Golden Text.—“If God be for us, who can be against us?”Rom. 8:31.
The titles, scripture selections, and Golden Texts of the quarter’s lessons were as follows:—
Lesson I.—Joseph Sold into Egypt.Gen. 37:23–33. Golden Text: “The patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him.”Acts 7:9. Joseph was a type of Christ, whose brethren, the Jews, delivered to death through envy. Mark 15:9, 10. Envy is the most cruel attribute of the sinful heart. “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” Prov. 27:4.
Lesson II.—Joseph in Prison.Gen. 39:20 to 40:8. Golden Text: “But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy.”Ch. 39:21. Joseph suffered unjustly because of his unswerving devotion to the commandments of God. His “feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron; until the time that His word came; the word of the Lord tried him.” Ps. 105:18, 19.
Lesson III.—Joseph Exalted.Gen. 41:38–49. Golden Text: “Them that honor Me I will honor.”1 Sam. 2:30. Through the Spirit of prophecy the Lord brought His servant into favor with the king. Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, and then gave him wise counsel, not forgetting to give the God of heaven credit for the wisdom that he had shown. When the king saw the necessity of placing a discreet and wise man over the affairs of the kingdom at such a time, he could think of none so well qualified as Joseph.
Lesson IV.—Joseph and His Brethren.Gen. 45:1–11. Golden Text: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”Rom. 12:21. Joseph’s brethren had come from Canaan to buy food, because of the prolonged famine. On this their second appearance before Joseph, he made himself known to them. They were troubled when he told them who he was, but he spoke kindly to them, saying, “Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life.” We are also assured that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Rom. 8:28.
Lesson V.—Death of Joseph.Gen. 50:15–26. Golden Text: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”Ps. 90:12. Joseph was faithful in all things; he was kind to his erring brethren, honored his father, true to the interests of the kingdom, and faltered not in his integrity to God. On his death-bed he showed his undaunted faith in God’s promise by exacting an oath of his brethren to take his bones with them when they should return to Canaan. He died at the age of 110 years, about ninety-three of which had been spent in Egypt.
Lesson VI.—Israel Oppressed in Egypt.Ex. 1:1–14. Golden Text: “God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant.”Ch. 2:24. Notwithstanding all that God had done for Egypt, and all the evidences He had given them that His wisdom and goodness and power were mighty above all else, they turned from Him, and persecuted Him in the persons of His chosen people. Yet the same spirit is in the world to-day, in many who have enjoyed much greater light.
Lesson VII.—The Childhood of Moses.Ex. 2:1–10. Golden Text: “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”Prov. 22:6. The lesson tells of the preservation of Moses, from the decree of the king, by the faith of his parents (Heb. 11:23), of his adoption by the king’s daughter, and his finding a home at the royal court. The providence of God, in answer to humble faith, not only spared the child’s life, but placed him under the care and tutorship of his own mother during the earlier years of his life.
Lesson VIII.—World’s Temperance Lesson.Isa. 5:11–17, 22, 23. Golden Text: “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine.”Verse 22. The woes pronounced in God’s Word are not arbitrary denunciations, but are the logical and unavoidable results of wrong doing. God “doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:33); but “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15.
Lesson IX.—The Call of Moses.Ex. 3:1–12. Golden Text: “Certainly I will be with thee.”Verse 12. Moses had been forty years a shepherd, after his exile from Egypt, when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush at Mount Horeb. He now felt entirely unfitted for the work to which he was called, but on the assurance that God would certainly go with him, he consented.
Lesson X.—Moses and Pharaoh.Ex. 11:1–10. Golden Text: “The Angel of His presence saved them.”Isa. 63:9. This lesson deals especially with the last of the ten plagues. The nine previous plagues had been for the double purpose of preparing the Israelites to undertake the exodus and as warnings to Pharaoh that he might relent and escape this last and most terrible visitation, of which he had been warned when Moses and Aaron first appeared before him.
Lesson XI.—The Passover.Ex. 12:1–17. Golden Text: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”1 Cor. 5:7. The judgment that had been pronounced against the Egyptians would also have been executed upon any Israelite household if the application of the blood of the paschal lamb had been neglected. Even the slaying of the offering would not have availed without the required blood upon the door-posts. So with our Passover; His death on the cross was for all, but its efficacy for the individual lies in the application of His blood, or life, to the life of the penitent one by faith.
Lesson XII.—The Passage of the Red Sea.Ex. 14:19–27. Golden Text: “I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.”Ch. 15:1. The Israelites were not a military people, hence the Egyptians did not expect a conflict. From their standpoint they had only to overtake the fleeing company in order to compel their return. They had no hesitancy in following any trail that the great company might leave behind. But God was caring for Israel, and at the same time was watching their enemies, who blindly rode into the trap that had been set for them by the Commander of the Lord’s host. “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name. . . . Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power; Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.” Ch. 15:3–6.
