Sabbath School Last Week

What do the following texts reveal about how God has spoken to humanity after the entrance of sin? (Read Heb. 1:1, 2; Rom. 1:19, 20; Num. 12:6; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; John 14:7–9; John 10:27–30.)

In spite of sin, God found many ways to communicate with fallen human beings. One way God reveals Himself to us is through creation. Nature is a powerful revelation of His wonderful acts. Scientists are amazed by the wonders of our universe and at the complexity of even the “simplest” life. Yet, nature also displays the consequences of the Fall, with the death of every living thing the most powerful example.

Another way in which God has spoken to humanity is through the prophets—individuals whom He has chosen as His spokespersons. For example, God spoke to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Daniel, revealing His will for His people. At their core, God’s prophetic messages are a reminder that He has not forgotten His children and is still with them. And though some of the prophets wrote what has come to us as Scripture, others never wrote any books of the Bible.

However, many of the prophets’ words were communicated through Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). The Bible is a revelation of God Himself. It is through His words that we learn who He is, see His relentless love, and discover His guidance for how we are to live.

Moreover, it is through the Bible that we understand who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. There we find God’s purpose for our lives.

But the most effective way in which God has spoken to us is through Jesus Christ, who, of course, is revealed to us in the Bible. As God sought Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, so Christ came to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “ ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father,’ ” Jesus declared (John 14:9, NKJV). Through His life, death, and resurrection, Christ fulfilled the promise given to Adam and Eve in Eden. He came and died in our place so that we may have eternal life through Him.

After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, the Holy Spirit has continued to guide us “ ‘into all the truth’ ” and to speak to us of “ ‘what is yet to come’ ” (John 16:13, NIV).

How much comfort do you get from knowing that Jesus, His love, His character, and His self-sacrifice reveal to us what God the Father is really like?

Supplemental EGW Notes

Only by knowing God here can we prepare to meet Him at His coming. . . . In His lessons and His mighty works Christ is a perfect revelation of God. This Christ declares through the inspired evangelist. “No man hath seen God at any time,” He says; “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” These words show the importance of studying Christ’s character. Only by knowing Christ can we know God.
As our representative, Christ stands on the highest possible ground. When He came to the world as God’s messenger, He held the salvation of God in His hand. All mankind was delivered to Him, for in Him was the fullness of the Godhead. . . . So fully did Christ reveal the Father that the messengers sent by the Pharisees to take Him were charmed by His presence. . . . As they beheld the soft light of the glory of God that enshrouded His person, as they heard the gracious words that fell from His lips, they loved Him. And when. . . they were asked by the Pharisees, “Why have ye not brought him?” they answered, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:45, 46).
As we behold Christ we shall be changed into His image and made fit to meet Him at His coming. Now is the time to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment’s time. Preparatory to that solemn scene there must be vigilant waiting combined with earnest work. The union of these two makes us complete in Christ. The active and devotional must be combined as were the human and divine in Christ. So God’s children glorify Him. Amid the busy scenes of life their voices will be heard speaking words of encouragement, hope, and faith. The will and the affections will be consecrated to Christ. Thus they prepare to meet their Lord; and when He comes, they will say, with joy: “This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.”—In Heavenly Places, p. 250.

In every age God’s chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted; yet through their affliction, the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. Every disciple of Christ is to step into the ranks, and carry forward the same work, knowing that its foes can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. God means that truth shall be brought to the front, and become the subject of examination and discussion, even through the contempt placed upon it. The minds of the people must be agitated; every controversy, every reproach, every effort to restrict liberty of conscience, is God’s means of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber.
How often this result has been seen in the history of God’s messengers! When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death at the instigation of the Sanhedrin council, there was no loss to the cause of the gospel. The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a sharp arrow of conviction to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, became a chosen vessel, to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And long afterward Paul the aged wrote from his prison-house at Rome: “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, . . . not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. . . . Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.” Through Paul’s imprisonment the gospel was spread abroad, and souls were won for Christ in the very palace of the Caesars. By the efforts of Satan to destroy it, “the incorruptible seed” of the Word of God, “which liveth and abideth forever,” is sown in the hearts of men; through the reproach and persecution of His children, the name of Christ is magnified, and souls are saved.—Sons and Daughters of God, p. 261.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

God’s communication is not limited to biblical times. As we will see in coming weeks, God speaks to human beings in perpetuity, and His words will be manifested in modern ways until Christ returns.

Ellen Gould Harmon (White) and her twin sister, Elizabeth, were born on November 26, 1827, in Gorham, Maine. They were the youngest of eight children born to Robert and Eunice Harmon. In a few years, the family moved to the city of Portland, Maine, where Robert Harmon hoped to expand his hat-making business. At age nine, Ellen suffered an injury that affected her physically, emotionally, and socially. While she was in a park near her home, an angry classmate threw a stone that struck her in the face, leaving Ellen in a semiconscious state for several weeks. This accident abruptly ended her formal education and left her with lifelong health challenges. The facial injuries also left Ellen self-conscious about her appearance, limiting her social interactions.

