Sabbath School TodayWith the 1888 Message Dynamic
Background Characters in the Old TestamentLesson 12: "Gehazi: Missing the Mark"
Throughout his years of employment as Elisha's servant and assumed prophet-in-training, Gehazi didn't seem able to develop the necessary spiritual discernment that would have prepared him for the mission to which God was calling him. Having before him the gold of faith, and the white robe of Christ's righteousness, Gehazi choose instead the silver of an earthly king and "Babylonish garments." We are reminded of the sin of Achan that brought disaster at Ai (Joshua 7:1-26).
"Be sure, your sin will find you out" (Num. 32:23). The One who "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12) sought to give the blessing of repentance to Gehazi, but he refused it. He was blind to the depth of sin that resided in his own heart. Reading ahead slightly from the lesson, we find another man in the same condition. Hazael, whose name means "God has seen," a royal officer of Ben-hadad II, was sent to Elisha to inquire whether the king of Damascus would survive his illness (2 Kings 8:7-10).
When informed of the depth of unknown sin that resided in his heart, Hazael "could not bring himself to believe that he was capable of doing the unspeakable things the prophet Elisha had discerned he was capable of" (vss. 12, 13). "Hazael was sincerely unconscious of what lay buried in his own heart. In the same way, we are sincerely unconscious of our true motivations, apart from the Holy Spirit's conviction." (Robert J. Wieland, The Knocking At the Door
, p. 30). Had Achan been faced with the reality that through his sin he would hinder the progress of gaining the Promised Land, he would have denied it vehemently (see Testimonies vol. 4
, pp. 89, 90, and 492, 493)."God's law reaches the feelings and motives, as well as the outward acts. It reveals the secrets of the heart, flashing light upon things before buried in darkness. God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing." (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, July 31, 1901). Personally believing that God desires to produce such a deep cleansing of our feelings and motives, and allowing Him to accomplish it, prepares us for the necessary corporate repentance which will remove the choke hindering the latter rain.
Corporate repentance does not mean repenting for the sins committed by another person, whether those sins are in the past or yet future. Neither does corporate repentance involve a legislative vote to repent "in behalf of" some other person's rebellion against God. Corporate repentance is the blessing of seeing the true condition of our own heart; that we all have within us the same concealed root of sin that openly has manifested itself in others. When we realize that awfulness of sin in ourselves, it will mean death to "self" (see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:4-7). Once we comprehend the depth of sin that resides in our own heart, then we can truly repent corporately for the continued resistance of the "most precious message" that has delayed the Lord's return for more than 120 years. Then we will be ready to receive the seal of the Living God in our hearts, and Rev. 14:12 can be fulfilled (see Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5
, pp. 214, 217)."We have been content to have the blood of the Lamb provide a legal cancellation of the record in the books of heaven without the law being written in the heart. … For years we have been praying for the latter rain but the latter rain can never come until we understand what the former rain did …The latter rain will enable us to hear and see and to know that which we now resist. The Holy Spirit will bring a message and confirm the message which exposes every deception and unveils every apostasy and makes the glory of God manifest." (Donald K. Short, "Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed
," p. 89).We are no different from Gehazi. He was offered repentance when Elisha confronted him upon his return from meeting Naaman, but he refused to see his sin. It is time for us to realize our destitute condition and our great need of repentance. Only when we are humbled in the dust at the foot of the cross can we complete the work God called us to accomplish. Under the promised Latter Rain power, we then will declare to the oppressed, lonely inhabitants of the world that there is a Comforter and the dearest of companions, Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Lord. He alone can fulfill all our heart's desires and give us everlasting happiness.
—Ann Walper
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