would be to fight against a foreign invader, which is what they wanted to do. No doubt, then, Jeremiah's words were not at all welcome.

What's especially important about the message in Jeremiah 27:5? (See also Dan. 4:25.)

Here again, as we find all through the Bible-Old and New Testaments-the Lord as Creator is Sovereign over all the earth. Even amid what appears to be chaos and catastrophe (invasion and dominion by a pagan nation), the power and authority of God is revealed, and this was, and is, to be a source of hope to all in the faithful remnant.

It's one thing to be under a yoke of bondage. However, ask yourself: Have you placed someone else under an unfair yoke, and if so, why not remove it now?

TuesdayNovember 24

War of the Prophets

Bad news is bad news, and often we don't want to hear it, or we want to rationalize it away. Such was the case here in Judah with Jeremiah and the yoke that he bore, an unmistakable message of warning to the people. The amazement of the assembled council of nations knew no bounds when Jeremiah, carrying the yoke of subjection about his neck, made known to them the will of God.-Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 444.

Read Jeremiah 28:1-9. Imagine you are a Judean standing there and watching all this going on. Whom would you believe? Whom would you want to believe? What reason would you have, if any, for believing Hananiah rather than Jeremiah?

Jeremiah raised his voice in the name of God, and Hananiah spoke in the name of God too. But who was speaking for God? They both couldn't be! For us today, the answer is obvious. For someone at that time, it might have been more difficult, even though Jeremiah does make a powerful point in Jeremiah 28;8-9: the prophets in the past have preached the same message that I am, that of judgment and doom.

Jeremiah, in the presence of the priests and people, earnestly entreated them to submit to the king of Babylon for the time the Lord had specified. He cited the men of Judah to the prophecies of Hosea, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and others whose messages of reproof and warning had been similar to his own. He referred them to events which had taken place in fulfillment of prophecies of retribution for unrepented sin. In the past the judgments of God had been visited upon the impenitent in exact fulfillment of His purpose as revealed through His messengers.-Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 445.

In short, just as we today are to learn lessons from sacred history, Jeremiah was seeking to get the people in his time to do the same thing: learn from the past, so you don't make the same errors that your forefathers did. If it had been hard for them to listen to him before, now with the ministry of Hananiah there to counter him, Jeremiah's task was going to be that much more difficult.

Hananiah, whose name means God has been gracious, seemed to be presenting a message of grace, of forgiveness, of salvation. What lessons should we learn from this false preacher of grace?

WednesdayNovember 25

The Yoke of Iron

The battle between the prophets wasn't just one of words, but of deeds as well. In obedience to the command of God, Jeremiah put the wooden yoke around his neck; this was an overt symbol of the message that he had carried to the people.

What was the prophetic symbolism of Hananiah's act? Jer. 28:1-11.

Imagine, for example, that after Jesus cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:13, 19-21), someone who had heard what Jesus said and knew what had happened had replanted a new fig tree in the same spot, all in an attempt to refute the prophecy of Jesus there. This is what Hananiah did with Jeremiah and the prophecy that the yoke around his neck symbolized. It was an act of open defiance of what Jeremiah said.

Note, too, Jeremiah's reaction. The texts record nothing of what he said right after the yoke was broken. He just turned around and walked away. If the story ended there, it would have seemed that the prophet had retreated in defeat.

Read Jeremiah 28:12-14. What happened next? What was Jeremiah's new message?

Jeremiah's response wasn't a message of revenge: you did this to me, so I will do that to you. Instead, it was another clear message from the Lord, but even stronger than what came before. Hananiah might have been able to break a wooden yoke, but who can break an iron one? In a sense, what the Lord said to them was that by their obstinacy and refusal to obey, they only were making matters worse. If you thought a wooden yoke was bad, try an iron one.

Who hasn't learned the hard way about making things more difficult for ourselves by obstinacy? When dealing with the Lord, why is it always better to submit and surrender right away than to keep on fighting and making things harder on yourself?

ThursdayNovember 26

Trusting in Lies

Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie (Jer. 28:15).

The answer about who was right, whether Jeremiah or Hananiah, came soon enough. Jeremiah 28:16-17 tells the fate of the false prophet, which was just what the true prophet had said it would be.

Though Hananiah died, he still had done damage to the nation. His works, in a sense, followed him. He made the people to trust in a lie. The Hebrew verb is hiphil, a causative form of the verb to trust. He caused them to trust in a lie, not in the sense of physically forcing them, but through deception. Even though the Lord had not sent him, he spoke in the name of the Lord, which carried a lot of weight in Judah. Added to that, Hananiah's message of grace, deliverance, and redemption was certainly something that the people wanted to hear, considering the great threat that Babylon posed to the nation. It was, though, a false gospel, a false message of salvation that the Lord had not given them. So, at a time when the people needed to hear the words of Jeremiah and the message of redemption that he brought, they listened to the words of Hananiah instead, and this made their woes only worse.

