Lesson 5: From Pride to Humility

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Daniel
Lesson 5: From Pride to Humility

 

What does it mean to "come out of Babylon"? Unfortunately, Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way. He had been (in today's vernacular) full of himself, taking credit for everything good he had ever done, giving no acknowledgement to Jehovah or even Babylonian gods. Thus, God showed him what it means to "come out of Babylon." It means that all human glory is put in the dust. If Nebuchadnezzar knew the 1888 message, he would have known what God does with human pride. The message of righteousness by faith allows no room for pride in anything we have done.

In His great mercy, God patiently worked with Nebuchadnezzar to bring him back to an understanding of truth. He even warned him in a dream what would happen if Nebuchadnezzar ignored the warning. The use of a tree to symbolize a powerful nation must have meant something to the proud king. The story of the Tree of Life had been handed down by legend in old Babylon, as had the story of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ezekiel had foretold the great fall of the king of Egypt, and now Nebuchadnezzar would be the instrument used by the Lord for cutting him down, "to the end that none of all the trees by the waters [including the kings of Egypt and Babylon] exalt themselves for their height" (Ezek. 31:14). Nebuchadnezzar should have learned a lesson from this humbling experience of another tree that had been cut down in the past. But so much like you and me, the king has been slow to learn his kindergarten lessons in the school of faith. But you've never had a teacher in school more patient than the Lord is in His "school."

We should remember that God had tried to get Nebuchadnezzar to realize that his kingdom, Babylon, would not last forever. We know this didn't appeal to the king back in Daniel chapter 2. In spite of the Daniel 2 image being five distinctly separate kingdoms, Nebuchadnezzar revised God's image to represent only the kingdom of Babylon. He should have remembered this image when he received the powerful dream of warning.

We don't have to be the ruler of a great nation to receive warnings from God that we need to humble ourselves. It is important to remember that humility is not the same as humiliation. The latter is what happened to Jesus at his trial and crucifixion at the hands of wicked people. Jesus didn't deserve to be humiliated, but when He prayed in Gethsemane He humbled Himself. He told His Father that if possible, to take "the cup" away, but if that was not possible, He would submit to the will of the Father. That is probably the world's best example of dignified and voluntary humility.

It is noteworthy that Daniel 4:17 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar's sentence was issued and pronounced by a "watcher, a holy one" who had descended from heaven to give the king his warning. It is comforting to know that angelic beings are watching what happens on this earth. Presumably, these angels had lived through Lucifer's crisis of pride in heaven, and the angels knew that nothing good could come of the course Nebuchadnezzar was pursuing. Their concern prompted the warning. Even though warnings and correction might be unpleasant at the time, we can choose to be grateful for heaven's interest in us.

The use of a tree is an interesting choice of imagery. God used two trees in the Garden of Eden to symbolize His government. The tree of life was the only tree He wanted Adam and Eve to experience. But divine love required that they be allowed a choice. Thus, He placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden. Sin entered the world by means of a tree, and God put His Son, the second Adam, on a tree, in the form of a cross, to redeem mankind from the curse of sin. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, they brought the curse of sin into the world. The sign of the curse of creation was that the ground would produce "thorns and thistles" (Gen. 3:18). By wearing a crown of thorns at His crucifixion, Jesus, the second Adam, took upon Himself the curse of creation, to undo it for the purpose of restoring the blessing.

Heaven's use of the image of a tree shows us that God withholds nothing good from us. It was unnecessary for us to experience evil to understand it isn't good, but Satan perverted God's loving kindness so Eve thought she was missing out. It was on this point that she failed to believe God and His system of government.

The important lesson to learn from Nebuchadnezzar's experience is that no matter how confident we are in ourselves, when things get rough, the only thing that will sustain us is Christ through His Holy Spirit living in us. Our own efforts will always fail.

"If you would stand through the time of trouble, you must know Christ, and appropriate the gift of his righteousness which he imputes to the repentant sinner. Human wisdom will not avail to devise a plan of salvation. Human philosophy is vain, the fruits of the loftiest powers of man are worthless, aside from the great plan of the divine Teacher. No glory is to redound to man; all human help and glory lies in the dust; for the truth as it is in Jesus is the only available agent by which man may be saved. Man is privileged to connect with Christ, and then the divine and the human combine; and in this union the hope of man must rest alone; for it is as the Spirit of God touches the soul that the powers of the soul are quickened, and man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. He was manifested to bring life and immortality to light. ...

