FIRST QUARTER 2021
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12
MARCH 20, 2021
“DESIRE OF NATIONS”

 

In this week’s lesson there are several purposes and concepts. Perhaps too many for one week. The many themes range from sin and its effects, then forgiveness, followed by the hope of a universal appeal for deliverance from sin, and the “year of the Lord’s favor” and finally the day of God’s vengeance. Each of these could take up our study not only for the week, but beyond.

In Sunday’s lesson the age-old problem of sin and its effects are addressed. The lesson depicts the difficult dilemma for a holy God Who is willing to save but with mankind’s contrary choice to continue in sin. Man’s choice to sin disconnects himself from God. God is able to hear, but He will not. Isaiah presents this dilemma in chapter 59 verses 1 and 2: 1“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. 2But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1, 2).

These two verses explain the problem of the barrier between God and man. However, Isaiah also presents the solution. God Who is offended by sin provides a Savior to bridge the gap between Himself and us, — “The Redeemer will come to Zion” (Isaiah 59:20). God initiates salvation and longs for our participation of a personal faith response in the Redeemer. E. J. Waggoner sums up the problem and the solution:
 

Man has wandered from God, and rebelled against Him. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Our iniquities have separated between us and Him. Isaiah 59:1, 2. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7. Christ came that He might destroy the enmity, and reconcile us to God; for He is our peace. Ephesians 2:14-16. Through Him we have access to God. Romans 5:1, 2; Ephesians 2:18. In Him the carnal mind, the rebellious mind, is taken away, and the mind of the Spirit given in its stead, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3, 4. Christ's work is to save that which was lost, to restore that which was broken, to reunite that which was separated. His name is “God with us;” and so with Him dwelling in us we are made “partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4. (E. J. Waggoner, “Signs of the Times,” February 15, 1899).
 

Isaiah further points out that it is not because God does not want to deliver us but because of His gift of freedom of choice to us, by which we seek to evade Him. God does not intervene against our continual willful choice. He watches over us and waits. And waits. He waits until we realize our need of His mercy or we begin to realize our accountability to Him as a Holy God of justice.

This is similar with the poetic picture Isaiah paints of God Who does not pout because of our disregard for His rules and our refusal to hear what He says. He is the God of love and justice Who does not react because we have turned our backs on Him. He does not push His bottom lip forward as an expression of petulant annoyance. It is through our rebellious attitudes and actions that we separate ourselves from the only One in the universe Who can truly save us from our sins. Our separation from God can only end through our willingness to return to Him in repentance and faith in Christ alone for salvation.

Isaiah 59 reveals God’s concern over injustice and exploitation, and also how He will come at the end of probation to bring complete resolution. After this chapter detail’s God’s pleasure in His people when they believe and follow Him, it also specifies the fact of His condemnation for robbery and injustice. God’s firm decision to do something about this is found in Isaiah 60 which presents both of God’s prerogatives—mercy and justice:—
 

1“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 3to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 60:1-3.

 

The rest of the chapter develops the theme introduced in verses 1–3: The people of the world are drawn to God’s people, here called Zion or Jerusalem, who are blessed because of God’s presence there. In this present dark age of moral nighttime, God’s light will shine upon and through His people, of which the world will take notice. Some will respond and will be eternally saved as outlined in Isaiah 60.

Following this week’s Memory Text, “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:3), the prophet specifies descendants of Abraham and his non-Israelite wives—Keturah and Hagar (Isaiah 60:4-7; Genesis 25:1-4). These descendants are listed as among the multitudes who will be drawn to the light—the righteousness, the character, of God in Zion (Isaiah 60:1-3). The names of the descendants of Abraham and his wife Keturah are listed—Midian, Ephah, Sheba, Kedar and Nebaioth. These are identified by the Spirit of God, through Isaiah, as coming to the light of Christ and His righteousness in these last days of earth’s history. These offspring of Abraham are through his wives Keturah and Hagar. Median was the son of Abraham and Keturah; Sheba was their grandson (Genesis 25:1-4). Kedar and Nebaioth were also grandsons, through Hagar, being the sons of Ishmael (Genesis:12-13).

Today we have no way of knowing who these descendants of Abraham are. Some, perhaps many, are today’s Muslims. If so, this prophecy of Isaiah 60 includes those who will come to the light of the glory of Christ’s righteousness as proclaimed in Revelation 18:1 as the message swells to a loud cry.

We now come to Thursday’s lesson titled “The Day of Vengeance of Our God.” This is about God’s justice. In the lesson for this week there’s much talk about justice, but what does it mean? There are those who refuse to believe there is a “day of vengeance” because it sounds so threatening. Some want to make God look good, so they attempt to reinterpret this and other texts which outline God’s justice. However, we need to remember that God can handle whatever charges are leveled at Him.