It is in this context of uncertainty that the young Ellen Harmon began to think about her spiritual destiny. She was afraid of God and felt unworthy of heaven. Such fearful feelings intensified when the Harmon family accepted the Millerite doctrine of the soon second coming of Jesus. Even after her baptism by immersion into the Methodist Church in 1842, Ellen did not feel worthy of God’s love. She believed she was “forever lost” (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 29; also see pp. 20–31).

Amid these agonizing thoughts, young Ellen had two dreams that began to change her mind about God. But it was not until she met Levi Stockman, a Methodist preacher, that she understood and felt God’s love and grace. It was as if God spoke to her in her despair. “Faith now took possession of my heart,” she wrote later. “I felt an inexpressible love for God and had the witness of His Spirit that my sins were pardoned. My views of the Father were changed. I now looked upon Him as a kind and tender parent, rather than a stern tyrant compelling men to a blind obedience. My heart went out toward Him in a deep and fervent love.”—Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 39. At the same time, Ellen White also understood the doctrine of the “state of the dead” and gradually grasped the idea that there was no forever-burning hell. Her new understanding of God and His love completely changed her attitude. As we will learn each Friday in the weeks to come, Ellen White fell deeply in love with Jesus and served Him for the rest of her life.

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Supplemental EGW Notes

Reflecting Christ, “The Pure in Heart to Reflect Christ,” December 30, p. 378.
To Be Like Jesus, “Time to Study Revelation,” March 1, p. 69.\

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Read for This Week’s Study

Gen. 15:6, Gal. 3:6–9, 1 Kings 18:19–39, Isaiah 53, Dan. 2:46–48, Mark 1:2–5, Matt. 11:1–6.

Memory Text:

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’ ” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV).

In biblical times, prophets often played key roles in the history of God’s people. Sometimes they were center stage, taking powerful, if not crucial, positions in the life of the community.

However, being a prophet was a difficult calling. Their lives were often not easy but filled with sorrow, rejection, misunderstanding, and frustration.

Often God’s prophets did not readily accept their call to the prophetic office. And no wonder. Many prophets were strongly opposed by those who should have welcomed their messages. God’s prophets were ignored, ridiculed, beaten, or jailed. Others were stoned or hunted like wild animals. Several were martyred.

Today, in a generation flooded with violence, greed, immorality, exploitation, and all manner of satanic influences, the prophetic voice is often rejected or simply ignored. We are called to heed the voice of God’s prophets and to be messengers of the hope given to us through the prophets.

Last week we learned that, after the Fall in Eden, God worked to re­establish communication with human beings. This week we will examine some monumental times in history when God called prophets to realign His people with His messages for a fallen world.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 10.

Supplemental EGW Notes

During the years since the Lord first manifested Himself to the son of Hannah, Samuel’s call to the prophetic office had come to be acknowledged by the whole nation. By faithfully delivering the divine warning to the house of Eli, painful and trying as the duty had been, Samuel had given proof of his fidelity as Jehovah’s messenger; “and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.”
The Israelites as a nation still continued in a state of irreligion and idolatry, and as a punishment they remained in subjection to the Philistines. During this time Samuel visited the cities and villages throughout the land, seeking to turn the hearts of the people to the God of their fathers; and his efforts were not without good results. After suffering the oppression of their enemies for twenty years, the Israelites “mourned after the Lord.” Samuel counseled them, “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only” (1 Samuel 7:3).
Here we see that practical piety, heart religion, was taught in the days of Samuel as taught by Christ when He was upon the earth. Without the grace of Christ the outward forms of religion were valueless to ancient Israel. They are the same to modern Israel.
There is need today of such a revival of true heart religion as was experienced by ancient Israel. Repentance is the first step that must be taken by all who would return to God. No one can do this work for another. We must individually humble our souls before God and put away our idols. When we have done all that we can do, the Lord will manifest to us His salvation.—Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 261.

As Elijah, divinely directed in seeking a successor, passed the field in which Elisha was plowing, he cast upon the young man’s shoulders the mantle of consecration. . . . To him it was the signal that God had called him to be the successor of Elijah. . . . Elisha must count the cost—decide for himself to accept or reject the call. If his desires clung to his home and its advantages, he was at liberty to remain there. But Elisha understood the meaning of the call. . . . Not for any worldly advantage would he forgo the opportunity of becoming God’s messenger, or sacrifice the privilege of association with His servant. . . . Without hesitation he left a home where he was beloved, to attend the prophet in his uncertain life. . . .
Many long for special talent with which to do a wonderful work, while the duties lying close at hand, the performance of which would make the life fragrant, are lost sight of. . . . Success depends not so much on talent as on energy and willingness. It is not the possession of splendid talents that enables us to render acceptable service, but the conscientious performance of daily duties, the contented spirit, the unaffected, sincere interest in the welfare of others. In the humblest lot true excellence may be found. The commonest tasks, wrought with loving faithfulness, are beautiful in God’s sight.—Conflict and Courage, p. 221.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.