OUR BIBLE BAND

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 22, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 37.

Schedule for the Week Ending Oct. 2, 1909.

			Morning		Evening
Su.	Sept.	26	Isa.	1, 2	Gal.	5
Mo.	"	27	"	3, 4	"	6
Tu.	"	28	"	5, 6	Eph.	1
We.	"	29	"	7, 8	"	2
Th.	"	30	"	9, 10	"	3
Fr.	Oct.	1	"	11, 12, 13	"	4
Sa.	"	2	"	14, 15, 16	"	5:1-16

Suggestive Notes.

Our morning readings begin with the writings of the evangelistic prophet, as Isaiah is often called; a book that is filled full of Gospel truth. It is one of those books which has been the special target of modern criticism, but which in its inherent excellence bears its own best testimony to its authenticity and divinity. It was written from 760 to 700 years B.C., as we are told in the first verse, during the reigns “of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.” Isaiah was therefore a prophet of Judah. Chapters 1 to 5 speak of the backsliding of God’s people then, and use their condition as types of last-day apostasies.

Chapter 2 especially points out the great fact that even in the midst of this apostasy there will be a cry which will go up, of universal peace, a peace for which there is no true ground; for the very ones that declare it are themselves apostate. On the other hand the Lord declares that in the last great day all the glory of men shall be laid low and Jehovah alone shall be exalted.

Chapter 6 records a vision given to the prophet Isaiah, a vision fulfilled when Israel was cast off as a nation. We next have—chapters 7 to 9—the story of a conspiracy against Judah. The king reproves them for the lack of faith in God. The conspiracies of those days are used as types of the conspiracies which shall be formed in the last days.

A wonderful prophecy is given us of Christ Jesus in chapter 9:6, 7. The same general features are characteristic of chapters 10 to 12. Reproofs of great sins in the days of the prophecy, look forward to similar conditions in the last days, and the great deliverance at the coming of Christ.

Chapters 13 to 16 are predictions concerning Babylon, Palestina, and Moab.

Our New Testament readings begin with the 5th chapter of Galatians and close with the 16th verse of the 5th chapter of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians was addressed primarily to the Christians in the great city of Ephesus in Western Asia, and written about the year A.D. 64. It is one of the most wonderful books of the New Testament in its deep, spiritual truth, and will bear much study, meditation, and prayer. It shows God’s plan to be the same in eternity, in Christ Jesus, in time, in the Holy Spirit’s operation—all the manifestations of Deity—working through manifold grace, to fit a people, whose characters were before marked out, to be to all eternity “to the praise of His glory.”