Further Thought:

“How great the condescension of God and His compassion for His erring creatures in thus placing the beautiful rainbow in the clouds as a token of His covenant with men! The Lord declares that when He looks upon the bow, He will remember His covenant. This does not imply that He would ever forget; but He speaks to us in our own language, that we may better understand Him.

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It was God’s purpose that as the children of after generations should ask the meaning of the glorious arch which spans the heavens, their parents should repeat the story of the Flood, and tell them that the Most High had bended the bow and placed it in the clouds as an assurance that the waters should never again overflow the earth. Thus from generation to generation it would testify of divine love to man and would strengthen his confidence in God.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 106, 107.

Since the founding of Christianity, there has never been a church that has partaken of the wealth and creature comforts that the church in some countries of the world enjoys today. The question is, At what cost? Such affluence surely influences our spirituality — and not for the good either. How could it? Since when have wealth and material abundance fostered the Christian virtues of self-denial and self-sacrifice? In most cases, the opposite occurs: the more people have, the more self-sufficient they become, and the less they tend to depend upon God. Wealth and prosperity, however nice, do come with many dangerous spiritual traps.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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Read Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:3, Deuteronomy 16:12; and Deuteronomy 24:18, Deuteronomy 24:22. What specifically did the Lord want them never to forget, and why?

As we have seen, all through the Old Testament, the Lord constantly brought the minds of the people back to the Exodus, their miraculous deliverance, by God, from Egypt. To this day, thousands of years later, practicing Jews keep the Passover celebration, a memorial to what the Lord has done for them.

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“It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households’” (Exodus 12:25-27).

For the church today, the Passover is a symbol of the deliverance we have been offered in Christ: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Read Ephesians 2:8-13. What are these Gentile believers told to remember? How does it parallel what the Hebrews in Deuteronomy were told to remember, as well?

Paul wanted these people to remember what God had done for them in Christ, what He had saved them from, and what they now had because of God’s grace to them. As with the children of Israel, it wasn’t anything in and of themselves that commended them to God. Instead, it was only God’s grace, given to them, even though they were “strangers from the covenants of promise,” that made them who they were in Christ Jesus.

Whether Jews in the wilderness, Christians in Ephesus, or Seventh-day Adventists anywhere in the world, how crucial it is for us always to remember, and not forget, what God has done for us in Christ. No wonder, then, that we have these words: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 83.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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One former church leader, who had worked at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists^® for 34 years, told a story about how, many years earlier, he and his wife, having landed at an airport, had lost a piece of luggage. “Right there,” he said, “by the luggage conveyer belt and in public, we got on our knees and prayed, asking the Lord for the return of our lost luggage.” He then said that, many years later, the same thing happened: they arrived at the airport, but a piece of luggage didn’t. He told what happened next. “Don’t worry,” he had said to his wife, “insurance will cover it.”

With this story in mind, read Deuteronomy 8:7-18. What warning is the Lord giving to His people here, and what should it mean for us today, as well?

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Look at what their being faithful to the Lord would bring them. Not only would they possess a wonderful and rich land, “a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing” (Deuteronomy 8:9), but they will be exceedingly blessed in that land: flocks and herds and gold and silver and beautiful houses. That is, they will be given all the material comforts that this life affords.

But then, what? They would face the danger that always attends wealth and physical prosperity, that of forgetting that it was only the Lord “who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Maybe not at first, but as the years go by and they have all the material comforts that they need, they will forget their past, forget how the Lord had led them through “that great and terrible wilderness” (Deuteronomy 1:19), and, indeed, think that it was their own smartness and talents that enabled them to be so successful.

This is precisely what the Lord was warning them against doing (and unfortunately, especially as one reads the later prophets, this is exactly what happened to them).

Thus, amid this prosperity, Moses tells them that to remember that it was the Lord alone who had done this for them and not to be deceived by the material blessings that He had given them. Centuries later, Jesus Himself warned, in the parable of the sower, about “the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19).

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Read Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 4:23. What is the Lord telling them to do here, and why is this admonition so important for the nation?

Two verbs dominate the opening of both these verses: “take heed” and “forget.” What the Lord is saying to them is: take heed so that you don’t forget. That is, don’t you forget what the Lord has done for you nor the covenant that He had made with you.

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The verb “take heed,” smr (which is also used in a different form in Deuteronomy 4:9, translated “keep yourself”), occurs all through the Old Testament, and it means to “keep,” “to watch,” “to preserve,” or “to guard.” Interestingly enough, the first time it appears in Scripture is even before sin, when the Lord told Adam to “keep” the garden that He had given to him (Genesis 2:15).

Now, though, the Lord tells the people, each one individually (the verb is in the singular), to guard themselves, lest they forget. This is not “forget” so much in the sense of memory loss (though over time and in new generations that could come) but more in the sense of being lax about their covenant obligations. That is, they were to be mindful about who they were and what that meant in terms of how they were to live before God, before other Hebrews, before the strangers among them, and before the nations around them.

Read again Deuteronomy 4:9 (see also Deuteronomy 6:7 and Deuteronomy 11:19), but focus on the last part, about teaching them to their children and grandchildren. What would that have to do with helping them not to forget?

It’s not a coincidence that right after Moses tells them not to forget, not to let these things “depart from your heart,” he tells them to teach these things to the next generation and to the generation after. Not only did their children need to hear about these things, but perhaps even more important, by telling and retelling the stories of what God had done for them, the people would not forget what those things were. Hence, what better way to preserve knowledge of what the Lord had done for His chosen people?

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Key Thought: The Lord and His prophets always told the people not to forget, or to remember. We are always to remember and not forget God’s interaction in our lives..
December 4, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Genesis 9:8-17.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. How is the word remember used here and what can we learn from its use?
3. Personal Application: How should we remember what God has done for us in our lives? Share your thoughts on what you remember God has done for you specifically.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “The rainbow is a natural result of a physical reaction in the clouds. It is a pretty natural phenomenon. What does it mean to you?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 4:32-40.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the Lord telling them to remember? Why is it important to remember these things?
3. Personal Application: What has Jesus done for us, and how are we to respond to what He has done for us? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 4:9,23.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What is the Lord telling them to do here, and why is it so important for the nation?
3. Personal Application: How has telling your experience with the Lord benefited not just others, but yourself as well? Has recounting God’s leading in your life helped you not to forget His leading? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “Why would teaching the nation’s history and geneology to their children and grandchildren help them not to forget?“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 8:7-18.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What warning is the Lord giving His people here, and what should it mean for us today
3. Personal Application: What does this teach us about the danger that comes from wealth? Do wealthy people and healthy people tend to forget their need of the Lord? 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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