Sabbath afternoon Introduction

Although Moses and his presence dominates in the book of Deuteronomy, same as with the other books of the Scripture, the central theme of the Bible is about Jesus, the CREATOR (Gen. 1, 2; John 1:1-3), the SUSTAINER (Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3), and the REDEEMER (Isa. 41:14; Titus 2:14).

A lesson was portrayed in this week’s lesson, a history that trace God’s intervention on human weaknesses, which we need to remember what hath the Lord has done for you and me in the past.

Inspiration says,

The lesson for us to learn from the history of this perverted life is the necessity of continual dependence upon the counsels of God; to carefully watch the tendency of our course, and to reform every habit calculated to draw us from God. It teaches us that great caution, watchfulness, and prayer are needed to keep undefiled the simplicity and purity of our faith. If we would rise to the highest moral excellence, and attain to the perfection of religious character, what discrimination should be used in the formation of friendships, and the choice of a companion for life! {CC 193.6}

This week’s SSLesson will draw us back in time where Moses gives the children of Israel a history lesson, a theme of the whole book, as reminded of God’s dealings with His ancient chosen people that we may also learn to trust in His leading.

In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing,

I can say, Praise God! As I see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.

{CET 204.1}

Outline of the Study

Sunday: The Ministry of Moses (God Bears - Exo. 2:2; 32:29-32; 1Pet. 2:24; Heb. 7:25)

Monday: Fulfilled Prophecy (God Fulfills - Deut. 1:1-6; Num. 14:34; Dan. 9:24-27; 7:25; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5)

Tuesday: A Thousand Times More Numerous (God Blesses - Deut. 1:8-17; Neh. 9:21; Deut. 31:30; Matt. 16:18)

Wednesday: Kadesh Barnea (God Forgives - Deut. 1:20-46; Num. 14:11-20; Eph. 3:10)

Thursday: The Iniquity of the Amorite (God Punishes - Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:13; 20:10, 11; 2:33, 34; 2Tim. 3;16; Gen. 15:1-16)

Friday: Further Study

Prayer Thought

What Hath God Wrought - Trust in the Lord!

We are now a strong people, if we will put our trust in the Lord; for we are handling the mighty truths of the word of God. We have everything to be thankful for. If we walk in the light as it shines upon us from the living oracles of God, we shall have large responsibilities, corresponding to the great light given us of God. We have many duties to perform, because we have been made the depositaries of sacred truth to be given to the world in all its beauty and glory. We are debtors to God to use every advantage He has entrusted to us to beautify the truth by holiness of character, and to send the messages of warning, and of comfort, of hope and love, to those who are in the darkness of error and sin. {CET 204.2}

Memory Verse

And they “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:3, 4, NKJV).

Words of Assurance

“The burden of the warning now to come to the people of God, nigh and afar off, is the third angel's message. And those who are seeking to understand this message will not be led by the Lord to make an application of the Word that will undermine the foundation and remove the pillars of the faith that has made Seventh-day Adventists what they are today. The truths that have been unfolding in their order, as we have advanced along the line of prophecy revealed in the Word of God, are truth, sacred, eternal truth today. Those who passed over the ground step by step in the past history of our experience, seeing the chain of truth in the prophecies, were prepared to accept and obey every ray of light. They were praying, fasting, searching, digging for the truth as for hidden treasures, and the Holy Spirit, we know, was teaching and guiding us. Many theories were advanced, bearing a semblance of truth, but so mingled with misinterpreted and misapplied scriptures, that they led to dangerous errors. Very well do we know how every point of truth was established, and the seal set upon it by the Holy Spirit of God. And all the time voices were heard, "Here is the truth," "I have the truth; follow me." But the warnings came, "Go not ye after them. I have not sent them, but they ran." (See Jeremiah 23:21.) {2SM 103.1}

Inspired Testimony of Moses

By the inspired testimony of Moses and the prophets he clearly proved the identity of Jesus of Nazareth with the Messiah and showed that from the days of Adam it was the voice of Christ which had been speaking through patriarchs and prophets. {AA 221.2}

Plain and specific prophecies had been given regarding the appearance of the Promised One. To Adam was given an assurance of the coming of the Redeemer. The sentence pronounced on Satan, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15), was to our first parents a promise of the redemption to be wrought out through Christ. {AA 222.1}

