Second Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
Isaiah "Comfort My People"

Insights to Lesson 9
To Serve and to Save
May 22-28

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

These “INSIGHTS” are not intended to be a general treatise on the Sabbath School Lessons. Others do a very good job with their comments. Our purpose is to consider the lessons in the light of that special “most precious message” that “the Lord in His great mercy sent to His people” as the beginning of the final Loud Cry to lighten the earth with glory, and as advance showers of the Latter Rain.

From Isaiah 40 on through to chapter 66, we are called repeatedly to “behold” that final fruition of the everlasting gospel that shall bring to a triumphant end the great controversy between Christ and Satan. And this is precisely the point of the 1888 message, which is “Adventist” to the core. It is the most future-looking message today being proclaimed in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

1. It is not necessary that the world’s agony go on and on, generation after generation, World War after World War, horror after horror. Ellen White declared that if the message had been accepted when “the Lord in His great mercy sent it,” the great gospel commission could have been completed by 1893 (cf. 1893 General Conference Bulletin, p. 419). We are living on “borrowed time,” not because God so wills it, but because our own unbelief has required it.

2. Isaiah 40-66 over and over specialize in saying that Israel was entrusted with a message for the nations of the world! God and all His holy angels have longed for the time to come when these prophecies can be completely fulfilled and “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” will hear the Loud Cry message. Heaven impatiently awaits our repentance and conversion. The Lord feels all the pain and agony in Iraq, in Israel, in the Palestinians, in the slaves in Sudan. And as Israel was entrusted with the message for the ancient world, so are we Seventh-day Adventists entrusted with it for today.

3. Isaiah is obsessed with the idea that the Lord’s message for the nations of the world is “good tidings” (41:27; 52:7; 61:1), which is the meaning of the word “gospel.” Thus Isaiah’s message is “the everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14:6, 7 and the message of the three angels, and that of the “another angel” of chapter 18. From our denominational birth until 1888, “we” had been preaching “the law, the law” until we were “as dry as the hills of Gilboa.” The 1888 message was the encapsulation of the “good tidings” of Isaiah. Strangely, the opposition to the message a century ago manifested a preference for “bad” tidings!

4. Isaiah is also where we can find the clearest portrayal of that special “Servant” who is Jesus. Chapter 42:1, 19 introduces Him; no one else in history can be the fulfillment of that picture; 49:5, 6, 7 develops the picture; 50:10 sharpens the focus; finally 52:13 to 53:12 presents the clearest portrait of Jesus to be found in the Bible. Revelation completes the picture—He becomes the Bridegroom at the wedding (“the marriage of the Lamb”). When “His wife hath made herself ready,” then the wedding takes place, and then the way is finally clear for Jesus to become the King of kings and Lord of lords.

5. Ellen White declares that our own unbelief has been the cause of the long delay which wearies the angels, and saddens the heart of Christ. “The marriage of the Lamb” is the key event which makes possible the glorious final events.

6. The “Israel” of 49:1-9 is preeminently Christ, of course. But it could also be you. If you feel that the Lord has hid you in a quiet place, in darkness as in a quiver, take heart: you are a “polished shaft” that He will yet “bring forth,” and He will use you in the finishing of His great work.

7. But when you feel that you have “laboured in vain, and spent [your] strength for nought, and in vain,” remember that “surely [your] judgment is with the Lord.” As of this date, it appears to our superficial human judgment that the 1888 message has been in “vain.” Jesus felt that same way about His ministry! Now is the time for us all to learn to believe and trust “the Lord of the harvest.”

—Robert J. Wieland

Read the study notes for Lesson 10