Relationships

                          SEVENTH-DAY
                     ADVENTIST CHURCH At Arak

    your Sabbath School Bible study.                                                  Ina tole Sind .1, Ginde
     This attractive booklet contains E. G.
    White comments addressing the topics
    of the day, week, and quarter in the
    Adult Bible Study Guides.
     Don't miss out! Start getting more
    from your daily Bible study with E. G.
    White Notes today.
    Available at your Adventist Book Center.
    Call 1-800-765-6955 to order.
    Pacific Press' Publishing Association. Visit us at www.pacificpress.com
    © 2004 Prices subject to change.




Scripture references other than from the King James Version quoted by permission in this Bible Study Guide for Second Quarter 2004 are as follows:

NRSV. From the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
RSV. From the Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
TLB. From the Living Bible, Paraphrased, copyright C) 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Ill. Used by permission.

  Editorial Office        12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904

  Principal Contributor                     Editorial Assistant
  Roy Gane                                  Larie S. Gray
  Editor                                    Pacific Press® Coordinator
  Clifford R. Goldstein                     Paul A. Hey
  Associate Editor                          Art Director and Illustrator
  Lyndelle Brower Chiomenti                 Lars Justinen
  Publication Manager                       Concept Design
  Soraya Homayouni Parish                   Dever Design

  The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide is prepared by the Office of the Adult
  Bible Study Guide of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The
  preparation of the guides is under the general direction of the Sabbath School
  Publications Board, a subcommittee of the General Conference Administrative
  Commitee (ADCOM), publisher of the Bible Study Guides. The published guide
  reflects the input of worldwide evaluation committeess and the approval of the
  Sabbath School Publications Board and thus does not solely or necessarily repre-
  sent the intent of the author(s).

                                                                           3

    http://Adventist.TV
       broadcast and program information

         Missi                             )

                                               N
         The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 26
        supports projects in the West Africa Division.

   crisis of Identity
      cfZiW'Z'Oli%
     V01)1 l c"       w
  SABBATH AFTERNOON

          ost in the land of forgetfulness. If you drive in Ireland along a

   L      narrow country lane lined with hedgerows, you may find the
          way blocked by a herd of cows, ambling home after a crunchy
  meal. Even if no herdsman is with them, they will go to their owner's
  barn. They will know where, and to whom, they belong.
     If a small boy in a store gets separated from his mother and yells,
  "I've lost my mommy!" he may not know exactly where he is, or
  where his mother is, but amid a sea of mothers walking through the
  store, he will know the one mother who, alone, is his.
     Sadly, unlike those Irish cows (much less the little lost boy), the
  Judeans forgot that they belonged to the Lord, their heavenly Parent,
  and thus lost their true identity as the covenant people. "I reared chil-
  dren and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox
  knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not
  know, my people do not understand" (Isa. 1:2, 3, NRSV).
     This week we'll take a look at God's work to restore His people to
  Himself.

Hear, 0 Heavens!                  (Isa. 1:1-9).

  The book of Isaiah briefly introduces itself by identifying the
author ("son of Amoz"), the source of his message (a "vision"), and
his topic (Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, during the reign of four
kings). The topic also identifies Isaiah's primary audience as the peo-
ple of his own country during the time in which he lived. The prophet
spoke to them concerning their own condition and destiny.
  By mentioning the kings whose reigns span the period of his
prophetic activity, Isaiah narrows down the audience and ties the book
to the historical, political events of a certain period. This time frame
directs us to the accounts of 2 Kings 15-20 and 2 Chronicles 26-32.

  Notice how Isaiah's message begins with the words "Hear, 0 heav-
ens, and listen, 0 earth" (NRSV; compare Deut. 30:19, 31:28). The
Lord isn't implying that heaven and earth, themselves, can hear and
understand. Instead, He uses this imagery for emphasis.
  When an ancient Near Eastern king, such as a Hittite emperor,
made a political treaty with a lesser ruler, he invoked his gods as wit-
nesses to emphasize that any violation of the agreement would surely
be noticed and punished. However, when the divine King of kings
made a covenant with the Israelites in the days of Moses, He did not
refer to other gods as witnesses. As the only true God, He called,
instead, for the heavens and earth to fulfill this role (see also Deut.
4:26).

  Read carefully Isaiah 1:1-9. Summarize on the lines below what
  the sins of Judah were. Take special note, also, of the results of
  those sins. What was Judah guilty of, and what happened
  because of her guilt? At the same time, what hope is presented
  in verse 9?




                                                                       7

 Rotten Ritualism                 (Isa. 1:10-17).

   The same hands that offered sacrifices and were lifted up in prayer
 were "full of blood"; that is, guilty of violence and oppression of oth-
 ers (Isa. 1:15; 58:3, 4). By mistreating other members of the covenant
 community, the people were showing contempt for the Protector of all
 Israelites. Sins against other people were sins against the Lord.
   Of course, God Himself had instituted the ritual worship system
 (Leviticus 1-16) and designated the Jerusalem temple as the appro-
 priate place for it (1 Kings 8:10, 11). But the rituals were intended to
 function within the context of the covenant God had made with His
 people. It was God's covenant with Israel that made it possible for
 Him to dwell among them at the sanctuary/temple. So, rituals and
 prayers performed there were valid only if they expressed faithfulness
 to Him and His covenant. People who offered sacrifices without
 repenting from unjust actions toward other members of the covenant
 community were performing ritual lies. Thus, their sacrifices were not
 only invalid—they were sins! Their ritual actions said they were loyal,
 but their behavior proved that they had broken the covenant.

  Read Isaiah 1:16, 17. What is the Lord commanding that His
  people do? How do these texts, in this context, parallel what
  Jesus said in Matthew 23:23-28? What message can we find for
  ourselves, today, in these texts and in the context in which they
  are given?

  The Argument of Forgiveness (Isa. 1:18). Read Isaiah 1:18 (in various translations, if possible). After going
  over it numerous times, write what you believe the Lord is saying
  here (read a few verses beyond it to get the whole context).




    God has stated powerful evidence that the Judeans, the accused,
  are guilty of breach of contract (vss. 2-15), and He has appealed to
  them to reform (vss. 16, 17). This appeal suggests there is hope. After
  all, why urge a criminal deserving execution to change his ways?
  How could a prisoner on death row "rescue the oppressed, defend the
  orphan, plead for the widow" (NRSV)? But when God says "Come
  now, let us argue it out" (vs. 18, NRSV), we can see the Lord still
  seeking to reason with His people, still seeking to get them to repent
  and turn from their evil ways, no matter how degenerate they had
  become.
     The Lord says to them that your red sins shall become white. Why
  are sins red? Because red is the color of the "blood" (bloodguilt) that
  covers the hands of the people (vs. 15). White obviously is the color
  of purity, the absence of bloodguilt. Here, God is offering to change
  them. This is the kind of language King David used when he cried out
  to God for forgiveness for his sin of taking Bathsheba and destroying
  her husband (read Ps. 51:7, 14). In Isaiah 1:18, God's argument is an
  offer to forgive His people!

    Now we see the purpose of God's sharp words of warning against
  His people. They are not to reject His people but to bring them back
  to Him. His offer of forgiveness is the mighty argument supporting
  His appeal for the people to morally purify themselves (vss. 16,
  17). His forgiveness makes it possible for them to be transformed
  by His power. Here we see the seeds of the "new covenant," proph-
  esied in Jeremiah 31:31-34, in which forgiveness is the basis of a
  new-heart relationship with God. We start off "in the red," owing a
  debt we can never repay. From the humble position of acknowledg-
  ing our need for forgiveness, we are ready to accept everything God
  has to give.


                                                                        9

 To Eat or Be Eaten                   (Isa. 1:19-31).

   Notice the logical structure in Isaiah 1:19, 20: If the people choose
 to be willing and obedient to God, they will eat the good of the land
 (vs. 19). By contrast, if they refuse His offer of forgiveness and
 restoration and rebel against Him, they will be eaten by the sword (vs.
 20). The choice is theirs. These verses, then, contain a conditional
 blessing and curse.
    Isaiah 1 reiterates and applies the words of Moses recorded in
 Deuteronomy 30:19 at the time when the covenant with the nation of
 Israel was set up: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you
 today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses"
 (NRSV).

     These words of Moses summarize the series of warnings, blessings,
 and curses that concludes the formation of the covenant in
 Deuteronomy 27-30 (compare Leviticus 26). Elements of this covenant
 include (1) the recounting of what God had done for His people,
 (2) conditions/stipulations (commandments) to be observed in order for
 the covenant to be maintained, (3) reference to witnesses, and (4) bless-
 ings and curses to warn the people what would happen if they violated
 the covenant conditions.
   It has been shown that these elements appear in the same order in
 political treaties involving non-Israelite peoples, such as the
 Hittites. So, for establishing His covenant with the Israelites, God
 used a form they would understand and that would impress upon
 them as forcibly as possible the nature and consequences of the
 mutually binding relationship into which they were choosing to
 enter. The potential benefits of the covenant were staggering, but if
 Israel broke their agreement, they would be worse off than ever.

  How, in your own Christian walk, have you experienced the
  principle of blessings and curses as seen above?

 Ominous Love Song                     (Isa. 5:1-7).

    God explains the meaning of the parable only at the end, in verse 7.
 By using a parable, He helps the people to look at themselves objec-
 tively in order to admit their true condition. God effectively uses this
 approach with King David (compare 2 Sam. 12:1-13). By calling this
 a "love song:' God reveals at the outset His motive toward His people.
 His relationship with them originates from His character, which is love
 (1 John 4:8). He expects a response of love in return. But instead of
 "grapes," He gets "wild grapes," which means, in the Hebrew, "stink-
 ing things."

   God says in the next verses: "And now I will tell you what I will do
 to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I
 will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it
 a waste" (Isa. 5:5, 6, NRSV).
   When we sin, God immediately does not cut us off from Himself by
 removing His protection and destroying us. He patiently gives us an
 opportunity to receive forgiveness (compare 2 Pet. 3:9). He does not
 cut off anyone who responds to Him. He appeals as long as there is
 hope for a response. He immediately does not take No for an answer,
 because He knows we are ignorant and deceived by sin. But if He gets
 nowhere with us, He ultimately acknowledges our choice and lets us
 remain the way we have chosen to be (compare Rev. 22:11).
    If persistently we reject God's appeals through His Spirit, we can
 eventually pass the point of no return (Matt. 12:31, 32). Turning away
 from Christ is dangerous (Heb. 6:4-6). There is only so much God
 may do, because He respects our free choice.

  Take the concept found in Isaiah 5:4, "What more could have
  been done to my vineyard ...?" and look at that in light of the
  Cross, where God offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins,
  paying with His flesh for our violation of His law. What more
  could have been done for us than what was done there? How
  does dwelling on the Cross give us assurance of salvation and
  motivate us to repent and change our ways?


                                                                       11

  O How did Jesus adapt, expand, and apply the love song of the
  vineyard? Matt. 21:33-45, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-19. What les-
  sons are in there for us as Seventh-day Adventists?

  • What is the relationship between the forgiveness God offers
  and the transformation He accomplishes in our lives? Which
  comes first, transformation and then forgiveness—or forgiveness
  and then transformation? And why is it important to know which
  comes first?

  O In the Ellen White quote above, she says people placed them-
  selves in opposition to "the providences of God." What does that
  mean?

                           RAVEL ONATOANDRO    (left) is a church elder in
                           Madagascar.

  Crisis of
  Leadership



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

              hen asked by one of his disciples about the ingredients of good

  W           government, Confucius answered: " 'Sufficient food, suffi-
              cient weapons, and the confidence of the common people.'
     " 'But,' asked the disciple, 'suppose you had no choice but to dis-
  pense with one of those three, which would you forego?'
     " 'Weapons,' said Confucius.
     "His disciple persisted: 'Suppose you were then forced to dispense
  with one of the two that are left, which would you forego?'
     "Replied Confucius, 'Food. For from of old, hunger has been the lot
  of all men, but a people that no longer trusts its rulers is lost indeed.' "
  —Edited by Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Reading
  (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1989), p. 215.
     People do, indeed, want strong, trustworthy leadership. When a
  soldier signed up for a second term of duty, he was asked why. "I
  tried civilian life," he said, "but nobody is in charge out there." This
  week we will look at Judah's crisis of leadership and the sad results
  that followed.

 The King Is Dead. Long Live the King! Isaiah 6:1 talks about the death of King Uzziah. Read 2 Chronicles
 26 and then answer this question: What is the significance of King
 Uzziah's death?


    Different perspectives can be given regarding the death of this king.
    1.Although Uzziah's reign was long and prosperous, "when he had
 become strong he grew proud, to his destruction" and attempted to
 offer incense in the temple (2 Chron. 26:16, NRSV). When the priests
 rightly stopped him because he was not authorized as a priestly
 descendant of Aaron (vs. 18), the king became angry. At this moment,
 when the king refused reproof, the Lord immediately struck him with
 leprosy, which he had "to the day of his death, and being leprous lived
 in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord"
 (vs. 21, NRSV). How ironic that Isaiah saw a vision of the pure,
 immortal, divine King in His house/temple in the very year the
 impure human king died.
    2. There is a striking contrast between Uzziah and Isaiah. Uzziah
 reached for holiness presumptuously, for the wrong reason (pride),
 and, instead, became ritually impure so that he was cut off from holi-
 ness. Isaiah, on the other hand, allowed God's holiness to reach him.
 He humbly admitted his weakness and yearned for moral purity,
 which he received (Isa. 6:5-7, NRSV). Like the tax collector in Jesus'
 parable, he went away justified: " Tor all who exalt themselves will
 be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted' " (Luke
 18:14, NRSV).
    3. There is a striking similarity between Uzziah's leprous body and
 the moral condition of his people: " . . . there is no soundness in it,
 but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds" (Isa. 1:6, NRSV).
    4. The death of Uzziah in about 740 B.C. marks a major crisis in the
  leadership of God's people. The death of any absolute ruler makes the
  country vulnerable during a transition of power. But Judah was in spe-
  cial danger, because Tiglath-pileser III had ascended the throne of
  Assyria a few years before, in 745 B.c., and immediately went on a
  warpath that made his nation an invincible superpower and threatened
  the independent existence of all nations in the Near East. In this time
  of crisis, God encouraged Isaiah by showing the prophet He was still
  in control.

   Read carefully 2 Chronicles 26:16. In what ways does each one
   of us face that potential for the same thing? How can reflecting
   upon the Cross protect us from that pitfall?



                                                                      15

 "Holy, Holy, Holy" (Isa. 6:1-4).
    Notice what was happening here in the first four verses of Isaiah 6.
 The king dies during great political turmoil (the Assyrians are on the
 warpath); it could have been, for Isaiah, a fearful time when he was
 not sure who was in control.
    And then—what happens? While taken in vision, Isaiah gazes upon
 the blazing glory of God upon His throne, hears the antiphony of
 shining seraphim ("burning ones") calling out the words "holy, holy,
 holy," feels the resultant seismic shaking of the floor beneath him, and
 peers through swirling smoke as it fills the temple. It must have been
 a stunning experience for the prophet. Surely Isaiah now knows who
 is in control, despite outward events.

    In Ezekiel 1; Daniel 7:9, 10; Revelation 4-5; the prophets Ezekiel,
 Daniel, and John are in exile when they receive their visions. Like
 Isaiah, they need special comfort and encouragement that God is still
 in charge, as their world is falling apart (Daniel and Ezekiel are cap-
 tives in a pagan nation that had destroyed their own, and John is exiled
 to a lonely island by a hostile political power). No doubt, these visions
 helped give them what they needed in order to stay faithful, even dur-
 ing a crisis situation.
    John's description of God's temple in heaven is especially close to
 what Isaiah saw. See Revelation 4:8, where four living creatures, each
 of which has six wings, also sing "Holy, holy, holy" (compare Isa.
 6:2, 3).
    The transcendent holiness of God, emphasized in Isaiah's vision, is
 a basic aspect of his message. God is a holy God, and He demands
 holiness from His people, a holiness He will give to them if only they
 would repent, turn from their evil ways, and submit to Him in faith
 and in obedience.

   All of us have been in discouraging situations, where from out-
  ward appearances all seemed lost. Even if you didn't get a
  vision of the "glory of the Lord," as did Isaiah, recount the ways
  in which the Lord was able to sustain you and your faith dur-
  ing this crisis. What have you learned from these experiences
  that you could share with others?

 New Personality                (Isa. 6:5-7).

   At the sanctuary/temple, only the high priest could approach the
 presence of God in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and
 with a protective smokescreen of incense, or he would die (Lev. 16:2,
 12, 13). Isaiah saw the Lord, even though he was not the high priest,
 and, unlike Uzziah, he was not burning incense! The temple filled
 with smoke (Isa. 6:4), reminding us of the cloud in which God's glory
 appeared on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:2). Awestruck and think-
 ing he was finished (compare Exod. 33:20; Judg. 6:22, 23), Isaiah
 cried out with an acknowledgment of his sin and the sin of his people
 (Isa. 6:5), reminiscent of the high priest's confession on the Day of
 Atonement (Lev. 16:21). Having experienced the worship of God
 from the lips of heavenly beings, Isaiah realized the inadequacy of
 worship offered by the lips of mortal, faulty human beings.

    The seraph explained that through touching the prophet's lips his
 guilt and sin were removed (vs. 7). The sin is not specified, but it need
 not be limited to wrong speech, because lips signify not only speech
 but also the entire person who utters it. Having received moral purifi-
 cation, Isaiah was now able to offer pure praise to God.
    Fire is an agent of purification, because it burns away impurity
 (compare Num. 31:23). But the seraph used a coal from the special,
 holy fire of the altar, which God Himself had lighted and which was
 kept perpetually burning there (Lev. 6:12). So, the seraph made Isaiah
 holy, as well as pure. There is more. In worship at the sanctuary, or
 temple, the main reason for taking a coal from the altar was to light
 incense. Compare Leviticus 16:12, 13, where the high priest is to take
 a censer full of coals from the altar and use it to light incense. But in
 Isaiah 6, the seraph applies the coal to Isaiah, rather than to incense.
 Whereas Uzziah wanted to offer incense, Isaiah became like incense!
 Just as holy fire lights incense to fill God's house with holy fragrance,
 it lights up the prophet to spread a holy message. It is no accident that
 in the next verses of Isaiah 6 (vss. 8 and following), God sends Isaiah
 out to His people.

