Sabbath School Lesson Begins
The Book of Jeremiah
Lesson 11 December 5-11
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week's Study: Gen. 9:1-17; 12:1-3; Gal. 3:6-9, 15-18; Exodus 24:1-18; Jer. 31:31-34; 1 Cor. 11:24-26.
Memory Text: 'The
days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah'
(Jeremiah 31:31, NIV).
Although the Bible speaks of covenants
in the plural (Rom. 9:4, Gal. 4:24),
there is only one basic covenant, the covenant of grace, in which God
bestows salvation upon fallen beings who claim it by faith. The idea of
plural covenants
arises from the various ways God has restated
the essential covenant promise in order to meet the needs of His people
in different times and settings.
But whether it's the Adamic covenant (Gen. 3:15), the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, Gal. 3:6-9), the Sinaitic covenant (Exod. 20:2), the Davidic covenant (Ezek. 37:24-27), or the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), the idea is the same. The salvation God provides is a gift, unmerited and undeserved, and the human response to that gift-in a sense, humanity's holding up its side of the deal-is faithfulness and obedience.
The first mention of the New Covenant is in Jeremiah, in the context of Israel's return from exile and the blessings that God would grant them. Even amid calamity and trouble, the Lord extends to His wayward people the offer of hope and restoration.
Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 12.
We look at how bad the world is today; that is, we see all the evil
in it, and yet God still bears with us. Thus, we can only imagine just
how bad things must have been in order for the Lord to destroy the
whole world with a flood. God had given men His commandments as a
rule of life, but His law was transgressed, and every conceivable sin
was the result. The wickedness of men was open and daring, justice was
trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto
heaven.
-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 91.
Read Genesis 9:1-17. What covenant was made between God and humanity, and how does it reflect God's grace toward the creation?
The covenant God expressed to Noah was the most universal among the biblical covenants; it was with all humanity, and it included the animals and nature too (Gen. 9:12). Also, this was a one-sided arrangement: the Lord didn't impose any requirements or stipulations upon those with whom He was establishing the covenant. He simply was not going to destroy the earth with water again, period. Unlike other covenants, nothing was conditional about it.
God then sealed His covenant with a visible sign, that of a rainbow, which symbolizes the covenant promise that the earth will never be destroyed by a flood again. So, anytime we see a rainbow, the mere fact that we are here to see it is, in its own way, a vindication of this ancient covenant promise. (After all, if we had been wiped out in a universal flood, we wouldn't be here to see the rainbow!) Amid the constant sin and evil here on earth, at times we are blessed with the beauty of the rainbow, a sign of God's grace toward the whole world. We can look up at it and draw hope, not only from just how beautiful it is in and of itself, but also because we know that it's a message from God, a message of His love toward our wretched planet.
Dwell upon the grandeur and beauty of a rainbow. Especially in light of what the Bible tells us about the rainbow, in what ways can it draw us toward God, toward transcendence, toward something greater than what this mere earth itself offers?
Read Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-5, 17:1-14. What do these texts tell us about what the Lord intended to do through the covenant He made with Abraham?
The Abrahamic covenant of grace is fundamental to the entire course of salvation history. That's why Paul used it to help explain the plan of salvation as it was fulfilled in Jesus Himself.
Read Galatians 3:6-9, 15-18. How does Paul connect the covenant made with Abraham to Jesus and to salvation by faith alone?
Through Abraham's seed-referring not to his many descendants, but in particular to one, Jesus (see Gal. 3:16), God would bless the entire world. All who would be a part of Abraham's seed, which happens by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:29), would find that Abraham's God would be their God as well. Even back then, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness
(Gal. 3:6).
Abraham was no more saved by works than the thief on the cross was;
it's always and only God's saving grace that brings salvation. Abraham
fulfilled his end of the covenant promise. His obedience revealed the
faith that took hold of the promise of salvation. His works didn't
justify him; instead, the works showed that he was already justified.
That's the essence of the covenant and how it is expressed in the life
of faith (see Rom. 4:1-3).
Dwell upon the great truth that your hope of salvation comes only from the righteousness of Jesus credited to you by faith. What great hope and joy can you derive from this wonderful provision made in your behalf?
How was the covenant made between Israel and God at Mount Sinai? Exodus 24:1-18
Moses and some leaders went to Mount Sinai. These leaders included Aaron and his two sons, who represented the priests; and the 70 elders and leaders, who represented the nation. The men accompanying Moses had to stop from afar, but Moses was allowed to go on up to where God appeared.
Moses later came and affirmed the covenant with the whole nation. He
proclaimed what God had spoken to him, to which the nation answered
with the following words: All the words which the Lord has said we will do.
(See Exod. 24:3, NKJV.)
Of course, as sacred history has shown and as our own experience often proves, it's one thing to make the claim to be obedient; it's quite another to reach out in faith and surrender in order to harness the divine power that gives us the grace to do what we say we will.
Read Hebrews 4:2. How does this verse explain Israel's failure? How can we learn to avoid the same mistake?
Only by faith and by grasping the promises that come by faith can we be obedient, an obedience that is expressed by loyalty to God's law. Obedience to the law was no more contrary to the everlasting covenant in Moses' time than it is in ours. The common misperception about the law and the covenants, which usually arises from reading Paul, stems from a failure to take into account the context in which Paul was writing, that of dealing with his Judaizing opponents. They wanted to make the law and obedience to it, central to the faith; Paul, in contrast, wanted to make Christ and His righteousness the central component.
How often have you said, All that the Lord has told me, I will do?
only to fail to follow through? How does this unfortunate reality make
the promise of grace so much more precious? What hope would you have
without it?
