At the time when the southern kingdom of Judah was about to end and the people taken into Babylonian captivity, God announced through His prophet Jeremiah the “new covenant.” This is the first time this notion is expressed in the Bible. However, when the 10-tribe northern kingdom of Israel was about to be destroyed (some … Continue reading –>
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 and answer the following questions: 1.Who instigates the covenant? 2.Whose law is being talked about here? What law is this? 3.Which verses stress the relational aspect that God wants with His people? 4.What act of God in behalf of His people forms the basis of that covenant relationship? It is clear: The new covenant is not … Continue reading –>
Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 5:17-28; Hosea 2:18-20; Isaiah 56:6-7; Hebrews 8:7-8; Hebrews 10:4; Matthew 27:51. Memory Verse: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31, RSV). A cartoon in a magazine years ago showed a business executive in an … Continue reading –>
Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, pages 968-970, in The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7; “The Observance of the Sabbath,” pages 349-351, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6; “From the Red Sea to Sinai,” pages 295-297, in Patriarchs and Prophets. The Ten Commandments define comprehensively and fundamentally the divine-human and human-human relationships. The commandment at the center of the Decalogue … Continue reading –>
Bawling Tattoo Artist By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission Dr. Hernando Díaz was assisting a patient at the Adventist Medical Center in Medellin, Colombia, when a shadowy figure at his office door startled him. It was a shaven-headed man covered with explicit tattoos. Tattoos formed a black-and-blue web over his head. Tattoos covered his arms and … Continue reading –>
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The Sabbath was and is a sign for man to “remember.” The use of the word remember can serve various functions. First, to remember something implies looking backward, looking to the past. In this case, the Sabbath points us to the fiat Creation, which climaxed in the institution of the … Continue reading –>
“You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13, RSV). An exceptionally rich Sabbath passage is Exodus 31:12-17, which follows the Lord’s directions for the building of the sanctuary and the establishment of its services (Exodus 25:1 to Exodus 31:11). … Continue reading –>
“The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:16-17). Four times in … Continue reading –>
“And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning” (Exodus 16:23). … Continue reading –>
How often we hear the phrase, the “old Jewish Sabbath.” Yet Scripture is clear that the Sabbath existed long before there were any Jewish people. Its origin is found in the Creation week itself. Look up Genesis 2:2-3 and Exodus 20:11. Where do they clearly, and unambiguously, place the origin of the Sabbath? Although Genesis 2:2-3 does not identify the “seventh … Continue reading –>