   Read prayerfully Isaiah's response (vs. 5) to his vision of God.
   How do we see in it an expression of the basic problem of a
   sinful people existing in a universe created by a " 'Holy, holy,
   holy' " (vs. 3, NRSV) God? Why was Christ on the cross the
   only possible answer to this problem? What happened at the
   Cross that solved this problem?

                                                                       17

  Royal Commission                    (Isa. 6:8).

    Having been purified, Isaiah immediately responded to God's call
 for a representative whom He could send out on His behalf. In New
 Testament terms, Isaiah would have been called an apostle; that is, one
 who is sent.
    Interestingly enough, the book of Isaiah does not begin, as do some
 other prophetic books, with the prophet describing his prophetic call
 (compare Jer 1:4-10, Ezekiel 1-3). In other words, he must have
 already been called to be a prophet, even before the events of chapter
 6. The Bible does show that a divine encounter can encourage a
 prophet even after the ministry began (Moses: Exodus 34; Elijah:
 1 Kings 19). In contrast to other examples, too, God tells people they
 are to be prophets; in Isaiah 6, the prophet volunteers for a special
 mission. It appears that chapters 1-5 of Isaiah represent conditions at
 the time when Isaiah was first called, after which God jump-started
 his ministry by encouraging him at the temple and reconfirming his
 commission as God's prophetic spokesman.

   Not only does God's sanctuary throb with awesome power; it is a
 place where weak and faulty people such as ourselves can find refuge.
 We can be reassured by knowing that God is working to rescue us
 through Christ, our High Priest.
   John also saw Christ represented as a sacrificial lamb that had just
 been slaughtered, its throat slit (Rev. 5:6). This was not a pretty sight.
 The description makes the point that although Christ was raised from
 the dead and has ascended to heaven, He continually carries the Cross
 event with Him. He is still lifted up in order to draw all people to
 Himself at His altar.

  How have you found encouragement by entering God's heavenly
  temple, by faith, in prayer? Hebrews 4:16 invites you to boldly
  approach God's throne to "receive mercy and find grace to help
  in time of need" (NRSV). If someone were to ask you how you
  have found grace and mercy in your time of need, what would
  your response be?

 Appalling Appeal                  (Isa. 6:9-13).

   God does not want any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9), which explains why
 He sent Isaiah to the people of Judah—and Jesus to the world. God's
 desire is not to destroy but to save eternally. But while some people
 respond positively to His appeals, others become firmer in their
 resistance. Nevertheless, God keeps on appealing to them in order to
 give them more and more opportunities to repent. Yet, the more they
 resist, the harder they become. So in that sense, what God does to
 them results in the hardening of their hearts, even though He would
 rather that these actions soften them. God's love toward us is unchang-
 ing; our individual response to His love is the crucial variable.
   The role of a minister, such as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or
 even Christ, is to keep on appealing, even if people reject the mes-
 sage. God said to Ezekiel: "Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for
 they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a
 prophet among them" (Ezek. 2:5, NRSV). God's role and that of His
 servants is to give people a fair choice, so that they will have adequate
 warning (compare Ezek. 3:16-21), even if they end up choosing
 destruction and exile (Isa. 6:11-13).

    In Exodus 4:21, God says, " 'but I will harden his heart' " (NRSV).
  This is the first of nine times in which God said He would harden
  Pharaoh's heart. But there were also nine times when Pharaoh hard-
  ened his own heart (for example, see Exod. 8:15, 32; 9:34).
    Clearly Pharaoh possessed some kind of free will, or he would not
  have been able to harden his own heart. But the fact that God also hard-
  ened Pharaoh's heart indicates that God initiated the circumstances to
  which Pharaoh reacted when he made his choices, choices to reject the
  signs God had given him. Had Pharaoh been open to those signs, his
  heart would have been softened, not hardened, by them.

   Have you, in your own experience with the Lord, ever felt a
   hardening of your heart to the Holy Spirit? Think through what
   caused it. If you didn't find that concept frightening then (after
   all, that's part of what having a hard heart is all about), how do
   you view it now? What is the way of escape? See 1 Cor 10:13.


                                                                       19

   • If God is in charge, why do innocent people suffer? Does
   Isaiah 1:19, 20 mean that in the present life only good things are
   supposed to happen to God's faithful people and only bad things
   happen to those who rebel? Compare Job 1, 2; Psalm 37; Psalm
   73. Can we reconcile our understanding of God's character with
   the bad that happens to people? Do we need to?

   • In Isaiah 6, why are there so many connections to the Day of
   Atonement? Consider the fact that on this yearly judgment day,
   God purified His people by cleansing sin from loyal ones (Lev.
   16:30) and purging out the disloyal (Lev. 23:29, 30).

  When Your World Is
  Falling Apart



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

          ne Sabbath, Connie and Roy drove into their driveway after

  O       church. A bantam hen flew frantically across the yard in front
          of them. Something was wrong. The pet birds were supposed
  to be safely in their pen but had gotten out. Quick investigation
  showed a tragedy in progress. Beethoven, the neighbor's small dog,
  also had escaped her yard and was down by the pond with Daisy in her
  mouth. Daisy was a beautiful laying hen with fluffy white tail feath-
  ers. Connie rescued Daisy, but it was too late. Her precious pet, now
  with a mangled neck, soon died in Connie's arms. She sat down in the
  yard, holding the dead bird, and wailed.
     Another pet was deeply disturbed. A tall, white duck by the name of
  Waddlesworth saw Connie holding Daisy and seemed to have
  assumed she had killed her. So, for the next few weeks, whenever
  Waddlesworth saw Connie, he would viciously attack her, pinching
  her painfully with his strong bill. Sometimes it is hard to sort out who
  your friends and enemies are.
     This week we'll look at a king of Judah who also had this problem
  as we seek to understand why he made the wrong choices he did.

  Danger From the North                        Usu. 7:1-9).

     The kingdoms of northern Israel (Ephraim) and Syria (Aram)
  ganged up on the smaller country of Judah, to the south. This hap-
  pened when Judah was weakened by attacks from the Edomites and
  Philistines. In the past, Judah had fought with Israel, but an alliance
  between Israel and Syria was an overwhelming peril. It appears Israel
  and Syria wanted to force Judah to participate with them in a coali-
  tion against the mighty power of Tiglath-pileser III, of Assyria (called
  "Pul" in 2 Kings 15:19), who continued to threaten them with his
  expanding empire. Israel and Syria had put aside their longstanding
  struggle against each other in view of a greater danger. If they could
  conquer Judah and install a puppet ruler there (Isa. 7:5, 6), they could
  use its resources and manpower.

     Rather than recognize that God was the only Friend who could res-
  cue him and his country, Ahaz tried to make a friend out of Tiglath-
  pileser III, the enemy of his enemies. The Assyrian king happily com-
  plied with his request for aid against Syria and Israel. Not only did
  Tiglath-pileser receive a rich bribe from Ahaz, he also gained a good
  excuse to take Syria, which he promptly did (2 Kings 16:9). The
  power of the Syrian-Israelite alliance was broken. In the short run, it
  appeared that Ahaz had saved Judah.
     This action on Ahaz's part, however, should not come as a surprise.
  He had been one of the worst kings Judah had up to that point. (See
  2 Kings 16:3, 4; 2 Chron. 28:2-4.)

   When we read about what Ahaz was like, it is understandable
   why he reacted to danger as he did. What lesson is here for us
   on a personal level? If we're not obeying the Lord now, what
   makes us think we'll have the faith to trust Him when real tri-
   als come? (See James 2:22, Jer. 12:5.)

                                                                        23

  Attempted Interception                     (Isa. 7:3-9).

   While Ahaz was weighing his political options to meet the threat
 from Israel and Syria, God knew some things he did not. For one
 thing, it was God who had allowed trouble to come upon him in order
 to discipline him and bring him to his senses (2 Chron. 28:5, 19).
 Moreover, although appealing to Tiglath-pileser for help seemed log-
 ical and attractive from a human standpoint, God knew it would bring
 the Davidic kingdom of Judah under foreign control from which she
 could never recover.
   The stakes were staggeringly high. So the Lord sent Isaiah to inter-
 cept the king (apparently as he was inspecting Jerusalem's water sup-
 ply in preparation for a siege) in order to dissuade him from contact-
 ing the Assyrian leader.

    Ahaz would be startled when Isaiah greeted him and introduced his
 son, named "A Remnant Shall Return." Remnant of whom? Shall
 return from what? Because the boy's father was a prophet, the name
 sounded like an ominous message from God about people going into
 captivity. Or was it about returning to God in the sense of repenting
 (the verb "return" also carries the meaning of repentance)? The mes-
 sage from God to Ahaz was: It means what you make it mean! Turn
 from your sins or go into captivity, and from captivity a remnant will
 return. The decision is yours!

    The threat from Syria and Israel would pass and Judah would be
 spared. Powers that looked to Ahaz like huge, fiery volcanoes were in
 God's sight only "two smoldering stumps of firebrands" (vs. 4,
 NRSV). There was no need for Ahaz to appeal to Assyria for help.
    But in order to make the right decision, Ahaz needed to trust the
 Lord and His promises. He needed to believe in order to be estab-
 lished (vs. 9). The words for "believe" and "be established" are from
 the same Hebrew root, from which come also the word for "truth"
 (that which is reliable) and the word "Amen" (affirming that which is
 true/reliable). Ahaz needed to be sure in order to be made sure; he
 needed to rely in order to be reliable.

  Look at that last section of Isaiah 7:9. Why are faith and belief
  so important in order to be "established"? Established in what?

 Another Chance                  (Isa. 7:10-13).

   Ahaz did not respond to Isaiah's call for faith. So, God mercifully
 gave the king another chance, telling him to ask for a sign that was
 "deep as Sheol or high as heaven" (vs. 11, NRSV). Here is one of the
 greatest invitations to faith ever given to a human being. Unlike lot-
 teries or sweepstakes, this invitation did not carry restrictions in fine
 print. God did not even limit His offer to the half of His kingdom as
 human rulers did when their subjects reached the upper limit of their
 generosity (compare Esther 5:6, 7:2, Mark 6:23). He stood ready to
 empty all heaven and earth for a wicked king if only he would believe!
 Ahaz could have asked for a mountain of gold, as a sign, or soldiers
 as numerous as grains of sand by the Mediterranean.

   At first glance, Ahaz's answer seems pious and respectful. He
 would not put God to the test, as the Israelites had centuries before,
 during their wilderness wanderings (Exod. 17:2, Deut. 6:16). But the
 difference was that God invited the king to put Him to the test (com-
 pare Mal. 3:10). To take Him up on His overwhelmingly generous gift
 would please Him, not test His patience. But Ahaz was not even will-
 ing to allow God to help him to believe. He barred and bolted the door
 of his heart to shut out faith.

     Isaiah pointed out that by refusing to put God to the test, outwardly
  to avoid wearying God, he, in fact, wearied God. But the most trou-
  bling aspect of this verse is the fact that here Isaiah refers to "my
  God," by clear contrast to verse 11, where earlier the prophet asked
  the king to ask a sign of the Lord "your God." When Ahaz refused the
  divine offer, he rejected the Lord from being his God. The Lord was
  the God of Isaiah, but not of Ahaz.

   What does this day's study teach us about God's forbearance
   and willingness to bring all of us to salvation? What also does it
   tell us about the blindness and hardness of the human heart
   when not surrendered completely to the Lord? In the end, even
   if God had given Ahaz any sign that he had wanted, do you
   think Ahaz still would have believed? Explain your answer.




                                                                        25

 Sign of a Son             (Isa. 7:14).

   An offer of a sign as "deep as Sheol or high as heaven" (vs. 11,
 NRSV) did not move Ahaz. So, when God says He Himself will come
 up with a sign (vs. 14), we expect it to have breathtaking dimensions
 that only the divine imagination could devise (compare Isa. 55:9,
 1 Cor 2:9).
    Surprise! The sign is a son. But how could a young woman bearing
 a child and calling him "Immanuel" be a sign of biblical proportions?

   Nowhere does the Old Testament point out a fulfillment of this
 important sign, as it had done for the signs given to other people, such
 as Gideon (Judg. 6:36-40). So, here are some of the possible fulfill-
 ments, based on the Old Testament alone:
   1. Because the word for "young woman" refers to a young woman
 of marriageable age, many assume she is a married woman living in
 Jerusalem, perhaps the wife of Isaiah. Isaiah 8:3 does record the birth
 of a son to Isaiah by "the prophetess" (referring to his wife, whose
 prophetic messages consisted, at least, of her children; compare Isa.
 7:3, 8:18). However, her son was named Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isa.
 8:1-4), not Immanuel. Nevertheless, the signs of the two boys are
 similar in that before they reach the stage at which they can choose
 good or evil, Syria and northern Israel would be devastated (Isa.
 7:16, 8: 4).
   2. Some suggest that Immanuel is Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, the next
 king. But nowhere is the name Immanuel applied to him.
   3. Because Immanuel is somewhat mysterious and his name, com-
 monly translated "God with us" refers to God's presence, He could be
 the same as the special Son prophesied in Isaiah 9 and 11. If so, His
 exalted description as divine (Isa. 9:6) and "the root of Jesse" (11:10,
 NRSV) surpasses anything ascribed to good King Hezekiah.
   4. A natural birth for an unmarried woman of marriageable age
 would result in an illegitimate child through promiscuity (see Deut.
 22:20, 21). Why would such a child be a sign to inspire faith?
   In contrast, the New Testament identifies Jesus as Immanuel (Matt.
 1:21-23), born miraculously and with purity to an unmarried but
 betrothed virgin. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his
 Son, born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4, NRSV), to give us the presence of
 God with us.

  Dwell on the reality of Christ's coming into humanity. What
  kind of comfort can that reality give us amid what seems like a
  cold, fearsome, and uncaring world? 26

 "God Is with Us"!                 (Isa. 7:14).

   Like the name of Isaiah's children (Shear-jashub, "a remnant shall
 return," and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means "swift is booty,
 speedy is prey"), the name of Immanuel has a meaning. It is literally
 "with us God." But the commonly accepted translation "God with us"
 misses something important. As with other Hebrew names of this
 kind that lack verbs, the verb "to be" must be supplied, because it is
 not expressed in Hebrew. So, Immanuel must be translated "God is
 with us" (compare the same words in Isa. 8:10) just as the name
 "Jesus" (Greek, and short for Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua) means
 "The Lord is salvation," with the verb again being supplied (compare
 Isaiah, which means, "salvation of the Lord").
   But the name "Immanuel" is not just an abstract description; it is an
 assertion of a promise that is fulfilled now: "God is with us"!

   There is no stronger assurance and comfort. "God does not prom-
 ise that His people will not endure hardship and pain, but He prom-
 ises to be with them. The psalmist says: 'Even though I walk through
 the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and
 your staff—they comfort me' (Ps. 23:4).
   "God says: 'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
 and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk
 through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume
 you' (Isa. 43:2). Where was the Lord when the Babylonians threw
 Daniel's three friends into the fire? With them (Dan. 3:23-25). And
 where was the Lord during the time of Jacob's trouble when he wres-
 tled until daybreak? In Jacob's arms, as close as he could get (Gen.
 32:24-30).
    "Even when the Lord does not appear in physical form on earth, He
 goes through the experiences of His people with them. Where was the
 Lord when the mob condemned Stephen? 'Standing at the right hand
 of God' (Acts 7:55). But when Jesus ascended to heaven, He 'sat
 down at the right hand of the Majesty on high' (Heb. 1:3). Why did
  He stand when Stephen was in trouble, about to be stoned to death?
  As Morris Venden has said, 'Jesus wasn't going to take that sitting
  down!' "—Roy Gane, God's Faulty Heroes (Hagerstown, Md.:
  Review and Heralds' Pub. Assn., 1996), p. 66.

   Even though we have the promise that "God is with us," what
   difference does that make if we still face terrible trials and suf-
   fering? What good does the knowledge of His presence, then, do
   for us? Explain your answer.

                                                                     27

   0 It is good to have human assistance, but how do you recognize
   its limits?

   0 Russian author Leo Tolstoy once wrote to a friend that "Once
   a man has realized that death is the end of everything, then there
   is nothing worse than life either." How does our knowledge that
   "God is with us" answer such a statement?

  The Hard                 Way



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

          t a burning building in New York City's Harlem, a blind girl

  A       was perched on the fourth-floor window. The firemen had
          become desperate. They couldn't fit the ladder truck between
  the buildings, and they couldn't get her to jump into a net, which she,
  of course, couldn't see.
     "Finally her father arrived and shouted through the bull horn that
  there was a net and that she was to jump on his command. The girl
  jumped and was so completely relaxed that she did not break a bone
  or even strain a muscle in the four-story fall. Because she trusted her
  father completely, when she heard her father's voice she did what he
  said was best."—Edited by Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for
  Biblical Preaching, p. 135.
     In the same way, God provided powerful evidence that He wanted
  the best for His children, but they rejected the gently flowing way He
  first presented His concern to them; thus, He had to speak to them
  with a roar and a flood instead.
     What lessons can we, today, learn from their mistakes?

 Prophecy Fulfilled                   (Isa. 7:14-16).

   In Isaiah 7:14-16, Immanuel is a sign linked to the dilemma of
 Ahaz: Before the child Immanuel would be old enough to decide
 between different kinds of food, "the land before whose two kings you
 are in dread will be deserted" (vs. 16, NRSV). This refers to the land
 and kings of Syria and northern Israel (compare vss. 1, 2, 4-9) and
 reiterates God's promise that their power would soon be extinguished.

   The crops and fields of Judah would be destroyed by the Assyrians
 (vss. 23-25). So the people, including the Old Testament Immanuel,
 whoever he was (vss. 14, 15), would be forced to return to the diet of
 nomads (vss. 21, 22). But while they would be poor, they would have
 enough on which to survive.

     This prophecy of Isaiah was given about 734 B.c. In response to the
  bribe of Ahaz, Tiglath-pileser III did what he probably would have done
  anyway: He smashed the northern coalition, conquered the Galilee and
  Transjordanian regions of northern Israel, deported some of the popu-
  lation, and turned the territories into Assyrian provinces (734-733 B.c.).
  The remainder of Israel was saved when Hoshea, after murdering King
  Pekah, surrendered and paid tribute. In 733 and 732 B.C. Tiglath-pileser
  conquered Damascus, the capital of Syria. Then he carved Syria into
  Assyrian provinces. So, by 732, within about two years of Isaiah's pre-
  diction, Syria and Israel had been conclusively defeated, and it was all
  over for the two kings who had threatened Ahaz.
     Then, King Hoshea of Israel committed political suicide by rebelling
  against Assyria. The Assyrians took the capital city of Samaria in 722
  B.C. and deported thousands of Israelites to Mesopotamia and Media,
  where they eventually were absorbed into the local populations and lost
  their identity. God had predicted what would happen to the enemies of
  Judah, but His point to Ahaz was that this would happen anyway, with-
  out any need to rely on Assyria.

