Friday: Further Thought ~ Noble Prince of Peace
Further Thought:
“The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life’s peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan’s power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. ‘Herein is love.’ Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” — Ellen G.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
White, The Desire of Ages, p. 49.
“Christ was the one who consented to meet the conditions necessary for man’s salvation. No angel, no man, was sufficient for the great work to be wrought. The Son of man alone must be lifted up; for only an infinite nature could undertake the redemptive process. Christ consented to connect himself with the disloyal and sinful, to partake of the nature of man, to give his own blood, and to make his soul an offering for sin. In the counsels of heaven, the guilt of man was measured, the wrath for sin was estimated, and yet Christ announced his decision that he would take upon himself the responsibility of meeting the conditions whereby hope should be extended to a fallen race.” — Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times, March 5, 1896.
Discussion Question:
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Summary:
In the days of Isaiah, whose name means “Salvation of the Lord,” God promised His remnant people salvation from the oppression that was coming upon them as a result of national apostasy. This prophecy of hope finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, whose name means “The Lord is Salvation.”
(33)
The promise of salvation is something that we hold very dear, but often we simply surround the notion with a lot of "holy" words without really thinking about it. Uppermost in most of our minds in the notion that salvation means eternal life in Heaven and the New Earth; a sort of everlasting retirement plan. We are willing to give up earthly pleasure to lay up treasure in heaven.
While I am sure that assurance of eternal life is important, salvation is just as much about the here and now as it is about future promises. If we look at the history of the Hebrews in the Old Testament, salvation was about their relationship with God, and consequently with their neighbours, in the present. God wanted the blessings of salvation to be given to his chosen people now. We read prophets like Isaiah through the lens of New Testament, Jesus, refocus of the prophecies, but if we stand in the shoes of the Hebrews in Isaiah's time; much of his message makes sense for their "present".
Perhaps it makes sense to rethink our own interpretation of the Gospel message in our time. We want to tell our current secular, non-spiritual world about salvation and eternal life. Both ideas are a complete nonsense to most of our secular friends. But if we can tell, show, or let them experience the idea of salvation in the present maybe we have a chance of getting the message though.
I went to China a few years ago (actually went to Wuhan for a few hours) and I did not understand a word of Mandarin or Cantonese. Yet, I encountered Chinese people who communicated to me that they were happy that I was visiting China, not by their words, but by their actions. They would grab my elbow and point to something interesting, smiling when I recognised what they were trying to show me. I remember taking a worship with our Adventist tour group on our last day of the tour in Shanghai and pointing out that for most of us the only Chinese words we knew were "Ni hou" (Good day). I reminded the group than when we try and communicate with the secular mind today that our language barrier is just as great.
I come back to the idea that the Gospel, the good news of salvation, must have a very present communicable interpretation that is meaningful, not just to us who study Sabbath School lessons, but to our secularly minded friends and aquaintances.
How can we grab our friend's elbows and point them to the sights that they should see?
This is an interesting perspective Maurice, and reminds me of when I went to Japan to visit my son. He understood and spoke Japanese pretty fluently, and although he was raised SDA he does not attend church. However, he went to the little Adventist church in Nagano with me, which it turns out was only a 1/2 mile walk from his house. Although he understood much of the Sabbath School class and was able to interpret for me, the sermon was difficult for him to understand. He said it was like another dialect of Japanese that he did not know. He would need to spend more time in that environment for him to understand it. This lends an added perspective to what you are saying for me. Are we as Adventist's and Christians speaking such a different language that those around us cannot even understand what we are saying? Something for us to think about. One thing that did come through though, was the love of the people. They were so happy we were there, just as you experienced in China, and were so disappointed that we were not able to stay for refreshments after the service. It was a very special day for me, and my prayer is that someday my son will spend more time there and get to know that language so he can share it with others in a language they can understand, as he has a YouTube channel teaching others Japanese. I pray that someday he will be a missionary to the Japanese people.
