Lesson 9: Jeremiah's Yoke

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jeremiah

Lesson 9: Jeremiah's Yoke

 

There is never a time when one is not bearing a yoke--either a yoke of bondage or the yoke of Christ which is received by accepting the invitation of Jesus to be crucified with Him.

Jeremiah brought a message from God to leaders of the nation and it was rejected--in 1888, Waggoner and Jones brought a message from God to the leadership of this church and it also was rejected. Nothing has changed since Jeremiah's time. Just as there were consequences then, so there will be now.

"There are two yokes and two burdens. The burden of sin is indeed heavy; if it is not lost at the foot of the cross, it will sink the bearer into perdition. To all who are heavily laden with sin, Jesus says, 'Come unto me, ... and I will give you rest.' There is no doubt about this. If they come, he says, 'Ye shall find rest unto your souls.' Then why not go? Why carry a heavy burden, when somebody freely offers to carry it for you? In exchange he will give his own burden, which is light. The 'yoke of bondage' is a galling yoke. From this Christ will set all free who will come to him, and he says, 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' John 8:36." [1]

The only part of this lesson we are told to commit to memory is: "Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23, NKJV).

Ellen White, a strong supporter of the 1888 message, writes: "We are to bear the yoke of Christ that we may be placed in complete union with Him. ... Hear what God says: 'If any man will come after me,let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.' The yoke and the cross are symbols representing the same thing." [2; emphasis supplied.] The Bible has made it clear that anything leading to salvation that has man's fingerprints on it, is a yoke of bondage--continuing sin.

"The failure with many people is that they make a distinction between the cross of Christ and their own crosses. There is no cross that comes to any person on earth, except the cross of Christ. If we will always remember this, it will be life and joy to us.

"The Lord does not give us some crosses of our own,--little crosses adapted to different ones,--one having one cross and another another. We cannot separate Christ from His cross. Christ is crucified; He is the only crucified one; therefore whatever cross comes to us must be the cross of Christ; and that cross is with us continually. But in the cross of Christ we find Christ Himself.

"What do we get through the cross?--Forgiveness of sins, reconciliation. 'Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.' 1 Peter 3:18. 'That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.' It is the cross, then, that unites us to God, and makes us one with Him. Everything then that is a real cross is life to us, because it brings us to God. Take the things that come to us; new duties, perhaps, are revealed to us; sins, it may be, are shown to us, that must be denied. Different things come up that cut directly across our habits and our own way and convenience. We can take them in a hard and cheerless way, groaning over our religion, and giving everybody that comes near the idea that it does not agree with us, but that we must endure the service of Christ, hoping that by and by we shall get something better, when we get out of this grinding service. Or we can find joy in the cross, and salvation and peace and rest, by recognizing that cross as the cross of Christ.

"Suppose we are stingy. Well, we have to make sacrifices for the cause of God, and so we know we must give something. We groan over it, and shrink from it, but finally by dint of hard work, will manage to give something. Then we think afterwards of what a hard cross we have borne. ... Not so; when we take it that way it is our own cross, with Christ left out; and there is no salvation except in the cross of Christ.

"With a thousand other things it is the same. We mourn over them, and it is only by will power that we force ourselves up to the rack, and take the bitter medicine, consoling ourselves with the thought that by and by all this will be ended. We shall not have such hard times when we get into the Kingdom.

"Possibly we put this rather strongly and yet this is the idea of the Christian life with a great many people who profess to be Christians. We sing of the 'resting by and by,' and of joys to come, giving the world the idea that there is no joy in the present. The idea too commonly is that the harder the cross is, the more joy there will be when it is done with. [3] This is not Christianity at all but heathenism.

"Now all these things we have been laboring over may be things that God requires us to do. He doesn't require us to scourge ourselves with whips, or to go on pilgrimages on our knees; but the only difference between ourselves, when we have made burdens of our duties, and the man who has scourged himself or worn a hair shirt, is that we make our penances out of those things which God requires, and he makes his out of those things which the Lord has not required. Yet we have thought we were better than he!