   Think, if you were living in the northern kingdom while all this
   was happening, how easy it would be to lose faith. What can we
   do to keep our faith intact, so that when tomorrow's calamities
   come we can stay firm? See 1 Pet. 1:13-25.
                                                                         31

 Foreseen Consequences                       (Isa. 7:17-25).

    For Ahaz, the man of fear rather than faith, the good news from God
 was that Syria and Israel would be wiped out. The bad news was that
 Assyria, the ally and "friend" he had chosen to help him, would turn
 out to be a far more dangerous foe than Syria and Israel had been. By
 turning down deliverance offered freely by God, Ahaz was guaranteed
 defeat. If Ahaz thought his world was falling apart before, things were
 going to get far worse!
    "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in
 princes" (Ps. 118:9, NRSV). How could Ahaz trust that Tiglath-pileser
 III would be satisfied with taking the countries to the north and
 respect Judah? Assyrian writings, such as annals of the Assyrian kings
 themselves, testify to the fact that their desire for power was insa-
 tiable.

  2 Chronicles 28:20-23 powerfully sums up what happened when
 Ahaz asked for help from Assyria rather than relying on the Lord.

  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. What is the text say-
  ing to us? How can we apply what it is saying to our own lives?
  And what difference will it make for us if we do?

 What's in a Name?                    (Isa. 8:1-10).

    Can you imagine playing a ball game with Isaiah's second boy? By
 the time you could say "Maher-shalal-hash-baz, throw me the ball!" it
 would be too late. But even longer than his name is its meaning: "swift
 is booty, speedy is prey" or "speed the spoil, hasten the plunder."

   Isaiah 8:1-10 reinforces the message of chapter 7. Before a child
 could reach a certain stage, spoils of war from the capitals of Syria
 and northern Israel would be taken by Assyria. Furthermore, because
 Judah had refused God's message of assurance, represented by the
 gently flowing waters of the Shiloah stream in Jerusalem, it would be
 overwhelmed by the mighty power of Assyria, represented by flood-
 ing from the great Euphrates River.
    Because Ahaz turned to Assyria, the names of Isaiah's sons referred
 to Judah, as well as to northern Israel: "swift is booty, speedy is prey,"
 but also "a remnant shall return." Why was there still hope? Because
 although Assyria would fill Immanuel's land (Isa. 8:8), they still had
 the promise that "God is with us" (vs. 10). Indeed, what we see here
 is a theme that permeates the entire book of Isaiah, which is that
 though there would be judgments on God's enemies in Judah and on
 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.

    The timing of this son served as a significant sign. As with the sign
  of Immanuel, from the time the son was conceived and born until the
  time Assyria defeated Syria and Israel would be less time than it
  would take for the boy to reach an early developmental stage, in this
  case learning to call for his father or mother (vs. 4). When Isaiah
  legally recorded the boy's name before his conception, he made the
  child and his name a public prophecy that could be tested by subse-
  quent events.

   Despite repeated mistakes on the part of His professed people,
   the Lord still was willing to save them. How can we take this
   principle and apply it to ourselves, personally, especially when
   we fail and fall in our own spiritual life?

                                                                        33

 Nothing to Fear When We Fear God
 Himself (Isa. 8:11-15).
    In his first inaugural address, American President Franklin D.
 Roosevelt told a nation disheartened by the Great Depression: "The
 only thing we have to fear is fear itself."—U.S. Capitol, Washington,
 D.C., (March 4, 1933). Isaiah's message to depressed people is simi-
 lar: "We have nothing to fear when we fear God Himself."
   God warned Isaiah not to fear what his people feared, but to fear
 Him (Isa. 8:12, 13). This is an important theme in Scripture. For
 example, in Revelation 14:6-12, three angels proclaim a worldwide
 message: Fear God and give glory to Him, rather than fearing and giv-
 ing glory to the earthly beast power described in chapter 13.

   True fear of God means that you recognize Him as the ultimate
 Power in the universe. Such fear overcomes any other fear. If He is for
 you, nobody else can touch you without His permission. If He is
 against you because you have rebelled against Him, you can run, but
 you can't hide!

    There are different kinds of fear. If someone with awesome power
 is your friend, with whom you share mutual love, you do not fear that
 person in the sense you think he or she will hurt you. But you have a
 kind of fear in the sense that you know and respect the power of that
 person and the boundaries of your relationship.

  As Christians we aren't to love the things of the world, the
  things that people of the world love (1 John 2:15). Thinking,
  then, along parallel lines, as Christians, are there things the
  world fears that we as Christians shouldn't fear? If so, what are
  they, and why shouldn't we fear them? At the same time, what
  things does the world not fear that we, as Christians, should?
  See, for instance, Matt. 10:28; Jer 10:2, 3.

 Gloom of the Ungrateful Living Dead
 (Isa. 8:16-22).

    Ahaz was deeply involved in pagan religion (2 Kings 16:3, 4, 10-
  15; 2 Chron. 28:2-4, 23-25), which was heavily interconnected with
  the occult (compare Deut. 32:17, NRSV—" 'They sacrificed to
  demons . . "; 1 Cor 10:20). Various aspects of modern witchcraft
  have striking parallels in ancient Near Eastern rituals, as witnessed by
  ancient writings outside the Bible. Indeed, even many of today's New
  Age practices are simply contemporary manifestations of these
  ancient occult practices.
    Isaiah's description of despair resulting from reliance on spirits
  other than the Lord (Isa. 8:21, 22) fits Ahaz well (compare 2 Chron.
  28:22, 23). Isaiah foretells of people becoming enraged and cursing
  their king (Isa. 8:21). This would warn Ahaz that his people would
  curse him for leading them into the occult. In fact, when Ahaz died,
  an exception was made regarding his burial due to lack of respect for
  him: "They did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel"
  (2 Chron. 28:27, NRSV).

    Separation from the occult is a matter of loyalty to God. First
  Chronicles 10:13, 14 applies this principle to the case of King Saul:
  "So Saul died for his unfaithfulness; he was unfaithful to the Lord in
  that he did not keep the command of the Lord; moreover, he had con-
  sulted a medium, seeking guidance, and did not seek guidance from
  the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom
  over to David son of Jesse" (NRSV).

    Look around at your own life, at the influences around you. In
   what subtle ways are you exposed to the principles behind the
   occult and various manifestations of spiritualism? And even if
   you can't totally avoid them, what can you do to minimize their
   influence upon you, or your family?

                                                                       35

     "In the days of the Hebrews there was a class of people who
  claimed, as do the spiritualists of today, to hold communication with
  the dead. But the "familiar spirits," as these visitants from other
  worlds were called, are declared by the Bible to be 'the spirits of dev-
  ils.' (Compare Numbers 25:1-3; Psalm 106:28; 1 Corinthians 10:20;
  Revelation 16:14.) The work of dealing with familiar spirits was pro-
  nounced an abomination to the Lord, and was solemnly forbidden
  under penalty of death. Leviticus 19:31; 20:27. The very name of
  witchcraft is now held in contempt. The claim that men can hold inter-
  course with evil spirits is regarded as a fable of the Dark Ages. But
  spiritualism, which numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands,
  yea, by millions, which has made its way into scientific circles, which
  has invaded churches, and has found favor in legislative bodies, and
  even in the courts of kings—this mammoth deception is but a revival,
  in a new disguise, of the witchcraft condemned and prohibited of
  old."—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 556.

   0 Read Isaiah 8:20. Prayerfully, rephrase it in your own words.
   Let different people in the class read their versions aloud. What
   is the Lord telling us here?

   0 Dwell more on this idea of loving and fearing God at the same
   time. In what ways does our love stem from that fear? Or does
   our fear stem from our love? Discuss.

  Noble Prince
  of Peace




  SABBATH AFTERNOON

           r. Robert Oppenheimer, who supervised the creation of the

  D        first atomic bomb, appeared before a Congressional
           Committee [in the United States]. They inquired of him if
  there were any defense against the weapon. 'Certainly,' the great
  physicist replied.
    " 'And that is—'
    "Dr. Oppenheimer looked over the hushed, expectant audience and
  said softly 'Peace.' "—Compiled by Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of
  7,700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Rockville, Md.: Assurance
  Publishers, 1988), p. 989.
     Peace is an elusive dream for the human race. In 1895 Alfred Nobel,
  the inventor of dynamite, provided for a trust to establish a prize for indi-
  viduals who make an outstanding contribution to peace (Paul Lee Tan,
  p. 988, adapted). In recent years, however, even some winners of the
  Nobel Peace Prize have been involved in violent conflict. This week
  we'll read about the only One who can bring true, and everlasting, peace.

 End of Gloom for Galilee                        (Isa. 9:1-5).

   Isaiah 8:21, 22 describes the hopeless condition of those who turn
 to the occult rather than to the true God: Wherever they look, they
 will "see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they
 will be thrust into thick darkness" (vs. 22, NRSV). By contrast, there
 will come a time when "there will be no gloom for those who were
 in anguish" (Isa. 9:1, NRSV). The people of the Galilee region are
 singled out here as receiving the special blessing of "a great light"
 (vs. 2, NRSV). The nation will be multiplied and rejoice because God
 will have broken "the rod of their oppressor" (vs. 4, NRSV).
    The region of Lake Galilee is depicted here because it was among
 the first territories of Israel to be conquered. In response to Ahaz's
 request for aid, Tiglath-pileser III took the Galilee and Transjordanian
 regions of northern Israel, carried some of the people captive, and
 turned the territories into Assyrian provinces (2 Kings 15:29). So,
 Isaiah's message is that the first to be conquered would be the first to
 see deliverance.

    Not by accident, Jesus' early ministry was in the Galilee region,
  where He gave hope by announcing the good news of God's kingdom
  and by healing people, including delivering demoniacs from bondage
  to the occult (vs. 24).
      Here we see a perfect example of how the Bible takes events that
  happened in Old Testament times and uses them to prefigure things
  that will happen in New Testament times. The Lord mixes images
  from one era with those of another, such as in Matthew 24, where
  Jesus mingles the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, with the end of
  the world.

   If someone were to ask you, What has Jesus delivered you from,
   what would you answer? What personal testimony can you give
   regarding the power of Christ in your life?


                                                                       39

  A Child for Us               (Isa. 9:6, 7).

     Here is the third special birth in the book of Isaiah, following men-
  tion of the births of Immanuel and Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

    Notice that this Deliverer has several names/epithets that describe
  Him in various ways. In the ancient Near East, kings and deities had
  multiple names to show their greatness.
    He is "wonderful," just as the divine Angel of the Lord described
  His own name to Samson's father as " 'wonderful' " (Judg. 13:18,
  RSV,- the same Hebrew root) and then ascended toward heaven in the
  sacrificial flame on Manoah's altar (vs. 20), thereby prefiguring His
  offering of Himself more than 1,000 years later.
    He is referred to as divine ("Mighty God") and the eternal Creator
  ("Everlasting Father"; see Luke 3:38: ". . . Adam, son of God,"
  NRSV).
    He is a King of the dynasty of David; His kingdom of peace will be
  eternal.

     Some have attempted to identify him with King Hezekiah, but the
  description far surpasses any ordinary human being. Only one Person
  fits: Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God and Creator (John 1:1-3, 14;
  Col. 1:5-17; 2:9; Heb. 1:2), who was born to us in order to save us and
  give us peace. He has received all authority in heaven and on earth, and
  He is with us always (Matt. 28:18-20). While retaining His divinity, He
  has also become human for all time, ever able to sympathize with our
  weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). "Unto us a child is born" . . . forever!
     "When Christ came to our world, Satan was on the ground, and dis-
  puted every inch of advance in His path from the manger to Calvary.
  Satan had accused God of requiring self-denial of the angels, when
  He knew nothing of what it meant Himself, and when He would not
  Himself make any self-sacrifice for others. This was the accusation
  that Satan made against God in heaven; and after the evil one was
  expelled from heaven, he continually charged the Lord with exacting
  service which He would not render Himself. Christ came to the world
  to meet these false accusations, and to reveal the Father."—Ellen G.
  White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 406, 407.

   What does this quote tell us about the character of God?

 The Rod of God's Anger                          (Isa. 9:8-10:34).

   This section explains Isaiah 9:1-5, which predicts deliverance for
 the gloomy, anguished people who had trusted in the occult and fallen
 prey to military conquest and oppression: "the rod of their oppressor,
 you have broken as on the day of Midian" (vs. 4, NRSV).

    If God had wanted to destroy His people, He could have given them
 up to the Assyrians right away. But He is patient, "not wanting any to
 perish, but all to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9, NRSV). As in the
 period of the "judges," God let the people of Judah and Israel experi-
 ence some results of their folly, so they could understand what they
 were doing and have a chance to make a better choice. When they per-
 sisted in evil and hardened their hearts against Him and the appeals
 He sent through His messengers, He further withdrew His protection.
 But they continued to rebel. This cycle was repeated in a downward
 spiral until there was nothing more God could do.

    What we see here, as seen all through the Bible, is the reality of free
  will. God made humans free (He had to; otherwise, they could never
  truly love Him), and freedom involves the option to do wrong.
  Though time and again God seeks to woo us by revealing His love and
  character, He will also allow us to face the fruit of our wrong deci-
  sions; i.e., pain, suffering, fear, turmoil, and so forth, all in order to
  help us realize just what turning away from Him leads 10. Yet, even
  then, how often these things don't make people put away sin and come
  to the Lord. Free will is wonderful; we couldn't be human without it.
  Woe to those, however, who use it wrongly.

   How has God used suffering in your own life to turn you away
   from a wrong course?


                                                                         41

 Root and Branch in One                        (Isaiah 11).

   Isaiah 11:1 picks up on the imagery of a felled tree in 10:33, 34.
 The "stump of Jesse" represents the idea that the dynasty of David
 (son of Jesse) would lose its power (Dan. 4:10-17, 20-26). But there
 would arise a "shoot/branch" from the apparently doomed "stump";
 that is, a ruler descended from David.

   The description fits only Jesus Christ, who is both "the root and the
 descendant of David" (Rev. 22:16, NRSV). Christ came from the line
 of David (Luke 3:23-31), who was descended from Adam, who was
 the "son of God" (Luke 3:38), in the sense that Christ created him
 (compare John 1:1-3, 14). So, Christ was David's ancestor, as well as
 his descendant!

    He thinks and acts in harmony with the Lord, judges fairly, punishes
 the wicked, and brings peace. He will bring back, restore, and unite a
 faithful remnant of Israel and Judah (compare Isa. 10:20-22). There
 will be a strong, united monarchy as in the days of King David, who
 defeated the Philistines and others. But the new ruler will be greater
 than David in that He will restore peace even to the essence of cre-
 ation itself: Predators will no longer be carnivorous, and they will
 coexist in tranquility with their former prey (Isa. 11:6-9).
    In Isaiah 11, both comings of Jesus are presented as one picture.
 They are tied together, because they are two parts of a whole, like the
 two sides of a plane. The plan of salvation, to be completed, requires
 both comings: the First, which already happened; and the Second,
 which we await as the consummation of all our hopes as Christians.

  What did Christ accomplish at the First Coming that gives us
  such assurance about the Second Coming? What sense did the
  First Coming have if it doesn't result in the Second?

 "You Comforted Me" (Isa. 12:1-6).
   Isaiah 12 is a short psalm (song) of praise to God for His merciful
 and powerful comfort. The psalm, put in the mouth of a member of
 the restored remnant, compares the promised deliverance to that of
 the Hebrews in the Exodus from Egypt (see Isa. 11:16); it is like the
 song of Moses and the Israelites when they were saved from
 Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea (see Exodus 15).

    Isaiah 12:2 comes close to identifying the coming Deliverer as
  Jesus. It says that "God is my salvation" and "he has become my sal-
  vation" (NRSV). The name Jesus means "The Lord is Salvation"
  (compare Matt. 1:21).

     Not only does the Lord bestow salvation (Isa. 12:2); He Himself is
  salvation. The Presence of the Holy One of Israel in our midst (vs. 6)
  is everything to us. God is with us! Not only did Jesus do miracles;
  He "became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14, NRSV, emphasis
  supplied). Not only did He bear our sins on the cross; He became sin
  for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Not only does He make peace; He is our peace
  (Eph. 2:14).
     No wonder "the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples"
  (Isa. 11:10, NRSV). When He is lifted up on the cross, He draws all
  people to Himself (John 12:32, 33)! A remnant shall return to the
  "mighty God" (Isa. 10:21, NRSV), who is the Child born for us, the
  "Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6)!

   Dwell more on this idea that Jesus is our salvation. Read
   Romans 3:24. It says that redemption is in Jesus; redemption is
   something that happened in Him, and it is through God's grace
   and mercy that we can have an eternal share in that redemp-
   tion, as well. In other words, that redemption that was in Him
   can become ours by faith, and not by works, because no works
   we do are good enough to redeem us. Only the works that
   Christ did, which He credits to us by faith, can bring redemp-
   tion. How does this truth give you hope and assurance of salva-
   tion, especially when you feel overwhelmed by your own sense
   of unworthiness?

                                                                      43

                            EMMANUEL NANYARO (left). WINNIE MJEMA is a pas-
                            tor's wife at Tanzania Adventist College in Tanzania.

  Playing God




  SABBATH AFTERNOON

          fter a minister had preached a searching sermon on pride, a

  A       woman who had heard the sermon waited upon him and told
          him that she was in much distress of mind, and that she would
  like to confess a great sin. The minister asked her what the sin was.
     "She answered, 'The sin of pride, for I sat for an hour before my
  mirror some days ago admiring my beauty.'
     " 'Oh,' responded the minister, 'that was not a sin of pride—that
  was a sin of imagination!' "—C. E. MaCartney, compiled by Paul Lee
  Tan, p. 1100.
     Ever since sin was born in the heart of a mighty angel, pride has not
  respected the boundaries of reality (in angels or people). Nowhere is
  this problem seen worse than in those who harbor spiritual pride, a
  rather sorry trait in beings so corrupted that their salvation can be
  found only in the works of another in their behalf.
     This week, among other things, we'll take a look at the origin of
  pride and self-exaltation, the two truly original sins.

