Biblical scholarship has long recognized the similarities between Israel’s covenant with God and other covenantal agreements between kingdoms. This parallel shouldn’t be surprising. The Lord was simply working with His people in an environment that they could understand. At the same time, the idea of a covenant, a legal agreement between two parties, with rules … Continue reading –>
Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. Romans 13:10 NLT A young grade-school boy and his daddy were walking down a country road when they noticed a car pull over to the shoulder a few hundred meters up the road. The passenger door opened, and a little puppy … Continue reading –>
It’s hard for us today to grasp much of what the ancient world was like at the time in which Israel was wandering the wilderness. If whole empires have come and gone, with only ruins (if that) remaining, what can we know of many of the smaller pagan nations that lived in the same area … Continue reading –>
Though the idea of covenant (berit in Hebrew), to describe God’s relationship with His people, is found all through the Bible, this word appears so often in Deuteronomy that Deuteronomy has been called “The Book of the Covenant.” Look at Deuteronomy 5:1-21. What is happening here that helps to show how central the idea of covenant (berit) is to the … Continue reading –>
Key Thought: All through the Bible the covenant and the gospel appear together. The central truth of the covenant was the gospel: salvation by faith. October 16, 2021 1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 9:5, 27. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage. What … Continue reading –>
There are a number of titles in this quarter’s lessons that have the word ‘love’ in them – Love, to Be Loved; To Love God; He First Loved Us; To Love the Lord Your God; to name just a few. Hence, I believe a wonderful hymn to devote to as a theme will be Hymn … Continue reading –>
“It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, … Continue reading –>
All through the Bible, the covenant and the gospel appear together. Though the idea of covenant existed before the nation of Israel (for example, the Noahic covenant), and though the covenant promise was made before the nation of Israel existed, it was expressed prominently through God’s interaction with His people, starting with their fathers, the … Continue reading –>
Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 12:1-3, Romans 4:1-5, Exodus 2:24, Deuteronomy 5:1-21, Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Deuteronomy 8:5, Matthew 28:10. Memory Text: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7). “Then I saw another angel flying in … Continue reading –>
Further Thought: Here’s how one scholar seeks to answer the hard questions about what the Israelites did to some of these nations: “As Creator of all things and all human beings and as sovereign over all, God can do anything [He] wants with anyone and be right in doing so. … The ways of God … Continue reading –>