"Both classes are trying to put up a cross that would take the place of the cross of Christ. People ask the Lord to accept their offering for sin. Every cross men bear in that way is hard. If that were all that is in the cross, those crosses ought to have served the purpose; for they were bitter and cruel enough. Then there must be something else in the cross besides hardness. Popularly the idea is that anything that is a discomfort--that a person doesn't like to do--is a cross, and some men perform their duties ... to make themselves uncomfortable all the time.

"The idea has been, 'No cross no crown;' the more we suffer, the more we shall enjoy by and by. This is the time of suffering; by and by we shall have the time of enjoyment. So we will endure it. Certainly, we thought, these crosses will bring us nearer to God.

"We were always wanting to get nearer, and yet finding ourselves afar off. Then we did not have Christ in the cross, although we persuaded ourselves that we were believing in Christ and bearing His cross. ... The trouble was that we had a cross in the place of the cross of Christ,--a substitute for it.

"Who was on that cross?--Self. The power of the cross of Christ is the power of His life,--the power of an endless life. The power in our crosses was only the power of our own life, which is nothing, and could not bring us nearer to God. We were crucifying ourselves on our own crosses; and as we thought that those crosses were the cross of Christ, we were putting ourselves in the place of Christ." [4]

Remember, there is only one actual cross in the world, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. To accept the popular old covenant view that Christ is only near us, we would need to crucify ourselves on our own cross near Christ. This is a false "truth" with no salvation or forgiveness of sin in it.

The message brought to us in 1888 refuted this popular view and restored the cross of Christ to its rightful place within the church--within the believer. It was this restoration that was rejected.

"The question for everyone is, 'Do you know that Christ lives in you? Are you joined to Him?' There are many who are workers for Him professedly, who dare not say that Christ lives in them; they do not know that Christ is one with them. When we were bearing crosses after the manner we have described, we could not say, 'Christ liveth in me.' So we were separated from Him, and thus separated from His cross. It was self in the place of Christ, 'a form of godliness but denying the power thereof,' for the power of godliness is the cross of Christ. We denied the cross of Christ, and so denied the power of the Gospel.

"Christ was crucified for sin. There was no cross except for sin. He bore our sins. There is wonderful joy that comes to us in this, that while we are yet in sin we are permitted to claim Christ as ours, and to say, 'I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' If we could not assert this with all assurance while yet sinners, we never could assert it. But while in sin we may claim Christ as ours, and that He is in us. We know it because the Holy Spirit says that it is so. To the man who believes the Lord and dares assert it, it is everlasting strength.

"Christ is the present Saviour of all men. ... To take up the cross is to take Him. To deny self is to own Him. To crucify self indeed is to take His life, and the life we live with Him is not one of hardness and discomfort, and the performance of disagreeable duties for the sake of joy by and by, but it is the constant springing up of life and joy; so that with joy and not groaning we draw water from the wells of salvation. It makes all the difference when we have His cross." [5]

Will we accept the message God sent to us in 1888, or will we blindly remain under the yoke of bondage while awaiting further eternal consequences? Will we accept the message of Christ in us--not just near us?

--Daniel Peters

Endnotes:

[1] E. J. Waggoner, "Judgment and Mercy," The Signs of the Times, Nov. 3, 1887.
[2] Ellen G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1090.
[3] E. J. Waggoner, "The Cross and Crosses," The Present Truth, Feb. 22, 1894.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.

--

Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com

Sabbath School Lesson 9 |"Jeremiah's Yoke" | Pastor Paul Penno

Lesson 8: Josiah's Reforms

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jeremiah

Lesson 8: Josiah's Reforms

 

"For hundreds of years after the death of Solomon, a strange and melancholy sight could be seen opposite Mount Moriah. Crowning the eminence of the Mount of Olives, and peering above the groves of myrtle and olive trees, were imposing piles of buildings, for the idolatrous worship of gigantic, unseemly images of wood and stone. ... Little did Solomon think when he built the unholy shrines on the hill before Jerusalem, that these evidences of his apostasy would remain from generation to generation, to testify against him. Notwithstanding his repentance, the evil that he did lived after him, witnessing to the terrible fall of the greatest and wisest of kings.

