All through the Bible we find evidence of God’s foreknowledge. That is, He knows beforehand all that will happen. Whether the rise and fall of world empires (Daniel 7) to individual actions just hours before they occur — “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times” (Matthew 26:34) — the Lord knows the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge, even of our free choices, has no bearing whatsoever on the freedom of those choices.

Thus, the Lord knew, even before He brought the children of Israel into the land, what they would do when in the land.

Read Deuteronomy 4:25-28. What did the Lord say that the people would do after they had been in the land promised them?

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

In the verses before, the Lord tells them specifically not to make idols and not to worship them (Deuteronomy 4:15-20). Yet, the following verses pretty much say that making idols and worshiping them is exactly what they are going to do, despite all the warnings.

Notice that in Deuteronomy 4:25, Moses is clear that it won’t happen immediately. After all that they just had experienced, they weren’t likely to fall into idolatry right away. However, over time, after a generation or so, the tendency to “forget” (Deuteronomy 4:9) what the Lord had done for them, and what He had warned them against, would lead them to do exactly what He warned against.

Read Deuteronomy 4:29-31. What does the Lord say He will do for them in this specific situation?

God’s grace is amazing. Even after they fall into the horrific evil of idolatry, even after they have received the due consequences of their sins, if they turn to the Lord, He will forgive them and restore them. In short, if they freely choose to repent, He will accept their repentance.

The word in Deuteronomy 4:30, often translated “turn,” really means “to return.” That is, they are going back to the Lord, to where they were supposed to have been all along. The Hebrew word teshuvah, from that same root word for “to return,” means “repentance.”

Thus, at the core, whatever else is involved in repentance, it is a return to God after we have been separated from Him by our sins.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

Amen!(0)

The post Monday: Seek and Find Me appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/monday-seek-and-find-me/

Flipping through the new quarterly, there are a number of titles that have the word ‘love’ in them – Love, to Be Loved; To Love God; He First Loved Us; To Love the Lord Your God; to name just a few. Hence, I believe a wonderful hymn to devote to as a theme will be 
Hymn 349 – God Is Love. Our first Memory Text says “for God is Love”, 1 John 4:8. As the book of Deuteronomy is the book of the covenant, it would also be good to add 
Hymn 347 – Built On the Rock as verse four tells us of God ‘Making with us His covenant”.

Oh the joy of being able to have the Everlasting Covenant which we find in 
Hymn 469 – Leaning On The Everlasting Arms of our Lord Jesus.

God, through Moses, asked the people of Israel to turn their hearts to Him. We are now able to 
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – Hymn 290. To do this we can sing 
I Will Early Seek the Savior – Hymn 539.

Sunday gives us the word “choice” many times in closing the study as does 
Hymn 273 – Lord, I Have Made Thy Word My Choice.

“Seek Me and Find Me” says Monday’s study: 
Hymn 224 – Seek Ye First the Kingdom and once again 
Hymn 539 – I Will Early Seek the Savior. It is such a sad indictment of humanity that “over time, after a generation or so, the tendency to forget (Deut 4:9)” still continues today, including the Sabbath: 
Hymn 388 – Don’t Forget the Sabbath. We are then reminded that “God’s grace is amazing”: 
Hymn 108 – Amazing Grace, “He will forgive them and restore them”: 
Hymn 299 – Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive as we are repenting as happens in 
Hymn 280 – Come, Ye Sinners and 
Hymn 296 – Lord, I’m Coming Home.

We ask with all our hearts to praise our God on Wednesday. This is found in 
Hymn 323 – Oh, For A Heart To Praise My God so we are 
Near to the Heart of God – Hymn 495. We are then able to 
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart! – Hymn 27 following repenting and learning to “obey Him” in 
Hymn 590 – Trust and Obey

These hymns above are then reiterated in Thursday’s title of “Repent and Be Converted”.

We are bound for The Promised Land! Hallelujah!! Come, Lord Jesus come – very soon.
Blessings for a wonderful week ahead.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing, but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Amen!(0)

The post 9: Turn Their Hearts – Singing with Inspiration appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-turn-their-hearts-singing-with-inspiration/

Key Thought: Crucial to the gospel is repentance: acknowledging our sin, being sorry for it, and ultimately turning away from it. Repentance is a central part of our Christian existence.
November 27, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 4:25-31.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What did the Lord say that the people would do after they had been in the land promised them?
3. Personal Application: How is repentance, in reality, a return unto God? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Why would God warn people about idol worship, which they then did anyway, and then offer to forgive them? Shouldn’t He be looking for a more faithful people?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 30:1-10.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What was required in returning to God in repentance?
3. Personal Application: Is the act of repentance what makes us right with God? What is the only way we can be right with God? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “What is the difference between being sorry for the consequences of our sins, and being sorry for the sins themselves?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Matthew 5:1-8.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What is John telling the people to do that reflects what is found in Deuteronomy?
3. Personal Application: Why wasn’t Judas’ actions of sorrow and throwing the thirty pieces of silver down not regarded as true repentance of sin? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “Why did John refer to the Scribes and Pharisees the way he did? Didn’t he want them to truly repent? Why was he so hard with them?“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 5:22-29.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Mi-yitten is the question, “Who will give?” What does it mean that the word “Oh” comes from Mi-yitten in verse 29.
3. Personal Application: What are some choices you are going to face in the next few days? How can you learn to surrender to God to make the right choices? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

Amen!(0)

The post 9: Turn Their Hearts – Teaching Plan appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-turn-their-hearts-teaching-plan/

Biblical Hebrew, like most languages, is sprinkled with idioms, when specific words are used to mean something different from what they actually say. One idiom in the Old Testament is “Mi-yitten.” “Mi” is the question “who?” and “yitten” means “will give.” So, literally, “Mi-yitten” is “Who will give?”

In the Old Testament, however, the phrase expresses the idea of a wish, of a desire, of someone wanting something badly.

Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com

For instance, after their escape from Egypt, the children of Israel, facing challenges in the wilderness, exclaimed, “If only we had died by the LORD’S hand in Egypt!” (Exodus 16:3). The phrase “if only” came from “mi-yitten.”

In Psalm 14:7 David utters, “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!” The Hebrew doesn’t say “Oh”; it says “mi-yitten.”

In Job 6:8, when he exclaims, “Oh, that I might have my request” — “Oh” is, again, from “mi-yitten.”

Read Deuteronomy 5:22-29, focusing especially on verse 29. What does it mean that the word translated as “Oh” comes from “mi-yitten”?

Here is the Lord — the Creator God, the One who made space, time, and matter, the One who spoke our world into existence, the One who breathed into Adam the breath of life — uttering a phrase generally associated with the weaknesses and limitations of humanity. What an example of the reality of free will! Here we see that there are limits to what God can do in the midst of the great controversy. This use of “mi-yitten” reveals that even God can’t trample on free will; for the moment He did, it would no longer be free.

And just as we humans are free to sin, we are also free to choose the Lord, to choose to be open to His leading, to choose, by responding to His Spirit, to repent from our sins and to follow Him. Ultimately the choice is ours, and ours alone, and it is a choice that we have to make day by day, moment by moment.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

Amen!(3)

The post Sunday: Mi-yitten appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sunday-mi-yitten/