 Doom on the Nations                    (Isaiah 13).

   Isaiah 13:1 contains a new designation that names Isaiah as the
 author (compare 1:1, 2:1); it seems, also, to begin a new section of
 his book. Chapters 13-23 contain oracles of judgment against various
 nations. Let's take a look.

   Isaiah 10:5-34 had already announced judgment against Assyria,
 which posed the greatest danger in Isaiah's day. While Isaiah 14:24-
 27 briefly reiterates the Lord's plan to break Assyria, chapters 13-23
 deal mainly with other threats, Babylon being the most important.
   Endowed with a rich and ancient cultural, religious, and political
 legacy, Babylon later emerged as the superpower that conquered and
 exiled Judah. But from the human perspective of Isaiah's time, it
 would not have been readily apparent that Babylon would threaten
 God's people. During much of Isaiah's ministry, Assyria dominated
 Babylon. From 728 B.C., when Tiglath-pileser III took Babylon and
 was proclaimed king of Babylon under the throne name Pulu (or Pul;
 see 2 Kings 15:19, 1 Chron. 5:26), Assyrian kings retook Babylon
 several times (710 B.c., 702 B.c., 689 B.C., and 648 B.c.). Babylon,
 however, eventually would become the great superpower in the
 region, the power that would destroy the Judean kingdom.

   Read through Isaiah 13. Notice how strong the language is.
   Why does a loving God do these things, or allow these things to
   happen? Certainly some innocent people will suffer, as well,
   wouldn't they (see vs. 16)? How do we understand this action
   by God? What should these texts, and all the texts in the Bible
   that talk about God's anger and wrath against sin and evil, tell
   us about the egregious nature of sin and evil? Isn't the mere
   fact that a God of love would respond this way enough evidence
   to show us just how bad sin is? We have to remember that this
   is Jesus speaking these warnings through Isaiah, the same
   Jesus who forgave, healed, pled, and admonished sinners to
   repent. How, in your own mind, have you come to understand
   this aspect of a loving God's character? Ask yourself this ques-
   tion, as well: Could not this wrath actually stem from His love?
   If so, how so? Or, look at it from another perspective, that of
   the Cross, where Jesus Himself, bearing the sins of the world,
   suffered worse than anyone else ever has suffered, even those
   "innocents" who suffered because of the sins of the nation.
   How does the suffering of Christ on the cross help answer these
   difficult questions?
                                                                    47

 The Late Great City of Babylon (Isa. 13:2-22).
   In 626 B.C. the Chaldean Nabopolassar restored Babylonian glory
 by making himself king in Babylon, beginning the Neo-Babylonian
 dynasty, and participating (with Media) in the defeat of Assyria. His
 son, Nebuchadnezzar II, was the king who conquered and exiled
 Judah.

    In 539 B.C., when Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon for the Medo-
 Persian Empire (see Daniel 5), the city lost its independence forever.
 In 482 B.C. Xerxes I brutally suppressed a revolt of Babylon against
 Persian rule. He removed the statue of Marduk, the chief god, and
 apparently damaged some fortifications and temples.
    Alexander the Great took Babylon from the Persians in 331 B.c.
 without a fight. In spite of his short-lived dream to make Babylon his
 eastern capital, the city declined over several centuries. By 198 A.D.
 the Roman, Septimus Severus, found Babylon completely deserted.
 So, the great city came to an end through abandonment. Today some
 Iraqi villagers live on parts of the ancient site, but they have not rebuilt
 the city as such.
    The doom of Babylon, described in Isaiah 13, liberates the descen-
 dants of Jacob, who have been oppressed by Babylon (Isa. 14:1-3).
 The event that accomplished this was the conquest of Babylon by
 Cyrus in 539 B.c. Although he did not destroy the city, this was the
 beginning of the end for Babylon, and it never threatened God's peo-
 ple again.
    Isaiah 13 dramatizes the fall of Babylon as a divine judgment. The
 warriors who take the city are God's agents (vss. 2-5). The time of
 judgment is called "the day of the Lord" (vss. 6, 9), and God's anger
 is so powerful it affects the stars, sun, moon, heavens, and earth
 (vss. 10, 13).
    Compare Judges 5, where the song of Deborah and Barak describes
 the Lord as going forth with quaking of the earth and rain from the
 heavens (vs. 4). Verses 20, 21 depict the elements of nature, including
 stars, as fighting against the foreign oppressor.

  Imagine someone living in Babylon at the height of its glory
  reading these words of Isaiah 13, particularly verses 19-22. How
  foolish and impossible they would have seemed! What other
  prophecies, yet unfulfilled, seem foolish and impossible to us
  now? Why would we be foolish, however, to dismiss them as
  impossible?

 Fall of the Mountain "King" (Isaiah 14).
   In response to the fall of Babylon (Isaiah 13), which frees God's
 people (Isa. 14:1-3), Isaiah 14:4-23 utters a figurative taunt (see also
 Mic. 2:4, Hab. 2:6) against the king of Babylon. It is poetic, not meant
 to be literal, obviously, as it portrays dead kings greeting their new
 colleague in the realm of death (vss. 9, 10), where maggots and
 worms are his bedding (vs. 11). This is, simply, the Lord's dramatic
 way of telling the haughty king that he shall be brought low, as other
 proud monarchs before him—it is not a commentary on the state of
 the dead!

   Babylonian kings did not suffer from lack of self-esteem (Daniel
 4-5). But aspiring to "be like the most High" (Isa. 14:14) would be
 beyond even the most inflated ego. While kings claimed strong con-
 nections with the gods, they were subservient to them. This was dra-
 matically demonstrated every year on the fifth day of the Babylonian
 New Year Festival, in which the king was required to remove his royal
 insignia before approaching the statue of Marduk so his kingship
 could be reaffirmed. The idea of displacing even a lesser god would
 be crazy and suicidal.
    As in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 identifies heaven-daring arrogance with
 the ruler of a city. Here also, the description goes beyond that of an
 earthly monarch, and God's crosshairs come into sharper focus: The
 proud potentate was in the Garden of Eden, an anointed, covering, or
 guardian cherub on God's holy mountain, perfect from the day he was
 created until sin was found in him, cast out by God, and who will even-
 tually be destroyed with fire (Ezek. 28:12-18). Applied to any human
 being, the specific terms of this rhetoric are so figurative as to be
 meaningless. But Revelation 12:7-9 does tell of a mighty being who
 was cast out of heaven with his angels: "Satan, the deceiver of the
 whole world" (vs. 9, NRSV), who deceived Eve in Eden (Genesis 3).
    Satan has a proud imagination: ". . . you have said, 'I am a god; I
 sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,' yet you are but a
 mortal, and no god" (Ezek. 28:2, NRSV). His death will prove he is no
 god. Unlike Christ, Satan will perish in the heart of a sea of fire (Rev.
  20:10), never to haunt the universe again.

   Compare Isaiah 14:13, 14 with Matthew 11:29, John 13:5, and
   Philippians 2:5-8. What does this contrast tell us about the
   character of God as opposed to the character of Satan? What
   does this contrast tell us about how the Lord views pride, arro-
   gance, and the desire for self-supremacy?

                                                                       49

  Heaven's Gate              (Isaiah 13-14).

    In Isaiah 14 a taunt against Satan, the fallen "Day Star [in KM;
 "Lucifer'7, son of Dawn" (Isa. 14:12, NRSV) is blended into a taunt
 against the king of Babylon. Why? Compare Revelation 12:1-9, where
 a dragon identified as Satan (vs. 9) tries to destroy a Child as soon as
 it is born. In verse 5 the Child clearly is Christ. But it was King Herod
 who tried to kill Jesus as a young child (Matthew 2). The dragon is
 both Satan and the Roman power represented by Herod, because Satan
 works through human agents. Similarly, he was the power behind the
 king of Babylon and the prince of Tyre.

    Like literal Babylon, Rome and the Babylon of Revelation are
 proud, ruthless powers that oppress God's people. See especially
 Revelation 17:6, for it is "drunk with the blood of the saints" (NRSV).
 They rebel against God, an idea implied in the name Babylon itself. In
 the Babylonian language, the name is bab ili, which means: "the gate
 of god(s)," referring to the place of access to the divine realm.
 Compare Genesis 11, where people built the Tower of Babel
 (Babylon) so that by their own power they could rise to the divine
 level of immunity from any accountability to God.
    When Jacob awoke from a dream in which he saw a ladder con-
 necting heaven and earth, he exclaimed: "This is none other than the
 house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17, NRSV).
 Notice that the "house of God" is "the gate of heaven"; that is, the way
 of access to the divine realm. Jacob named the place Bethel, which
 means "house of God."
    The "gate of heaven" at Bethel and the "gate of god(s)" at Babylon
 were opposite ways to reach the divine realm. Jacob's ladder origi-
 nated in heaven, revealed from above by God. But Babylon, with its
 towers and ziggurat temples, was built by human beings from the
 ground up. These opposite ways represent contrasting paths to salva-
 tion: divinely initiated grace versus human works. All true rehg,on is
 based on the humble Bethel model: "For by grace you have been
 saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8, 9, NRSV). All false "religion," includ-
 ing legalism and "secular" humanism, is based on the proud Babylon
 model. For the contrast between the two approaches, see Jesus' para-
 ble of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14).

  Even after a few years in a Zen monastery, songwriter Leonard
  Cohen said, "I'm not saved." In the context of today's study,
  define his problem and solution.

   Final Triumph of Zion                         (Isaiah 24-27).

    Following oracles against individual nations in Isaiah 13-23, chap-
  ters 24-27 describe on a worldwide scale the climactic defeat of
  God's enemies and the deliverance of His people.

     As in Isaiah 13-14, aspects of literal Babylon apply to later powers,
  and the "king of Babylon" represents fusion of human rulers with the
  mastermind behind them, Satan himself. So, a message that Babylon
  is fallen (Isa. 21:9) can be repeated at a later time (Rev. 14:8, 18:2),
  and Satan is finally destroyed after Christ's second coming (Rev.
  20:10). While the destruction of literal Babylon was a judgment "day
  of the Lord" (Isa. 13:6, 9), another "great and terrible day of the
  Lord" (Joel 2:31, Mal. 4:5, compare Zeph. 1: 7) is on the way.
     Similarly, in Isaiah 24 the prophet's vision reaches through condi-
  tions with which he is familiar to the time when "the moon will be
  abashed, and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign on
  Mount Zion and in Jerusalem" (vs. 23, NRSV). Isaiah undoubtedly
  thought the vision applied to the Jerusalem he knew, but the book of
  Revelation explains that it will actually be fulfilled in the New
  Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2): "And the city has no need of sun or moon to
  shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb"
  (vs. 23, NRSV).

     Look at Isaiah 28:21, where God's work of destruction is His
  strange "deed" (NRSV). It is strange for Him, because He doesn't
  want to do it, but it is, nevertheless, a deed, or an act. It is true that sin
  carries the seeds of self-destruction (James 1:15). But because God
  has ultimate power over life and death, and He determines the time,
  place, and manner of final destruction (Revelation 20), it is pointless
  to argue that He ultimately terminates the curse of sin in a passive
  way, by simply allowing cause and effect to take its natural course.

    What we see in chapters 24-27 of Isaiah is what we see reflected
    in the entire Bible, which is, that in the end, no matter the suf-
    fering, pain, and desolation now, God and goodness will triumph
    over evil. What, then, is the only thing we can do if we, ourselves,
    want to be part of that final victory? Prov. 3:5-7, Rom. 10:9.

                                                                             51

   0 Why are pride and arrogance such dangerous sins? Why are
   they so hard to put away? Can it be because by their very nature
   they blind people to their need to put them away? After all, if you
   are proud, you think you are OK, and if you think you are OK,
   why bother changing? How can dwelling upon the Cross, and
   what it represents (the only means of saving any person), be a
   powerful cure for pride and arrogance in anyone?

   4 Does Isaiah see hope for people of other nations? See, for
   example, Isa. 25:3, 6; 26:9 (compare Rev. 19:9).

                            Pornsuang (left); J. H. ZACHARY is coordinator of inter-
                            national evangelism for The Quiet Hour.

       © 2003 • PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE • 146/35590

          Missi                                 N
           The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 26
          supports projects in the West Africa Division.


                                                           _55

  Defeat of the                        Assyrians



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

           gaunt man walks barefoot with his two sons. Another family

  A        has loaded all their belongings onto an oxcart pulled by ema-
           ciated oxen. A man leads the oxen while two women sit on the
  cart. Less fortunate people have no cart, so they carry their posses-
  sions on their shoulders. Soldiers are everywhere. A battering ram
  smashes into the city gate. Archers on top of the ram shoot at defend-
  ers on the walls. Hectic carnage reigns supreme.
     Fast forward. A king sits grandly on his throne, receiving booty and
  captives. Some captives approach him with hands upraised, pleading
  for mercy. Others kneel or crouch. Above the king the words appear:
  " `Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, . . . sat in a . . . throne
  and the booty of the city Lachish passed in review before him.' "—John
  Malcolm Russell, The Writing on the Wall (Winona Lake: Indiana:
  Eisenbrauns, 1999), p. 138.
     These pictures, which once adorned the walls of Sennacherib's
  "Palace Without a Rival," are now in the British Museum, and what a
  story they tell about the plight of God's professed people.

 Strings Attached                 (Isa. 36:1).

   When faithless Ahaz died and his faithful son Hezekiah succeeded
 him, Hezekiah inherited a kingdom that had lost full independence.
 Having purchased Assyrian aid against the alliance of Syria and
 northern Israel, Judah was forced to continue paying "protection
 money" in the form of tribute to Assyria (see 2 Chron. 28:16-21).
 When the Assyrian king Sargon II died on a distant battlefield and
 was succeeded by Sennacherib in 705 B.C., Assyria appeared vulner-
 able. Evidence from Assyrian and biblical texts reveals that Hezekiah
 seized this opportunity to rebel (compare 2 Kings 18:7), taking
 aggressive action as the ringleader of an anti-Assyrian revolt among
 the small nations in his region.
    Unfortunately for him, Hezekiah had underestimated the resilience
 of Assyria's might. In 701 B.c., when Sennacherib had subdued other
 parts of his empire, he lashed out against Syria-Palestine with devas-
 tating force and ravaged Judah.

     When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib intended to take Jerusalem,
  the capital city, he made extensive preparations for a confrontation
  with Assyria. He strengthened his fortifications, further equipped and
  organized his army, and increased the security of Jerusalem's water
  supply (see also 2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chron. 32:30). The remarkable
  Siloam water tunnel, commemorated by an inscription telling how it
  was constructed, almost certainly dates to Hezekiah's preparation for
  a potential siege.
     Just as important as military and organizational leadership,
  Hezekiah provided spiritual leadership as he sought to boost the
  morale of his people at this frightening time. He encouraged them by
  saying: " 'Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dis-
  mayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him;
  for there is one greater with us than with him. With him is an arm of
  flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our bat-
   tles' " (2 Chron. 32:7, 8, NRSV).

   If Hezekiah trusted the Lord so much, why did he put forth so
   much effort on his own? Did his works negate his faith? See
   Philippians 2:12, 13 on cooperating with God, who provides the
   power that is truly effective.

                                                                       57

 Propaganda             (Isa. 36:2-20).

    The rulers of Assyria were not only brutal, they were intelligent.
 Their goal was wealth and power, not simply destruction (compare
 Isa. 10:13, 14). Why use resources to take a city by force if you can
 persuade its inhabitants to surrender? So, while he was engaged in the
 siege of Lachish, Sennacherib sent his rabshakeh, a kind of high offi-
 cer, to take Jerusalem by propaganda.

    The rabshakeh made some rather powerful arguments. You cannot
 trust Egypt to help you because she is weak and unreliable. You can-
 not depend on the Lord to help you because Hezekiah has offended
 Him by removing His high places and altars throughout Judah, telling
 the people to worship at one altar in Jerusalem. In fact, the Lord is on
 Assyria's side and told Sennacherib to destroy Judah. You don't even
 have enough trained men to handle 2,000 horses.
    To avoid a siege in which you have nothing to eat and drink, give up
 now and you will be treated well. Hezekiah cannot save you, and
 because the gods of all the other countries conquered by Assyria have
 not saved them, you can be sure that your God will not save you either.

    Because there was much truth in what he was saying, his arguments
 were persuasive. Backing him up were two unspoken arguments.
 First, he had just come from Lachish, only 30 miles away, where the
 Assyrians were showing what happened to a strongly fortified city
 that dared resist them. Second, he had a powerful contingent of the
 Assyrian army with him (Isa. 36:2). Knowing the fate of armies and
 cities elsewhere (including Samaria, the capital of northern Israel:
 2 Kings 18:9, 10) that had succumbed to Assyria, no Judahite would
 have reason to doubt that from a human point of view Jerusalem was
 doomed (compare Isa. 10:8-11). The rabshakeh was also right in say-
 ing that Hezekiah had destroyed various places of sacrifice in order to
 centralize worship at the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:4, 2 Chron.
 31:1). But had this reform offended the Lord, who was the only hope
 His people had left? Would He, and could He, save them? It was up
 to God to answer this question!

  Have you ever been in a "similar" situation, where, from a
  human standpoint, all seemed lost? What's your only recourse?

 Shaken but Not Forsaken                         (Isa. 36:21-37:20).

  Shaken to the core and mourning in distress, Hezekiah turned to
 God, humbly seeking the intercession of Isaiah, the very prophet
 whose counsel his father had ignored.

    The message was brief, but it was enough! God was on the side of
  His people! Isaiah predicted that Sennacherib would hear a rumor that
  would distract him from his attack on Judah. This was immediately
  fulfilled.
    Temporarily frustrated, but by no means giving up for long,
  Sennacherib sent Hezekiah a threatening message: " 'Do not let your
  God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will
  not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. . . . Have the gods
  of the nations delivered them . . .?' " (Isa. 37:10, 12, NRSV; see also
  2 Chron. 32:17).
    This time Hezekiah went straight to the temple and spread the mes-
  sage out before the Lord of hosts, "enthroned above the cherubim"
  (Isa. 37:14-16, NRSV).

    Sennacherib had pointedly attacked Hezekiah's strongest defense:
  faith in his God. Rather than buckling under, Hezekiah appealed to
  God to demonstrate who He is, "so that all the kingdoms of the earth
  may know that you alone are the Lord" (Isa. 37:20).