"More than three centuries later, Josiah, the youthful reformer, in his religious zeal demolished these buildings and all the images of Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Moloch. Many of the broken fragments rolled down the channel of the Kedron, but great masses of ruins remained. Even as late as the days of Christ, the ruins on the 'Mount of Offense,' as the place was called by many of the true-hearted of Israel, might still be seen. Could Solomon, when rearing these idolatrous shrines, have looked into the future, how he would have started back in horror to think of the sad testimony they would bear to the Messiah!

"How sad the thought that the far-reaching influence of Solomon's apostasy could never be fully counteracted! The king confessed his sins, and wrote out, for the benefit of after generations, a record of his folly and repentance; but he could never hope to destroy the baleful influence of his evil deeds. Emboldened by his apostasy, many continued to do evil, and evil only. And in the downward course of many of the rulers that followed him, may be traced the sad influence of the prostitution of his God-given powers (Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Feb. 15, 1906).

______________________________

What is there about the story of "Josiah's Reforms," that occurred in the time of the Kings of Old Testament times, that can possibly relate to the 1888 message? And to the Seventh-day Adventist Church (us) today?

There is one word that stands out in the above quotation from Ellen White, and the story as discussed in the quarterly: repentance!

Moses called upon succeeding generations to recognize and confess their corporate guilt with "their fathers": "If they shall confess their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity ... I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. 26:3-40). They were explicitly to confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers.

Succeeding generations often recognized the truth of this principle. King Josiah, seeking to promote corporate repentance in his day, confessed that "great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us" (2 Kings 22:13). He said nothing about the guilt of his own generation, so clearly did he see their involvement with the guilt of previous generations. The writer of the Book of Chronicles agrees with this confession of corporate guilt (2 Chron. 34:21).

This young king's zeal for the Lord was unbounded. Again, in deep piety he sought to renew the old covenant: "He caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to [take their stand for it]" (vss. 31, 32).

King Josiah's revival and reformation were based upon leading all the people into making a promise to God that they would "perform" "His commandments." We read: "And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant" (2 Kings 23:3).

We might be inclined to think, this was a good thing. But it is essentially the same mistake their ancestors made when God gave them His everlasting covenant promise at Mount Sinai. God's covenant was the same which He gave to Abraham.

Abraham's justification by faith was to have been the guiding light of a nation's world mission. "In thee shall all families of the earth shall be blessed," the Lord promised (Gen. 12:3). Abraham made no promise in return; all he did was believe the Lord's promise (Gen. 15:6). That promise of God was the new covenant.

Before the giving of the law at Sinai with "thunders, and lightnings," earthquake, fire, and the death boundary, the Lord tried to re-establish the same new covenant with Abraham's descendants: "If ye will obey [listen to, Hebrew] My voice indeed, and keep [cherish, Hebrew] My covenant [His new covenant promise to Abraham], then ye shall be a peculiar [special] treasure unto Me above all people" (Ex. 19:5). [1] Of all nations in the world, they were to be "the head, and not the tail" (Deut. 28:13). But Mount Sinai was the turning point in the nation's destiny, for they refused the Lord's new covenant of justification by faith. Instead of humbly saying "Amen" to God's promise as Abraham did (the Hebrew word for "believe" is amen), the people promised a work's program of obedience, "All that the LORD hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8). That was the old covenant. The nation bound themselves to a long detour that would finally lead them to the terrible deed of Christ's crucifixion.

God told Josiah through the prophetess Huldah that He appreciated that his "heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me" (2 Kings 22:19). It's readily apparent what motivated Josiah's repentance. It was God's words against Judah and the curse of desolation. Josiah's faith was motivated out of fear for what God had predicted was to befall them. This fear motivation was old covenant through and through. Such fear-based faith could never produce a heart reconciliation, an at-one-ment with God.

Huldah prophesied of Josiah's early demise. God speaking through her said: "Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place" (vs. 20). Josiah rendered all manner of outward changes of reform. God appreciated his efforts. But the changes were only cosmetic in nature. Neither the king's heart nor the peoples' hearts experienced genuine faith, which is a heart appreciation for God's loving and giving Himself to them for their salvation from sin.