"Read the book of Daniel. Call up, point by point, the history of the kingdoms there represented. Behold statesmen, councils, powerful armies, and see how God wrought to abase the pride of men, and lay human glory in the dust. The light that Daniel received directly from God was given especially for these last days. The visions he saw by the banks of the Ulai and the Hiddekel, the great rivers of Shinar, are now in process of fulfillment, and all the events foretold will soon come to pass. [1]

"What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. When men see their own nothingness, they are prepared to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ." [2]

"Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness. The apostle Peter became a faithful minister of Christ, and he was greatly honored with divine light and power; he had an active part in the upbuilding of Christ's church; but Peter never forgot the fearful experience of his humiliation; his sin was forgiven; yet well he knew that for the weakness of character which had caused his fall only the grace of Christ could avail. He found in himself nothing in which to glory." [3]

--Arlene Hill

Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 112, 113.
[2] Ellen G. White, ibid., p. 456.
[3] Ellen G. White, The Faith I Live By,p. 111.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jewX-6w38E

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

--

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 4: From Furnace to Palace

Lesson 4: From Furnace to Palace

 

Is the story of the "burning fiery furnace" in Daniel 3 pious fiction? Or authentic history?

Historical and archaeological research confirms supportive details: such as brick kilns that were common. Jeremiah 29:22 tells the history of how King Nebuchadnezzar "roasted in the fire" two seditious Jews; another Babylonian king boasted of burning some political enemies--evidence that this method of execution was actually practiced; Herodotus and Pliny tell of ancient kings who built huge statues covered with gold leaf. The deliverance from death by fire had been promised: "When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you." Doubtless the three Hebrew youth thrown in the fire had cherished this assurance. The promise "I will be with you" was literally fulfilled (Isa. 43:2). "The Son of God" shared the "furnace" with them, as even the pagan king confessed (Dan. 3:25).

How did that heathen king know what the Son of God looked like? God's people in Old Testament times looked forward to the coming of Christ, while we look back to His first coming. Alike, we all see Him by faith. No one has ever been saved except by the power of Christ. The Hebrews had preached in Babylon of Christ, the Redeemer to come. The king remembered their teaching, and from their message recognized the Son of God when he saw Him.

Incidentally, they seem in no hurry to come out of the fire. God provides air-conditioning where and when it is needed. They will be happy to stay there, if only they can walk and talk with Christ. To be with Him is sufficient reward for all the trials of earth! When we suffer for Him today, we too may enjoy His presence with us in the same way (see John 15:18; Isa. 63:9; James 1:2). You may think this is hard to believe. But you'll know it next time you are thrown into your "fiery furnace" for your faith in Christ; He'll make Himself preciously near to you as ordinarily you never know Him in times of peace.

This is the point of Daniel 3: will we believe that the Son of God shares our sufferings for His sake? Will He give divine courage to "stand up" when everybody else bows down? The apostle Peter collapsed when the test came to him (Matt. 26:69-75); in fact, all the eleven disciples ran away.

Many Israelites had been exiled to Babylon when Daniel and his three companions went, but none of them had the courage to obey God's Ten Commandments except these four! Granted, the three who faced the fiery furnace were terrified at the prospect of death by fire; but they sensed that they were called to honor the truth of God before the assembled leaders of an empire. He gave them courage, even if God should choose not to deliver them from death (Dan. 3:16-18; this was a selfless motivation inspired by agape). A similar final test will come to us all in the "mark of the beast" crisis (Rev. 13:11-17).

And so there is a beautiful illustrationof genuine faith in the story of the three Hebrews of Daniel 3 who were thrown into the fiery furnace. They told the insanely angry king that: the living God whom they served was "able" to deliver them from his power, but; it might possibly be that He would be unwilling to do so--they didn't know for sure--but if He were unwilling to deliver them they would serve Him nonetheless, and they would not cast contempt on His holy law by bowing down to his golden image.

In this way these three men demonstrated that their faith in God was the New Covenant kind, not the Old Covenant kind. (They probably had been studying the writings of Jeremiah!)

So here we find the two kinds of covenant-faith expressed in the 1888 message. The Old Covenant kind of "faith" is a counterfeit of the genuine: it's making a "bargain" with God. Old Covenant faith says," Lord, if You will deliver us, then we'll keep Your commandments." Sometimes preachers lead their people into Old Covenant faith when they tell them that if they take the initiative to "pay tithe," then God will bless them financially. New Covenant faith is a choice to pay tithe whether or not the Lord rewards us.

