Suggestive Notes | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 10, 1909

Suggestive Notes.

Our Old Testament lessons cover from Leviticus 15 to Leviticus 27 inclusive. Chapter 15 deals with various forms of uncleanness. Chapter 16 has to do with the great day of atonement, the offerings that were made thereon, one for the Lord and one for Azazel, or Satan. This can only be understood by the study of the subject of the sanctuary in its services. It is typical of the last work of our Lord Jesus Christ when He shall forever atone for all those who have made peace with Him, and the instigator of sin, typified by Azazel, shall suffer his just deserts at the hand of a just God. We are now living in the time of the antitypical atonement.

Chapter 25 is instruction concerning the great year of jubilee, the fiftieth year, typical of the great jubilee when God shall make all His children free, and every one of His people who have been bound as slaves in the bonds of death shall be given eternal freedom. Chapter 26 is a wonderful prophecy of the Jews as a people, showing the conditions that are sure to follow obedience and disobedience, closing with chapter 27 concerning vows and tithes.

Chapters 17 to 23 contain various laws and rituals, warnings against various sins and impurities, dealing with the qualifications for the priesthood, instructing as to what beasts might be sacrificed. Chapter 23 is a presentation of the various feasts and sabbaths of the Lord. Here the annual sabbaths are brought to view, of which there are several, and we are expressly told that these are sabbaths besides the Sabbath of Jehovah, verse 38. Instruction is here given as to when these feasts begin and when they end, throughout the sacred year.

Our lessons in the New Testament begin with Matthew 27 and close with Mark 2. Matthew 27 presents the closing scenes in the trials of Jesus, the crucifixion on the cross, and the burial. Chapter 28 is one of the shortest chapters in Matthew, but it tells the gladdest message, that He is risen.

The second Gospel was written by Mark, the full name of whom was John Mark, Acts 12:12-25; 15:37, and cousin of Barnabas, Col. 4:10, R.V. His mother, Mary by name, Acts 12:12, lived at Jerusalem, and he is thought to be the young man whom he describes in chapter 14:51, 52, as he is the only one who mentions it, and he must have been about that age at the time. He started out timid-hearted, evidently because he departed from Paul and Barnabas and went home, but afterward Paul tells us he was profitable. He was with Peter when he wrote his first epistle, 1 Peter 5:13, in about the year 63, and it was at this time supposedly, that he wrote his Gospel. One of the characteristics of his Gospel is the presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He does not deal with details, but hurries to the great miracles and parables. "Forthwith," "immediately," "straightway" are favorite terms with him. His Gospel is considered the most chronological account of our Lord's ministry, doubtless the most graphic.

Chapter 1 starts out with the preaching of the Baptist, baptism, temptation, preaching of Jesus, and then we are led on through miracle after miracle, chapter 2 closing with His example and instruction concerning the Sabbath. Mark deals almost wholly with Jesus' ministry in Galilee.