While maintaining such devotion to the written Spirit of Prophecy, Josiah managed to reject its living demonstration. The problem was that the renewed "spiritual gift" came through the most unlikely avenue that king or people could imagine--the mouth of a supposedly pagan king!

Pharaoh Necho of Egypt was leading his army in opposition to the rising power of Babylon. Josiah thought it his duty to attack him. Didn't Moses in the Spirit of Prophecy tell Israel to oppose the heathen? But the zealous king couldn't discern how Necho was on God's errand. He warned Josiah, "Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that He destroy thee not" (2 Chron. 35:21). The Chronicler says the king "hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God." The Lord was forced to let the young king die of his battle wounds (vss. 22-24). Jeremiah was heart-broken, for Josiah's revival fizzled out with his untimely death. From then on it was downhill all the way.

Like Josiah, is it possible for us as Seventh-day Adventists to think we are super-loyal to "the Spirit of Prophecy" while at the same time rejecting its living demonstration? That happened in 1888; our brethren were replaying Josiah's "tape." In rejecting that "most precious message" "sent from heaven" they imagined they were loyal to Ellen White's past writings while setting aside the Lord's living message. [2]

Are we replaying Israel's old covenant revivals and reformations? Sober reflection forces an answer: as a body we are as lukewarm now as we were over a century ago. When "we" "in a great degree" and "in a great measure" rejected that "most precious" new covenant truth that came in the 1888 era, "we" locked ourselves into "many more years" of an old covenant detour as surely as did Israel at Sinai. [3]

The faith-experience of the new covenant was the main focus of leadership opposition to the 1888 message. While they opposed the "messengers," A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner, they actually preferred the essential elements of the old covenant. Ellen White was shown in vision that these revered leaders were wasting their time trying to urge a view different from Waggoner's, for she was "shown" that he was right. [4]

Old covenant ideas have continued to predominate in our experience. Our revivals and reformations have followed the pattern of those of Israel. Not yet have we as a church body truly recovered the new covenant which "we" largely rejected a century ago.

In the great final Day of Atonement, all the failures of ancient Judah and Israel must and will at last be rectified in a repentance of the ages. Jesus says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:19).

Is there a special reason why our Lord calls the "remnant church" to repent? It is easy to assume that only false or apostate churches need to repent. The more convinced we are that a certain denomination represents the true "remnant church" of Bible prophecy, the more perplexed we are to understand how she seriously needs an experience of repentance. But her only hope lies in that possibility.

The bedrock sin of all mankind is hatred and rejection of Christ, manifested in His crucifixion. Repentance for this sin is where the miracle of the atonement takes place. Our 1888 history illustrates this truth, and the inspired messenger of the Lord was quick to discern its significance. The 1888 Conference was a miniature Calvary. It afforded a public demonstration of the same spirit of unbelief and hatred of God's righteousness that inspired the Jews to murder the Son of God.

Ellen White explains why we need to repent, and how we relate to God's "ancient people":

"If with all the light that shone upon His ancient people, delineated before us, we travel over the same ground, cherish the same spirit, refuse to receive reproof and warning, then our guilt will be greatly augmented, and the condemnation that fell upon them will fall upon us, only it will be as much greater as our light is greater in this age than was their light in their age." [5]

"All the universe of heaven witnessed the disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ, represented by the Holy Spirit [at the 1888 Minneapolis Session]. Had Christ been before them, they [the leaders] would have treated Him in a manner similar to that in which the Jews treated Christ." [6]

Men professing godliness have despised Christ in the persons of His messengers [E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones]. Like the Jews, they reject God's message." [7]

She believed to the end that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the true "remnant church" of Bible prophecy, entrusted with the proclamation to the world of God's last gospel message of mercy; and that repentance and humbling of heart before God is the only appropriate response that "we" can make that will enable Heaven to pour out the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the accomplishment of the task.

Our denominational history is in fact one continual call to repentance.

