Isaiah
Sabbath School Lesson Begins
Bible Study Guide - 1st Quarter 2021
“Comfort My People”
Lesson 1December
26–January 1 Crisis of Identity Sabbath Afternoon Read for This Week’s Study: Isa. 1:1-9, Isa. 1:10-17, Isa. 1:18, Isa. 1:19-31, Isa. 5:1-7. Memory Text: “ ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool’ ” (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV). Isaiah is dealing with the Identity of God and the true expected Identity
of the Remnant. They are His people, He reared them, He made them, He led them,
He took care of them, and mind you, He will do so until Jesus Comes. That is
Isaiah’s message. It stretch from Heaven to earth and back to Heaven and back
to the new earth again. All 66 chapters. Not for one moment or in one chapter,
is this visionary only describing local history! His eyes is vertical not
horizontally fixed. He does not see where he can plagiarize Hittite or
Canaanite forms of expression. He does not use what God showed him only in metaphorical
figurative hyper linguistic phrases. He is not just psychologically overexcited
about his topic and downloading adjectives and superlatives and eternity
language just because of that. He saw heaven and he saw the Temple of God in
heaven and he saw all these events happening near the eschaton or latter days.
There is no need to use Eerdmans, Moody, Kregel and Fortress publishers to try
to read the consonantal text of the Masoretic Hebrew on Isaiah. No, Isaiah will
lead us to the Identity of Satan, the Identity of ourselves as rebellious, as
faithful (like Hezekiah) the Identity of God (who loves us in Isaiah 42), the
identity of the remnant as blind and deaf servant, the identity of the Messiah
to come in His first coming, the identity of the glorious King to come at the
Second Coming, the identity of the victorious King to settle things with evil
at Hell in Isaiah 6. He saw the identity of the Advocate in Heaven in the
temple of judgment during the Investigative Judgment a number of times. Also in
this lesson. Says R. Gane, “The Judeans forgot that they belonged to the Lord, their
heavenly Lord, and thus lost their true identity as the covenant people. “I
reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox
knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my
people do not understand” (Isa. 1:2, 3, NRSV). God is in crisis when His remnant walk skew on the path of righteousness
and sanctification. It is a big problem when the General Conference said the third
time that Woman Ordination is not biblical but NAD and others want to rebel and
do their own thing. It is a big problem when culture forces its way over the
biblical message by people who fight to be good people in the eyes of the laws
of this world instead of the Torah of God. Study this week’s lesson to prepare for
Sabbath, January 2. Hear, O Heavens! (Isa. 1:1-9) The book of Isaiah briefly introduces itself by identifying the author
(“son of Amoz”), the source of his message (a “vision”), and his topic (Judah
and its capital, Jerusalem, during the reign of four kings). The primary
audience of Isaiah is more than those of his own day. S. Driver made the
mistake in his commentary to lock Isaiah in his own time. Not to with this
prophet. He was to become the prophet of all times just like Moses. He was a
great reader of Moses’ works and the language are going to be sometimes the
same. The tendency to hook Isaiah only in the time continuum of Judean history
of kings named in the list is a typical preteristic interpretation of Isaiah by
Eerdmans, Moody, Kregel and Fortress Publishing. Adventists should know better.
By mentioning the kings, Isaiah is not narrowing down his audience. Isaiah
writes for the people of God in all nations, all languages, all times until the
New Earth. No narrowing. Rather widening the audience. Read Isaiah 1:2. What is the essence of the message
here? What is the Lord saying? How has this same idea been seen all through
sacred history? Could it be said of the Christian church today, as well?
Explain your answer. Notice how Isaiah’s message begins with the words “Hear, O heavens, and
listen, O earth” (NRSV; compare Deut. 30:19, Deut. 31:28). Some people think that the
Lord isn’t implying that heaven and earth, themselves, can hear and understand
and that instead, He does it for emphasis. Not so. When the Lord calls heaven
and earth as witnesses it is to a court scene. It is to a specific time in 1844
when He will open books and the Investigative Judgment would start with the
people of God (1 Peter 4:17) and heavenly unfallen worlds and earthlings like
Moses, Henoch and Elijah should stand closer for God is judging His remnant. Says Gane: “When an ancient Near Eastern king, such as a Hittite emperor,
made a political treaty with a lesser ruler, he invoked his gods as witnesses
to emphasize that any violation of the agreement would surely be noticed and
punished.” How well said. Notice that the gods is called as witnesses in a
court scene and the violation is “noticed” in an Investigative Judgment and the
“punishment” in an Executive Judgment. Read carefully Isaiah 1:1-9. Summarize on the lines below
what the sins of
Judah [remnant] were. Take special note, also, of the
results of those sins. What was Judah [the remnant] guilty of, and what
happened because of her guilt? At the same time, what hope is presented in
verse 9?