   Read prayerfully Hezekiah's prayer (Isa. 37:15-20). What aspects
   of God does he focus on? What principle do we see in this prayer
   that can give us encouragement and strength to stay faithful in
   our own personal crises?




                                                                       59

  The Rest of the Story                    (Isa. 37:21-38).

    According to Sennacherib, as reported in his annals, he took forty-
  six fortified towns, besieged Jerusalem, and made Hezekiah the Jew,
  "a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage."
  —James B. Pritchard, editor, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to
  the Old Testament (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
  Press, 1955), p. 288. But in spite of his penchant for propaganda as an
  extension of his monumental ego, neither in text nor in pictures does
  he claim to have taken Jerusalem. From a human point of view, this
  omission is amazing, given the inexorable power of Sennacherib and
  the fact that Hezekiah led a revolt against him. Rebels against Assyria
  had short life expectancies and gruesome deaths.
    Scholars admit that even if we did not have the biblical record, we
  would be compelled to admit that a miracle must have taken place.
  The fact that Sennacherib lined the walls of his "Palace Without a
  Rival" with reliefs (carved pictures) vividly depicting his successful
  siege of Lachish appears to be due to his need for a face-saving
  device. But for the grace of God, these pictures would have shown
  Jerusalem instead! Sennacherib did not tell the rest of the story, but
  the Bible does.

     In response to Hezekiah's prayer of total faith, God sent him a mes-
  sage of total assurance for Judah that boils over with molten fury
  against the proud Assyrian king who had dared slap the divine King
  of kings in the face (Isa. 37:23). Then God promptly fulfilled His
  promise to defend Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35-37; 2 Chron. 32:21, 22;
  Isa. 37:36-38).
     A big crisis calls for a big miracle, and big it was! The body count
  was high: 185,000. So Sennacherib had no choice but to go home,
  where he met his own death (compare Isaiah's prediction in 37:7 to
  vs. 38).
     If Sennacherib had conquered Jerusalem, he would have deported
  the population in such a way that Judah would have lost its identity, as
  northern Israel did. From one perspective, then, there would have
  been no Jewish people to whom the Messiah could be born. Their
  story would have ended right there. But God kept hope alive.

   What do you say to someone who, not yet believing in the Bible,
   or the God of the Bible, asks this question: Was it fair that these
   Assyrian soldiers, who just happened to be born where they
   were, should die en masse like this? How do you, personally,
   understand the Lord's actions here?

 In Sickness and in Wealth                        (Isaiah 38, 39).

    The events of Isaiah 38 and 39 (2 Kings 20) took place very close
 to the time God delivered Hezekiah from Sennacherib, even though
 the deliverance, as depicted in Isaiah 37 (see also 2 Kings 19) had not
 yet occurred. Indeed, Isaiah 38:5, 6 and 2 Kings 20:6 show that they
 still faced the Assyrian threat.
    "Satan was determined to bring about both the death of Hezekiah
 and the fall of Jerusalem, reasoning no doubt that if Hezekiah were
 out of the way, his efforts at reform would cease and the fall of
 Jerusalem could be the more readily accomplished."—The SDA Bible
 Commentary, vol. 4, p. 240.

    By rejecting signs offered by God (Isaiah 7), Ahaz had started the
  course of events that led to trouble with Assyria. But now Hezekiah
  had asked for a sign (2 Kings 20:8), so God strengthened him to meet
  the crisis his father had brought upon Judah. Indeed, reversing the
  shadow on the sundial of Ahaz was possible only through a miracle.
    The Babylonians studied movements of heavenly bodies and
  recorded them accurately. Thus, they would have noticed the sun's
  strange behavior and wondered what it meant. The fact that King
  Merodach-baladan sent envoys at this time is no accident. The
  Babylonians had learned of the connection between Hezekiah's
  recovery and the miraculous sign.
     Now we know why God chose this particular sign. Just as He later
  used the star of Bethlehem to bring wise men from the East, he used
  a solar shift to bring messengers from Babylon. This was a unique
  opportunity for them to learn about the true God. Merodach-baladan
  spent his entire career trying to win lasting independence from
  Assyria. He needed powerful allies, which explains his motivation for
  contacting Hezekiah. If the sun itself moved at Hezekiah's request,
  what could he do to Assyria?

   How did Hezekiah lose an incredible opportunity to glorify God
   and point the Babylonians to Him? What was the result? Isaiah
   39. Hezekiah, who should have been witnessing to them about
   the Lord, pointed, instead, to his own "glory." What is the les-
   son for us?

                                                                      61

  ©Does Satan stop his accusations when you are forgiven? See
  Rev. 12:10. After you are forgiven, when Satan goes on saying
  that you belong to him because of your sin, what is the nature of
  his accusation? See Deut. 19:16-21 (law of a lying, malicious wit-
  ness).

        I hated my name, which means God-given, until God gave me my life
      back.
        I live in Cuba, and although my mother claimed to be a Christian, I grew
      up not believing in God. Then in 1996 I learned that I had rectal cancer.
      The doctors operated; then they began radiation treatments. But the treat-
      ments did more harm than good, and I was in incredible pain. Doctors
      gave me morphine for the pain, but I became afraid to even eat. I lost
      weight, and paralysis was slowly setting in. The doctors gave me little
      hope that I would survive.
         While I was still in the hospital, a fire in the hospital set off a severe
      asthma attack. I coughed so hard that I tore out my stitches and fell to the
      floor. When nurses rescued me, I could not breathe.
         X-rays showed that the fire had damaged my lungs, but worse, I also had
      lung cancer from heavy smoking over the years. Doctors operated to repair
      my torn stitches, but they stopped midway through surgery, thinking I was
      dead.
         I awoke to see a beautiful city and a bright, shining being. I felt peace-
      ful and well, and I began to talk to the beautiful being. Doctors heard me
      and stared in disbelief, thinking I had died. They quickly completed the
      surgery and took me to recovery.
         Just hours after surgery I felt better than I had felt in months—years,
      even. I got out of bed and walked, where just a day before I was paralyzed
      and could not walk. It was as if superhuman strength poured through my
      body. A hospital worker asked my son, a doctor, if I was a believer, and he
      told the man that my only loves in life were women, tobacco, and alcohol.
      Then the worker told my son I had been quoting Scripture to them, though
      I had never read the Bible. And when breakfast came I ate hungrily for the
      first time in months.
         Clearly God was working wonders, miracles in my life, though I did not
      yet know Him.
                                                            [Continued next week]




       DIOSDADA FERNANDEZ lives in Camaguey, Cuba, where he shares his faith with all who will
       listen.


        Produced by the General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Dept.    , aliliallikamail:gomission@gc.adventist.org

  "Comfort My People"




  SABBATH AFTERNOON

             orld War II ended in 1945 while a Japanese soldier named

  W          Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungle on the island of Guam.
             Leaflets dropped from U.S. planes proclaimed peace, but
  Yokoi thought it a trick. A loyal, patriotic soldier of the emperor, he
  vowed never to surrender. He had no contact with civilization and
  lived on what he could find in the jungle.
     In 1972, 27 years after the end of World War II, hunters came
  across Yokoi while he was fishing, and he only then learned that the
  message of peace had been true. While the rest of his people had been
  enjoying peace for decades, Yokoi had been enduring decades of pri-
  vation and stress.—Roy Gane, Altar Call (Berrien Spring, Mich.:
  Diadem, 1999), p. 304, adapted.
     Many centuries earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, God announced
  that the time of His peoples' stress and suffering was really over:
  "Comfort, 0 comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to
  Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her
  penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for
  all her sins" (Isa. 40:1, 2). Let's take a look at what this means.

 Comfort for the Future                       (Isa. 40:1, 2).

    There are many answers to this question. There was the punishment
 administered by Assyria, the rod of God's anger (Isaiah 10), from
 which God delivered Judah by destroying Sennacherib's army in 701
 B.c. (Isaiah 37). There was the punishment administered by Babylon,
 which would carry away goods and people from Judah because
 Hezekiah had displayed his wealth to the messengers from Merodach-
 baladan (Isaiah 39). And there was the punishment administered by
 one of the other nations against which Isaiah wrote messages (Isaiah
 14-23).
    Meanwhile, though "Assyria" and "Assyrian(s)" are mentioned 43
 times from Isaiah 7:17 to 38:6, this nation appears only once in the
 rest of Isaiah, where chapter 52:4 refers to past oppression by Egypt
 and then by "the Assyrian." In the latter part of Isaiah, deliverance
 from exile in Babylon is mentioned (Isa. 43:14; 47:1; 48:14, 20), and
 it is Cyrus, the Persian who conquered Babylon in 539 B.C., who is to
 free the exiles of Judah (Isa. 44:28, 45:1, 45:13).
    Isaiah 1-39 emphasize events leading up to deliverance from the
 Assyrians in 701 B.C., but at the beginning of chapter 40, the book
 leaps ahead a century and a half to the end of Babylon, in 539 B.C.,
 and the return of the Jews shortly thereafter.

     Isaiah 39 serves as a transition to the following chapters by pre-
  dicting a Babylonian captivity, at least for some of Hezekiah's descen-
  dants (vss. 6, 7). Furthermore, the oracles of Isaiah 13, 14, and 21 pre-
  dict the fall of Babylon and the liberty this would bring to God's peo-
  ple: "But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again
  choose Israel, and will set them in their own land. . . . When the Lord
  has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service
  with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against
  the king of Babylon" (Isa. 14:1, 3, NRSV). Notice the close connec-
  tion with Isaiah 40:1, 2, where God promises His people there is an
  end to their suffering.

   What do Bible promises about the end of suffering mean to you
   now, amid your present suffering? What good would our faith
   be without those promises?

                                                                        65

  Presence, Word, and Roadwork (Isa. 40:3-8). How do God's people receive comfort? Isa. 40:1-8.

     An unnamed herald announces that God is coming to reveal His
  glory (vss. 3-5). Another voice proclaims that although humans are
  transient like foliage, "the word of our God will stand forever" (vs. 8).
     After the exile, God's people gain back what they had received at
  Mt. Sinai and then rejected through the apostasy for which they were
  punished: God's Presence and His Word. These are the basic ingredi-
  ents of God's covenant with Israel, which were enshrined at His sanc-
  tuary in their midst (Exod. 25:8, 16). Because they had violated His
  Word, God had abandoned His temple (Ezekiel 9-11), but He is com-
  ing back. His Presence and His eternally dependable Word bring com-
  fort, deliverance, and hope.

    It is not fitting for a king to be jolted by a rough road. So his com-
 ing is preceded by roadwork. The more so for the King of kings! His
 coming, apparently from the east, where He has been in exile with His
 people as a sanctuary to them (Ezek. 11:16), would require major
 rearrangement of the terrain. Construction of a literal, level super-
 highway through the rugged hills east of Jerusalem would be daunting,
 even with dynamite and bulldozers. God is the only One who can do
 the work: It is He who turns "the rough places into level ground" (Isa.
 42:16, NRSV). But He doesn't need a literal road for transportation,
 because He has an airborne chariot of cherubim (Ezekiel 1, 9-11).
    The New Testament explicitly applies Isaiah's prophecy to the spiri-
 tual roadwork accomplished through the preaching of John the Baptist
 (Matt. 3:3). His message was: " 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
 has come near' " (vs. 2, NRSV) and the baptism that he performed was
 "of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4, NRSV). So, the
 roadwork was repentance, willingness to turn away from sin, in order
 to receive the comfort of God's forgiveness and presence.
    Jeremiah 31:31-34 proclaimed the same spiritual message in plenty
 of time for the exiles of Judah to understand the spiritual nature of
 roadwork for God. In this passage, the Lord promises a fresh start to
 those who are willing: a "new covenant" in which He puts His law in
 their hearts and pledges to be their God. They know Him and His
 character, because He has forgiven them.

   Read carefully Isaiah 40:6-8. What hope can you, who fades
   away as does the grass, derive from what the verses say?

  The Birth of Evangelism                       (Isa. 40:9-11).

     Later in Isaiah there appears a male herald with good news for
  Jerusalem (41:27, 52:7). But in Isaiah 40:9 the herald to proclaim
  " 'Here is your God!' " (NRSV) from a mountain is a female, a fact
  brought out in the Hebrew.
     In Psalm 68, David praises God because He "gives the desolate a
  home to live in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity" (vs. 6,
  NRSV). Though these words here apply to the Exodus from Egyptian
  bondage, Isaiah uses the same ideas with reference to proclamation of
  a second "Exodus"—the return from Babylonian captivity.

     The New Testament applies Isaiah 40:3-5 to John the Baptist, who
  prepared the way for Christ, the eternal Word who became the Lord's
  presence in flesh among His people (John 1:14).
     Even earlier than John, others spoke about the good news of His
  coming. Among the first of these were the elderly Simeon and Anna,
  who met baby Jesus when He was dedicated at the temple (Luke 2:25-
  38). Like Isaiah's heralds, they were male and female. Simeon was
  looking forward to the consolation/comfort of Israel in the form of the
  Messiah (Luke 2:25, 26).
     In light of Isaiah's prophecy, it does not appear coincidental that
  Anna, a prophetess, was the very first to announce publicly at the
  temple mountain to the people of Jerusalem that the Lord had come:
  "At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak
  about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of
  Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38, NRSV). This was the birth of Christian evan-
  gelism as we know it: proclamation of the gospel, the good news,
  that Jesus Christ has come to bring salvation. Later, Christ entrusted
  to another woman, Mary Magdalene, the first tidings of His tri-
  umphant resurrection (John 20:17, 18), which ensured that His
  gospel mission to Planet Earth was accomplished. Flesh is like
  grass, but the divine Word who became flesh is eternal (compare
   Isa. 40:6-8)!

    Look at Isaiah 40:11. What kind of imagery is presented here?
    Write out for yourself a paragraph on how you, personally, have
    experienced shepherding by the Lord. Why is it good to recount
    in your mind the way the Lord has led you?


                                                                      67

 Merciful Creator                 (Isa. 40:12-31).

    Throughout this chapter, God's mercy and power are interwoven (see
 below) and even blended together, because they are both necessary in
 order for God to save His people. He wants to save them, because He
 is merciful; He is able to save them, because He is powerful.

   Mercy (vss. 1-5): comfort, coming of the Lord to deliver.
   Power (vss. 3-8): glory, permanence versus human weakness.
   Mercy (vss. 9-11): good news of deliverance, Shepherd of His
                       people.
   Power (vss. 12-26): incomparable Creator.
   Mercy (vss. 27-31): as Creator, gives power to the faint.

    Having introduced God's might in terms of His glory and perma-
 nence (vss. 3-8), Isaiah elaborates on His power and superior wisdom,
 which make earth and earthlings appear puny (vss. 12-17). Here
 Isaiah's style, with rhetorical questions and vivid analogies referring
 to the earth and its parts, sounds like God's answer to Job (Job 38-41).

    For Isaiah, as for Job, the answer goes without saying: no one. God
 is incomparable. But Isaiah picks up on his question and refers to the
 answer that many ancient people implied by their actions, which is
 that God is like an idol (vss. 19, 20).
    To this notion Isaiah responds. Already it looks foolish to use an
 idol as a likeness of God, but just to be sure people get the point, he
 elaborates on God's uniqueness and brings in the unanswerable argu-
 ment that He is the holy Creator (vss. 21-26).

   The purpose of God's message is to comfort people who need it!
 Like Job, their suffering had made them confused and discouraged
 concerning His character.

  Why is the truth about God as Creator so important to under-
  stand? How does the Sabbath, help reinforce this point?

 The Problem With Idolatry                          (Isa. 40:19, 20).

   Idolatry destroys a unique, intimate relationship with God by
 replacing Him with something else (Exod. 20:4, 5; Isa. 42:8). So,
 prophets refer to idolatry as spiritual "adultery" (Jer 3:6-9, Ezek.
 16:15-19).

    Ancient idolators believed they worshiped powerful divine beings
 through images or symbols of them. Worship of an idol representing
 another god breaks the first commandment: "You shall have no other
 gods before me" (Exod. 20:3, NRSV). But if an idol is intended to rep-
 resent the true God, as the golden calf was (Exod. 32:4, 5), the Lord
 rejects it as a likeness of Himself, for nobody knows how to depict
 Him (Deut. 4:15-19), and nothing can represent His incomparable
 glory and greatness. Thus, an idol itself functions as another god, and
 worshiping it breaks the first and second commandments.
    God's people don't need idols, because they have His real Shekinah
 presence with them in His sanctuary. To worship an idol is to replace
 and, therefore, deny His real presence.
    Also, an idol not only fails to represent the Lord but it represents
 really nothing, because all those other gods have no existence (Isa.
  44:6). As in Isaiah, Psalm 115:8 is clear: those who make idols "are
 like them; so are all who trust in them" (NRSV).

     We know from ancient writings that idolatry was attractive, because
  it was about materialism: Using modes of worship people could relate
  to, idolaters honored forces they believed could give them fertility
  and prosperity. It was self-help religion. Sound familiar?
     Just before the Lord comes again, with His way prepared by the
  roadwork of a final Elijah message of reconciliation (Malachi 4), the
  choice will be the same as in the days of Isaiah: Will you worship the
  Creator, or will you worship something else (Revelation 13-14)? For,
  in the end, we always worship something.


                                                                        69

     "In Isaiah's day the spiritual understanding of mankind was dark
  through misapprehension of God. Long had Satan sought to lead men
  to look upon their Creator as the author of sin and suffering and death.
  Those whom he had thus deceived, imagined that God was hard and
  exacting. They regarded Him as watching to denounce and condemn,
  unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there was a legal excuse for
  not helping him. The law of love by which heaven is ruled had been
  misrepresented by the archdeceiver as a restriction upon men's happi-
  ness, a burdensome yoke from which they should be glad to escape.
  He declared that its precepts could not be obeyed and that the penal-
  ties of transgression were bestowed arbitrarily."—Ellen G. White,
  Prophets and Kings, p. 311.
     "Many who bear the name of Christians are serving other gods
  besides the Lord. Our Creator demands our supreme devotion, our
  first allegiance. Anything which tends to abate our love for God, or to
  interfere with the service due Him, becomes thereby an idol."—Ellen
  G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 2, p. 1011.