I liked that. I do hope your son
s life will be redirected back to following Jesus
What came to my mind as I read this weeks lesson, and especially Fridays “Further Thoughts”, is do we really understand what Salvation is and what are we being saved from. My thoughts went all the way back to Lucifer in heaven, before the angels were even aware of what was going on in his heart. He spread subtle lies about Gods character. Those subtle lies became bolder until he killed his creator. Jesus perfect life and self sacrificing death, showed the universe his true character and revealed Satans true character. Jesus life shows us how we can live on this earth, at this time. We can be victorious as Jesus was, not sinless but victorious. As I look at the chaos and misery going on in our world today, yes we will be saved from that, but we can live in peace and harmony right here and right now. Our salvation starts when we choose God over self. Isaiah 26:3 is just one promise of peace.
Isaiah tells of both comings of Christ in one picture. So then, the stories in the gospels around Christ's first coming should poetically parallel events around His second coming? Considering this, as I think about my personal reaction and preparation for Christ's 2nd coming, I wonder if Simeon at the temple in Jerusalem can show me a picture of how to be ready to receive Him? Can we see ourselves in Simeon?
Reading Luke 2:25-35, I notice:
(1) Simeon was righteous and devout (Luke 2:25). What does that mean? It means consecrating ourselves to being holy (Lev. 20:7) Also being devout means being purified by having the hope of Jesus' return? "We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). Also, Simeon blessed Mary and helped to prepare her for her upcoming trials; being righteous means blessing others (Luke 2:34).
(2) The Holy Spirit is mentioned 3x in Simeon's story - the Spirit was upon him, revealed truth to him, and moved him (Luke 2:25-27). I can pray with all my heart to be filled and overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
(3) The Holy Spirit had told Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Lord Christ. Simeon believed this so firmly that he went to the temple courts to wait (Luke 2:26-27). We don't know if baby Jesus showed up on the same day the Spirit made him this promise, or if he went to the temple day after day for a long period of time. It seems pretty clear that Simeon had no doubts, though. An unwavering belief in Christ's return will impact my daily schedule.
I grew up in a Christian home with a grandmother who shared her faith with us daily, reading Bible stories and writing her own faith-filled poetry. She was very literal about Jesus coming back in clouds (Mark 13:26; Rev 1:7). I remember as a little girl often running outside and looking up at the clouds and wondering if a big white puffy cloud hid Jesus and was he returning that day. Now that I know those are called "cumulus" clouds and understand more about the heavens scientifically, does that stop me from truly believing that Jesus could be speeding to Earth at this very moment? Is up in the sky with winged angels and trumpets, like we've seen in paintings, too literal or naive? (I've also heard that Jesus will return through the middle star in Orion's belt. Again, is this a crazy idea?) Did Simeon get caught up in the details or did he just pray, "Is it today, Lord?" Am I praying every day "Come quickly, Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 22:20) Or should I be praying for God to hold back the four winds? (Rev. 7:1-3)
(4) Simeon was humble. He named God his "Sovereign Lord" and called himself a servant (Luke 2:29). He was looking for Jesus' glory (Luke 2:32), not his own.
(5) Simeon quoted Isaiah: he knew the prophecies (Luke 2:32; Is. 49:6; Is. 60:1-3) He claimed God's promises and waited obediently for them to be fulfilled, surrendered to God's Word (Luke 2:29).
Dear Esther, thank you for this comment. I intend to preach about it tomorrow Sabbath! May the Lord richly bless you!
God is so good! I'm humbled to be a part of the spreading of His Word, thank you brother Lawrence!
I am blessed with this lesson God bless you all in the name Jesus.
The messages the Holy Spirit sent to His people through Isaiah were a call to righteousness - there are 58 verses about righteousness. I believe that righteousness is a state of being, of having a character which is in harmony with the LORD. They had forgotten the true character of the LORD as explained to Moses after the Exodus.
Do I remember the LORD's character of "tough love" - have I allowed Him to change my heart and mind to be like Him, if not I will reap the consequences executed by the LORD as He has warned.
Not every child has the privilege of being loved by his or her biological parents. Unfortunately, as a result of sin, some are not only abandoned and rejected, but are misused and/or misled by the very ones God entrusted them to. The relationships God established for us to experience and learn love, support , encouragement and loving service, thru sin are often marred and even destructive.
In His love, mercy and grace, God doesn’t leave those of us who are without those tender connections without hope or help.