The repentance Christ calls for is beginning to be realized. When one member in a congregation falls into sin, a little reflection can convince many members that they share in his or her guilt. Had we been more alert, more kindhearted, more ready to speak "a word in season to him who is weary," more effective in communicating the pure, powerful truth of the gospel, we might have saved the erring member from falling. Therefore, it is encouraging to believe that within the generation a large sense of loving concern can be realized on a worldwide scale. With "the mind of Christ," a bond of sympathy and fellowship is established "in Him." This miracle will follow the laws of grace.

Such an experience will transform the church into a dynamo of love. It is God's plan that no church will have seating capacity for the converted sinners who will want to stream into it. Corporate and denominational repentance is the whole church experiencing Christ-like love and empathy for all for whom He died.

"The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place. When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer, and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife. ... All will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit." [8]

--From the writings of Robert J. Wieland

Endnotes:
[1] The Hebrew word often translated "obey" means "listen" (shamea). The word translated "keep" in this text is shamar, which in Genesis 2:15 means to "cherish," to treasure, to prize highly, but not explicitly "obey."
[2] See, for example, Uriah Smith's and G. I. Butler's letters to Ellen G. White of Feb. 17, 1890, Sept. 24, 1892 (Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis 1888, pp. 152-157, 206-212). The Lord not only sent "prophets" to Israel, but "messengers" also (2 Chron. 36:16).
[3] See E. G. White Letter 184, 1901; Evangelism, p. 696.
[4] See E. G. White Letters 30, 59, 1890.
[5] E. G. White, Review and Herald, April 11, 1893.
[6] E. G. White, Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, p. 20.
[7] E. G. White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 472.
[8] E. G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 251.

--

Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com

Sabbath School Lesson 8 | "Josiah's Reforms" | Pastor Paul Penno

Lesson 7: The Crisis Continues

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jeremiah

Lesson 7: The Crisis Continues

Jeremiah has written one of the longest books in the Old Testament, with 52 chapters, and followed it with the book of Lamentations, 5 chapters. As we review, Jeremiah came from a priestly family in Anathoth, a suburb of Jerusalem. It is interesting to compare the backgrounds of Paul and Jeremiah; both were selected for their ministries before their births, and both had specific missions to the Gentiles, but Jeremiah's primary mission and message was directed to Judah.

One other amazing note about Jeremiah is that at his young age he was reluctant to speak in public--he felt inadequate. Doesn't this remind you of Moses, who at his late age, in his 80s, felt he could not speak well? Yet God worked in mighty ways for Moses to lead his people. At Isaiah's call, a seraph touched his mouth with a hot coal to cleanse him (Isa. 6: 6, 7). In Jeremiah's case, the Lord touched his mouth to deliver His message (Jer. 1:9).

Jeremiah is quite an intense prophet of human personality, one whom we can identify with, understand, and appreciate. He is endowed with such mysterious power from on high that we at times are amazed by his grandeur. We see Jeremiah so humanly weak, and yet so divinely firm; his love so humanly tender, and at the same time so divinely holy; his eyes streaming with tears at beholding the affliction about to come upon his people, yet sparkling with fiery indignation against their sins and abominations. His lips overflowed with sympathy for the daughter of Zion, only to pronounce upon in the same breath the judgment and condemnation she so fully deserved. Jeremiah is truly a remarkable and powerful personality. He is so compassionate, that we cannot fail to recognize in him an instrument especially chosen and prepared by the God of grace and strength and wisdom.

We see Jeremiah's ministry unfolding. God's people had been captivated by the idolatry, adultery, slander, and wicked ways, resulting in their hearts drifting away from God. It sounds like what is happening today. When you read Jeremiah 9, you will see the pain and weeping of Jeremiah over Zion. They were losing the knowledge of God. At the same time, God is also weeping when his people are drifting into their own ways. This is the very concept of corporate repentance that Jeremiah is practicing; his concern is for all the people, not just for himself. Although himself innocent, Jeremiah confessed and repented of the sins of his fathers: "O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee" (Jer. 14:7).