      How does Isaiah's description of the permanence of God's
   Word versus the fragile transience of human life (Isa. 40:6-8)
   speak to your fear of death? How does it relate to your hope of
   resurrection (Job 19:25-27, Dan. 12:2, 1 Cor. 15:51-57, 1 Thess.
   4:13-18)?

      By taking Isaiah 40:12-31 to heart, how could one be cured of
   pride and arrogance?

                            DIOSDADA FERNANDEZ   (left) lives in Camaguey, Cuba

  To Serve
  and to Save




  SABBATH AFTERNOON

      n northern Iraq, near an old Christian monastery, lie small holes

  /   in the ground where hermits stayed for decades without coming
      out, in order to better focus on God.
    In the steamy slums of Calcutta, Mother Teresa had a different
  approach to focusing on God. "Jesus comes to meet us," she said. "To
  welcome him, let us go to meet him.
    "He comes to us in the hungry, the naked, the lonely, the alcoholic,
  the drug addict, the prostitute, the street beggars. . . .
    "If we reject them, if we do not go out to meet them, we reject Jesus
  himself."—Mother Teresa: In My Own Words, compiled by Jose Luis
  Gonzalez-Balado (New York: Gramercy Books, 1996), p. 29.
    Isaiah spoke of a servant of the Lord with a similar mission of
  mercy: "a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick
  he will not quench; . . . to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out
  the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in dark-
  ness" (Isa. 42:3, 7, NRSV). Who is this Servant, and what does He
  accomplish?

  Servant Nation                (Isaiah 41).

    Is it Israel/Jacob, the ancestor of the Israelites? The nation of Israel?
  The Messiah/Christ, identified in the New Testament as Jesus?
    There are two kinds of references to servants of God woven through
  Isaiah 41-53. One servant is named "Israel" or "Jacob," as in 41:8;
  44:1, 2, 21; 45:4; 48:20. Because God addresses Israel/Jacob in the
  present, it is clear he represents the nation descended from him. This
  is confirmed by the fact that redemption for the Lord's "servant
  Jacob" is accomplished at the time when he is to go out from Babylon
  (Isa. 48:20).
     In other instances, such as Isaiah 42:1, 50:10, 52:13, 53:11, God's
  servant is not named. When he is first mentioned in Isaiah 42:1, his
  identity is not immediately apparent. However, as Isaiah develops his
  profile in later passages, it becomes clear that he is an individual who
  restores the tribes of Jacob (Israel) to God (Isa. 49:5, 6) and dies sac-
  rificially on behalf of sinners (Isa. 52:13-53:12; see also 49:5, 6).
  Therefore he cannot be the same as the nation. So it is clear that Isaiah
  speaks of two servants of God. One is corporate (the nation) and the
  other is individual.

     God assures Israel that the nation is still the servant of the Lord:
  " 'I have chosen you and not cast you off' " (Isa. 41:9, NRSV). Then
  God gives to Israel one of the most magnificent promises in the Bible:
  " 'Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God;
  I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my vic-
  torious right hand' " (vs. 10, NRSV). Here and in the following verses
  one of the basic roles of Israel is to trust the true God to save them (as
  King Ahaz did not) rather than to trust in other gods and their images
  as other nations do (Isa. 41:7, 21-24, 28, 29).

    Notice how in Isaiah 41:14, the Lord calls the nation a worm.
    What point is He making? Look at the whole text to get a bet-
    ter answer. What should this teach us, as well, about our need
    to depend totally upon the Lord?


                                                                           73

  Unnamed Individual Servant                            (Isa. 42:1-7).

    Choose the best answer or combination of answers:
    1. He provides justice for the nations.
    2. He accomplishes his goals quietly and gently, but successfully.
    3. He is a teacher.
    4. He serves as a covenant between God and the people.
    5. He gives light/hope by healing blindness and liberating prisoners.
    6. All of the above.

    As in Isaiah 42, the Davidic ruler of chapter 11 acts in harmony
  with God, providing justice and deliverance for the oppressed, as well
  as wisdom and knowledge of God. We found that this shoot and root
  of Jesse is the Messiah, the divine child of Isaiah 9:6, 7, who also
  brings "peace for the throne of David and his kingdom" with "justice
  and with righteousness" (vs. 7, NRSV). The servant in Isaiah 42 is,
  obviously, the Messiah.

    Matthew 12 quotes from Isaiah 42 and applies it to the quiet heal-
 ing ministry of Jesus, God's beloved Son, in whom He delights (Isa.
 42:1; Matt. 3:16, 17; 17:5). It is He whose ministry reestablishes
 God's covenant connection with His people (Isa. 42:6, Dan. 9:27).
    Jesus and His disciples gained justice for people by delivering them
 from suffering, ignorance of God, and bondage to evil spirits, caused
 by Satan's oppression (Luke 10:19). Then Jesus died to ratify the
 "new covenant" (Matt. 26:28) and to gain justice for the world by
 casting out Satan, the foreigner who had usurped the position of
 " 'ruler of this world' " (John 12:31-33).

   Look at Isaiah 42:1-4, the depiction of Christ. Spend some time
   dwelling on the life of Jesus. What specific characteristics of His
   ministry so aptly fulfilled this prophecy? What lessons can we
   learn about how we should be ministering to others, as well?

 Persian "Messiah" (Isa. 44:26-45:6). What stunning prediction appears in Isaiah 44:26-45:6?


   Isaiah's ministry lasted from about 745 B.C. to about 685 B.c. After
 mentioning a conqueror from the east and from the north (Isa. 41:2, 3,
 25) and implying that this was to be good news for Jerusalem (vs. 27),
 Isaiah accurately predicted Cyrus by name and described his activities.
 He did come from north and east of Babylon to conquer it in 539 B.c.;
 he did serve God by releasing the Jews from their Babylonian exile;
 and he did authorize the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem (com-
 pare Ezra 1).
    Put this prediction into perspective. Since there are about 146 years
 from the time of Isaiah's death to the fall of Babylon, his prophecy
 was a century and a half ahead of its time. Because the actions of
 Cyrus are well attested from a variety of ancient sources, including
 Babylonian chronicles, his own report in the "Cyrus Cylinder," and the
 Bible (2 Chron. 36:22, 23; Ezra 1; Daniel 5; 6:28; 10:1), the accuracy
 of Isaiah's prophecy is beyond dispute. This confirms the faith of peo-
 ple who believe that true prophets receive accurate predictions from
 God, who knows the future far in advance.

    The Hebrew word for "anointed" here is the word from which we get
  the word "Messiah." Elsewhere in the Old Testament, this word could
  refer to an anointed high priest (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16; 6:22), an anointed
  Israelite king (1 Sam. 16:6; 24:6, 10; 2 Sam. 22:51), or the Messiah, a
  future ideal Davidic king and deliverer (Ps. 2:2; Dan. 9:25, 26). From
  Isaiah's perspective, Cyrus was a future king, sent by God to deliver His
  people. But he was an unusual messiah, because he was non-Israelite.
  He would do some things the Messiah would do, such as defeat God's
  enemies and release His captive people, but he could not be the same
  as the Messiah, because he was not descended from David.
     By predicting Cyrus, God proved His unique divinity by demonstrat-
  ing that He alone knows the future (Isa. 41:4, 21-23, 26-28; 44:26). He
  also reached out to Cyrus: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and
  riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the
   Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name" (Isa. 45:3, NRSV).

   Think about some other Bible prophecies that have come to pass
   as predicted (such as all the kingdoms of Daniel 2 except the last,
   Daniel 7, or regarding the time of Christ in Daniel 9:24-27).
   What kind of hope do these prophecies offer us as individuals?

                                                                        75

  Hope in Advance
    The fact that Isaiah accurately predicted Cyrus by name disturbs
 people who do not believe that prophets receive predictions from God.
 To cope, they accept the theory that a "second Isaiah," another
 prophet living in the time of Cyrus, wrote Isaiah 40-66. Thus, the
 book of Isaiah is "sawn in two," the same fate traditionally understood
 to have befallen the prophet himself (compare Heb. 11:37).
    There is, however, no historical witness to the existence of a second
 "Isaiah." If he did exist, it would be strange for the Bible not to men-
 tion him, because his message is profoundly important, and his liter-
 ary artistry is phenomenal. Not even the oldest Bible manuscript, the
 Isaiah scroll from Qumran, has any break between Isaiah 39 and 40
 that would indicate a transition to the work of a new author.
    Isaiah's basic message is consistent throughout his book: Trust the
 true God, including His messianic Deliverer, rather than other powers.
 Scholars rightly emphasize the shift in focus from the Assyrian period
 in Isaiah 1-39 to the Babylonian period in chapters 40 and following.
 But we have found that Isaiah 13-14 and 39 already envisage a
 Babylonian captivity. It is true Isaiah 1-39 emphasizes judgment and
 40-66 emphasizes consolation. But in the earlier chapters, divine
 comfort and assurance is abundant also, and later passages, such as
 Isaiah 42:18-25, 43:22-28, 48:1-11, speak of God's judgments on
 Judah for forsaking Him. In fact, Isaiah's predictions of future com-
 fort imply suffering in the meantime.

  Read once more through Leviticus 26:40-45. What spiritual
  principle do you see at work in those verses? What is the Lord
  saying to them there? How does the same principle work in our
  own lives?

 A Feeling and a Suffering Servant
 (Isa. 49:1-12).

    God calls and names him before he is born, makes his mouth like a
 sword, and will be glorified in him. God uses the servant to bring the
 nation of Israel back to Himself to be a light of salvation to all the
 world, to be a covenant, and to release prisoners. There is plenty of
 overlap between this description and that of Isaiah 42, where we iden-
 tified the servant as the Messiah. The New Testament finds the ser-
 vant's attributes in Jesus Christ, in both comings: Matt. 1:21; John
 8:12, 9:5, 17:1-5, Rev. 1:16, 2:16, 19:15.

    Earlier we found that in this section of Isaiah, God's servant
 "Israel/Jacob" refers to the nation. But here the name "Israel" (with-
 out a parallel reference to "Jacob") clearly applies to the individual
 servant, who restores the nation to God (Isa. 49:5). The individual
 servant has become the ideal embodiment or representative of the
 nation, whose failure has compromised its use of the name "Israel"
 (Isa. 48:1).

    Here is the first intimation of the difficulty involved in the servant's
  task. He laments, " 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength
  for nothing and vanity' " (vs. 4, NRSV), an idea echoed in Daniel 9:26:
  "an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing" (NRSV). But
  he clings to faith: " 'Yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my
  reward with my God' " (Isa. 49:4, NRSV). Isaiah 49:7 is startling. The
  servant is "deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of
  rulers," but God says to him: " 'Kings shall see and stand up, princes,
  and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, who is faith-
  ful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you' " (NRSV).

   Look back at Christ's ministry. Right up until the end, didn't
   He have reasons for discouragement? Yet, He stayed faithful,
   despite outward appearances. How are we to do the same—
   despite outward appearances?


                                                                         77

    "In the work of soul-winning, great tact and wisdom are needed.
  The Saviour never suppressed the truth, but He uttered it always in
  love. In His intercourse with others, He exercised the greatest tact, and
  He was always kind and thoughtful. He was never rude, never need-
  lessly spoke a severe word, never gave unnecessary pain to a sensitive
  soul. He did not censure human weakness. He fearlessly denounced
  hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He
  uttered His scathing rebukes. He never made truth cruel, but ever
  manifested a deep tenderness for humanity. Every soul was precious
  in His sight. He bore Himself with divine dignity; yet He bowed with
  the tenderest compassion and regard to every member of the family of
  God. He saw in all, souls whom it was His mission to save."—Ellen
  G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 117.

       Do you know a "bruised reed" or "dimly burning wick" (Isa.
   42:3)? How can you help this person without "breaking" or
   "quenching" him or her? In what ways can you point this person
   to the Lord? What would you tell him or her, in a practical sense,
   to do, in order to receive healing and help?

   e  The argument for different authors of Isaiah originated from
   the premise that people cannot tell the future the way Isaiah did.
   What is the fundamental problem with this argument, and why,
   as Christians, must we reject its premise outright?

  Doing the
  Unthinkable



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

         ough Fook, a Chinese Christian, was moved with compassion

  L      for those of his compatriots who had become slaves in African
         mines. He wanted to give them the hope of the gospel, but
  how could he have access to them? His solution was to sell himself
  for a term of five years as a slave. He was transported to Demerara,
  where he toiled in the mines and told his fellow workers about
  Jesus.
     Lough Fook died, but not until 200 people were liberated from
  hopelessness by accepting Jesus as their Savior.
    Talk about self-sacrifice for the good of others. What an example!
     By doing the unthinkable, that is, humbly "taking the form of a
  slave" (Phil. 2:7, NRSV), Jesus, too, had reached the unreachable—
  you and I and all the world steeped and lost in the abyss of sin.
    This week we'll see this incredible event prophesied hundreds of
  years before it happened.

 Isaiah's Testing Truth                    (Isa. 50:4-10).

   If Isaiah intended to convey only information, he would have laid
 out all the details regarding the Messiah at once. But in order to teach,
 persuade, and give his audience an encounter with the Servant of the
 Lord, he develops a rich fabric of recurring themes in symphonic
 fashion. He unfolds God's message in steps so that each aspect can be
 grasped in relation to the rest of the picture. Isaiah is an artist whose
 canvas is the soul of his listener.

    We found in Isaiah 49:7 that God's servant is despised, abhorred,
 and "the slave of rulers" (NRSV) but that "Kings shall see and stand
 up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves" (NRSV). Here in
 chapter 50 we learn that the valley is deeper for the gentle Teacher
 whose words sustain the weary (vs. 4): His path to vindication leads
 through physical abuse (vs. 6).
    This abuse sounds bad to those of us in modern Western cultures.
 But in an ancient Near Eastern culture, honor was a life and death
 matter for a person and his or her group. If you insulted and mis-
 treated someone like this, you better be well protected: If given half a
 chance, the victim and/or his or her clan would surely retaliate.
    King David attacked and conquered the country of Ammon
 (2 Samuel 1-12) because its king had merely "seized David's envoys,
 shaved off half the beard of each, cut off their garments in the middle
 at their hips, and sent them away" (2 Sam. 10:4, NRSV). But in Isaiah
 50 people strike the servant, painfully pluck out hairs from his beard,
 and spit at him. What makes these actions an international, intercos-
 mic incident is that the victim is the envoy of the divine King of kings.
 In fact, by comparing Isaiah 9:6, 7 and 11:1-16 with other "servant"
  passages, we find that the servant is the King, the mighty Deliverer!
  But with all His power and honor, for some unthinkable reason, He
  does not save Himself! This is so strange that people didn't believe it.
  At Jesus' cross, leaders mocked him: " 'He saved others; let him save
  himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!' "(Luke 23:35,
  NRSV); " 'Let him come down from the cross now, and we will
  believe in him' " (Matt. 27:42, NRSV).

   Read through Isaiah 50:4-10. Write down the spiritual princi-
   ples depicted here that should be applied to our own lives. Look
   at yourself in light of the list you make. In what areas could you
   do better? If discouraged, then read on for the rest of the week.


                                                                        81

  The Suffering Servant Poem                         (Isa. 52 : 13-53: 12).

    Isaiah 52:13-53:12, known as the "Suffering Servant Poem," con-
 firms Isaiah's reputation as "the gospel prophet." In harmony with the
 excellence of the gospel, the poem towers above other literature.
    Though breathtakingly short, every phrase is packed with profound
 meaning that reveals the core of God's unthinkable quest to save a
 race steeped and lost in sin.
    This is not the "milk" of Isaiah's word. He has prepared his audi-
 ence by developing the Messianic theme from the early part of his
 book. Following the overall course of the Messiah's life on earth, the
 prophet started with His conception and birth (Isa. 7:14), introduced
 His identity as a divine Davidic king (Isa. 9:6, 7), and elaborated on
 His work of restoration for Israel (Isa. 11:1-16) and quiet ministry of
 liberation from injustice and suffering (Isa. 42:1-7). Then Isaiah
 revealed that the Messiah's grand drama includes the contrast of
 tragedy before exaltation (Isa. 49:1-12, 50:6-10). Now the Suffering
 Servant Poem plumbs the depths of the tragedy.

    Isaiah 52:13-53:1 introduce the poem with a preview containing a
 stunning contrast: The Servant will prosper and be exalted, but His
 appearance will be marred beyond recognition. Who can believe it?
    Verses 2 and 3 begin a painful descent from the Servant's origin and
 ordinary appearance to His sorrow and rejection. Verses 4-6 pause to
 explain that His suffering is our punishment, which He bears to heal
 us. Verses 7-9 continue the innocent Servant's descent to the grave.
    In verses 10-12, the Servant ascends to the exalted reward foreseen
 at the beginning of the poem starting in Isaiah 52:13, with the added
 insight that His sacrifice to save others is the will of God.
    Compare the "valley" shape of Philippians 2:5-11, where Jesus
 begins in the form of God but descends by emptying Himself to take
 on the bondage of human form, humbling Himself down to death, and
 the lowest of all deaths: death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalts
 Him so that everyone should acknowledge Him as Lord (compare Isa.
 49:7).

  Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Write down everything the poem says
  that Jesus has done for us. Dwell on what those actions in our
  behalf mean to us.

 Who Has Believed?                    (Isa. 52:13-53:12).

    In Isaiah 52:13 God's Servant is highly exalted, but without warn-
 ing, the next verse describes His appearance as so disfigured He can-
 not be recognized as one of the "sons of men." The New Testament
 describes the factors that marred Jesus' appearance, including scourg-
 ing, a crown of thorns, crucifixion, but, above all, bearing the sin of
 the human race. Sin was never intended to be natural for humans;
 bearing it made the "Son of Man" appear inhuman.
    Compare the story of Job, who suddenly plummeted from a posi-
 tion of great wealth, honor, and power to a miserable wretch sitting
 among ashes on the ground and scraping his painful sores with a pot-
 sherd (Job 1-2). The contrast was so great that not even Job's friends
 recognized him at first (Job 2:12). The question is: Why does Job suf-
 fer? Why must God's Messiah suffer? Neither deserves it. Both are
 innocent. Why, then, the suffering?

     Look at the questions in Isaiah 53:1. These questions emphasize the
  challenge of believing the unbelievable (compare John 12:37-41) and
  warn us to sit down for the rest of the story. But the questions also
  imply an appeal. In this context, the parallel between the two ques-
  tions implies that the Lord's arm/power of salvation (compare Isa.
  52:10) is revealed to those who believe the report. Do you want to
  experience God's saving power? Then believe the report.