What do the following texts have in common with Jeremiah 28:15?

2 Tim. 4:3-4

2 Thess. 2:10-12

Things are no different today: we are in the great controversy, a battle for the hearts and minds of the world's billions. Satan is working diligently to get as many as possible to trust in a lie, and that lie can come in many guises and forms, just as long as it is always a lie. After all, because Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), Satan's lies can be about anything and everything, just as long as they don't contain the truth as it is in Jesus.

What are some of the lies that are so prevalent in your culture today? Why is clinging to Jesus, and His Word, our only protection against them?

FridayNovember 27

Further Thought: As we have seen, people want to believe good news, not bad. They wanted to believe, for instance, in Hananiah's message, not Jeremiah's. Today the same thing happens as well. Many still insist, for instance, that our world will only improve over time. Yet, even an atheist like Terry Eagleton sees just how farcical that idea is: If ever there was a pious myth and piece of credulous superstition, it is the liberal-rationalist belief that, a few hiccups apart, we are all steadily en route to a finer world. This brittle triumphalism is a hangover from the heroic epoch of liberalism, when the middle classes' star was in the ascendant. Today, it sits cheek by jowl with the cynicism, skepticism, or nihilism into which much of that honorable lineage has degenerated.-Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, (Yale University Press), Kindle Edition, p. 70. Though some aspects of life have improved, our world, in and of itself, offers us little hope, little consolation, especially in the long run. If we are to have any real hope, it has to be in something divine, not earthly, in something supernatural, not natural. And of course, that's what the gospel is all about: God's divine and supernatural intervention in our world and our lives. Without that, what do we have other than just more Hananiahs and their lies?

Discussion Questions:

Think about our earth's future as a whole, even if from a purely human standpoint. Does it look hopeful and full of promise, or does it look fearful, dangerous, and full of uncertainty? What reasons can you give for your answers?
Jeremiah's message, as we saw in the context of Hananiah's lies, was to look at the past, to look at history, and to learn from it. Ellen G. White wrote something similar: We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.-Life Sketches, p. 196. What does she mean by that? What has happened in our past, and God's teaching in it, that can help us be prepared for what will undoubtedly come in the future?
Hananiah gave a false message of grace. What are some of those false messages of grace today that we must guard ourselves against? Grace, of course, is our only hope, but in what ways can it be presented as a lie?

Inside Story~

God’s Saving Hand—Part 2

Treating the wounds was nearly as painful as the burns themselves. Every day nurses removed the bandages and soaked the burns in salt water. Then they gently scraped the burns to remove the dead skin. This would help prevent infection. The nurses taught Mrs. Banda how to wash the wounds and apply the medicine. She stayed in the hospital with her husband and son to prepare their meals and help care for them.

After two long months Pastor Banda insisted that he could stay no longer in the hospital. His muscles were weak, and he could barely walk, but he was concerned about his church members.

After Pastor Banda returned home, Joshua and his mother remained in the hospital for four more months. Every day his mother talked gently to him as she cleaned and dressed his wounds. Her presence strengthened the boy and gave him hope.

It was difficult for the family to be separated for so many months. They couldn’t visit one another, but they could pray.

After six months Joshua was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital for another three months of physical therapy. He couldn’t walk, but he learned to shuffle along behind a walker. His mother began a new routine of daily therapy. She soaked his legs in warm water, then stretched the muscles in his legs. It was painful, but she urged Joshua to sing instead of cry.

At last Joshua was able to go home, but his mother continued treating him and encouraged him to walk. When he saw his friends playing outside, he wanted to play too. After a year of recovery and therapy Joshua was able to walk without help.

Pastor Banda’s recovery took a long time too. His damaged leg muscles would not stretch enough to allow him to ride a bicycle. And this made it very difficult for him to get from one church to another in the countryside. But his churches continued to grow in size and in faith.

Pastor Banda knows that throughout their ordeal God was beside each member of the family, encouraging, blessing, and healing.God was blessing us even during our most difficult hour, he says. When I returned to work from the hospital, the church prospered even more, and more people came into the church than had been coming before the fire.

Mrs. Banda was also grateful for God’s blessings during the terrible ordeal. I thank God for saving my husband and son, she says.This experience taught me the importance of spending more time with my family. I had failed to notice some special qualities in little Joshua that I saw when he was in the hospital. For example, he has a wonderful talent for singing that I did not fully realize until I heard him singing while he was confined to his bed in the hospital. During our long hospital stay we had time to become good friends with each other and with God.

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After studying at Solusi University in Zimbabwe, Wesley Banda is now an ordained minister working in Malawi. While at Solusi, Oliva Banda also took some classes, as time permitted.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org