Psalms 28:10 “ When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the LORD will take me up.”
Isaiah 49:15 “ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
Isaiah 54:4, 6 “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.”
The Lord is faithful to these promises. He will guide and teach us Himself. He will reveal to us how great His love and commitment is. If we are willing, despite the calamitous, disastrous losses we incur, He will transform us to reveal His love.
Even in the face of failures in human associations if we believe in Him, God will transform and use us in the very areas of life that we feel we have experienced our greatest spiritual defeats and/or losses. What a privilege it is to experience this kind of victory over the ruinous traps set by our spiritual enemy.
Looking back through the chapters we have already studied, I find the timing of God’s message to be given to His people important; though God is always on time :-)! When the kings governments for the people of Israel faltered and ultimately failed, when the people were faced with the inevitable truth that they will be no more a people but taken to live with the people of other kingdoms, God the Father gave them the good news – Isaiah 11:1-5KJV, v.1: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” Man’s government eventually fails their people everytime, everywhere, but He has provided the only King who can assure peace - Isaiah 9:6, "...and the government shall be on HIS shoulders."
It was the children of Israel's idea to have an earthly king reign over them; wanting to be 'just like the other nations' - 1Sam.8:20. God's omniscience leads all affairs of man, and I can see in the events of the flow of time that the people were being prepared to understand that there is only one who could lead them away from ultimate destruction – His Son. The time had come to introduce His Son as Savior and King to His people. His Son would be able to do everything that man cannot do by himself – bring righteousness, peace and good will to man.
Mankind could not have survived without God’s Mercy and Grace. The Scriptures told them that their God had once before initiated a restart of His plan to populate the earth with man. Noah was a man used by God, as were all the other Prophets and Judges, to help establish a trust- and faith relationship of the people with their God.
Ultimately though, God has to let man go through the paces of his maturing process; the growing up into becoming the man of faith and righteousness; but man has a stiff neck, so to speak.
I believe that keeping an eye on the timeline will help man's relationship with God. God’s work is done in stages, some have already come and gone, some are yet to come; but all are contained in His plan for the Salvation of mankind.
Yes, it is interesting to find historical information about people from long ago, but like Salomon’s saying states: “There is nothing new under the sun.” The process of mankind's Salvation will go on until the time is right for the new earth and the new heavens to be established. I want to keep this bigger picture in focus, it helps me know that God is in charge to lead man out of this madness we call civilization, man's world.
God's call went out to all the people throughout all ages; He declared to man that he has a Father who wants His children to come home; to be their God, Lord and Master, their Father who loves His children and directs them in the straight and narrow way of righteous living according to the rules guiding His spiritual Kingdom. His Will always was as it is now, that man keep peace with each other and to let kindness and righteousness be the law of the land.
The time has come - no more time to waste - all the necessary events have taken place for mankind to know and to accept the help to do the Father’s Will and walk the path of righteousness by faith in the Word of God, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
Noble Prince of Peace
Propitiation means- to appeased, to atone, to reconcile.
How is it that I am the one who is at wrath with God/the guilty one, the sinner, yet Christ in love/who is Love, is the one who is doing the reconciling for my sins. Is something wrong with that picture?
Author stated- “Christ was the one who consented to meet the conditions necessary for man’s salvation. Bible says- Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
No man hath seen God at any time, If we love one another, God dwelleth is us, and his Love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:11-12.
It was time for me to begin devotion at the start of another Sabbath. I should be heading west in my home, for some reason I found myself heading east to the sound of 3ABN service. It was Ps Dwight Nelson preaching and something happen that I cant explained but I sat down. I am encouraging all to listen to that sermon. The sermon was from a series of 7. Entitled- Storm: Finding Jesus in the gathering dark #5. That sermon was preached since Sabbath Feb 11, 2017. That sermon is so relevant after four years, in our time.
It is said all brings some sort of bias to the table. I am asking Jesus to reveal the bias in me so his love will be perfected in me.
#76 O love that will not let me go.
#77 O love of God most full.
#79 O love of God how strong and true.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15.
O, that I might find Love (Christ) in my heart to love each other as Christ had called me to.
God bless u ,wish to always join the discussion