January 2–8

This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.

 

Lesson 2: Crisis of Leadership

At the end of this week’s lesson is a summary that powerfully states the supremacy of God and His empowerment of His servant, Isaiah, to speak for Him to the people:

“Summary: At a time of insecurity, when the weakness of human leadership was painfully obvious, Isaiah was given a grand vision of the supreme Leader of the universe. Petrified by inadequacy but purified and empowered by mercy, Isaiah was ready to go forth as God’s ambassador into a hostile world.”

In that statement, along with this statement near the beginning of the week, we have a clear statement about the God of this universe who is always in control:

“In this time of crisis, God encouraged Isaiah by showing the prophet that He was still in control.”

 He is not a weak God who has to submit to the “free will” of His people or who depends on them to vindicate Him to the rest of the universe. He is not a weak god who came to provide forgiveness and salvation, but who could have lost it all by failing.

While God does send judgments and punishments on people and nations, much of the chaos and evil in this world is not sent directly by God but is the inevitable result of sin. And yet, even then, none of it happens without His allowing it. He is the supreme, Almighty God who is above all and is subject to no one.

That is the God of the universe and of all that has been created by Him. (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Rev. 4:11 and 5:13)

That is the sovereign Lord we worship and trust with our eternal life. And that is the God that Isaiah saw in the vision of the temple. He realized his own unworthiness before an all holy God and bowed before Him in worship and a profound sense of unworthiness. He received his marching orders and went out to speak unhesitatingly to the people to warn of coming disaster if they did not repent and return to God.

The lesson asks us to read carefully 2 Chronicles 26:16: 

But when he (King Uzziah) became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 

Then the lesson asks, “In what ways do each one of us potentially face the same thing? How can dwelling on the Cross protect us from that pitfall?”

One way that we become “proud and unfaithful” is to imagine that God is weak and has to submit to our will and choices. It is a way of bringing Him down to our level by our supposed power to thwart His plans. Or, stated another way, we elevate ourselves to a position of being His judge by deciding which of His words are true and which can be ignored as just symbolic.

And, although “dwelling on the cross” is a wonderful way to worship God and remember His saving grace, if we see the body that was on that cross and heave a sigh of relief that He did not fail, we have missed the whole point of the cross. 

Jesus did not come to show us how to keep the Law in the hopes that we can do the same—if we just let Him help us. No, He did not come as our equal; He came as God Himself to step in and redeem us from our hopelessly lost condition. 

1 John 2:2 and 4:10 are clear that He came to be the propitiation for our sins, and neither text says, or even hints, that He was just our example.

Romans 3:21-31 lays out in clear detail how Jesus came to save us from the curse of the Law by dying in our place for the sin of all who would acceptHis death by faith. According to the dictionary, propitiation is “an atoning sacrifice”—which is precisely what He provided on the cross.

The lessons asks us to ponder what happened on the cross that provided the solution for sin, but then it goes on to say:

“We can be reassured by knowing that God is working to rescue us through Christ, our High Priest.”

There seems to be a total lack of understanding that the work of propitiation, the work of providing the blood for our ransom from sin, is a finished work. John 19:30 tells us that just before He gave up His life, Jesus clearly said, “It is finished”. His whole purpose in coming here, providing the blood sacrifice we are never qualified to provide, was done. He came to die on the cross, and when He did, He had truly finished His mission and purpose.

Three times the author of Hebrews tells us that when Jesus had finished His work of providing salvation, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. (Hebrews 1:3; 10:12 and 12:2) The work was done, and He sat down, indicating that there was no more to be done.

And, incidently, Mark 16:19 tells us not only that He sat, but also when He sat down:

So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

When He ascended to heaven, He entered the very presence of God the Father and sat. He didn’t loiter around for 1800 years waiting—He was there from the moment He was in heaven.

So far, the lesson has been a good introduction to Isaiah the person and the prophet. But week two has jumped from chapter 1 straight into chapter 6, and in doing so, it has skipped a very important message in Isaiah 2.

Verse 2 specified the time of the events described as “in the last days”. Those events have not happened yet so we know they are still to come, although we have clearly entered the last days. 

And so far, as we have not seen all the nations of the earth streaming to the mountain of the Lord—in context, Jerusalem—this stream is obviously still in the future when God will judge the nations as stated in verse 4.

Verses 5-9 return to Isaiah’s message to the current people of Judah as a warning to return to God before that judgment falls on them.

Verses 10-12, 19 and 21 describe the terror of the evil people at the return of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and their subsequent judgment at the second coming.

One of the key verses that tell us that this is talking about the Millennium on earth is verse 4:

And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

God does not render final judgment on the nations (those who are not saved) until the time of the second coming. Hammering swords into plowshares indicate a turning from war and bloodshed to peace. And we can tell that this is in some time future to us by the last line about no more war.

When we put those together and read them in context, it is clear just when those will all happen.

1. There is still much war, so it can’t be now. For that matter, the peace described has never been the case since the beginning of sin, so it is still future.
2. The fear described (calling for the rock and mountains to fall) is the same as what Jesus warned in Luke 23:30. And what John described in Revelation 6 as he listed the beginning of judgments that are coming on this earth during the last 7 years—Daniel’s 70th week described in Daniel 9:24-27.
3. There will be no sin or war or death during eternity. There will be no death or fear in heaven or swords that will be beaten into plowshares.

So, if you believe the words of God through Isaiah, there is a time coming when there will be peace on earth and when Jesus will fairly rule the world from His holy city Jerusalem. When you compare these prophecies to other parallel prophecies in the Bible, you get an even clearer picture.

The book of Psalms, while full of prayer and music, is also heavily prophetic. In chapter 2, we read the Father’s words to Jesus when He says:

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”

As said before, in heaven, and during eternity when there will be no sin, there will be no need to rule “with a rod of iron” and no need to shatter anyone.

Revelation also refers to Jesus’ rule “with a rod of iron” in 2:27; 12:5; 19:15. Again, with no sin in heaven or during eternity, that rule will not be necessary, so it has to be talking about some time before then.

If we read the Bible in context and accept it as the infallible, inspired word of God, the inescapable conclusion is that there is a coming time, on earth, when Jesus will fairly, but sternly, rule, and there will be true peace. That is the Millennium which will truly be a wondrous time of peace.

Personally, I was very relieved to discover that we won’t spent 1,000 years in heaven doing an audit of God’s bookkeeping! It is so wonderful to understand that He needs no such audit as He always knew the end from before the beginning. 

He truly is Sovereign! †