Synopsis of Sabbath-School Lessons for Quarter Ending December 31
By A. T. Robinson
GEN. 1:26. The Lord, the King of the universe, made Adam the representative of this world. Job 1:6. The “sons of God”—representatives of worlds—had a place of meeting for counsel. Satan gained Adam’s place in the council. Gen. 2:8. The Lord gave Adam a sample of what the whole earth would have become at the touch of his hand had he not forfeited his rule-ship. Gen. 1:28. Adam was given command to fill the earth with his posterity. Gen. 6:5-8. Under Satan’s rule the world was ruined, and but one righteous man was left. See Gen. 7:1. Gen. 9:2. The same dominion was given to Noah, after the flood, as had been given to Adam. Gen. 9:1. The same command, to fill the world with his posterity. Gen. 12:1-3. When Satan had once more ruined the world, and there was but one righteous man left, God called that one man out of the darkness of heathenism, and promised to make of him a great nation. Isa. 29:6. God’s purpose concerning that nation was that they should be the light of the world. 1 Sam. 8:5-7. The first step in Israel’s formal rejection of God as their king. 1 Sam. 8:19, 20. They aspired to be like the nations around them, but in their attempt to be like other nations, they sank beneath, and became the despised of all nations. 2 Chron. 36:15, 16. The Lord did all that in his mercy he could do, to bring Israel back to their high calling. John 19:15. The last sad act in Israel’s formal rejection of their King. Ps. 81:11-15. The Lord mourns the failure of Israel to fulfil their mission. Acts 13:46. When that nation whom God had called to be the light of the world had judged themselves unworthy of their calling, the call was extended to the Gentiles. Acts 15:13-15. James declared that taking out of the Gentiles a people, is the fulfilment of all that the prophets had spoken concerning the rebuilding of David’s throne and kingdom. He then quotes Amos 9:11 as a sample of what the prophets have spoken on this point. 1 Chron. 29:23. David’s throne was the throne of the Lord, while he maintained an organized form of government in the dominion usurped by Satan. Eze. 21:25-27. Wicked Zedekiah was the last king to sit upon the throne of the Lord. Luke 1:32, 33. The next to sit upon that throne, when it shall be re-established, will be He “whose right it is.” Rom. 11:25, 26. When this gathering out from the Gentiles shall be finished, “all Israel,” the complete Israel of God, will be made up.22 Jer. 5:1, 2. Satan will then once more have so far succeeded in the ruin of this world that not even one man can be found, even though there is a form of godliness. Matt. 13:41, 42. The last act in the controversy between Christ, the second Adam or head of the human family, and Satan, the usurper, will be when He “shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” Note it is out of his kingdom—his kingdom all the time, though for a time claimed by the usurper. Matt. 13:43. It will then be the “kingdom of their Father,” in which the saints shall shine forth. It is worth carefully noting that forty-two years this side of the latest prophecy concerning the return of the Jews, the Lord had literally fulfilled to them, as a nation, all that he had promised to do for them; and had they proved true to him, they would still have been in their own land, and “their time should have endured forever.” Because they threw away their inheritance and their kingdom, God had to cast them off, and complete the gathering of Israel from among the Gentiles.