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 6: “I Will Arise”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- The lesson uses the Psalms to define God as the Defender of the fatherless and immigrants, the Divine Warrior, a “proactive leader”, and to define judgment as occurring in the Sanctuary.
- The reader is thus to be proactive in “confronting the social problems” of today and to understand the oppressed “within the context of…the great controversy between God and Satan” as “depicted in the books of Daniel and Revelation”.
This week’s lesson focusses on God’s roles as a warrior and judge and as the defender of the needy, and these are valid understandings of some of the Psalms’ descriptions of Him. Once again, though, these metaphors are presented from inside a great controversy, physicalist paradigm.
Frustratingly, the lesson uses fragments of psalms to develop its characterizations. For example, Psalm 76 may be, according to ancient tradition, a piece composed after the Lord destroyed Sennacherib’s army from Assyria as they attempted to overtake Judah. (The event is told in 2 Kings 19:35). The Study Notes in the 1995 NASB describes the psalm this way:
Structurally, the opening (vv. 1–3) and closing (vv. 11–12) stanzas contain the main thematic development. Between them, a seven-verse stanza of praise addressed to God (vv. 4–10) celebrates His awesome act of judgment. The internal structure is notable: Verses 4, 6, 10 present general reflections, while the intervening verses recall the judgment itself. Verse 7, the center line…states the main theme of this stanza.
The lesson refers only to verses 3–9 and verse 12 from Psalm 76 in its development of the picture of God as a “majestic warrior”. For the full context, however, here are the 12 verses of Psalm 76 as they appear in the Legacy Standard Bible:
For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel.
So His tabernacle is in Salem; His dwelling place is in Zion.
There He broke the flaming arrows, The shield and the sword and the battle. Selah.
You are shining, Majestic from the mountains of prey.
The stouthearted were plundered, They sank into sleep; And none of the warriors could use his hands.
At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both chariot rider and horse slumbered [into] a deep sleep.
But You, You are fearsome; And who can stand in Your presence when once You are angry?
You made [Your] cause to be heard from heaven; The earth feared and was quiet
When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. Selah.
For the wrath of man shall praise You; With a remnant of wrath You will gird Yourself.
Make vows to Yahweh your God and pay [them]; Let all who are around Him bring gifts to the Fearsome One.
He will cut off the spirit of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth. (Psa 76:1-12 LSB)
When we look at Psalm 76 as a whole, the organization is clear. The God of heaven has His tabernacle in Zion, and He is the great God who broke the pagan’s war-weapons. He is sovereign and worthy, and the psalm ends with a reminder to “all who are around Him” to “bring gifts to Him who is to be feared” gifts from all the kings of the earth.
Between the opening and the closing we have three verses describing God’s sovereign majesty which is greater than the mountains. No one can stand in His presence when He is angry; even the wrath of man will praise God! And between these declarations of God’s ultimate greatness and power are description of His victory over the army that threatened His people. God rendered them powerless and His judgment was heard over all the earth. Even nature was unable to react but feared Him and was still.
Psalm 76 is only one of many Psalm fragmented in this lesson, but as with Adventist teaching in general, the “proof text” method is used. The power and implications of the psalmists’ understanding of God’s sovereign power over human affairs is fractured and eclipsed by the randomness of the proof-texting used to demonstrate the author’s ideas about God.
Psalms Are Structured Poetry
The psalms are carefully structured Hebrew poetry, and even the format of the poetry is purposeful in emphasizing truths about God and His dealings with His people’s sin, their struggles with enemies, their joy, their national identity, and their trust in God and His promises.
The lesson’s author has certain ideas in mind that he intends to convey to his Adventist readers, ideas that will validate and cement the great controversy paradigm in their minds. Read in context, however, there is no hint of the absolute human free will or of the self-limiting sovereignty of God which the great controversy worldview teaches.
Even the psalm fragments used in the lesson to make a point are removed from their context and discussed without benefit of the full psalms they are from. The reader gets a few vivid descriptions carefully chosen to convey a certain image, but the fullness of God’s majesty, righteousness, mercy, and consistency are lacking.
