Key Thought: All through the Bible the covenant and the gospel appear together. The central truth of the covenant was the gospel: salvation by faith.
October 16, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 9:5, 27.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What do these verses tell us about the covenant promises made?
3. Personal Application: Since we are saved by grace through faith, what role does the law play in our lives today? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Does God overlook and excuse our sins because we have accepted Him as our Savior and become His children? Did He excuse and overlook Israel’s sins in the desert?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 5:1-7.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What shows how central the idea of the covenant is to the book of Deuteronomy?
3. Personal Application: Do we look at this covenant as pertaining to us as Israel today? How different is this covenant from the new covenant in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “Why did Moses say that the covenant was not with their fathers, but with them, and they are here today? How do I make sense out of this verse?“ How would you respond to your relative?

3. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 26:16-19.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How is the covenant relationship between God and Israel summed up?
3. Personal Application: Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “What does it mean that God wanted Israel to be a holy people? Can anyone ever really be holy? Keeping God’s commandments even from a heart of love is impossible for sinful beings. So what is God’s expectation for holiness?” How would you respond to your friend?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 8:5, 14:1, 32:6.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What kind of imagery here reflects the kind of relationship God wants for His people?
3. Personal Application: How do you look at God? What kind of relationship do you have with Him??” 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).

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There are a number of titles in this quarter’s lessons 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.

Sunday shows how Abraham believed God, and we sing this in 
Hymn 11 – The God of Abraham Praise. Then, the theme of ‘everlasting’ is given in a number of our hymns:
Hymn 103 – O God Our Help (verse 3),
Hymn 117 – The Advent of Our God (verse 2),
Hymn 290 – Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (verse 2), and
Hymn 413 – God Has Spoken By His Prophets (verse 2).

Monday finalises with the thoughts of Israel needing to obey the Ten Commandments, just as we are to do today: 
Trust and Obey – Hymn 590.

The Ten Commandments are given for a second time to Israel and we can sing of the Ten Commandments in 
Hymn 447 – Long Upon the Mountains (verse 2).

With the ‘present truth’ given to us, we are ‘to embody that truth until Jesus, “the truth” Himself (John 14:6), was to come’ – 
Hymn 213 – Jesus Is Coming Again!

Thursday instructs us about family – “the closest, tightest, and most loving of bonds”. We are blessed to have a small section in our hymnal that has hymns about family and home:
Hymn 650 – Our Father, by Whose Name,
Hymn 651 – Happy the Home That Welcomes You,
Hymn 652 – Love at Home,
Hymn 653 – Lead Them, My God, to Thee,
Hymn 654 – Lord, Bless Our Homes, and
Hymn 655 – Happy the Home.

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.”

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“It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 9:5; see also Deuteronomy 9:27). How is the reality of the covenantal promises made manifest in this verse?

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Here, too, the covenant of grace appears: God worked for them — despite the constant mistakes. (This, surely, has to be how the gospel works today, as well.) And it was because of the promise made to the fathers that God’s grace was given to their future generations.

In Moses’ dealing with the people to whom the covenantal promises were given as a whole, he often referred back to the covenantal promises made to the patriarchs.

Read Exodus 2:24, Exodus 6:8, and Leviticus 26:42. What is being said here that helps show how the covenantal promises work?

The Exodus from Egypt, the great symbol of God’s saving grace, was also based on the covenant the Lord had made to their fathers. That is, even before the beneficiaries of the covenant were born, the promises were made in their behalf. Thus, through no merit of their own (to say the least), they received the promised deliverance, which God did for them through the miracles and events of the Exodus.

Of course, things didn’t end there. They went from Egypt to — where? Yes, Sinai, where the covenant with them was “officially” established (see Exodus 20). And central to that covenant was gospel and the law, the Ten Commandments, which they were called upon to obey, a manifestation of their saving relationship with the Lord, who had already redeemed them (the gospel). Hence, over and over in Deuteronomy, they were called to obey that law as their part of the covenant, which had been ratified at Sinai.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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All through the Bible, the covenant and the gospel appear together. Though the idea of covenant existed before the nation of Israel (for example, the Noahic covenant), and though the covenant promise was made before the nation of Israel existed, it was expressed prominently through God’s interaction with His people, starting with their fathers, the patriarchs.

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And even from the start, the central truth of the covenant was the gospel: salvation by faith alone.

Read Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 15:5-18, and Romans 4:1-5. What was the covenant promise made to Abram (later Abraham), and how is the gospel revealed in that covenant promise?

Abraham believed God, believed in God’s promises to him, and thus he was justified before God. This declaration, however, was not cheap grace: Abraham sought to uphold his end of the covenant by obedience, such as seen in Genesis 22, at Mount Moriah. All this, even though “his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5). That’s why centuries later, Paul would use Abraham as the exemplar of what it means to live by the covenant promises God had made with His people.

This theme echoes throughout the Bible. Paul brought it up another time in Galatians 3:6, where he again quotes Genesis 15:6, about Abraham’s faith being “accounted … to him for righteousness,” and refers back to the promise first made to Abram about all nations being blessed in his seed ( Galatians 3.8-9). The covenant promises are made to all, Jew and Gentile, who “are of faith” (Galatians 3:7) and thus, who are justified by faith without the deeds of the law — however much they are obligated, because of the covenant, to obey the law.

Even when Jeremiah talks about the new covenant, he does so in the context of the law: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33), reflecting language that goes back to the book of Leviticus, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people” (Leviticus 26:12).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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