"There are striking parallels in the history of God's work: Jeremiah and Ezekiel confident that national disaster must overtake the kingdom of Judah unless repentance should be received at the highest level of leadership, always a 'lonely chorus' of people who trembled at the word of the Lord, but they were the few and the lowly. In the early days of the apostles, Paul warned that 'after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them' (Acts 20:29, 30). Again, a 'lonely chorus' told the truth which went largely unheeded. 'There came a falling away' and pagan falsehoods were allowed to infiltrate the church, leading to the Dark Ages of the great apostasy." [1]

In chapters 7 and 26 Jeremiah seeks to bring his people to repentance. If Judah will turn back to God, she can avoid the horrible destruction of Babylonian invasion that hangs over her like a dark cloud on the horizon. It was Jeremiah's sad task to warn his people so many times of the approaching destruction and that this catastrophe was a judgment from God. This very message stirred up anger among the Jews. Jeremiah was viewed as a traitor, and was persecuted more intensely than any other Hebrew prophet. Christ was treated in the same manner.

There is also a parallel in what Ellen G. White wrote about the time of Elijah: "For stricken Israel there was but one remedy--a turning away from the sins that had brought upon them the chastening hand of the Almighty, and a turning to the Lord with full purpose of heart. To them had been given the assurance, 'If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.' 2 Chronicles 7:13,14. It was to bring to pass this blessed result that God continued to withhold from them the dew and the rain until a decided reformation should take place." [2]

This statement beautifully sums up the core of the 1888 message: "In mercy God seeks to lead the unrighteous to repentance. The obedient will delight in the law of the Lord. He puts His laws in their minds, and writes them in their hearts. Their speech will be such as is prompted by an indwelling Saviour. They have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all the defilement of Satan's suggestions. Their heart yearns after God. In their conversion they love to dwell upon His mercy and goodness, for to them He is altogether lovely. They learn the language of heaven, the country of their adoption." [3]

May we learn the lesson of what Jeremiah is bringing through the precious message of repentance, and the gracious love that pours out from God's heart to His people. He is always knocking at the door of our heart, willing to give us a new heart.

Contemplate this old hymn and the astounding words of "Love Divine," by Charles Wesley:

"Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down;
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All Thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation, Enter every trembling heart.

"Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit, Let us find the promised rest;
Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty."

Take courage and hope in the unfailing loving mercies of our Lord.

--Mary Chun

Endnotes:
[1] Robert J. Wieland, "Dial Daily Bread," 2004.
[2] Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pp. 128.
[3] Ellen G. White, The Upward Look, p. 297; Letter 281, Oct. 10, 1905, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.

Raul Diaz

Lesson 7: The Crisis Continues

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jeremiah

Lesson 7: The Crisis Continues

 

Jeremiah has written one of the longest books in the Old Testament, with 52 chapters, and followed it with the book of Lamentations, 5 chapters. As we review, Jeremiah came from a priestly family in Anathoth, a suburb of Jerusalem. It is interesting to compare the backgrounds of Paul and Jeremiah; both were selected for their ministries before their births, and both had specific missions to the Gentiles, but Jeremiah's primary mission and message was directed to Judah.

One other amazing note about Jeremiah is that at his young age he was reluctant to speak in public--he felt inadequate. Doesn't this remind you of Moses, who at his late age, in his 80s, felt he could not speak well? Yet God worked in mighty ways for Moses to lead his people. At Isaiah's call, a seraph touched his mouth with a hot coal to cleanse him (Isa. 6: 6, 7). In Jeremiah's case, the Lord touched his mouth to deliver His message (Jer. 1:9).

Jeremiah is quite an intense prophet of human personality, one whom we can identify with, understand, and appreciate. He is endowed with such mysterious power from on high that we at times are amazed by his grandeur. We see Jeremiah so humanly weak, and yet so divinely firm; his love so humanly tender, and at the same time so divinely holy; his eyes streaming with tears at beholding the affliction about to come upon his people, yet sparkling with fiery indignation against their sins and abominations. His lips overflowed with sympathy for the daughter of Zion, only to pronounce upon in the same breath the judgment and condemnation she so fully deserved. Jeremiah is truly a remarkable and powerful personality. He is so compassionate, that we cannot fail to recognize in him an instrument especially chosen and prepared by the God of grace and strength and wisdom.

