January 16–22

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 4: “The Hard Way”

This week, in reading Isaiah 7 and 8, we have another good history lesson. I like how the author refers back to other historical books in the Old Testament such as 1 and 2 Chronicles as a supplement to his source in Isaiah. It gives added support and a wider understanding of what was happening.

There is also some material on two subjects that take up most of the week: faith and fear.  Let’s talk about faith first. The lesson asks:

“What can we do to learn to keep our faith intact, so that when tomorrow’s calamities come, we can stay firm? (See 1 Pet. 1:13–25.)”

Those verses from 1 Peter 1 have some good insights into faith and living in Christ; things like “preparing the mind”, “keeping sober in spirit” and having our hope fixed on the Grace of God through Jesus. Verses 14 and 15 caution against reverting to our former way of life and thinking, and the chapter sums up the discussion by stressing the love we have received and are to share with others. It ends with the bottom line of where our assurance comes from: “the living and enduring word of God.”

We must stay in the Word, and by keeping our focus on Jesus and the grace He provided, by allowing His Spirit to work in and through us, we learn to live in that Spirit. And from the Spirit, we develop and display the fruits that are promised in Galatians 5, one of which is faith. We are unable to change ourselves in any internal, lasting way; but when we allow Him to work in us, He changes us.

So one of the most important things we can do to keep ourselves open to this work of God in us is to stay grounded in “the living and enduring word of God.” 

The lesson makes a good point when it says:

Our natural tendency is to trust in what we can see, feel, taste, touch—the things of the world. Yet, as we know, the things of the world vanish. Look at 2 Corinthians 4:18. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Our focus determines the direction of our lives. If we focus on ourselves, we become anxious about the future we cannot predict or control. on the other hand, we may proud of what we think we have accomplished, or careless about trusting God if we think everything is going well. Then, when trouble strikes, it is too easy to forget that God is in charge, as pointed out last week; and being in the middle of trouble is not a good time to develop faith as the fears and clamor of the world can drown out God’s still small voice. 

It is better to build up that faith before the trouble comes and learn to trust God—first with the “little” things and then, as faith grows, it becomes easier to trust Him in the bigger things.

The lesson states:

“Indeed, what we see here is a theme that permeates the entire book of Isaiah, which is though there would be judgments on God’s enemies in Judah and other nations, delivered in the form of military disasters, suffering, and exile, the Lord would be with the faithful survivors of His people and restore them to their land.”

But why limit God to just that one act of faithfulness to His promises? Yes, God promised to restore them to their land and, as promised, they returned from Babylon again as an intact nation. But what about later in their history when they rejected their long-awaited Messiah? What about after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD? Were God’s promises truly everlasting, or were they conditional?

This question brings up an anti-Semitic delusion called “replacement theology”—the notion that when they rejected Jesus as Messiah, Israel was permanently cast out by God and replaced by the Church. But that interpretation calls God a liar as His promises to Israel were repeatedly called “everlasting”. In fact, to subscribe to replacement theology, one would need to remove Romans 9-11 from the Bible, because in those three chapters, Paul repeatedly and emphatically states that the Israelites are not cast out by God but are, in fact, beloved by Him as a nation.

A word study on “everlasting” brings up many references to the covenants God made with mankind.

The first was the everlasting covenant He made with Noah and the entire world in Genesis 8. Not only did God give the rainbow as an everlasting sign of His promise to never again flood the whole earth, but He also restated the promise of the land to Noah’s descendants “forever”.

Do we think that the “everlasting” covenant is going to be broken by God? Should we be fearing a world-wide flood that will kill everyone?

Then, in Genesis 15, when God made His everlasting covenant with Abraham, God “walked” the covenant by Himself indicating that it’s fulfillment depended entirely on God’s faithfulness and not on Abraham’s.

In 1 Chronicles 16, when the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the tent, King David reminded the people of God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the promise of possession of the land. 

Then, in Psalm 105, David again reminds us of that everlasting covenant.

In Isaiah 55, which starts with those very familiar words “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters”, the prophet goes on to restate the everlasting covenant God made with Israel.

Then Jeremiah takes up the theme in chapter 50 where he promises the people that God will bring them back from Babylon and reminds them of the covenant:

“They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten“ (Jeremiah 50: 5).

Israel may have forgotten that covenant, but God cannot.

And Ezekiel, in chapters 16 and 37, again calls God’s covenant with the people an “everlasting” covenant.

Every time God’s Word mentions His covenant with Abraham and His descendants, it is called “everlasting”, and we must trust that He means what He says. If we cannot trust that, how could we possibly trust God when He says that we will have eternal life as stated in places like John 3:15 and Matthew 25:46? God must be faithful to all of His promises, or we can trust none of them!

Back to the lesson and to the other concept that is discussed in the last part of the week: fear.

There is a somewhat confusing discussion of fear as we usually understand the word (apprehension) and fear as the Bible usually presents it (awe, respect). This discussion tried to explain the two, but the lesson then, for some unexplained reason, jumps into a discussion of the evils of the occult. I have no explanation for how that jump was made, so maybe it is just a way to fill space.

As Peter counseled us in his first book, we need to stay in the Word and make it a part of our mind and heart. It needs to be studied in context, comparing verses with verses under the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are places where we may not understand just what is meant, but everything we need to know for salvation is very clear. 

And as a reminder, the best place to start that study is where Paul so clearly lays it out in 1 Corinthians 15. The first 8 verses sum it up, but verses 3 and 4 are the very core of the gospel: Jesus died for us and rose again. And as he stated emphatically in Galatians 1, if anything is added to that, it is not the gospel! †