Has modern technology removed the need for sacrifice? Now everyone can have their own way. When I was growing up back in the 20th century, my family had one black and white TV. On Monday nights, at our house we had to make compromises.
Jim and his wife Plessie, who knew you can’t have paradise without sacrifice.
My dad and me missed the first hour of Monday Night Football so that my mom and sister could watch Little House on the [...]
Read Leviticus 17:10-11. What function does God give to the blood?
Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com
In a passage where God instructs the Israelites not to eat any blood, He provides an interesting reason for this prohibition: blood stands for life, and God has made sacrificial blood a ransom for human life. One life, represented by the blood, ransoms another life. The principle of substitution, which became explicit on Mount Moriah when Abraham offered the blood of the ram in [...]
Key Thought : The sacrificial system was introduced to Adam and Eve, practiced by the patriarchs, and amplified in the law of Moses..
[Teaching plan for Sacrifices October 14, 2013]
1. Have a volunteer read Exodus 12:21-24.
a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
b. Why were they supposed to dip hyssop in the blood?
c. Personal Application : How can we learn to surrender everything to God and do everything exactly [...]
Read Genesis 22:1–19. What did Abraham learn about sacrifice?
Image © Jeff Preston from GoodSalt.com
What was God’s purpose in this incredible challenge to Abraham’s faith? The patriarch’s life with God had always been accompanied by divine promises: the promise of land, of descendants, and of blessings; the promise of a son; and the promise that God would take care of Ishmael. Abraham sacrificed, but it was always in the light of some promise. However, in the situation described in Genesis 22, [...]
In Old Testament times, believers could bring offerings on different occasions and in different personal circumstances. Different objects they were allowed to “offer” included clean animals, grain, or drink, as well as other things. The animal sacrifice is the oldest element in the sanctuary service, and together with the priestly service, it belongs to the center of the Israelite service. Religious life without sacrifice was inconceivable.
Image © Jeff Preston from GoodSalt.com
Which kinds of offerings are described in the following [...]
Read Genesis 3:9–21. What was God’s response to Adam and Eve after they sinned?
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Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, in a sanctuary-like garden, and God granted them face-to-face communion with their Creator. Their first sin opened a nearly insurmountable breach in their relationship to God. However, God had already planned how to counter such a breach of trust, and even before there came any judgment against them, He gave them the hope [...]
Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 3:9–21; Exod. 12:21–27; Lev. 2:1–3; Gen. 22:1–19; Lev. 17:10-11; Phil. 4:18.
Memory Text: “I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”(Romans 12:1, NASB).
Central to the entire gospel is the concept of sacrifice. In the biblical languages, the words for“sacrifice” often depict the idea of drawing near, and of bringing something to God. The basic [...]
In China pastors often have several churches. Pastor Sun oversees 10 churches and 200 small groups with a membership of about 5,000. To shepherd this large and diverse flock, Pastor Sun trains lay evangelists.
Sister Xu found Christ and joined the Adventist church in the provincial capital. She wanted to share her new faith with her family and friends living in her hometown, Wu Yan, a city of about 100,000 people. When she arrived in Wu Yan, she found no other [...]
Further Study: Ellen G. White, “The School of the Hereafter,” pp. 301–309, in Education; “The Controversy Ended,” pp. 673–678, in The Great Controversy.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
“A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father’s house. Those who accept the teachings of God’s [...]
Multi-Level Disasters? Mother-in-Law Debates? Maple-Lemon Duck Sauce?
Acronyms develop when something appears so often that it calls for a more efficient name. No need for, “Repondez s’il vous plait.” Just write, “R.S.V.P.” Same with A.M., P.M., B.C., A.D., P.S., ASAP, B.Y.O.B and many more.
I’ve decided to coin an acronym: M.L.D. stands for Major Life Disappointment. I’ve decided it’s long overdue we talk about them, and officialize while taming them a bit, as acronyms tend to do. A case in point: A.D.D. [...]
[Thought questions for Heaven on Earth October 9, 2013]
Prayer, like incense, ascending to God
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1. Corporate prayer. Offering incense may have been a once-in -a-lifetime experience for Zechariah. He would spend a week ministering in the temple. It was in the temple that he would burn incense. The smoke would go upward as a reminder that the prayers of the people would go to the dwelling place of God. Zechariah had [...]
Read Revelation 7:15–17. Where are the redeemed, and how does this passage portray them?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
These verses describe the redeemed as kings and priests who serve in God’s palace and temple (Rev. 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). The promise that “He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them” (Rev. 7:15, NASB) alludes to God’s presence in the wilderness sanctuary, where He dwelt among ancient Israel as its Leader. On the new earth, the sanctuary [...]
If you were a high school student in the United States any time in the last 100 years, you were probably assigned the reading of a sermon preached in 1741 by Jonathan Edwards, called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It’s not a warm and fuzzy, feel-good sermon. Edwards describes God as angry and anxious to dole out justice to all who deserve it.
“So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, [...]
In Numbers 21:1-9 God has Moses set a brass serpent on a pole so that if anybody was bitten by a serpent, they could look at this serpent on a pole and be healed. Now as real and literal as this serpent was it was only symbolic. There was no magic in the brass or the pole.
Image © Phil McKay from GoodSalt.com
This brass serpent was to point forward to Jesus who would become sin for us and die for [...]
After Christ’s ascension to heaven and His inauguration as High Priest in the sanctuary there, the temple on earth no longer had any real purpose in the plan of salvation (see Matt. 27:50-51). However, God still seeks to dwell among His people on earth, which was now possible through the Holy Spirit. The apostles use temple imagery to convey this truth.
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Read 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19–22. Notice the sanctuary imagery [...]
Key Thought : The heavenly temple is the original, the model for the Israelite sanctuary. The relationship between the two is called typology.
[Lesson plan for Heaven on Earth October 7, 2013]
1. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 9:23,24.
a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
b. Is the earthly tabernacle a carbon copy of the heavenly? Does the earthly sanctuary really look like the heavenly?
c. Personal Application : If Jesus [...]