Writings of Moses and the Prophets

Behold the apostle preaching in the synagogue at Corinth, reasoning from the writings of Moses and the prophets, and bringing his hearers down to the advent of the promised Messiah. Listen as he makes plain the work of the Redeemer as the great high priest of mankind--the One who through the sacrifice of His own life was to make atonement for sin once for all, and was then to take up His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. Paul's hearers were made to understand that the Messiah for whose advent they had been longing, had already come; that His death was the antitype of all the sacrificial offerings, and that His ministry in the sanctuary in heaven was the great object that cast its shadow backward and made clear the ministry of the Jewish priesthood. {AA 246.2}

Long Life Patient Ministry of Moses Portrays Christ

"My presence shall go with thee" (Exodus 33:14), was the promise given during the journey through the wilderness. This assurance was accompanied by a marvelous revelation of Jehovah's character, which enabled Moses to proclaim to all Israel the goodness of God and to instruct them fully concerning the attributes of their invisible King. . . . {ML 288.2}

Till the close of his long life of patient ministry Moses continued his exhortations to Israel to keep their eyes fixed on their divine Ruler. . . . {ML 288.3}

With what confidence had Moses assured the Israelites of the merciful attributes of Jehovah! Often during the wilderness sojourn he had pleaded with God in behalf of erring Israel, and the Lord had spared them. . . . {ML 288.4}

The prophet pleaded the marvelous providences and promises of God in behalf of the chosen nation. And then, as the strongest of all pleas, he urged the love of God for fallen man. . . . "Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." . . . {ML 288.5}

Consider the following

God Himself told the Israelites “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” However, they immediately built a golden calf and worshipped it.

Moses came to God to intercede on their behalf because of this sin. He asked God to “bear” (which is the right translation of “forgive” in Exodus 32:32) their sins.

That’s what God did on the cross. Jesus bore “the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Monday: Fulfilled Prophecy (God Fulfills - Deut. 1:1-6; Num. 14:34; Dan. 9:24-27; 7:25; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5)

“Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them,” (Deuteronomy 1:3)

A Contradictory Report

The Lord commanded Moses to send men to search the land of Canaan, which He would give unto the children of Israel. . . . After they had spoken of the fertility of the land, all but two spoke very discouragingly of their ability to possess it. . . . As the people listened to this report, they gave vent to their disappointment in bitter reproaches and wailing. They did not wait to reflect and reason that God, who had brought them out thus far, would certainly give them the land. . . . {CC 106.2}

Caleb urged his way to the front, and his clear, ringing voice was heard above all the clamor of the multitude. He opposed the cowardly views of his fellow spies, which had weakened the faith and courage of all Israel. He commanded the attention of the people, and they hushed their complaints for a moment to listen to him. . . . But as he spoke, the unfaithful spies interrupted him, crying: "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we." {CC 106.3}

These men, starting upon a wrong course, set their hearts against God, against Moses and Aaron, and against Caleb and Joshua. Every step they advanced in this wrong direction made them firmer in their design to discourage every attempt to possess the land of Canaan. They distorted the truth in order to carry their baneful purpose. They represented the climate as being unhealthful and all the people of giant stature. . . . {CC 106.4}

This was not only an evil report, but a lying one also. It was contradictory; for if the land was unhealthy, and had eaten up the inhabitants, how was it that they had attained to such massive proportions? When men in responsible positions yield their hearts to unbelief, there are no bounds to the advance they will make in evil. . . . If only the two men had brought the evil report, and all the ten had encouraged them to possess the land in the name of the Lord, they would still have taken the advice of the two in preference to the ten, because of their wicked unbelief. {CC 106.5}

One of the Greatest Apostasies from God

I was then shown the travels of the children of Israel. Rebellion was common among ancient Israel. Moses was gone from them only forty days, but the time was long enough for there to be enacted one of the greatest apostasies from God, who had shown to them such special favors and whose voice they had recently heard from Mount Sinai. In awful grandeur He spoke the Ten Commandments in the hearing of the people, which led them to exceedingly fear and tremble and plead with Moses that the great Jehovah should not speak to them any more, but that he should receive the words and speak to them. They wrought out a calf and turned from God to the lowest idolatry, that of worshiping the work of their own hands.—Manuscript 1, 1865. {CTr 115.5}

Looking at the Brazen Serpent - Lesson to Gaze at!