   Look carefully at Isaiah 53:6. What is the specific message
   there? What is that text saying to you, personally, that should
   give you hope despite your past sins and failures?




                                                                      83

 The Unreachable Is Us!                       (Isa. 53:3-9).

    Like a vulnerable plant, apparently of no special value, and
 despised (Isa. 53:2, 3)—that's the depiction we are given here of the
 Suffering Servant. Isaiah has quickly brought us through innocent
 youth to the brink of the abyss. Even with the background provided
 earlier, we are not prepared in the sense that we are resigned to the
 Servant's fate. To the contrary! Isaiah has taught us to cherish the
 Child born to us, the supreme Prince of Peace. Others despise Him,
 but we know who He really is.
    As someone has said: "We have met the enemy and they are us."
 The Servant is not the first to be despised, rejected, or a man of suf-
 fering. King David was all those when he fled from his son, Absalom
 (2 Sam. 15:30). But the suffering borne by this servant is not His own
 and does not result from His own sin. Nor does He bear it merely for
 another individual; "the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all"
 (Isa. 53:6, NRSV).
    The answer to the question "Why?" is Isaiah's testing truth:
 Because of God's love, His Messiah would choose to suffer. But why?
 Isaiah drives the "golden spike" to complete the unthinkable truth: He
 would choose to suffer in order to reach the unreachable, and the
 unreachable is us!
    Those who do not understand regard the servant as "struck down by
 God" (Isa. 53:4, NRSV). Just as Job's friends thought his sin must
 have caused his suffering, and just as Jesus' disciples asked Him
 " 'who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' "
 (John 9:2, NRSV), those who saw Jesus on the cross assumed the
 worst. Didn't Moses say that "anyone hung on a tree is under God's
 curse" (Deut. 21:23; compare Num. 25:4)?
    Yet, all this was God's will (Isa. 53:10). Why? Because "Christ
 redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us"
 (Gal. 3:13, NRSV). Because God "made him to be sin who knew no
 sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor
 5:21). "Imagine that! In a sense, Christ became sin! He bore every
 evil passion and selfish.degradation of the billions of people who have
 ever inhabited our planet. With that overwhelming deluge of misery
 collected upon Him and identified with Him as if He were the per-
 sonification of all evil, He gave Himself up for destruction in order to
 wipe out all sin and all of its consequences."—Roy Gane, Altar Call,
 p. 77, author's emphasis.

  The punishment for the sins of the whole world—every sin, by
  every sinner—fell upon Christ at the Cross, at once, as the only
  means to save us! What does this tell us about how bad sin is that
  such a price had to be paid? What does it tell us about God's love
  that He would do this for us, even at such a great cost?

   A Transforming Reparation Offering
  (Isa. 53:10-12).

     The Hebrew word refers to a "guilt/reparation offering" (Lev
  5:14-6:7, 7:1-7), which could atone for deliberate wrongs against
  other people (Lev. 6:2, 3). Such sins were singled out by Isaiah
  (Isaiah 1-3; 10:1, 2; 58). Also, the sinner must restore to the wronged
  person that which was taken, plus a penalty, before offering the sac-
  rifice to receive forgiveness from God (Lev. 6:4-7; compare Matt.
  5:23, 24). In a case of inadvertent misuse of something that belongs
  to God, the reparation goes to Him (Lev. 5:16).
     Now we can understand Isaiah 40:2, where God comforts His
  exiled people by telling them they have paid enough reparation for
  their sins.
     But following the reparation, there must be a sacrifice. Here it is in
  Isaiah 53: God's Servant, instead of a ram, is led like a sheep to the
  slaughter (Isa. 53:7) on behalf of people who have gone astray (vs. 6).
     Although "cut off from the land of the living" (vs. 8, NRSV;• com-
  pare Dan. 9:26), completely consumed in the sacrifice that kindles
  the flame of hope for us, the Servant comes forth from death, the land
  of no return, to receive exaltation, see His "offspring," and prolong
  his days (Isa. 53:10-12).

  Ps. 32:1, 2

  Rom. 5:8

  Gal. 2:16

  Phil. 3:9

  Heb. 2:9

   1 Pet. 2:24

    If someone were to ask you to summarize in a single paragraph
    the good news of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, what would you write?

                                                                         85

      Look at the last quote above by Ellen White about Christ's
   death magnifying the law. What does she mean by that? How do
   we understand His death as proof of the perpetuity of the law?

                            IVANKA GEORGIEVA   (left) is a teacher in Varna, Bulgaria.

  Waging Love




  SABBATH AFTERNOON

           Jewish cantor (worship leader) and his wife who lived in

  A        Lincoln, Nebraska, began receiving threatening and obscene
           phone calls. They discovered the calls came from a leader of
  an American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Knowing his identity,
  they could have turned him in to the police. But they decided on a
  more radical approach. When they learned that he was crippled, they
  showed up at his door with dinner! He was utterly flabbergasted. His
  hatred melted before their love. The couple kept visiting him, and the
  friendship grew. He even thought of becoming Jewish!
     "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to
  undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break
  every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry . . .?" (Isa.
  58:6, 7, NRSV). Ironically, the couple in Lincoln kept such a fast by
  sharing their feast with a hungry oppressor, thereby setting him free
  from his own bonds of unjust prejudice! Let's learn more about this
  important spiritual principle as depicted by the prophet Isaiah.

 Buy Something Free?                        (Isa. 55:1-7).

   Suppose you took food and stood on the street in a big city and
 announced to the hungry and homeless there: "Yo, you who have no
 money, come, buy and eat!" But how can they buy if they have no
 money?
    However, if you add the words, as Isaiah did: "without money and
 without price" (vs. 1, NRSV), the point becomes clearer. Isaiah appeals
 to people to accept forgiveness (vs. 7) freely. Yet, the word buy empha-
 sizes that what God offers people to meet their needs and desires is
 valuable, so receiving it requires a transaction (transfer of something
 of worth). God freely offers forgiveness within the framework of a
 restored covenant relation with His people, but not because it was free
 for Him: He bought it at the terrible, blood-drenched price of His own
 Servant. Though free, it came with a terrible cost to Himself.

     Isaiah encapsulates the gospel in the Old Testament, which is the
  same as the gospel in the New Testament. There was no "old-covenant"
  salvation by works, to be superseded by "new-covenant" salvation by
  grace. Ever since God's promise of a Deliverer to Adam and Eve (Gen.
  3:15), there has been only one way to salvation: by grace through faith
  (Eph. 2:8); "the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
  (Rom. 6:23, NRSV). From the ancient Gilgamesh, who did heroic
  exploits in a vain search for eternal life, to modern actors who believe
  in reincarnation, people have tried all different routes to salvation, but
  all are fruitless. This is why they need to know about Jesus and what He
  has accomplished for them at the Cross.

   Salvation is free, in that there's nothing we can do to earn it.
   Our works can never be good enough to save us. Yet, at the same
   time, it can cost us everything. What does that mean? See, for
   instance, Matt. 10:39, Luke 9:23, 14:26, Phil. 3:8.

                                                                          89

  High Thoughts and Ways                         (Isa. 55:6-13).

    There's no question that the God who created a universe in which
  even some of the simplest things contain mysteries that our minds
  cannot begin to fathom is a God whose ways are beyond what we can
  ever begin to fully grasp. This knowledge of His infinite superiority
  should, therefore, make it easier for us to humbly receive His help.
  See Isa. 57:15.

    Of all the great mysteries of the universe, no doubt the greatest one
 of all is the plan of salvation, a mystery we can barely begin to under-
 stand. (See Eph. 6:19.) That the Creator of the universe would stoop
 to clothe Himself in humanity, live a life of toil and suffering, only to
 die then in our behalf, a sacrifice for sin, all in order that He could
 pardon us and show mercy to us is a truth that will, for all the ages of
 eternity, thrill the hearts of God's created beings.
   "The theme of redemption is one that angels desire to look into; it
 will be the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the
 ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of careful thought and study
 now? . . .
   "The subject is inexhaustible. The study of the incarnation of
 Christ, His atoning sacrifice, and mediatorial work will employ the
 mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last; and looking to
 heaven with its unnumbered years, he will exclaim, 'Great is the mys-
 tery of godliness.—Ellen G. White, My Lift Today, p. 360.

  Look at the bad things you have done: the people whom you
  have hurt, the unkind words you have spoken, the ways in which
  you have disappointed others, not to mention yourself. And yet,
  through Jesus, you can be forgiven all these things and stand,
  right now, perfect and righteous in the sight of God. If that isn't
  a mystery, what is?

 Fast Friends             (Isa. 58:1-8).

   This must be the fast of the Day of Atonement, the only fast com-
 manded by God (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:27-32). This is confirmed in
 Isaiah 58:3 by the parallel expression "humble ourselves" (NRSV),
 which follows the terminology of Leviticus. Humbling oneself
 referred to various forms of self-denial, including fasting (compare
 Ps. 35:13; Dan. 10:2, 3, 12).
    The Day of Atonement setting explains God's command to "Lift up
 your voice like a trumpet!" (Isa. 58:1, NRSV). This kind of ram's horn
 trumpet, called a shofar, was to be blown as a memorial or reminder
 ten days before the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:24). Furthermore,
 every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, it was to announce the
 beginning of the Jubilee year of freedom (Lev. 25:9, 10; compare Isa.
 27:13).

    It seems the people were expecting the Lord to congratulate them
  for their "piety." Of course, they had it all backwards. Practicing self-
  denial on the Day of Atonement was to express their gratitude and
  loyalty to Him on the day the high priest went before God to cleanse
  the sanctuary and thereby cleanse them from sins for which they had
  already been forgiven (Levitus 16; compare chapter 4). Their acts
  should have been done in thankfulness and gratitude to the God who
  saved them in the day of judgment, not in order to get God's approval
  for their "piety" and "devotion." After all, it was the sins of the peo-
  ple that had defiled God's sanctuary. It had to be cleansed with blood
  that was shed because of what they had done.

   One of the crucial lessons that comes from these texts regards
   the difference between being religious and truly being a fol-
   lower of Christ. How do we see the difference there? How do we,
   as individuals, face the same danger as those presented here,
   which is believing that our religious rituals somehow show we
   are really following the Lord as He asks us to?

                                                                        91

  Fast Fight          (Isa. 58:1-12).

    Ten days after trumpet blasts have reminded God's people that the
  Lord is acclaimed as their King and, on the very Day of Atonement
  when their humility through self-denial is to affirm their loyalty to
  Him as King, the prophet lifts up his voice like a trumpet to declare
  that they are rebelling against Him (Isa. 58:1).

    Anyone can be religious; anyone can go through religious rituals,
 even the right rituals, at the right time, with all the right formulas. But
 that alone is not what the Lord wants. Look at the life of Jesus.
 However faithful He was to the religious rituals of His time, the
 gospel writers focused so much more on His acts of mercy, healing,
 feeding, and forgiveness to those in need than on His faithfulness to
 ritual.
    The Lord seeks a church, a people, who will preach truth to the
 world. But what is going to better attract people to the truth as it is in
 Jesus: strict adherence to dietary laws or a willingness to help the
 hungry? Strict rest on the Sabbath or a willingness to spend your own
 time and energy helping those who are in need?

  Look at the blessings in Isaiah 58 that God says will come to
  those who seek to minister to the less fortunate. What do you
  think the Lord is saying to us here? Are these promises of
  supernatural intervention for our lives if we do these things?
  Or, perhaps, is He telling us of the natural blessing we receive
  by giving of ourselves to others as opposed to being selfish,
  greedy, and self-absorbed? Explain your answer.

 A Time for Us              (Isa. 58:13, 14).

   The yearly Day of Atonement was a Sabbath day. This special cer-
 emonial Sabbath was like the weekly Sabbath in that all work of any
 kind was prohibited (Lev. 23:27-32). Therefore, as recognized by
 early Seventh-day Adventists, the rule that the Day of Atonement
 period of rest lasted from evening to evening (Lev. 23:32) informs us
 that the same must be true of the weekly Sabbath. Similarly, although
 the primary context of Isaiah 58:13, 14 is the ceremonial Day of
 Atonement Sabbath, its message also applies to the weekly Sabbath.

    Isaiah 58 deals with three main themes: self-denial, social kind-
  ness, and the Sabbath.
    What are the connections between them?
    First, all three involve concentration upon God, His priorities, and
  recognition of dependence upon Him. Second, by doing all three,
  humans pursue holiness by emulating God (see Lev. 19:2), who, in the
  form of Christ, humbled Himself (Phil. 2:8), who demonstrates self-
  sacrificing kindness (John 3:16), and who ceased from labor on the
  Sabbath at the end of the Creation week (Gen. 2:2, 3; Exod. 20:11).

   Look at these other ties between the themes of self-denial, social
   kindness, and the Sabbath, as depicted in Isaiah 58: Sabbath
   freedom from weekly toil is kind to people because it lets them
   be refreshed (Exod. 23:12, Mark 2:27); Jesus showed that kind
   acts are appropriate on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-5, John 5:1-17);
   true Sabbath keeping brings joy (Isa. 58:14), as does helping
   others (vss. 10, 11). What must change in your own life in order
   to experience these blessings yourself?




                                                                     93

  O If self-denial, social kindness, and the Sabbath were impor-
  tant on the day of atonement in Isaiah's day, are they just as
  important in the end-time Day of Atonement (Dan. 8:14), during
  which God's Jubilee trumpet will signal ultimate freedom at the
  second coming of Christ (1 Cor. 15:52; compare Lev. 25:9, 10)?
  Explain your answer.

  • Open up a discussion on the question of Sabbath keeping.
  What do you think Isaiah means when he says we should turn
  away from doing our own pleasure on the Sabbath, and yet at the
  same time call it a "delight" (Isa. 58:13)? How can we do both?
  Keep in mind the context of the complete text of Isaiah 58.

                            DANSON KILONZO (left) is a security guard at the
                            University of Eastern Africa, in Kenya.

         3 AMA -0 VigiV ler"


  SABBATH AFTERNOON
          ut your iniquities have separated between you and your God,

  B       and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
          For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
  iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered per-
  verseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they
  trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth
  iniquity . . . . The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord
  hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent
  me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
  and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the
  acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to
  comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
  give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the gar-
  ment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called
  trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glo-
  rified" (Isa. 59:2-4, 61:1-3).
     This week we look at how the Lord planned to take His people from
  one spiritual place to another.

 The Effects of Sin                 (Isaiah 59).

   In Isaiah 58:3 the people asked God: " 'Why do we fast, but you do
 not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?' " (NRSV).
   In contrast, Isaiah 59:1 implies another question, something like:
 "Why do we call for the Lord's hand to save us, but He does not? Why
 do we cry to Him, but He does not hear?" Isaiah answers that God is
 able to save and hear (vs. 1). His failure to do either is, however,
 another matter entirely.

    God chooses to "ignore" His people, not because that is His desire,
  but because, as Isaiah reveals, "your iniquities have been barriers
  between you and your God" (vs. 2, NRSV). Here is one of the clearest
  statements in the Bible regarding the effect of sin on the divine-
  human relationship. Isaiah spends the rest of chapter 59 elaborating
  on this point, which is seen all through human history: Sin can destroy
  our relationship with the Lord and thus lead to our eternal ruin—not
  because sin drives God away from us, but that it drives us away from
  God.

    Sin is primarily a rejection of God, a turning away from Him. The
  sin act actually feeds upon itself in that not only is the act a turning
  away from God but the result of the act causes the sinner to turn away
  even more from the Lord. Sin separates us from God, not because
  God wouldn't reach out to the sinner (indeed, the whole Bible is
  almost nothing but the account of God reaching out to save sinners)
  but because sin causes us to reject His divine overtures to us. That is
  why it is so important that we tolerate no sin in our lives.

   In what ways have you experienced the phenomenon of sin
   causing a separation from God? What, in your own experience,
   is the only solution to the problem?

                                                                       97

  Who Is Forgiven?
    Isaiah 59 presents a startling picture of the problem of sin.
 Fortunately, the Bible also presents the hope of redemption.
    To begin, the first question is, How many of us have sinned? The
 Bible is unequivocal: All of us have. Redemption, therefore, cannot be
 based on lack of sin; it must be based on forgiveness (Jer. 31:34). Paul
 agrees. All have sinned (Rom. 3:9-20, 23), so there can be no distinc-
 tion on that basis (Rom. 3:22). Those who are justified can be judged
 as just, only because they receive by faith the gift of God's righteous-
 ness through the sacrifice of Christ.

    Most people think the question in the judgment is: Who has sinned?
 But that is not a question that needs to be asked, because everyone has
 sinned. Instead, the question is: Who is forgiven? God is just when He
 justifies "the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26, NRSV). The
 deciding factor in the judgment is, Who has received and continues to
 receive forgiveness by having faith in Jesus?
   Now, it is true we are judged by works, but not in the sense that
 works save us. If so, then faith is made void (Rom. 4:14). Instead, our
 works reveal whether we truly have been saved (James 2:18).

    It is too late for good works, or obedience to the law, to redeem any-
 one. The purpose of the law in a sinful world isn't to save but to point
 out sin. Instead, "faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6, NRSV), love
 that is poured into the heart by God's Spirit (Rom. 5:5), demonstrates
 that a person has living faith in Jesus (compare James 2:26).
    Works are an outward expression, the human manifestation of a
 saving faith. Hence, a true Christian experience is one in which faith
 is expressed in a daily commitment to the Lord that is revealed by
 obedience to the law. In the judgment, God uses works as evidence for
 His creatures, who cannot read thoughts of faith as He can. But for the
 converted person, only works following conversion, when the life is
 empowered by Christ and the Holy Spirit, are relevant in the judg-
 ment. The preconversion life of sin has already been washed away by
 the blood of the Lamb (see Romans 6).

  Universal Appeal                (Isa. 60:1, 2).

     In these two verses, we are given a picture of God's deliverance of
  His people, following the exile, expressed with the imagery of God
  creating light out of darkness and pointing forward to an ultimate ful-
  fillment in salvation through Christ.

     God had a universal purpose when He chose Abraham and his
  descendants: Through Abraham all families of the earth would be
  blessed (Gen. 12:3, 18:18, 22:18). So, God's covenant with Abraham
  was ultimately intended to be a covenant with all humankind through
  Abraham. He and his descendants would be God's channel of revela-
  tion to the world.
     Isaiah sought to bring his people back to their ancient, universal
  destiny. As the representatives of the true God, they were responsible
  not only for themselves but for the world. They should welcome for-
  eigners who seek God (compare Isa. 56:3-8), for His temple "shall be
  called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa. 56:7, NRSV).