Recently I listened to a lady wax (not so elegantly) on a theme about God Who, she asserted, never condemns. Her proof text was John 8:11 where Jesus encouraged a woman who had been caught in adultery. This was a set up organized by religious authorities to entrap Jesus. Those leaders of faked piety sneaked away after reading what Jesus wrote about them in the sand. He then asked the woman where her accusers were. They fled the scene and where nowhere to be found. Next “Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.””

The woman leading out in the study asked “Does God condemn” anyone? She felt the answer was given by Jesus in the above-mentioned verse. She reasoned from a particular to a generality, which is not accurate in this case. She used a single text to insist that God never condemns anyone. Her understanding was that condemnation is inherent within us, but never imposed by God. I made the following observation—that she made a particular incident into a generality. Clearly this was a text pulled out of its context, thus making it a pretext. She was in the habit of choosing statements from the Bible and Mrs. White thinking they supported her pretext.

Her statement jogged my memory, so I referred her to Education pages 227-228 where Mrs. White quoted a Spiritualist who stated that “God doth not condemn.” (see also GC 554). At another time this same woman in another discussion stated that the justice of God involved only “inherent (natural) consequences” and not “imposed consequences” by God.

It was again pointed out that she was reasoning from the law of nature only, which is the law of cause and effect, but that God’s moral law (which includes cause and effect) is a higher law that includes man’s personal responsibility and accountability to God. The lady admitted that she was not familiar with this and was in a state of perplexity over it.

Being accountable not only means we are responsible for our sins, and also, we are answerable to a holy God for our actions. Of course, Jesus, as our Surety, accepted our accountability and answered to the principle of God’s justice. He exhausted the penalty for our transgressions by becoming sin itself (2 Corinthians 5:21). Those who reject or neglect so great a salvation will be held accountable to God, the Governor of the universe.

There are two aspects of God’s justice. One is outlined in Romans 3:22-26. This has to do with those who are “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” which justification is “God’s righteousness” placed upon us and within us “through the faith of Jesus.” Verse 26 says that this is a demonstration God’s “justice now in the present, showing that He is Himself just and also justifies any man who puts his faith in Jesus” (NEB). [Lit “who has the faith of Jesus,” as Young’s Literal Translation says of those who are “of the faith of Jesus.” God’s justice demands the justification of those who have the “faith of Jesus.”

When the season of tolerance came to an end, the only possible way for God to give His righteousness to us, while still being true to both His justice and His mercy, was to give up the second Person of the Godhead, Christ Jesus, for our benefit. This was agreement decided on in the Everlasting Covenant between them back in the days of eternity. So now at the present time, because we stand on the faith of Jesus, God declares us righteous in His eyes! Why would God, the Governor and the Judge of the universe deny one of His prerogatives for our salvation—in this case—His justice, which is more than a particular right. It is His very nature. He is the One Who justifies us (Romans 8:31-33).

Because of what the Godhead did for us in Christ, He is “the Desire of All Nations” (Haggai 2:7). He came. He shook all nations. He will come again and He will yet again shake all nations.

I want to close with the Publisher’s preface in the book The Desire of Ages with thought provoking pictures of Christ and our great need of Him:

 

“In the hearts of all mankind, of whatever race or station in life, there are inexpressible longings for something they do not now possess. This longing is implanted in the very constitution of man by a merciful god, that man may not be satisfied with his present conditions or attainments, whether bad, or good, or better. God desires that the human shall seek the best, and find it to the eternal blessing of his soul.

 

Satan, by wily scheme and craft, has perverted these longings of the human heart. He makes men believe that this desire may be satisfied by pleasure, by wealth, by ease, by fame, by power; but those who have been thus deceived by him (and they number myriads) find all these things pall upon the sense, leaving the soul as barren and unsatisfied as before.

 

It is god's design that this longing of the human heart should lead to the One Who alone is able to satisfy it. The desire is of Him that it may lead to Him, the fullness and fulfillment of that desire. That fullness is found in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the eternal God. “for it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell;” “for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily.” and it is also true that “in Him ye are made full” with respect to every desire divinely implanted and normally followed.

 

Haggai calls him ‘the Desire of all nations’ and we may well call him ‘The Desire of all Ages,’ even as He is ‘the King of Ages.’

 

It is the purpose of this book to set forth Jesus Christ as the One in Whom every longing may be satisfied. There is many a ‘life of Christ’ written, excellent books, large funds of information, elaborate essays on chronology and contemporaneous history, customs, and events, with much of the teaching and many glimpses of the many-sided life of Jesus of Nazareth. Yet it may be truly said, ‘the half has never been told.’”

 

~Pastor Jerry Finneman