We see Jeremiah's ministry unfolding. God's people had been captivated by the idolatry, adultery, slander, and wicked ways, resulting in their hearts drifting away from God. It sounds like what is happening today. When you read Jeremiah 9, you will see the pain and weeping of Jeremiah over Zion. They were losing the knowledge of God. At the same time, God is also weeping when his people are drifting into their own ways. This is the very concept of corporate repentance that Jeremiah is practicing; his concern is for all the people, not just for himself. Although himself innocent, Jeremiah confessed and repented of the sins of his fathers: "O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake: for ourbackslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee" (Jer. 14:7).

"There are striking parallels in the history of God's work: Jeremiah and Ezekiel confident that national disaster must overtake the kingdom of Judah unless repentance should be received at the highest level of leadership, always a 'lonely chorus' of people who trembled at the word of the Lord, but they were the few and the lowly. In the early days of the apostles, Paul warned that 'after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them' (Acts 20:29, 30). Again, a 'lonely chorus' told the truth which went largely unheeded. 'There came a falling away' and pagan falsehoods were allowed to infiltrate the church, leading to the Dark Ages of the great apostasy." [1]

In chapters 7 and 26 Jeremiah seeks to bring his people to repentance. If Judah will turn back to God, she can avoid the horrible destruction of Babylonian invasion that hangs over her like a dark cloud on the horizon. It was Jeremiah's sad task to warn his people so many times of the approaching destruction and that this catastrophe was a judgment from God. This very message stirred up anger among the Jews. Jeremiah was viewed as a traitor, and was persecuted more intensely than any other Hebrew prophet. Christ was treated in the same manner.

There is also a parallel in what Ellen G. White wrote about the time of Elijah: "For stricken Israel there was but one remedy--a turning away from the sins that had brought upon them the chastening hand of the Almighty, and a turning to the Lord with full purpose of heart. To them had been given the assurance, 'If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.' 2 Chronicles 7:13,14. It was to bring to pass this blessed result that God continued to withhold from them the dew and the rain until a decided reformation should take place." [2]

This statement beautifully sums up the core of the 1888 message: "In mercy God seeks to lead the unrighteous to repentance. The obedient will delight in the law of the Lord. He puts His laws in their minds, and writes them in their hearts. Their speech will be such as is prompted by an indwelling Saviour. They have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all the defilement of Satan's suggestions. Their heart yearns after God. In their conversion they love to dwell upon His mercy and goodness, for to them He is altogether lovely. They learn the language of heaven, the country of their adoption." [3]

May we learn the lesson of what Jeremiah is bringing through the precious message of repentance, and the gracious love that pours out from God's heart to His people. He is always knocking at the door of our heart, willing to give us a new heart.

Contemplate this old hymn and the astounding words of "Love Divine," by Charles Wesley:

"Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down;
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All Thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation, Enter every trembling heart.

"Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit, Let us find the promised rest;
Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty."

Take courage and hope in the unfailing loving mercies of our Lord.

--Mary Chun

Endnotes:
[1] Robert J. Wieland, "Dial Daily Bread," 2004.
[2] Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, pp. 128.
[3] Ellen G. White, The Upward Look, p. 297; Letter 281, Oct. 10, 1905, to Dr. and Mrs. D. H. Kress.

--

Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com

Sabbath School Lesson 6 | "Symbolic Acts" | Pastor Paul Penno

Lesson 6: Symbolic Acts

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Jeremiah

Lesson 6: Symbolic Acts

God sent message upon message to Judah through Jeremiah and other prophets. Apparently each was universally ignored. Like a creative parent, God tried various ways to get the attention of His indifferent children in Judah. When words didn't work, He resorted to actions to demonstrate warning. These symbolic messages, though perceived, were rejected. We can only imagine the annoyance with which Jeremiah was received.

