p. 84 | TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 4, 1879

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

34.—COMPASSING JERICHO.

Did the Israelites go around the city of Jericho on the Sabbath? M. F. M.

ANS. Yes. They compassed it seven days, which we must understand to be seven successive days, one of them being necessarily the Sabbath. The query implies another one, namely, Did they thereby break the Sabbath? We answer, No; for they were not doing their own work, but the duties which God had especially assigned them.

35.—DIVORCE.

When is divorce scriptural?

ANS. According to Matt. 19:9, when either of the parties who have been joined in marriage, prove false to the marriage vow, the other party may obtain a divorce. That party is then released, and may marry again; but the other is not. To illustrate: If a man leaves his wife and runs away with another woman, violating the seventh commandment, that fact being proved, the wife is entitled to a divorce, and having obtained it, may lawfully marry again. But that man cannot marry again, nor sustain the marriage relation to any woman whatsoever while his first wife lives, without being an adulterer. The query may arise how far Matt. 5:28 affects the case. We answer that the lusting after a woman there spoken of evidently implies a purpose to secure the object of desire if possible. At any rate, men can have no ground of judgment except the overt act.

36.—VOTING.

Do we not by voting for officers of the government, identify ourselves with the government? and is this consistent with our views of Rev. 13:11-17? A. S.

ANS. We do not see that by voting we become a part of the government or identify ourselves with it so much as we do by paying our taxes and receiving in return the protection of the government, of which we are ever ready to avail ourselves. In the present order of things, governments are a necessity recognized in the Scriptures. We are to be subject to them so far as their requirements do not conflict with the law of God. Rom. 13. We are to pray for them that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives; 1 Tim. 2:1-3; and when we have the privilege, as we do in this country, of having a voice in deciding what persons shall occupy the positions of responsibility and power in the government, we do not see that it violates any principle to express that preference by our votes, if we have any preference. So far as the moral condition of the various political parties is concerned, or the personal characters of the different candidates for office, there is, alas, with few exceptions, not much to choose. Corruption is everywhere. But sometimes a principle of temperance or justice is clearly involved in a political contest; and when we can quietly but firmly cast our influence in favor of such principle, we think it well to do so, at the same time carefully keeping aloof from all partisan spirit, and from all political excitement and insanity.

37.—THE BONDWOMAN.

Please explain the fourth chapter of Galatians, verses 21-31. J. C. S.

ANS. Paul here sets forth, under an allegory, two covenants, the first or old covenant made at Horeb or Sinai; the second, or new covenant, under which we now live, made by Christ and ratified on the cross. These are represented by Sarah and her bondwoman Hagar, Hagar representing the old covenant, Sarah the new. The old covenant was made at Sinai, and was not the ten commandments, but the agreement which the people made with the Lord as recorded in Ex. 19. The condition of the blessings which God promised under that covenant, was that they should obey his voice, or keep his covenant, the ten commandments. The next chapter records the uttering of his voice from Sinai, when he gave expression to the great moral principles of his government, in ten precepts. Then follows a narrative of the completion of this covenant down to its ratification, extending to the 8th verse of ch. 24. The great feature of that covenant was the system of worship which set the Jews apart as a distinct people, and was a wall of separation between them and other nations. Its provision for the forgiveness of sin was the blood of beasts. Its center of worship was the worldly sanctuary; and its representative city, the earthly Jerusalem. It was a covenant of bondage, corresponding to Hagar, because its sacrifices could not take away sin. Hence whoever depended upon those sacrifices and offerings for justification, as certain Judaizing teachers had been instructing the Galatians to do, would still be under the bondage of sin.

The new covenant with better sacrifices was therefore a necessity. The people of this covenant are all those, Jews or Gentiles, who believe in Christ; the condition of the blessing is still to obey God’s voice, keep his covenant, or commandments, by refraining from sin. Its provision for the forgiveness of sin is the blood of Christ, which can take away sin, not in figure, as did the blood of the former covenant, but in fact. The center of worship is the sanctuary above, the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man; and its representative city is the New Jerusalem above. This is the covenant of promise, as it was embraced in the original promise of a Saviour. We are children of this covenant, as we live under its more gracious provisions. As the bondwoman, Hagar, was cast out, so that her son should not be heir with Isaac, so the old covenant was set aside to make place for the new; and none who depend on that for salvation will ever inherit the promises.

E. S. BABCOCK: See Thoughts on Daniel for an explanation of the last three verses in the book.