FOURTH QUARTER 2021
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #1
OCTOBER 2, 2021
“PREAMBLE TO DEUTERONOMY”

 

When I was a young boy, Dad had a saying that he would use from time to time when one of us three brothers would start to cry or complain over something that was tied to our own selfish perspective. He would say something like this, “You can stop that now, or I can give you something worth crying about.” Of course, he was usually talking in terms of corporal punishment, and we would nearly always do a double take and think of whether we really had a complaint or not. Was it worth the cost?

Now I know where that might have come from. Ellen White, writing of the children of Israel at first on the borders of the promised land, says much the same, as quoted in Friday’s lesson:

“They had complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep.” PP 392.

The introduction of this new quarter’s study of Deuteronomy focuses on some key issues in the Great Controversy meta-narrative. Follow these sections as a repeating thematic story line.

 

Love, to be Loved - God is love.

 

The Fall and the Flood - When that love is doubted (complaining at nothing), rebellion ensues. When His love is openly rejected, destruction follows but is not quite total (cause to weep). Yet He saves who He can.

 

The Call of Abram - He calls humanity to return to Him, working through even just one to reach the many.

 

The Covenant at Sinai - He reveals Himself more clearly and promises to restore love at the heart level.

 

Apostasy and Punishment - In the light of that calling out and revelation, rejection (complaining at nothing) equals destruction as He grants what is finally chosen (cause to weep).

 

This storyline in principle is found not only in the history of the generation of Israel lost in the wilderness, but is repeated in the consequences of Israel’s rejection of Christ; it is also the consummation of the Great Controversy with the destruction of the wicked, in contrast to the reward of the righteous.

Because Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, all of the stories that precede Deuteronomy are by implication part of the history that Moses is reviewing with the children of Israel in this final book. Of course, he is rehearsing the prior 40 years, but many of the people in these stories have already died, as had the well-known patriarchs. His history lesson is for the purpose of making the necessity of full corporate repentance exquisitely clear as a prerequisite to entering the promised land.

Moses in a special way prefigured the ministry of Christ, Who was the fullest expression of the love of God to humanity. Moses’ recounting of history, and especially his song, are the essence of the history of humanity in probationary time. Christ Himself is the opener of the seals of the scroll of human history and experience, as He bears their iniquity and suffers the death of separation, the result of all sin - past, present, and future. Christ had been quite literally bearing the iniquity of Israel. Deuteronomy, literally “The Second Law,” is a restatement of the Law in the context of this history, as well as a revelation of “Christ in the Law, and the Law in Christ” for that generation. Will our generation recognize the same in our experience?

The necessity of a “repentance of the ages” in response to the cross prior to entering the heavenly Canaan may be why the redeemed also sing at last “the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: 'Great and marvelous [are] Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true [are] Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For [You] alone [are] holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.’" Revelation 15:3, 4.

God’s dealing with humanity, and with His special called-out people, whether Israel or Spiritual Israel, requires this same individual and corporate “retrospective introspection,” comprehending the experience of the cross, prefigured for them and revealed to us. This will confirm how God has been just and merciful in our own history, and we are called to decide once for all what is our heart’s desire - whether love draws us to true repentance or self-love assures our destruction. Doubt and self-interest, “complaining at nothing,” is coming to an end. We have “cause to weep,” one way or the other. The choice is ours. Perhaps we should recognize what our wilderness wandering has cost Jesus and begin to weep now.

What history does our “Moses” have to review with us? In the words of Ellen White:

“We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ's sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action. Now, have men who claim to believe the Word of God learned their lesson that obedience is better than sacrifice? 'He hath shewed thee (this rebellious people), O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ [Micah 6:8].” 20MR 313.

 

“When you are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, you will see all that wickedness at Minneapolis as it is, as God looks upon it. If I never see you again in this world, be assured that I forgive you the sorrow and distress and burden of soul you have brought upon me without any cause. But for your soul's sake, for the sake of Him Who died for you, I want you to see and confess your errors. You did unite with those who resisted the Spirit of God. You had all the evidence that you needed that the Lord was working through Brethren Jones and Waggoner; but you did not receive the light; and after the feelings indulged, the words spoken against the truth, you did not feel ready to confess that you had done wrong, that these men had a message from God, and you had made light of both message and messengers.”

 

"Never before have I seen among our people such firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light as was manifested at Minneapolis. I have been shown that not one of the company who cherished the spirit manifested at that meeting would again have clear light to discern the preciousness of the truth sent them from heaven until they humbled their pride and confessed that they were not actuated by the Spirit of God, but that their minds and hearts were filled with prejudice. The Lord desired to come near to them, to bless them and heal them of their backslidings, but they would not hearken. They were actuated by the same spirit that inspired Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Those men of Israel were determined to resist all evidence that would prove them to be wrong, and they went on and on in their course of disaffection until many were drawn away to unite with them.

 

“Who were these? Not the weak, not the ignorant, not the unenlightened. In that rebellion there were two hundred and fifty princes famous in the congregation, men of renown. What was their testimony? ‘All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?’ [Numbers 16:3].

 

When Korah and his companions perished under the judgment of God, the people whom they had deceived saw not the hand of the Lord in this miracle. The whole congregation the next morning charged Moses and Aaron, 'Ye have killed the people of the Lord’ [verse 41], and the plague was upon the congregation, and more than fourteen thousand perished.

