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.

Our Sabbath afternoon introduction helps us to be mindful of the words of
Hymn 590 – Trust and Obey. To obey, is continued on in Sunday’s study. To help us through life’s toils, we are at liberty to ask
“Savior, Teach Me day by day, Loves’ sweet lesson to obey” – Hymn 193. Further help is granted in
Hymn 261 – The Spirit of the Lord Revealed (verse 3).

Choices came to Israel, as they come to us today –
Hymn 606 – Once to Every Man and Nation. Today we wish to worship only God, the Creator of our universe:
Hymn 6 – O Worship the Lord and
Hymn 83 – O Worship the King.

Matthew 12:30 (Tuesday) asks that we be committed to Jesus alone:
Hymn 634 – Come All Christians Be Committed.

Israel was to be the light to all the nations. We, also, can be a light to all around us and sing
Hymn 580 – This Little Light of Mine.

Hymn 22 – God Is Our Song asks “Give back to us the wisdom we destroy” just as many did in Israel of old. (Thursday). Wisdom is requested in
Hymn 90 – Eternal God Whose Power Upholds (verse 2),
Hymn 277 – For Your Holy Book We Thank You (verse 3) and
Hymn 547 – Be Thou My Vision (verse 2). The last snippet of study shows that Israel would have done justice to God’s law if they had lived it and practiced what they preached:
Hymn 316 – Live Out Thy Life Within Me.

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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In  Deuteronomy 4.3-4, the children of Israel are given a bit more of a history lesson, to function as a reminder of the past and of whatever spiritual and practical truths that they ideally should learn from it.

Read Numbers 25:1-15. What happened, and what spiritual and practical truths should the people have taken from this fiasco?

Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com

However uncomfortable we are with the stories of Israel’s wiping out some of the pagan nations around them, this account certainly helps in explaining the logic behind the command. Israel was to be a witness to the pagan nations around them of the true God — the only God. They were to be an example to show what worship of the true God was like. Instead, by adhering to the pagan “gods” around them, they often fell into outright rebellion against the very God whom they were to represent to the world.

Though the phrase to “commit harlotry” often has a spiritual meaning, in that Israel went after pagan gods and practices (see Hosea 4:12-14), in this case the language (and the rest of the story) suggests that there was sexual sinning, at least at first. Here again, Satan took advantage of fallen human nature, using the pagan women to seduce the men, who obviously allowed themselves to be seduced.

No doubt, the act of physical harlotry degenerated into spiritual harlotry, as well. The people involved eventually got caught up in pagan worship practices in which Israel was “joined to Baal of Peor;” that is, they somehow became attached to this false god and even sacrificed to it. Despite everything they had been taught and told, they were willing to throw it all away in the heat of passion and lust.

How could this have happened? Easily. By hardening their consciences with the first sin, the physical one, they were ripe for falling into the latter one, the spiritual one, which must have been Satan’s ultimate goal. They had become so debased that, according to the text, one man brought his Midianite woman right into the camp itself, right before Moses, and before the people who were weeping outside the tabernacle.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Read  Deuteronomy 4.1-2. What was the specific warning that the Lord gave them in regard to His “statutes and judgments,” and why would this be something that right away they are warned about? (See also Deuteronomy 12:32)

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The Lord tells them to obey the “statutes and judgments” and not to add or take away from them. Why say that? After all, why would anyone want to change God’s law?

We know the answer, of course.

“Satan has been persevering and untiring in his efforts to prosecute the work he began in heaven, to change the law of God. He has succeeded in making the world believe the theory he presented in heaven before his fall, that the law of God was faulty, and needed revising. A large part of the professed Christian church, by their attitude, if not by their words, show that they have accepted the same error.” — Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Book 2, p. 107.

When you think about the history of ancient Israel, you see that in many ways they got in trouble because not only would they ignore certain precepts of the law, which for all practical purposes was taking away from the law, but they would add to it, in the sense of bringing in practices that were not specified in the law and that, in fact, led ultimately to transgressing it.

Read Matthew 15:1-9. How do we see an example here of the principle that, though in another context, Moses warned the children of Israel about?

When the Hebrews eventually got the land promised them, they would often ignore the direct warnings about, for instance, idolatry. As a result, they followed many pagan practices, sometimes even as part of their supposed worship of Yahweh. By the time of Jesus, however, they had added all sorts of human traditions that, as Jesus Himself said, made “the commandment of God of none effect.”

Either way, adding or taking away, the law was changed, and the nation suffered the consequences.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Deuteronomy 4:1-9, Matthew 15:1-9, Numbers 25:1-15, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Deuteronomy 4:32-35, Matthew 5:13-16.

Memory Text: “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:8).

The first three chapters of Deuteronomy were basically a history lesson, reminding the people of what they had been through up to that point. By the time we get to chapter four, the history lesson shifts more into a sermonic mode. The recounting of events wasn’t just for history buffs; instead, it served a purpose, showing them the power and grace of God working among the people, and that even though they messed up, the Lord was still going to honor His covenant with them.

Chapter four begins with the Hebrew word (a conjunction and an adverb), we‘attah, which can be translated as “And now” or “So now.” They just had reviewed their recent history, a reminder of what God had done in bringing them to this point — thus, or “so now,” they are to do what God tells them to do (see also Deuteronomy 10:12) in response.

That’s why the first verb that appears after the “So now” is shama’, the same verb (and in the same form) as used in the beginning of the Shema prayer, and it means “hear” or “listen” or “obey” — a verb repeated all through Deuteronomy.

Thus, the chapter begins: “So now, Israel, because of what I have done for you, you must obey the following … .”

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 6.

Sunday–>

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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=ol-9zAf1DN4]

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