The New Covenant is God's out-and-out promises to His people, and their heart response is to believe and appreciate what He promises. His love, not fear, "constrains" them to loyalty and service (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). The Old Covenant is "bargaining" with God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rebuke us for that. Jeremiah promises (31:31-34) that the time will come when God's people graduate completely out of the Old into the living faith that is in the New. As God's people face the trials of the last days, their faith will mature into that of "the Lamb's wife"--a church that has grown up into that "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). It's time for the New Covenant, now.

The good news is that right now worldwide the Holy Spirit is preparing, nerving, strengthening, and training willing people to endure the test. Fellowship with Christ in "fire" is precious, even today as we honor Him in school, in our community, at work, and at home.

--Paul E. Penno

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5vHqRQWHq0&list=PLsjY9Yfwx9Nx1uiXLl_c49fae41rrkgPO

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 2: From Jerusalem to Babylon

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Daniel
Lesson 2: From Jerusalem to Babylon

 

"In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim" sets the date for the beginning of the Book of Daniel. Jehoiakim's reign lasted seven years and in every respect was a disaster for himself and the people of Judah, and was the beginning of the end for the nation. The reformatory work done by Josiah was soon overthrown and the people returned to their pagan idolatry. The voices of the prophets Jeremiah and Habakkuk rose louder in response to the declining spirituality of the people, but their warnings went unheeded and were scorned. Rejecting the word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit through His prophets precipitated the crisis. The fast that Jehoiakim proclaimed in 607 B.C., perhaps superstitiously, did not effect any significant change in the people's hearts and minds.

When Nebuchadnezzar first marched against Jerusalem he ended up taking captives as well as certain sacred vessels from the Temple. King Jehoiakim had been bound in fetters with the intention of his removal from Judah to Babylon, but this was not done. Nebuchadnezzar decided to leave him in Jerusalem as a vassal to Babylon. However, all persons who were physically strong enough or in a political position in which they could foment an uprising, were carted off to Babylonian garrisons. Over three different deportations there were a total of 4600 of the highest ranking, best educated, and strongest people carried away by Nebuchadnezzar's army (Jer. 52:28-30).

We do not know how many of these people were considered "princes" of Judah who were placed in Nebuchadnezzar's special holding area in his palace, but we are told that they were "without blemish, well favored, and skillful in wisdom, knowledge and science." While living in Judah, even under the terrible conditions of war, some of these young men sought to be well prepared intellectually and spiritually for whatever was coming upon them.

When they were taken captive, all the young men were living in a completely immoral society where great confusion about who God is was rampant. But the four men that are brought into focus in the narrative--Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah--had especially dedicated their lives to the one true God of heaven and earth. Even though sin abounded in their country, God did not leave in the dark those who sought to know the truth. God is never without a witness and His word is never so abused or obscured that truth cannot be found and diligently studied.

How had their culture become so corrupt? They like us, live in a sinful world, and because our basic human nature "is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), we accept various sins as normal for the society in which we live. Hazy, indistinct ideas about what constitutes sin produces only a hazy, indistinct response to it when we're confronted by it. This is a major reason why there is so much apostasy and backsliding in the church, then and now.

Another example is Lot's children, raised in a completely immoral society they succumbed to sin's seduction and could not discern the danger when their father warned them to flee in the night to avoid destruction. They had been so influenced by the society in which they lived, through mind working upon mind during their daily associations, that the "natural" enmity they had for God was stimulated into action. We may shake our heads in disbelief over their wrong decision, but we are of the same mind. We await only convenient circumstances to demonstrate our willingness to also commit the same sin that we frown on in others.

Through our neglect to call sin by its right name, we are constantly compromising our moral convictions, convincing ourselves little by little that "sin must not be so bad" since the whole of our society is committing it without apparent condemnation. By our silence and lack of moral outrage when confronted by evil, we are in essence condoning those sins committed by our society.

When Daniel and his companions were confronted with the king's command to "eat from his table" food and drink that were not wholesome and included the flesh of animals sacrificed to pagan idols, an opportunity for a major compromise was presented to them. Those young men who had not shunned compromise while living in Judah were not likely to stand firm to principle in Babylon. However, Daniel's group, when they came face to face with this difficult problem, knew they could rely on God's teaching and His protection.

The lesson from Daniel chapter 1 is especially for us, showing us how we should be living. Daniel learned the message of righteousness while living among corruption and sin in Judah. That message was the only thing that could prepare him for the trials he faced. Just so, the message of Christ and His righteousness brought to us in 1888, and largely neglected ever since, is the only message that will prepare us to stand in the time of trouble.

