Friday: Further Thought - 'The Nations: Part 1'

Daily Lesson for Friday 25th of April 2025

Further Thought: Read Isaiah 44:24-28; Isaiah 45:1-13.

“Little by little, at first in stealth and silence, and then more openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men, ‘the mystery of iniquity’ carried forward its deceptive and blasphemous work.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian church. The spirit of compromise and conformity was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions which the church endured under paganism. But as persecution ceased, and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and his apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in place of the requirements of God, she substituted human theories and traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine, in the early part of the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, Pages 49, 50.

In line with the question at the end of Wednesday’s study, are we not all in danger, especially the longer we are here, of setting “aside the humble simplicity of Christ and his apostles” for the pomp, power, accolades, and temptations of the world? If we think we’re not, we are fooling ourselves.

Discussion Questions

When God exiled His people to Babylon, it was a particularly painful moment. Abraham had been called out of Chaldea to establish a covenant people as a light for the planet, and now they were taken away in chains. During their captivity, God showed Israel what might have been if they had been faithful. Nebuchadnezzar, the very head of a system utterly opposed to God, comes to Christ (Daniel 4:1-37). At the end of the Israelites’ captivity, God raises up a Persian king to serve as a type of Christ, releasing His people from Babylon and returning them to the Promised Land. Cyrus was not an Israelite, and yet God chose him to demonstrate the plan of salvation to the world as he returned God’s covenant people to Jerusalem. What lessons can we learn about how God views humanity from the fact that He was now using people outside of Israel to accomplish His goals?
We might not be in Babylon, but how much of Babylon might be in us? How do we recognize this problem, and how can we change?

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The captains and the kings conspire to build greater kingdoms with monuments built of granite to last forever. But, in the end much of their glory fades and their greatness is forgotten or simply used by tourists in their quest for selfies.
Percy Byssch Shelley, the English poet sums it up well in his poem:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Shelley 1819

In contrast God offers us:

“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible. That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Dan 2:44,45 TLB

We see the glory of that kingdom now in the acts of compassion and kindness of the followers of Jesus as they share his love with others. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

I am back from New Zealand after a really great holiday. For those of you who would like a bit of Sabbath viewing, click on the link below. There are not so many birds in the slideshow but some wonderful scenes from what must be one of the wettest places on earth!

New Zealand Part 1

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Comments

Friday: Further Thought – ‘The Nations: Part 1’ — 10 Comments

Maurice Ashton on April 24, 2025 at 10:19 am said:

The captains and the kings conspire to build greater kingdoms with monuments built of granite to last forever. But, in the end much of their glory fades and their greatness is forgotten or simply used by tourists in their quest for selfies.
Percy Byssch Shelley, the English poet sums it up well in his poem:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart.Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Shelley 1819

In contrast God offers us:

“During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible. That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Dan 2:44,45 TLB

We see the glory of that kingdom now in the acts of compassion and kindness of the followers of Jesus as they share his love with others. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

I am back from New Zealand after a really great holiday. For those of you who would like a bit of Sabbath viewing, click on the link below. There are not so many birds in the slideshow but some wonderful scenes from what must be one of the wettest places on earth!

New Zealand Part 1

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- Erma Hutton on April 25, 2025 at 6:10 am said:
  
  Welcome back Maurice. Your insightful comments were surely missed.
  
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- Wendy Wessels on April 25, 2025 at 8:20 am said:
  
  Thank you for sharing your beautiful slide show. Despite the cloudy skies and rain, you were still able to reveal God's amazing artwork.
  
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Rob Adams on April 24, 2025 at 7:55 pm said:

I remember trying to memorize "Ozymandias" in high school. It didn't go well. 🙁

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- Tim Heischberg on April 24, 2025 at 8:41 pm said:
  
  Hello Rob! Don't feel bad, when I was in high school I couldn't spell Ozymandias. 😁
  
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- Erma Hutton on April 25, 2025 at 6:13 am said:
  
  Hello Rob, I did memorize it and still recall most of it.In school I had to study it to prepare for Cambridge A level exams.
  
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Carla Emanuelson on April 25, 2025 at 4:21 am said:

Welcome back Maurice. Thanks for sharing the video. Now I have an idea of what part of South New Zealand looks like. God's nature is, although sin has entered the world still very beautiful indeed.

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Brigitte Humphery on April 25, 2025 at 11:01 am said:

Ellen G. White, with her concise and pointed writing style, accurately identified a core problem in Christianity: the “cloak of righteousness” that has veiled the church ever since it became “acceptable” by worldly standards.

If we bring the 'world' into the ‘church’, where then does the true church retreat to? Have we, in spirit, truly separated ourselves from the world and its temptations, or have we convinced ourselves that we are in a 'safe' place as long as we engage in presumptive acts of 'doing good' as counting toward salvation?

If the spirit of the world has become a well-tamed and easy-to-ride horse in the stable of Christianity, can we truly claim to have come out of Babylon? As the lesson writer points out: ‘True riches lie in the simplicity of Christ’ — the spirit of humility, meekness, and loving kindness present in the heart and mind of the believer at all times — far surpassing anything the world and its pomp can ever offer.

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- Tim Heischberg on April 25, 2025 at 6:25 pm said:
  
  Very good comment Brigitte. The "spirit of the world" in the church is indeed Babylon. People don't dictate the terms of how they worship God, He does. To complicate the simplicity of Christ is Babylon. To refuse to wear the wedding garment of Christ's Righteousness is also Babylon. We worship God on His terms, not our own.
  
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JC Zielak on April 26, 2025 at 3:24 pm said:

Unfortunately, humans value material things more than moral or spiritual ones. If this has entered every home, the prime church, imagine the "outside" church.

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