   In this context, how do you understand the role of the Seventh-
   day Adventist Church, or your role in that church?



                                                                      99

  "The Year of the Lord's Favor" (Isaiah 61). Who is speaking in Isaiah 61:1?


     The Spirit of God is on this anointed person, which means that he
  is a messiah or the Messiah. He is to "bring good news to the
  oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
  captives, and release to the prisoners" (vs. 1, NRSV). Who does that
  sound like? Compare Isaiah 42:1-7, where God's Servant is described
  in very similar terms.
     Isaiah 61:2 talks about the "acceptable year of the Lord." The
  Messiah, who is anointed as the Davidic King and Deliverer, pro-
  claims a special year of divine favor at the time when He proclaims
  liberty. Compare Leviticus 25:10, where God commands the Israelites
  to proclaim liberty in the holy fiftieth year: "It shall be a jubilee for
  you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every
  one of you to your family" (NRSV). This means that persons who had
  been forced to sell their ancestral land or to become servants in order
  to survive hard times (vss. 25-55) would reclaim their land and free-
  dom. Because the jubilee year began with the blowing of a trumpet on
  the Day of Atonement (vs. 9), we have mentioned this passage before
  in connection with Isaiah 58.
     While "the year of the Lord's favor" (NRSV) in Isaiah 61:2 is a kind
  of jubilee year, it is not simply an observance of Leviticus 25. This
  year is announced by the Messiah, the King, when He reveals Himself
  through a ministry of liberation and restoration. This is similar to
  some ancient Mesopotamian kings who promoted social kindness by
  proclaiming release from debts during early years of their reigns. The
  Messiah's ministry goes far beyond the scope of the Leviticus 25 law.
  Not only does He "proclaim liberty to the captives," He also binds up
  the brokenhearted, comforts those who mourn, and brings about their
  restoration (Isa. 61:1-11). Furthermore, in addition to "the year of the
  Lord's favor," he proclaims "the day of vengeance of our God" (vs. 2,
  NRSV).

   When was Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled? Luke 4:16-21. How did
   Jesus' ministry accomplish this? We, of course, are not Jesus,
   but we are to represent Him to the world. Also, ask yourself this
   important question: What are the things the Messiah does, as
   expressed in Isaiah 61:1-3, that we, in our limited capacities,
   should be doing, as well? And what are some of the practical
   ways in which we can do these things?

 "The Day of Vengeance of Our God"
  (Isa. 61:2, NRSV).

    When in Nazareth, Jesus, the Messiah, read Isaiah 61 as far as " 'to
  proclaim the year of the Lord's favor' " (vs. 2; Luke 4:19). Then he
  stopped and said: " 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
  hearing' " (Luke 4:21, NRSV). So, He deliberately and specifically
  avoided reading the next words in the same verse: "the day of
  vengeance of our God" (Isa. 61:2, NRSV). While His ministry of
  good news, liberty, and comfort was beginning to set captives free
  from Satan's tyranny, the day of vengeance was not yet to come. In
  Matthew 24 (compare Mark 13, Luke 21) He predicted to His disci-
  ples that divine judgments would come in the future.
     Indeed, in Isaiah 61 the day of God's vengeance is the "great and
  terrible day of the Lord" (Joel 2.31, NRSV; Mal. 4:5), to be fulfilled
  when Christ will come again to liberate planet Earth from injustice by
  defeating His enemies and setting the oppressed remnant of His peo-
  ple free (Revelation 19; compare Dan. 2:44, 45). So although Christ
  announced the beginning of "the year of the Lord's favor," its culmi-
  nation is at His second coming.

     Though Jesus has told us to turn the cheek (Matt. 5:39), in other
  places He is very clear that justice and punishment will be meted out
  (Matt. 8:12). Though Paul tells us not to "render evil for evil" (1 Thess.
  5 : 15), he also says that when the Lord is revealed from heaven, He will
  with flaming fire take "vengeance on them that know not God"
  (2 Thess. 1:8).
     The difference, of course, is that the Lord in His infinite wisdom
  and mercy can alone bring justice and vengeance in a completely fair
  manner. Human justice, human vengeance, comes with all the faults,
  frailties, and inconsistencies of humanity. God's justice, of course,
  will come with none of those limitations.

     How do we understand the link between God's love for us and
   the warnings of vengeance?


                                                                        101

     "Jesus stood before the people as a living expositor of the prophe-
  cies concerning Himself. Explaining the words He had read, He spoke
  of the Messiah as a reliever of the oppressed, a liberator of captives, a
  healer of the afflicted, restoring sight to the blind, and revealing to the
  world the light of truth. His impressive manner and the wonderful
  import of His words thrilled the hearers with a power they had never
  felt before. The tide of divine influence broke every barrier down; like
  Moses, they beheld the Invisible. As their hearts were moved upon by
  the Holy Spirit, they responded with fervent amens and praises to the
  Lord."—The Desire of Ages, p. 237.
     "The day of God's vengeance cometh—the day of the fierceness of
  His wrath. Who will abide the day of His coming? Men have hardened
  their hearts against the Spirit of God, but the arrows of His wrath will
  pierce where the arrows of conviction could not. God will not far
  hence arise to deal with the sinner. Will the false shepherd shield the
  transgressor in that day? Can he be excused who went with the multi-
  tude in the path of disobedience? Will popularity or numbers make
  any guiltless? These are questions which the careless and indifferent
  should consider and settle for themselves."—Ellen G. White, Faith
  and Works, p. 33.

  Rebirth of
  Planet Earth



  SABBATH AFTERNOON

          ne day, a 12-year-old boy, having just read a book on astron-
          omy, refused to go to school. His mother, hysterical, took the
          child to the family doctor, who asked, "Billy, what's the mat-
  ter? Why don't you want to study or go to school any more?"
     "Because, Doctor," he said, "I read in this astronomy book that one
  day the sun is going to burn out and all life on earth will vanish. I don't
  see any reason to do anything if, in the end, everything will die out."
     The mother, hysterical, shouted, "It's not your business! It's not
  your business!"
     The doctor, after calming down the mother, turned to the little boy,
  smiled, and said, "But, Billy, you don't need to worry, because by the
  time this happens, we'll all be long dead, anyway."
     Of course, that's part of the problem: In the end, we're all dead, any-
  way.
     Fortunately, our existence doesn't have to end in death. On the con-
  trary, we have been offered life, eternal life, in a world made new.

 New Heavens and a New Earth                                   (Isa. 65:17-25).

   God promises a new creation, beginning with the words: "For I am
 about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall
 not be remembered or come to mind" (Isa. 65:17, NRSV). In this
 remarkable prophecy, the Lord promises to "create Jerusalem as a joy,
 and its people as a delight" (vs. 18, NRSV). In the city there will be
 no more weeping (vs. 19). People normally will live considerably
 longer than a century before they die (vs. 20). Their work and children
 will remain for them to enjoy (vss. 21-23). God will answer them even
 before they call (vs. 24).

     Thus far we have a picture of tranquil long lives in the Promised
  Land. But even though people live longer, they still die. Where is the
  radical transformation of nature we expect with the creation of "new
  heavens" and a "new earth"? The next verse tells us: "The wolf and
  the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but
  the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on
  all my holy mountain, says the Lord" (vs. 25, NRSV).
     For carnivores such as lions to become vegetarian requires far more
  than a vegetarian cooking class. It requires a re-creation to restore the
  world to its ideal state, as it was before sin in Eden introduced death.
     What we have here in Isaiah 65 is God presenting the creation of
  "new heavens" and a "new earth" as a process, series of steps, that
  begins with the re-creation of Jerusalem. Compare Isaiah 11, where
  the Messiah would bring justice (vss. 1-5). Then, eventually, there will
  be peace on God's worldwide "holy mountain"; the imagery used in
  Isaiah 11 is similar to what's found in Isaiah 65: "The wolf shall live
  with the lamb . . . and the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . ." (Isa. 11:6,
   7, NRSV). Although the Lord's "holy mountain" would begin with Mt.
  Zion at Jerusalem, it was only a precursor, a symbol, of what God
  promises to do, ultimately, in a new world with His redeemed people.

   Suppose instead of living 60,70,90, or even 100 years, most peo-
   ple lived a million years or more. Why, still, would the funda-
   mental problem of humanity not be solved? Why is eternal life
   the only answer to our deepest human needs?


                                                                            105

  Divine "Magnet" (Isa. 66:1-19). Read Isaiah 66:1-19. Keeping in mind the time in which Isaiah
  wrote, what is the basic message he is giving here?




    Through the prophet, God reiterates the appeal and warning that
  permeates the book: God will save and restore the humble, who trem-
  ble at His word (vss. 2, 5). As in Isaiah 40:1, He will comfort them
  (vs. 13). But He will destroy those who rebel against Him. These
  include hypocrites of ritual, whose sacrifices He rejects (Isa. 66:3, 4;
  compare Isa. 1:10-15), as well as those who hate and reject His faith-
  ful ones (Isa. 66:5). They also include those who practice pagan
  abominations (vs. 17) like those practiced at the temple in Jerusalem
  (Ezek. 8:7-12).

     Following the destruction of His enemies (vss. 14-17), God reveals
  His glory so that He becomes a magnet to draw people to Jerusalem
  (compare Isa. 2:2-4). He sets a "sign" among them, which is not spec-
  ified here but apparently refers to the sign last mentioned by Isaiah:
  God gives His people joy and peace and restores their land (Isa.
  55:13). When He reveals His glory by restoring His people after
  destruction, this is a sign of His restored favor, just as He gave Noah
  the sign of the rainbow after the Flood (Gen. 9:13-17).

   Read Isaiah 66:5. What does it mean to tremble at His word?
   Why does the Lord want us to tremble at His word? If you
   don't, what might that say about the condition of your heart?

 Missionaries and Worship Leaders                                  (Isa.
 66:19-21).

   God sends survivors of His destruction out to the ends of the earth,
 to people who do not know about God, "and they shall declare my
 glory among the nations" (vs. 19, NRSV). This is one the clearest Old
 Testament statements of the theme of missionary outreach. In other
 words, not only are people to be drawn to the Hebrew nation but some
 of the Hebrew people will go to other nations and teach them about
 the true God—a paradigm that is explicit in the New Testament.
 Though there was Jewish missionary outreach between the time of
 return from exile and the time of Christ (Matt. 23:15), the early
 Christians spread the gospel rapidly and on a massive scale (Col.
 1:23).
    Just as the Israelites brought grain offerings to the Lord at His tem-
 ple, so the missionaries would bring an offering to Him. But their
 offering would be "all your kindred from all the nations" (Isa. 66:20,
 NRSV). Just as grain offerings were gifts to God that were not slaugh-
 tered, the converts brought to the Lord would be presented to Him as
 "living sacrifices" (compare Rom. 12:1). For the idea that people
 could be presented as a kind of offering to God, compare the much
 earlier dedication of Levites "as an elevation offering from the
 Israelites, that they may do the service of the Lord" (Num. 8:11,
  NRSV).

     The "them" in verse 21 refers to "your kindred from all the nations"
  (NRSV) in the previous verse. These are Gentiles, some of whom God
  would choose as worship leaders, along with the priests and Levites.
  This is a revolutionary change. God previously had authorized only
  descendants of Aaron to serve as priests and only other members of the
  tribe of Levi to assist them. Gentiles could not literally become
  descendants of Aaron or Levi, but God would authorize some to serve
  in these capacities, which had previously been forbidden to most Jews.

   Read 1 Peter 2:9, 10. To whom is Peter writing? What is he say-
   ing? What message does he have for each of us, as members of
   a "holy nation" today? Are we doing any better than the origi-
   nal people (Exod. 19:6)?

                                                                      107

  Community of Faith (Isa. 66:21).
    The Israelites were "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exod.
  19:6, NRSV) with special priests set apart to represent them as wor-
  ship leaders. But in the future, some Gentiles would become worship
  leaders (Isa. 66:21).

    In God's "new world order," Gentiles would not only join God's peo-
  ple, they would be equal partners with Jews in a combined community
  of faith that would be a "royal priesthood." Therefore, the distinction
  between Jews and Gentiles would become functionally irrelevant.

     Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles, proclaimed: "There is no
  longer Jew or Greek . . . for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if
  you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs accord-
  ing to the promise" (Gal. 3:28, 29, NRSV).
     Becoming heirs of the promise and therefore an exalted "royal
  priesthood" was not a mandate for smug elitism but a commission to
  join the Jews in proclaiming "the mighty acts of him who called you
  out of darkness into his marvelous light" (2 Pet. 2:9, NRSV; compare
  Isa. 66:19).
     The elevation of Gentiles did not entitle Jews to grumble that God
  was unfair in giving them the same reward. Nor did it entitle Gentiles
  to treat their Jewish brothers and sisters with disrespect any more than
  workers hired late in the day should look down on those hired earlier
  (compare Matt. 20:1-16). The Jews had first been "entrusted with the
  oracles of God" (Rom. 3:2, NRSV) as God's channel of revelation.
  Paul wrote to Gentiles: "But if some of the branches were broken off,
  and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the
  rich root of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches" (Rom.
  11:17, 18, NRSV).

   Why, in light of the Cross, in light of the gospel commission, is
   any kind of spiritual or ethnic or even political elitism so abhor-
   rent in the sight of God? Look closely at yourself; are you har-
   boring any sense of spiritual or ethnic superiority? If so, repent!

 So Shall Your Seed and Your Name
 Remain (Isa. 66:22-24).
    One of the most wonderful promises in Isaiah is found in Isaiah
 66:22. Read it carefully. In the new heavens and the new earth, our
 seed and our name shall remain—forever. No more blotting out, or
 cutting off, or grafting in, plucking up, or uprooting. We have here a
 promise of eternal life in a world made new—a world without sin,
 without death, without suffering, a new heaven and a new earth, the
 final and complete fulfillment of our Christian faith, the consumma-
 tion of what Christ had accomplished for us at the Cross.

    Though there are a number of different ways to look at this diffi-
  cult text, one approach is this: God created the Sabbath before the
  sacrificial system existed (Gen. 2:2, 3). So, although Sabbaths were
  honored by the ritual system, they are not dependent upon it. Thus,
  they continue uninterrupted throughout the restoration period, on into
  the new earth. There is no indication in the Bible that new moons
  were legitimate days of worship apart from the sacrificial system. But
  perhaps there will be worship days (but not necessarily rest days like
  weekly Sabbaths) in the new earth, possibly in connection with the
  monthly cycle of the tree of life (Rev. 22:2).
    Whatever specific meaning Isaiah 66:23, the crucial point seems to
  be that God's people will be worshiping Him throughout all eternity.

     As a graphic warning to the people of his day, Isaiah encapsulates the
  contrast between faithful survivors of the Babylonian destruction and
  rebels, who would be destroyed. This is not everlasting torment: The
  rebels are dead, killed by "fire," a destruction that was not quenched
  until it did its job so that the re-creation of Jerusalem could begin.
     Isaiah's warning points forward to an ultimate fulfillment prophe-
  sied by the book of Revelation: Destruction of sinners, Satan, and
  death in a lake of fire (Revelation 20), after which there will be " 'a
  new heaven and a new earth,' " a holy " 'new Jerusalem,' " and no
  more weeping or pain, " 'for the first things have passed away"' (Rev.
  21:1-4, NRSV; compare Isa. 65:17-19), a new existence, with eternal
  life for all who are redeemed from the earth.

                                                                       109

     "And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still
  more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is pro-
  gressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more
  men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His charac-
  ter. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the
  amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts
  of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rap-
  turous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten
  thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the
  mighty chorus of praise.
     " 'And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
  under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
  heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto
  Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.'
  Revelation 5:13.
     "The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The
  entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats
  through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and
  light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From
  the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inani-
  mate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is
  love."—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 678.

   0 Read 2 Peter 3:10-14. How do these verses reflect the same
   idea presented in Isaiah 66?

     This quarter's Bible Study Guide, Religion in Relationships, by
  Reinder Bruinsma, will guide us in a study of numerous passages of
  Scripture, with the intention of increasing our awareness of the ways
  by which our faith impacts our relationship to others—to those who
  are close to us and those who are afar. We will discuss how we can
  strengthen those relationships, even restore them if they have some-
  how broken down. We will discover that, indeed, there is more reli-
  gion in relationships than many may suspect.

  Memory Text-1 John 4:7, NN

  Sabbath Gem: And, yet, amid all this loneliness is the bibli-
  cal ideal, which is that we live in community with others—with fam-
  ily, friends, colleagues, authorities, fellow church members, et
  cetera. The question is, How does God want us to do it?

  Memory Text —Isaiah 6:1, NRSV.

  Sabbath Gem: This week we'll take a look at how children, or even
  how adults, should relate not only to their parents but to those who are
  older, in general. Because, in almost all cases, no matter who we are or
  how old we are, we come in contact with those who are even older.

    Lessons for the Visually Impaired The regular Adult Sabbath School
    Bible Study Guide is available free each month in braille and on audiocassette to
    sight-impaired and physically handicapped persons who cannot read normal ink print.
    This includes individuals who, because of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, paralysis, acci-
    dent, old age, and so forth, cannot hold or focus on normal ink-print publications.
    Contact Christian Record Services, Box 68506-0097.

ome regard Isaiah as the

        Q

                                                                                                                               CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
                                           Mow.                                      ome P0110                    EROON
                                                             Abidjan           Accra     Novo

                  Mission Projects
                  1 Radio station tower, Yaounde, Cameroon
                   2 Secondary school, Douala, Cameroon                               EQUATORIAL GUINE ,,L O V01700V2,,




                   3 Evangelistic centers/churches, Republic of Congo
                   4 Church, Valley View University, Accra, Ghana
                                                                                                     Libreville            CONGO
                   5 Phase two of hospital, Tamale, Ghana                                                         ABON
                   6 Four schools, Ghana

                                                                                                                         Z4°
                  Unions             Churches Companies Members        Population                                   ry
                  Central African          910       523   115,388    34,243,000
                  Ghana                    812     1,650   281,135    20,468,000
                  Nigeria                  698       986   205,346   133,882,000
                  Sahel                    123       391    28,882    90,652,000
                  West African              93       104    34,359    10,551,000

                  Total (as of 6/30/03)   2,636    3,654   665,110   289,796,000