The same lesson that Christ bade Moses give to the children of Israel in the wilderness is for all such souls suffering under the plague spot of sin. From the billowy cloud Christ spoke to Moses and told him to make a brazen serpent and place it upon a pole, and then bid all that were bitten with the fiery serpents to look and live. What if, in the place of looking as Christ commanded them, they had said, “I do not believe it will do me the least bit of good to look. I am too great a sufferer from the sting of the poisonous serpent.” Obedience was the object to be gained, implicit and blind obedience, without stopping to inquire the reason or the science of the matter. . . . {CTr 127.2}

THE SURETY OF OUR DELIVERANCE

By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, “I AM THAT I AM. . . . Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:14. This was the pledge of Israel’s deliverance. So when He came “in the likeness of men,” He declared Himself the I AM. The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God “manifest in the flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16. And to us He says: “I AM the Good Shepherd.” “I AM the living Bread.” “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” John 10:11; 6:51; 14:6; Matthew 28:18. I AM the assurance of every promise. I AM; be not afraid. “God with us” is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven.—DA 24, 25. {Hvn 10.3}

To our vantage, we have also have gaze unto the fulfillment of the prophetic time period that was fulfilled as God had said.

Questions to Ponder

1. Looking back at the disbelief of the ancient people of God Israel. How enormous has their lives before the Lord’s presence?

2. How does disbelief creeps amidst a guided leader of God Moses? Does it reveal God’s patience in dealing with His people?

3. When God speaks, it didn’t come void for it will be fulfilled.

4. Do we still have hope overcoming disbelief by God’s grace?

5. Why should we give confidence that we can trust Him on the things He said would come that are yet future?

Inspiration says,

I entreated all, for Christ's sake, to become established for themselves upon the sure word of prophecy. All should be able to give the reason of the hope that is within them. A vigilant foe is at work earnestly and untiringly, to weaken their confidence in God and the truth. This close self-examination must go forward day by day and hour by hour. {RH, October 16, 1883 par. 16}

Consider the following

The Israelites refused to enter Canaan, so God punished them. They had to roam the desert for 40 years, one year for each day the spies had been examining the land (Numbers 14:34).

Exactly 40 years after that, God had led Israel back to Canaan. God is all powerful, He fulfills His promises precisely.

That was not the only time that the events God had foretold were fulfilled precisely.

This confirms both the existence of God and His control over history. We can fully trust Him.

Tuesday: A Thousand Times More Numerous (God Blesses - Deut. 1:8-17; Neh. 9:21; Deut. 31:30; Matt. 16:18)

“May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!” (Deuteronomy 1:11)

Cultivate Home Religion there’s God’s Blessing

God’s blessing was upon Abraham because he would cultivate home religion. He who blesses the habitation of the righteous says, “I know him, that he will command his . . . household after him.” There will be no betraying of the truth on his part. . . . {CTr 81.5}

If you want the blessing of God, parents, do as did Abraham. Repress the evil, and encourage the good. Some commanding may be necessary in the place of consulting the inclination and pleasure of the children. Blind affection will not be the rule of the house. Indulgence, which is the veriest cruelty, will not be practiced. . . . Bring your children with you into the house of God. . . . Satan will surely take possession of them if you are not on your guard. Do not encourage their association with the ungodly. Draw them away. Come out from among them yourselves, and show them that you will be on the Lord’s side.—Letter 53, 1887. {CTr 81.6}

Consider the following

God had been blessing Israel during their 40-year pilgrimage (Neh. 9:21). Moses longed for the people to be blessed in Canaan, and to become even more numerous.

They needed a good organization to properly administer those blessings (Deuteronomy 1:12-13). The people of God were well organized in the desert. That organization remained in Israel. God also wants an organized people (Church) today.

Organization involves a unified body of people who fulfill various roles according to their gifts. This way, God’s blessings can be administered in the best way possible.

