Sabbath-School Lesson Notes
By A. T. Robinson
Lesson IV—Israel's Mission as a Nation
God's one purpose in the existence of nations has always been that men might have an opportunity to seek the Lord. Whenever any nation has reached that point in its history in which it no longer afforded men the opportunity of seeking the Lord, then that nation, having outlived its mission, has passed off the stage of action. The fulfilling of that mission has been the predetermined time limit of every nation that has ever existed in this world. Acts 17:26, 27. Not only the time limit, but also the boundary limit of every nation was predetermined before the existence of nations. Deut. 32:8, 9. The mission of that nation which the Lord chose to represent his form of organized government in this world, was to become the light and salvation of all the world. Isa. 49:6. In order for that nation to be the light of all other nations—the light of the world—it was necessary for it to occupy a position of world-wide influence. Its limit of territory was to have been the whole world. Rom. 4:13. Its time limit was to have been forever. Ps. 81:13-15. If that nation had been true to its mission, the time would have come in its history when it would have filled the whole world, with Jerusalem as the capital city. Jer. 17:24, 25. If that chosen nation had been true to the principles of God's government in this world, those principles would have triumphed over every principle of darkness and evil. It was only on account of the disloyalty of the subjects of God's kingdom, that Satan gained the further right to bring this world to utter ruin. God's purpose will now be worked out in another way, by taking the saints to heaven for a thousand years, and allowing Satan's principles of government in this world to work out their logical results. Lesson V—The Seventy Years' Captivity in Babylon
The Lord did all that could be done to inspire the Jewish nation to fulfill their high and holy calling. He "sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." 2 Chron. 36:15, 16. God had chosen that nation to make known the glory of his character to all other nations and peoples in the world. When they had fallen from their high and holy calling, so that they could not give the light to the world, when "there was no remedy,"—no other way that this mission could be accomplished,—the Lord sent them down to Babylon, and through some of his faithful children made known the light to a heathen king, whom God had chosen as his servant to do the work which Israel had failed to do. He placed that heathen king in a position of world-wide influence, and then moved upon him to proclaim the knowledge of the true God to all peoples, languages, and tongues. Dan. 3:26-29. The Lord is not straitened for means and agencies through which to accomplish his work; but in mercy he lingers that his people may not be cut off from the blessing of doing the work to which they have been called. While this is true, the Lord always fixes a limit of time beyond which there can be delay no longer. More than seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, God had purposed and foretold that there would be a shout of triumph at that glorious event. When the time came that God's people ought to have been shouting for joy that the world's Deliverer had come, they turned away from him in unbelief, but there came a time when delay must be no longer. The Spirit of God moved upon the children to shout, and if the children had not shouted, God would have given a voice to inanimate nature, and the very stones would have shouted. Nearly two thousand years ago God purposed and foretold that when the year A. D. 1844 was reached, there should be a mighty shout of triumph in the preaching of the third angel's message. For nearly sixty years the Lord has been waiting for his chosen people to arise to the glorious occasion offered them, but unbelief has kept back and turned away these things. Jer. 5:24, 25; 3:3. But there must be delay no longer. Micah 5:7. "Already many are receiving the Holy Spirit, and no longer will the way be blocked by listless indifference. What the Lord did for his people at that time [Pentecost] it is just as essential, and more so, that he do for his people to-day. All that the apostles did, every church member to-day is to do."—"Testimonies for the church," Vol. VII, page 33.