 

“When I purposed to leave Minneapolis, the angel of the Lord stood by me and said: ‘Not so; God has a work for you to do in this place. The people are acting over the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. I have placed you in your proper position, which those who are not in the light will not acknowledge; they will not heed your testimony; but I will be with you; My grace and power shall sustain you. It is not you they are despising, but the messengers and the message I send to My people. They have shown contempt for the word of the Lord. Satan has blinded their eyes and perverted their judgment; and unless every soul shall repent of this their sin, this unsanctified independence that is doing insult to the Spirit of God, they will walk in darkness. I will remove the candlestick out of his place except they repent and be converted, that I should heal them. They have obscured their spiritual eyesight. They would not that God would manifest His Spirit and His power; for they have a spirit of mockery and disgust at My word. Lightness, trifling, jesting, and joking are daily practiced. They have not set their hearts to seek Me. They walk in the sparks of their own kindling, and unless they repent, they shall lie down in sorrow. Thus, saith the Lord: Stand at your post of duty; for I am with thee, and will not leave thee nor forsake thee.’ These words from God I have not dared to disregard.

 

“Light has been shining in Battle Creek in clear, bright rays; but who of those that acted a part in the meeting at Minneapolis have come to the light and received the rich treasures of truth which the Lord sent them from heaven? Who have kept step and step with the Leader, Jesus Christ? Who have made full confession of their mistaken zeal, their blindness, their jealousies and evil surmisings, their defiance of truth? Not one; and because of their long neglect to acknowledge the light, it has left them far behind; they have not been growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. They have failed to receive the needed grace which they might have had, and which would have made them strong men in religious experience.

 

"The position taken at Minneapolis was apparently an insurmountable barrier which in a great degree shut them in with doubters, questioners, with the rejecters of truth and the power of God. When another crisis comes, those who have so long resisted evidence piled upon evidence will again be tested upon the points where they failed so manifestly, and it will be hard for them to receive that which is from God and refuse that which is from the powers of darkness. Therefore, their only safe course is to walk in humility, making straight paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. It makes every difference whom we company with, whether it is with men who walk with God and who believe and trust Him, or with men who follow their own supposed wisdom, walking in the sparks of their own kindling.

 

“The time and care and labor required to counteract the influence of those who have worked against the truth has been a terrible loss; for we might have been years ahead in spiritual knowledge; and many, many souls might have been added to the church if those who ought to have walked in the light had followed on to know the Lord, that they might know His going forth is prepared as the morning. But when so much labor has to be expended right in the church to counteract the influence of workers who have stood as a granite wall against the truth God sends to His people, the world is left in comparative darkness.

 

“God meant that the watchmen should arise and with united voices send forth a decided message, giving the trumpet a certain sound, that the people might all spring to their post of duty and act their part in the great work. Then the strong, clear light of that other angel who comes down from heaven having great power, would have filled the earth with his glory. We are years behind; and those who stood in blindness and hindered the advancement of the very message that God meant should go forth from the Minneapolis meeting as a lamp that burneth, have need to humble their hearts before God and see and understand how the work has been hindered by their blindness of mind and hardness of heart.

 

“Hours have been spent in quibbling over little things; golden opportunities have been wasted while heavenly messengers have grieved, impatient at the delay. The Holy Spirit--there has been so little appreciation of its value or the necessity for every soul to receive it. Those who do receive the heavenly endowment will go forth clad with the armor of righteousness to do battle for God. They will respect the leadings of the Lord and will be filled with gratitude to Him for His mercy. But in many, many places, and on many, many occasions it could truthfully be said as in Christ's day of those who profess to be God's people, that not many mighty works could be done, because of their unbelief. Many who have been bound in fetters of darkness have been respected because God has used them, and their unbelief has aroused doubt and prejudice against the message of truth which angels of heaven were seeking to communicate through human agencies--justification by faith, the righteousness of Christ.

 

"Now, my dear children, I have sketched but a tithe of what I know to be true in regard to these matters. I present them to you. I would that you would now surrender to God. I love you both too well to flatter you…. When pride shall die, when self shall be crucified, then Jesus will come in and take possession of heart and soul. I want you to make sure work for eternity. You have no time to lose. Years have passed, and you are not ready to die, and without a decided change are not ready to live and glorify God. No longer seek to have your way, to follow your mind and judgment, but put your hand in the hand of Christ and say, Lead me, guide me.

 

“…. But the past, with its burden of record, has gone into eternity; now in repentance and confession and conversion to God, in childlike submission and obedience to His will, is your only hope of salvation. I am deeply in earnest; I could not abate one jot or tittle of truth to please you or to make you my best friend. No; it is life or death with you. There is not time for us to trifle with eternal realities. We must be saved in God's way, just as He has presented it in His Word, else we can never be saved at all. We must be pure and single-hearted, in principle firm as a rock. Jesus said, ‘He that will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me; so shall he be My disciple.’ Thank God, Oh, thank Him with heart and voice, that He is still our compassionate Redeemer, ready to forgive sin and by His own blood to cleanse us from every stain that sin has made. I write in love. (Signed) Aunt Ellen.”--Letter 2a, 1892. Written to Frank and Hattie Belden. 14 MR 107-113.

 

As we study Deuteronomy this quarter, let it be with the conscious, continual recognition that to a great degree the history being recited parallels ours as the end-time remnant movement. We were called out for a purpose, we have not yet fulfilled it, and heartfelt repentance for our history is the key to crossing over at last to the heavenly city.

 

~Todd Guthrie