April 2025

The Very First Commandment

The Garden of Eden was a classroom for God’s first people, a place where their interaction with the creation would endlessly teach them and their offspring more about the Creator. “The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God,” Ellen G. White pointed out, “but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. . . . The mysteries of the visible universe—‘the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge’ (Job 37:16)—afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 50, 51.

A Light to the Gentiles

The primary purpose for which God established the nation of Israel was not to condemn the rest of the world but to save it. Certainly, most of us feel condemned when we are confronted by righteous behavior in someone else; so the existence of Israel also served to highlight the sin and selfishness of the nations around it. Believers living in harmony with God highlight His righteous character, which naturally leads to conviction. Ideally, the lives of people who “keep the commandments of God” (Rev. 14:12) should showcase His character.

The Rulers of the Gentiles

God’s dealings with Israel provide rich insights into His dealings with the New Testament church. In fact, in many ways, the nation of Israel served to foreshadow the errors of the church. Far from being able to claim any kind of superiority to ancient Israel, Christians have been, and still are, very much susceptible to the same temptations.

Read Matthew 20:25–28. What error did Jesus warn His disciples to avoid in establishing the work of the Christian church?

Given What You Asked For

As originally established, Israel was not to have a human monarch, the way that other nations did. In time, however, the people’s faith faltered, and they found themselves pining for the things that “the nations,” the Gentiles, had.

Read 1 Samuel 8:4–18. Why do you suppose the elders found the idea of a king appealing? In what ways do we fall prey to similar temptations?

Abraham’s Call

In the tenth chapter of Genesis, we see the birth of various nations. The word usually translated “nations” is goyim, which also can refer to Gentiles. Genesis 10 tells us that the human race divided up into lands, languages, families, and “nations” (Gen. 10:5; see also Rev. 14:6).

Almost immediately after the introduction of this concept, God calls Abraham out of one of those nations to be different from them and from what they represent.

Read Genesis 12:1–9. Why did God call Abram (later Abraham) out from his country of origin?

Nimrod and Nineveh

Eden was created as the ideal home for the human race. Once sin entered, God had no choice but to separate humanity from the Garden and the tree of life, at least for now.