The book of Deuteronomy is the printed version of Moses’ farewell messages to the second generation of Israelites following the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. These messages were given on the plains of Moab just east of Jericho. Deuteronomy has been appropriately called “The Book of Remembrance.”

In this book, Moses reviews God’s faithful dealings with Israel. He recounts the travels from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the edge of the Promised Land, as well as the rebellion and the 40 years of wilderness wandering.

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He restated the Ten Commandments, the requirements of the tithe and the central storehouse. But the primary focus of Deuteronomy is the counsel to obey God and receive His blessings. Moses portrays God as One who has the ability, and the desire, to care for His people.

Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14. What great blessings are promised the people? But what must they do to receive them?

Moses was very eager for the people to understand that God had wonderful, even miraculous, blessings in mind for them. His words, “If thou shalt hearken diligently,” let them know that their eternal destiny was at stake here. What a powerful manifestation of the reality of free choice. They were His chosen nation, recipients of great blessings and great promises, but those blessings and promises were not unconditional. They needed to be accepted, received, and acted upon.

And nothing God had asked them was too hard for them to do, either. “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it” (Deuteronomy 30:11-14, NKJV).

Of course, besides the blessings, there were the warnings of the curses, what would come upon them if they were to disobey (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), that is, what consequences their sin and rebellion would bring.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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The death of Christ on Calvary made salvation possible for every person who has ever lived or who will ever live. Unlike the promise of the seasons, salvation is not unilateral — it is not given to everyone, regardless of what they do. The belief that everyone will be saved is called “universalism.”

Instead, Jesus clearly taught that, though He died for all humanity, many people travel the broad way to destruction and eternal death (Matthew 7:13-14).

What do the following texts have to say about how people receive the gift of salvation in Jesus?

1 John 5:13

Matthew 10:22

John 6:29

2 Peter 1:10-11, 

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Paul understood the bilateral nature of the salvation covenant. Knowing that he was soon to be executed, and in spite of the fact that many of his companions had forsaken him, Paul confidently told his dear friend Timothy that he had upheld his end of the bargain. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Paul says, “I am ready [because] I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Paul, though, was always very clear that salvation is by faith alone, not the deeds of the law, and so here he is not somehow looking at his works or achievements as earning him merit with God. The “crown of righteousness” awaiting him is the righteousness of Jesus, which Paul, by faith, has claimed for himself and has held on to until the end of his life.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MnfcxQ9xMM&w=560&h=315]

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Matthew 10:22, John 6:29, Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Proverbs 3:1-10, Malachi 3:7-11, Matthew 6:25-33.

Memory Text: “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, , NKJV).

Amazingly enough, God has made contracts (or covenants) with us. Most are bilateral, which means that both parties (God and humans) have a part to perform. An example of a bilateral covenant is “If you will do this, then I will do that.” Or “I will do this if you will do that.”

A rarer type of covenant is unilateral. “I will do this whether you do anything or not.” A few of God’s covenants with humanity are unilateral. For example,

“He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45, NKJV). Whatever we do or don’t do, we can count on God for sunshine and rain. Following the Flood, God promised humanity and “every beast of the earth” that there would never be another flood to cover all the earth (see Genesis 9:9-16), regardless of our actions. He also promised: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22, NKJV). The seasons will come and go, regardless of what we do.

This week we will study some very significant bilateral covenants between God and His children. Let’s pray that, by the grace of God, we shall “uphold our end of the bargain.”

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 14.

Sunday–>

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Mission Field in Lake Malawi

By A.D.V. Moyo

A stranger stopped the Seventh-day Adventist university student as he walked down the road after a Pathfinder meeting on the island of Chizumulu in Lake Malawi. His green Pathfinder uniform caught her attention.

“Where are you coming from?” the stranger asked with great interest.

The student, Levison Kawonga, told her that he had been participating in a Pathfinder event at an Adventist church. His words seemed to touch her heart, and the words started rolling off her lips. “I used to be an Adventist,” she said. “I married an Adventist man, but we divorced.”

She spoke about going to bars and living licentiously after the divorce. Then she moved to Chizumulu and married a local high school teacher.

The next Sabbath, the woman showed up at the Adventist church. She enjoyed the worship service, and she asked Levison for Bible studies.

Levison was delighted. This was why he had come to the island in the first place: to share God’s love. He belonged to a club of Adventist students at Mzuzu University, a major public university of 8,500 students located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away. The club aimed to strengthen the faith of Adventists students and reach out to classmates through twice-weekly prayer meetings. The club grew into the Mzuzu Seventh-day Adventist Church, and its students fanned out to engage in missionary work in places in the region, including Chizumulu.

Levison visited the woman and her husband in their home and, after the Bible study, left behind several books, including Ellen White’s The Great Controversy. When Levison arrived for the second Bible study, he found the husband deeply engrossed in The Great Controversy. “What’s the difference between Saturday and Sunday?” the husband asked Levison. At the end of the Bible study, he promised to go with his wife to church the next Sabbath.

Weeks and months passed, and the man and his wife (pictured) gave their hearts to Jesus and were baptized. Today, they are mission-minded members of the Chizumulo Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Levison is convinced that God can use young people to reach anyone and everyone. “It is time to go and reach different classes of people with the good news of Jesus Christ,” he said. “The Mzuni Seventh-day Adventist Church, which started as a club of students, never dreamed that the Chizumulu effort would bear such fruit. Glory to God!”

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will support Adventist education in the East-Central Africa Division. Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in second quarter 2021 that is helping to expand Adventist education in Malawi.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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