The morning Manna
will be provided at 6am. Thanks.
Studying Mission in
the SSnet.org series Lesson 11, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your
heart.
The Topic today
is: “Mission is seeking for Jesus and finding Him like the Wise Men from the
East for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Mission”.
The Opening Hymn
will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God."
The Sabbath School
Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on pages 143.
The SSnet.org site
allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your
own language to see God speaking also to your heart.
Why do you not
click on this now?
https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:4Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ423_011.pdf
--- “Among those whom the Jews styled heathen
were men who had a better understanding of the Scripture prophecies concerning
the Messiah than had the teachers in Israel. There were some who hoped for
His coming as a deliverer from sin. Philosophers endeavored to study into the
mystery of the Hebrew economy. But the bigotry of the Jews hindered the spread
of the light.”—Ellen G. White, The
Desire of Ages, p. 33 ---Better understanding? Than the Jewish
teachers, rabbis, Pharisees and Sadducees? ---Someone among the heathen? Is Ellen White
correct? ---Yes. She is. ---The three Wise men from the East that
arrived at Herod’s palace came to ask where is the king that should be born. ---God is a God of time. He has a schedule.
He had a schedule for Jesus. ---A schedule for Jesus? Yes. Daniel 9:24-27
is the 490 years’ prophecy. ---Given to Daniel already before 538 BC. ---But Christ was born in 4 BC and that is
the time the Wise Men from the East came to look for Christ. ---How did they know it should be 4 BC? ---Simple. They know that a typical public
office for someone in the Roman Times would be 30 years of age. ---They saw that around 27 AD he would be
baptized and start His mission. ---At 483 years says the prophecy. Correct? ---If their starting date was to be 457 BC
as in Ezra 7, then their 483 BC starting date of this public office of the King
to be born was to be when He is 30 years old. ---So reverse back 30 years from 27 AD and
one arrives at 4 BC. Bulls eye! ---So they got their Mercedes Benz Camels
ready and load all the richest gifts they could find and set off to Herod to
look for this “king” that was to be born. ---Anyone familiar with F. F. Bruce should
know that in 1957 he wrote an article dealing with the Teacher of Righteousness
and ended concluding that he operated in the template of Elijah. ---He did not use the word template, but
that is this researcher's word to indicate a structure of beliefs, data
concerning the reappearance of Elijah in future. ---What we know of this reappearance is
shrouded by many legends, traditions and other stories created in post-biblical
times in Christian and Jewish circles. ---Some thought that he would really be
resurrected again before the Advent of the Lord. ---The Elijah template is in essence that
the spirit of the Elijah message will encourage a person or persons to
proclaim the nearness of the Messiah, or His Advent, the last days, the last
generation and signs of the last days. The call was to repentance and return to
the Word of God. ---Bruce (1957: 27) indicated in his article
that there are various suggestions by scholars in his day as to who the Teacher
of Righteousness is but that they are just tentative identifications: ---Ezra (T. Gaster 1956: 273ff and
especially 100); ---Nehemiah (I. Rabinowitz JBL 73 [1954] see
F. F. Bruce 1957: 17); ---Onias III (H. H. Rowley 1952: 62); ---"pious" Onias (A. Dupont-Sommer
1954: 38); ---John the Baptist (Robert Eisler 1931: 254
and 1949: 284); ---Jesus (J. L. Teicher JJS 2 [1950]: 121). ---The datings of the people will also be
different: ---Ezra in 457 BCEff; ---Nehemiah in 444 BCEff; ---Onias III in 170 BCEff; ---"pious" Onias in 63 BCE; ---John the Baptist in 26-30 CE; ---Jesus in 27-31 CE. ---I will not enter into the detail as to
what led a scholar to allocate his/her date and identification but rather
proceed to explain our own identification and dating of the Teacher of
Righteousness. ---Qumran does not give the Teacher’s name. ---It is wise to realize that there is no clear
information at Qumran as to who he was. ---Some have suggested that his name was
Zadok but that is unlikely since the name would have read (Zadok ben X) not
only Zadok. ---I identify him as an individual who
operated between 47-7 BCE during the time of King Herod the Great of Jerusalem.
---His sect gathered themselves at the Dead
Sea and he was a prominent leader for them preparing the remnant for the
arrival of the Messiah or Messiahs (one of Aaron [thus a priest] and one of
Israel [presumably a king of David descendant] see Bruce 1957). ---The 390 years as related to the 490 years
of Daniel 9:24-27. ---F. F. Bruce has interesting comments to
make in his 1957 article that the 390 years are related to the 70x7 weeks of
Daniel 9:24-27. ---In fact, he indicated that they may have
used Ezechiel 4:4 in order to apply the year=day principle, similar to what
Seventh Day Adventists have been doing ever since their inception in 1844 (see
F. F. Bruce 1957: 17). ---The terminus a quo of Bruce and other
scholars is a problem. They start it in 586 BCE since the Zadokite Work in
Admonitions do mention Nebuchadnezzar. ---But, think about it, it was the
destruction in 586 BCE and not the time of the remembrance by the Lord. ---The Lord visited them in 457 BCE in
Ezra's day [in our opinion] when they could return to build the temple. ---This researcher thinks that the Teacher
of Righteousness used the same calculation as set forth here, that the 490
years was to start from 457 BCE, and that they year-day principle was to be
used (as Bruce also said) and further that the birth of the Messiah was to be
sometime after 8 BCE. ---I assume The Teacher of Righteousness
knew the calculations of the year-day principle since the Three Men from the
east that visited Christ at His birth could have derived their calculation in
the following way from Daniel 9:24-27. ---When the angels who comprise the star that
led them to Bethlehem announced His birth, they knew already of this
calculations in Daniel 9:24-27. ---John the Baptist seemed also to have
expected Christ exactly in the year 27 CE which would fit exactly into the
year-day principle applied to Daniel 9:24-27 as we suggest here. ---It was at the end of the 69 weeks of 483
years that the Messiah was to come to him to be baptized. And He did. ---Herod the Great was king until 4 BCE and he killed
many babies in that year due to the news that a king was to be born. ---I assume, that he also killed the Teacher
of Righteousness in 7 BCE and that his sect from Qumran fled to Damascus and
migrated there. ---The coins and pottery at Qumran seems to
support this view that the group left during that time. ---Source: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/qumran_bruce.pdf which
is the article by F. F. Bruce, "The Teacher of Righteousness in the
Qumran Texts" (1957). ---Is it not remarkable that not only SDA’s
knew about the 490 years prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27, the Calvinist Lawyer Hugo
de Groot, the Refomer George Joy, the Catholic Thomas Aquinas, and now for
certain the author of Jubilees and people at Qumran knew abou this calculation.
And the Wise men who were heathens. ---Question: Was Ellen White right in her "heathen knew more than some Jewish learned men in Jesus’ days"? Answer: Yes. ---Mission is thus working with the sources
that treats the Bible as precious. Keep to the simple literal reading of the
text. That will make you too a Wise Man or Wise Woman that will find Jesus.
Nice correct? ---Start immediately.