Wednesday: Kadesh Barnea (God Forgives - Deut. 1:20-46; Num. 14:11-20; Eph. 3:10)

“Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” (Numbers 14:19)

A Space for God's People to Remember

For nearly forty years the children of Israel are lost to view in the obscurity of the desert. "The space," says Moses, "in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed." Deuteronomy 2:14, 15. {PP 406.1}

During these years the people were constantly reminded that they were under the divine rebuke. In the rebellion at Kadesh they had rejected God, and God had for the time rejected them. Since they had proved unfaithful to His covenant, they were not to receive the sign of the covenant, the rite of circumcision. Their desire to return to the land of slavery had shown them to be unworthy of freedom, and the ordinance of the Passover, instituted to commemorate the deliverance from bondage, was not to be observed. {PP 406.2}

Fear Not and Not be Discouraged

Speaking of their conduct in the wilderness, Moses said: "And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. {RH, December 31, 1903 par. 9}

"And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well: and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe: and they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God: and ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there." {RH, December 31, 1903 par. 10}

Broken Into Rebellion

It was upon the very borders of the promised land that the people had broken into rebellion. The spies had returned from Canaan with their hearts filled with unbelief, and their wicked murmurings had set the hearts of all the people in rebellion. Dissatisfaction is quickly awakened in hearts that are unsanctified. {RH, December 31, 1903 par. 11}

"Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bare his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither." {RH, December 31, 1903 par. 12}

Consider the following

When Israel refused to enter Canaan, God decided to destroy them (Numbers 14:11-12). Moses interceded on their behalf again (Numbers 14:13-17).

The nations around Israel knew all about how God had delivered them from Egypt. If God destroyed them, His reputation would be in question (Numbers 14:16).

They could only become a light for other nations if they were forgiven. God is to be glorified in His people. The glory and goodness and love and power of God are to be revealed in His church, through what He does through His people.

Thursday: The Iniquity of the Amorite (God Punishes - Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:13; 20:10, 11; 2:33, 34; 2Tim. 3;16; Gen. 15:1-16)

“In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:16 NIV)

Additional Evidences of God's Power

When the Lord brought His people a second time to the borders of Canaan, additional evidence of His power was granted to those heathen nations. They saw that God was with Israel in the victory gained over King Arad and the Canaanites, and in the miracle wrought to save those who were perishing from the sting of the serpents. Although the Israelites had been refused a passage through the land of Edom, thus being compelled to take the long and difficult route by the Red Sea, yet in all their journeyings and encampments, past the land of Edom, of Moab and Ammon, they had shown no hostility, and had done no injury to the people or their possessions. On reaching the border of the Amorites, Israel had asked permission only to travel directly through the country, promising to observe the same rules that had governed their intercourse with other nations. When the Amorite king refused this courteous solicitation, and defiantly gathered his hosts for battle, their cup of iniquity was full, and God would now exercise His power for their overthrow. {PP 434.3}

Captain of the Lord's Host Vanquished the Enemies of His People

The Israelites crossed the river Arnon and advanced upon the foe. An engagement took place, in which the armies of Israel were victorious; and, following up the advantage gained, they were soon in possession of the country of the Amorites. It was the Captain of the Lord's host who vanquished the enemies of His people; and He would have done the same thirty-eight years before had Israel trusted in Him. {PP 435.1}

These nations on the borders of Canaan God would have spared, had they not stood in defiance of his word, to oppose the progress of Israel. The Lord had shown himself to be long-suffering, of great kindness, and tender pity, even to these idolatrous nations. Abraham was shown in vision that his seed, the children of Israel, after his death should be strangers in a strange land, and should be afflicted four hundred years. But the Lord gave him the promise, "In the fourth generation, shall they come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full." At the appointed time, the descendants of Abraham were to receive the land of Canaan for a possession, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. {ST, November 4, 1880 par. 7}

Consider the following

War, death, destruction. This is the other side of the conquest of the Promised Land. That destruction had already begun with the lands of Sihon and Og (Deuteronomy 2-3). Why did God authorize that massacre?

God always offered peace before allowing war (Deuteronomy 2:26-29). Those people chose their own destiny by rejecting peace (Deuteronomy 2:30).

Those nations had reached the point of no return. Their wickedness had become endemic (Genesis 15:16).

If we review the history of the nations and people who respected and trusted God, we’ll see that they were saved from destruction (for example, Rahab and the Gibeonites).

From the Pen of Inspiration

“The history of the children of Israel is written for our admonition and instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come. Those who would stand firm in the faith in these last days, and finally gain an entrance into the heavenly Canaan, must listen to the words of warning spoken by Jesus Christ to the Israelites. These lessons were given to the church in the wilderness to be studied and heeded by God’s people throughout their generations forever. The experience of the people of God in the wilderness will be the experience of His people in this age. Truth is a safeguard in all time to those who will hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints.” E. G. W. (The Upward Look, August 6)