OUR BIBLE BAND

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 27, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 42.

Schedule for the Week Closing November 6

Day	Date	Morning	Evening
Su.	Oct. 31	Jer. 22, 23	Titus 1
Mo.	Nov. 1	Jer. 24, 25, 26	Titus 2
Tu.	Nov. 2	Jer. 27, 28, 29	Titus 3
We.	Nov. 3	Jer. 30, 31	Philemon
Th.	Nov. 4	Jer. 32, 33	Heb. 1
Fr.	Nov. 5	Jer. 34, 35, 36	Heb. 2
Sa.	Nov. 6	Jer. 37, 38, 39	Heb. 3

Suggestive Notes

Our Old Testament readings begin with Jeremiah 22 and close with Jeremiah 39. The attentive reader will notice that Jeremiah’s prophecies are not placed in chronological order. Some of them coming at the very last of his work in Judah precede those that came near the first. This is especially true after we reach the 20th chapter. It is supposed that this displacement came when the manuscript rolls were gathered together in one book. It makes no change whatever in the teaching of Jeremiah, and the chapter itself nearly always indicates clearly its chronology. For the readers who would like to read in chronological order we will note that from the 20th chapter the order ought to be about as follows: Chapters 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 35, 36, 45, 24, 29, 30, 31, 27, 28, 21, 34, 37, 32, 33, 38, 39:15-18; 39:1-14; chapters 40 to 45, 47, and 46. This is Boothroyd’s arrangement of the chapters; the justice of whose conclusions will be generally seen by the careful reader. In our lesson for this week we have a number of Messianic prophecies in which the prophet is carried forward through the restoration of Babylon to the more glorious restoration under Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our evening readings begin with the book of Titus and close with the third chapter of Hebrews, covering entirely the epistles to Titus and Philemon. Titus was an assistant of the apostle Paul, and accompanied that apostle to the council at Jerusalem as a Gentile Christian. He was afterwards entrusted with an important mission by the apostle. See 2 Cor. 2:13; 2 Cor. 7:6, 13-15, etc. The epistle was probably written about the year 64. From it we learn that the apostle had left Titus in Crete with the instruction that he should set in order the things that were wanting, ordain proper officers of the church, and bestow upon the church the instruction that was needed. While he was to deal kindly, he was to deal firmly, and not be deceived by those who professed to know God, but knew Him not. Splendid instruction is given regarding elders and deacons. A wonderful epitome of Christianity is given in verses 11-14 of the second chapter.

Philemon was a friend of St. Paul, and the epistle to him was sent by a slave Onesimus, who had run away from his master Philemon and had come to Paul. Seemingly he had received a new conversion with the apostle, and was sent back not simply as a slave, but as a brother, and Philemon was exhorted to receive him as such. Note the apostle’s play on the word “Onesimus,” meaning “profitable.” The apostle declares that Onesimus had been converted or begotten in Christ, “who once was unprofitable to thee, but now is profitable to thee and to me.” He had in his character come to his name. The epistle was written probably in the year 63.

The book of Hebrews was probably written in the same year. It is generally said to be written by the apostle Paul, and it is often referred to as one of his epistles; but while there is in every one of the apostle’s epistles mention of his name, so that one finds no trouble whatsoever in knowing certainly that the apostle wrote it, there is nothing of that kind in this epistle. It does not begin as do the other epistles. There is that in the second chapter, the third verse, which seems clearly to indicate that the apostle did not write it. He tells us in Galatians, the first chapter, that the Gospel which he received was not after man, nor did he learn it from men, but by revelation from God; but the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us that the salvation came to him and others with whom he classes himself, as having first been spoken “through the Lord,” and “confirmed unto us by them that heard.” The writer of the epistle was one of those who seemed to have been converted by the apostles of Christ. Some have concluded that it was Barnabas; and some have thought that Apollos wrote it. One of the latest theories of some scholars is that it was written by a woman, namely, Priscilla, and yet it seems to us that the consensus of opinion would make Barnabas the author of the epistle. Whoever the writer may be, the book is filled full of wonderful instruction concerning the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first chapter shows how superior was Jesus to angels, because He was the very Son of God, having the Father’s name. The second chapter speaks of His wonderful humiliation in order that He might save His people and become a faithful High Priest; and the third chapter is an appeal to the Hebrew children in the light of past transgressions not to harden their heart in unbelief.