When Jeremiah visits the potter, his message must have been supremely offensive to his listeners. They could not have missed that the analogy of the potter and the clay applied to them. It rebuked their arrogant thinking that God had no choice as to what form Judah took, and that He was expected to bless them regardless of how many other gods they worshipped. God reminds them that He had a specific plan for them when He brought their forefathers out of Egypt, and that they spoiled it by their apostasy. Again, He tells them: "I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you" (Jer. 18:11, NASB). Still, their response is "It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (vs. 12).

Their reaction was to proverbially kill the messenger when they said "Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah ... Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words" (Jer. 18:18).

The symbol of the broken jar (chapter 19) represents what God intends to do with Judah, to break them so they cannot be repaired. This is not the first time God used the symbol of brokenness to warn Israel. One of the more graphic examples is the story of the Levite and his concubine as recorded in Judges 19 and 20. In that instance, it produced a response and reformation in Israel.

The breaking of the jar may also refer to Jeremiah chapter 11 where God tells them they have broken the covenant which He made with their forefathers when He brought them out of Egypt. This covenant is: "Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God" (Jer. 11:4).

This is the essence of the everlasting covenant. The message of 1888 teaches that God's covenant is not something the people must do, but what they must believe when God says "listen." People often skip over the "listen" part and see it as God striking a bargain, asking us to "keep" His commands so He will be their God. People think they know what that means, so we set about to do what we think God wants. Unfortunately, this proves they weren't listening.

Ellet J. Waggoner applied this to "us.": "We can no more live righteous lives by our own strength than we could beget ourselves. The work that is begun by the Spirit must be carried to completion by the Spirit. ... Paul's labor, and the first experience of the Galatians, were exactly in line with the experience of Abraham, whose faith was accounted for righteousness. Let it be remembered that the 'false brethren' who preached 'another gospel' [to the Galatians], even the false gospel of righteousness by works, were Jews and claimed Abraham for their father. ...

"People take the sign for the substance, the end for the means. They see that righteousness reveals itself in good works. Therefore they assume that the good works bring the righteousness. Righteousness gained by faith, good works wrought without working, seem to them impractical and fanciful. They call themselves 'practical' men and believe that the only way to have a thing done is to do it. But the truth is that all such men are highly impractical. ... Only in the Lord is there righteousness and strength (Isa. 45:24). 'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light' (Psalm 37:5,6, KJV). Abraham is the father of all who believe for righteousness, and of those only. The only 'practical' thing is to believe, even as he did." [1]

The Jews in Paul's day claimed to be righteous by the act of circumcision. The people of Judah in Jeremiah's day made the same mistake but also claimed God had to continue blessing them because they said, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (Jer. 7:4). They thought they could bring heathen practices into the temple and still call it "the temple of the Lord." It is easy to think ancient Judah was so primitive that we today would never make the mistake of finding strength in buildings, or whatever else tempts our denominational pride.

Another symbolic "lesson" is found in Jeremiah chapter 13, the ruined waistband. This seems mysterious, but is a uniquely personal application. A belt or waistband is worn to keep one's clothing from falling off. Some people even add suspenders because they fear the shame of nakedness. Sin caused this fear. Judah didn't realize that they had lost their covering and were naked. In their blindness they couldn't see that buildings, rituals, or law keeping did nothing to save them from having their shame exposed. Could there possibly be a relation between God's message to Judah, and His message to the Laodicean church: " ... you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17)?

God wanted to reveal such pride to the people of Judah. He wanted to show them that they had lost the thing that bound them to Him at the most intimate levels. He wanted those ties to never be broken, but their ignorance of how to keep His law resulted in loss of their protection and should have made them ashamed. They persisted in thinking that adding pagan gods, but still trying to keep God's law was acceptable. Instead, they lost everything. Only by staying closely tied to God through the working of the Holy Spirit can we receive the salvation accomplished by Jesus. It is intimate heart work that requires humility and honesty.

Ellen G. White applies this 1888 concept of "heart work" so beautifully: "All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continued obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us." [2]

What a blessed promise. We can believe it.

--Arlene Hill

Endnotes:
[1] The Glad Tidings, pp. 52-54 (emphasis in original).
[2] The Desire of Ages, p. 668.

Note: "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org

--

Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com