By proof-texting even the Psalms, the author is able to develop his purposes including a leaning toward a social justice agenda reflecting today’s preoccupation with critical theory. Without doubt the Old Testament and the New Testament both command God’s people to care for the poor and the widows, the strangers and the needy. Without doubt God is depicted as the Father of the fatherless and the husband of the widow, the defender of the defenseless, and the vindicator of those who trust Him.
Yet the Teachers Comments lead the lesson facilitators to stress the Adventist’s responsibility to step in and support those that governments cannot fully support. On page 81 is this:
But there are always more people in need, even within the church, than the system can support. Nowadays, other forms of abuse and oppression, such as bullying and torture, are prevalent besides poverty. We, as Christians, should identify the victims of such oppression and injustice and aid them. We must commit ourselves faithfully to finding ways to provide for their needs.
Immigration is another challenging issue in many countries around the world. Immigration has been an issue since the first days of human history. People have always looked for better places to live and thrive. We are the hands of God—He asks us to support and give succor to the lost, the straying, the stranger, and the outcast in our society. We should invite the members of this group to fix their eyes on the One who is the Defender of the fatherless and immigrants.
Of course Christians are called to help those who need help when the Lord brings them into our lives, but these paragraphs suggest that today’s social and political issues are to be seen in a particular way, and in typical Adventist fashion, it uses God’s sovereign care for the oppressed as a guilty wedge to bind the conscience of the reader to engage in social justice causes.
The gospel is not synonymous with social justice. The Sabbath School lesson does not teach the biblical gospel nor even assume it as the foundation for understanding the Psalms. Caring for the poor is the FRUIT of the gospel, not the gospel. Unless a person trusts Jesus and knows the gospel, all social service is merely work of the flesh. The lesson, however, encourages the reader to become engaged in good works as a primary activity, and it uses God as the readers’ example to do so!
Sanctuary and Judgment
The week’s lesson ended with a study entitled “The Lord’s Judgment and the Sanctuary”. Once again, the wording and the proof-texting takes the Adventist reader directly to the investigative judgment supposedly going on today in the heavenly sanctuary. Thursday’s lesson says this:
At the sanctuary, the plan of salvation was revealed. In paganism, sin was understood primarily as a physical stain to be eliminated by magic rites. In contrast, the Bible presents sin as a violation of God’s moral law. God’s holiness means that He loves justice and righteousness. Likewise, God’s people should pursue justice and righteousness and should worship God in His holiness. To do that, they must keep God’s law, which is an expression of His holiness.
And here, in one paragraph, the reader is reminded that God supposedly judges on the basis of the Ten Commandments. If they are to pursue justice and righteousness, they are to worship in holiness (read that “on the seventh day), and in order to do these things, “they must keep God’s law”—an “expression of His holiness”. And there is the entire Adventist teaching that the Ten Commandments are the transcript of God’s character and the tool of both justification and judgment.
Even in a focus of showing that God is a warrior, a judge, and a vindicator of the needy, this lesson manages to guilt the reader into keeping the Sabbath, obeying the law, and losing sight of the sovereign faithfulness of the Lord God to His own promises!
The Psalms present the God who showed us mercy by sending His Son, but the Adventists use them out of context to bring the reader away from repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus and His shed blood and into guilt and bondage to the Ten Commandments.
Ronans 3:21–26, however, tells us the truth about justification and justice:
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26 LSB).
The Lord Jesus, not the law, is the One who judges and justifies us! He is the only one who is Just, and He is also the One who justifies! He took our sin, died our death, was buried, and rose on the third day to free us from the curse of death! When we trust Him, we are accounted righteous with a righteousness apart from the law! We receive the credit of the personal, alien-to-us righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself!
This lesson obscured the holiness of God portrayed in the Psalms in order to direct the reader into seeing God as their example and to put them under the fear and bondage of the law and the investigative judgment! This agenda is a travesty of the Psalms and a mischaracterization of our holy righteous Father.
I urge you to choose a Psalm—perhaps Psalm 73 used in the lesson——and copy it into a notebook, asking God to teach you what He wants you to learn from it. And look to Jesus, not to the law, to know the truth. He asks you to trust Him with your sin and with yourself. Repent at the foot of the cross, and believe and trust the finished atonement of the Lord Jesus for your sin. Believe Him today—and you will be born again and will know what it means to be the adopted child of the God who defeats His enemies and vindicates all who trust and believe Him. †
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