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What do these texts mean both in their immediate context and in ours today?
Jeremiah uttered these words amid the greatest crisis the people had yet faced: the coming Babylonian invasion, when the nation was threatened with all but certain extinction. Here again, however, as in other places, the Lord offered them hope, the promise that this was not going to be the ultimate end, and that they would have another chance to thrive in the presence of the Lord.
So, the first promise of the new covenant
found in the Bible
is in the context of Israel's eventual return from Babylonian exile and
the blessing that God would grant to them upon that return. Just as the
breaking of the covenant made at Sinai (Jer. 31:32)
brought them into exile, so the remaking of this covenant would
preserve them and their hope for the future. Like the Sinai covenant,
the new covenant would be relational, and it would include the same
law, the Ten Commandments, but now written not just on tablets of stone
but in their minds and on their hearts, where it should have been all
along.
The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone is
written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of
going about to establish our own righteousness, we accept the
righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience
is accepted for us. Then the heart renewed by the Holy Spirit will
bring forth 'the fruits of the Spirit.' Through the grace of Christ we
shall live in obedience to the law of God written upon our hearts.
Having the Spirit of Christ, we shall walk even as He walked.
-Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 372.
Under the new covenant, their sins would be forgiven, they would
know the Lord for themselves, and they would obey God's law through the
power of the Holy Spirit working in them. Old covenant in shadows and
in symbols, new covenant in reality, salvation was always by faith, a
faith that would reveal the fruits of the Spirit.
The prophecy of Jeremiah about the new covenant contains a double application: first, it refers to Israel's return to God and His bringing them home; second, it refers to the work of Jesus the Messiah, whose death ratified the covenant and would change the relationship between humans and God. It's in the New Covenant that we get the fullest expression of the plan of salvation, which before had been revealed only in shadows and types (Heb. 10:1).
Read Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:24-26. How do these texts link back to Jeremiah's prophecy?
The broken body of Christ and His shed blood were revealed in the Old Testament in the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. The juice of the vine represents the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, revealed in the New Testament. The work of Jesus did not begin with the New Testament; it embraced the Old as well, and in the communion service we can see the link that unites what Jesus has done all through salvation history.
The bread and the juice, then, provide the shortest summary of that salvation history. Though they are just symbols, it is still through these symbols that we understand God's incredible work in our behalf.
The Communion service points not just to Christ's death, but also to
His return, without which His death would be all but meaningless. After
all, what good would Christ's first coming be without the second, when
we are resurrected from the grave (1 Thess. 4:16, 1 Cor. 15:12-18)? Jesus established the link when He said, But
I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom
(Matt. 26:29).
No question, Christ's first coming is inseparably tied to His second.
The first finds its ultimate fulfillment only in the second.
Next time you partake of the communion service, think about Christ's vow not to drink of the fruit of the vine until He does so with us in the kingdom of God. How does that make you feel? What does that say about the closeness that Christ seeks with us?
unweave a rainbow,but even if we could parse, measure, predict, and quantify everything about a rainbow down to the innards of each photon and the underbelly of every quark, what would that prove other than that we understand better the natural laws God used to create the signs of this covenant promise? Science might one day be able to explain everything about how rainbows are made-even to 25 digits to the right of a decimal point-but it can never explain why they are made.
We, though, know why. Because God created our world in such a way
that when sunlight and mist are in right relationships to each other,
the mist breaks up the light by refracting and reflecting it at
different angles that create bands of electromagnetic waves which, when
reaching our eyes, imprint the image of rainbows in our minds. And He
did it (the why
that science can never explain) to remind us of His covenant promise that never again would He destroy the earth by water.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org
All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Sabbath School Lesson Ends
For questions and concerns about the Study Guide,
please contact the editor
of the Bible Study Guide, Clifford Goldstein
The web version of the Sabbath School lesson is published on
this site by permission of the Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Website contents copyright 1996-2020 by Sabbath School Net, an independent supporting ministry.
For permission to copy contents of the web version of the Sabbath School lesson, please contact both the Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide and the publisher of this site.
All art in these lessons and on the cover is published on this site by permission of GoodSalt.com.
We invite you to join a discussion of this lesson each day on the Sabbath School Net Daily Lessons blog. And on Sabbath mornings, you are warmly invited to join a group discussion of the week's lesson in your local Seventh-day Adventist congregation.
Sabbath School Net Home page | Directory of Sabbath School Bible Study materials
Sabbath School Net is an independently funded supporting website not affiliated with nor funded by the Sabbath School Department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists)It is run by volunteers and costs are covered solely by donations from the users of this site as well as the small commissions generated by sales through our links to online stores.
If you are using this site regularly, please pray for God's blessing on our visitors and ask Him to impress you how you can help with the costs of putting this site up every month. We appreciate any gift to support the ongoing publication of SSNET, and only you and God know how much you can give. Even a small donation every month helps. And larger gifts are much appreciated. (No, you don't need a PayPal account. Just choose the "Continue" link to the left of the PayPal registration. And, yes, it's safe - as safe as your online bank account.)
Sabbath School Net
You can find a sampling of materials available to aid you in your studies at our SSNET Store. (We will get a small commission not only from any books you purchase but also from whatever else you purchase at the same time. These commissions help to underwrite a small portion of the cost of publishing this site.)
You can also go directly to the home pages of stores which will pay us a small commission for whatever you choose to buy, without costing you a penny extra: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | ChristianBooks.com | AbeBooks Store
Archive of previous Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guides
Prepared for the Internet by the SSNET Web Team.
Contact the Sabbath School Net Web Team
Go back to top of page