In the near future when we are called upon to pass through challenging experiences, we will not be able to endure if we have not prepared ourselves before that time. We must have already obtained that spiritual "eyesalve" that Jesus wants us to receive from Him (Rev. 3:18). We must have already given up everything that impedes the power of the Holy Spirit to work upon our minds in guiding us during that "time of trouble such as never was" on the earth (Dan. 12:1). Voluntary self-control ("temperance in all things") must be the standard of our life. Control of appetite is the foundation of all self-control.

We are on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and living in the antitypical fulfillment of the challenge that the children of Israel faced at Baal-Peor (Num. 25:1-3). If we open our eyes we will recognize the parallels between that day and ours.

"The last great day is right upon us. Let all consider that Satan is now striving for the mastery over souls. He is playing the game of life for your souls. Will there be sins committed by you on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan? ... Men that God has entrusted with noble talents will be, unless closely connected with God, guilty of great weakness, and not having the grace of Christ in the soul will become connected with greater crimes. This is because they do not make the truth of God a part of them. Their discipline has been defective, the soul culture has not been carried forward from one advance to another, inborn tendencies have not been restrained, but have degraded the soul. For all the natural weaknesses Jesus has made ample provision, that they may be overcome through His grace. If not overcome, the weakness will become a tyrant, a conqueror, to overcome them, and the heavenly light will become beclouded and extinguished" (Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, May 24, 1887).

God desires to shape our character through the things He allows to happen to us, whether accidents or disease or loss of wealth or death of loved ones, or as in the case of Daniel and his three companions, unjust captivity. Faith sees through and reaches through all these trials and tragedies, trivial or major. Through all that comes upon us to afflict us and make us miserable, we are to steadfastly look to Jesus and know that nothing in this earth can truly hurt us. "What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us" (Rom. 8:35, 36 ff.).

--Ann Walper

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTkjC-hFkuM&list=PLsjY9Yfwx9Nx1uiXLl_c49fae41rrkgPO

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Daniel
Lesson 1: From Reading to Understanding

 

Google has searched out, for all of us, enormous amounts of information; everybody's computer has become a university at your fingertips.

What does Daniel mean: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Dan. 12:4)?

It's obvious that the "increase of knowledge" comes in "the time of the end" when the book is unsealed; so the question is, is it knowledge of what the book of Daniel means, or is it secular Google-indexed knowledge in general?

"The time of the end" is a time when God's people are blessed with an "increase of knowledge." We have traditionally understood this to be scientific and engineering knowledge, which has indeed "increased" exponentially since the end of the 1260 years of papal oppression. But in its context, verse 4 is concerned with "turning many to righteousness" and becoming "wise" for eternal life. "He that winneth souls is wise" (Prov. 11:30). This "increase" has to do with understanding the gospel!

Fear of "the time of trouble" (admittedly, will be the worst in human history) is dissipated by this "increase of knowledge"--that's more than scientific knowledge. Only "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). In other words, the "increase of knowledge" is a clearer grasp of what the Son of God accomplished on His cross for "every man." This will be the truth that the fourth angel brings to lighten the "earth" in Revelation 18:1-4. Not only does it "cast out" fear, it also inscribes for deliverance one's name in the book of life and the book of remembrance that God keeps.

In the context of how Daniel 12 relates to the good news of Revelation 18:1-4 (lighting the earth with glory), one wonders if perhaps there is something good here that invites further study. God's people are not "holy" in and of themselves; it's Christ's righteousness, not theirs. If Daniel 12 relates to the final "loud cry" and if God's people are not "holy" of themselves, perhaps this "dispersal of the power of the holy people" has some good news in it. Ellen White, A. T. Jones, and E. J. Waggoner, all tried to tell us that when "the most precious" message of Christ's righteousness is preached to the whole world, the end will come!

Learn to "understand" the Book of Daniel. "And they that understand among the people shall instruct many" (Dan. 11:33). Here's the good news?

If you "understand" the Book of Daniel, you "will instruct many." The God of heaven who sent Gabriel to instruct Daniel will open doors for you to communicate to others, maybe to children and teenagers, the truths of Daniel. And what happens when you do that? Here's the answer: "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12:3). You "instructing" others, and sharing the joy. The once-sealed Book is wide "open" now!

--Paul E. Penno

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S_JZVbfhL8

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz