LESSON 13.—SEPTEMBER 24.—REVIEW OF THE QUARTER'S LESSONS
By Editor
The Sabbath-school lessons have been discontinued. The Lesson Quarterly may be obtained, containing three months' lessons and notes, for five cents. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal. The Sunday-school lessons will continue.
INTERNATIONAL SERIES THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON 13.—SEPTEMBER 24.—REVIEW OF THE QUARTER'S LESSONS.
LESSON I.—Sennacherib's Invasion. 2 Chron. 32:9-23. Golden Text: "With us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles." Verse 8. The lesson shows us that the Lord's people need not take up carnal weapons to defend themselves, even in the presence of an armed foe. As our contention is not with flesh and blood, unless we choose to make it so, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. 2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:11-17.
LESSON II.—Hezekiah's Prayer. Isa. 38:1-8. Golden Text: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. 46:1. Hezekiah gained a lease of life of fifteen years by his earnest prayer, but this does not prove that it would not have been better for him to die. God let him have his way, and gave him the opportunity to make it a blessing. But instead, he acted very foolishly. See Isaiah 39. Moreover, during the fifteen years there was born to him a son, Manasseh, who brought great trouble upon the kingdom by his wickedness. 2 Chronicles 33.
LESSON III.—The Suffering Saviour. Isa. 52:13 to 53:12. Golden Text: "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53:6. The proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the anointed of God, was in the exact fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Him and His work. Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 24:25-27, 32; Acts 8:26-35.
LESSON IV.—The Gracious Invitation. Isa. 55:1-13. Golden Text: "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." Verse 6. The appeal which the Lord made to the world through His people anciently is the same that He is still mercifully making through His Word to-day: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Verse 7.
LESSON V.—Manasseh's Sin and Repentance. 2 Chron. 33:1-13. Golden Text: "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." Prov. 14:34. Manasseh, tho the wickedest of Judah's kings, had the longest reign of any—fifty-five years. He made the people to do worse than the heathen. Yet, after severe chastisement, and the long-suffering patience of God, he was at last converted.
LESSON VI.—Josiah's Good Reign. 2 Chron. 34:1-13. Golden Text: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Eccl. 12:1. Josiah's early inclination to do right gives credence to the tradition that, altho his father was a wicked man, his mother gave her boy a good training. Be that as it may, the young king is an illustration of the possibility, by God's help, of leading an exemplary life amid the worst surroundings.
LESSON VII.—Josiah and the Book of the Law. 2 Chron. 34:14-28. Golden Text: "I will not forget Thy Word." Ps. 119:16. Nothing so well illustrates the depth of Israel's fall as the fact that the house of God had so far been neglected that the book of the law had been lost. And there can be no true reformation in any age without reverting to the law of God as the only basis of reform. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Ps. 19:7.
LESSON VIII.—Jehoiakim Burns the Word of God. Jer. 36:21-32. Golden Text: "Amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God." Jer. 26:13. Men do not get rid of the Word of God by burning the paper on which it is written or printed. This has been tried many times since Jehoiakim's day. But "the Word of the Lord endureth forever," whatever man may do. Even the slaying of the Lord Himself could not destroy the power or the integrity of His Word.
LESSON IX.—Jeremiah in the Dungeon. Jer. 38:1-13. Golden Text: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:10. The prophet was the victim, not only of a weak, vacillating king, but of vicious princes, and, worse than all, of a backslidden priesthood and time-serving prophets. The worse persecution that ever comes to a law-abiding servant of God comes through the medium of a corrupt church.
LESSON X.—The Captivity of Judah. 2 Chron. 36:11-21. Golden Text: "Be sure your sin will find you out." Num. 32:23. The people of Judah met their fearful doom, because "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused ["scoffed at," R. V.] His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy." So the apostle says it will be in the last days, when the coming of the Lord is being preached. There will be "scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?" 2 Peter 3:3, 4. And it is professed disciples of Christ who are doing that to-day.
LESSON XI.—The Life-Giving Stream. Eze. 47:1-12. Golden Text: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. This lesson is a section taken from the vision, primarily of the possibilities before the restored kingdom of Judah, after the captivity, had they laid hold on the promise by faith; and, secondly and principally, of the new-earth kingdom, under Him "whose right it is." Eze. 21:25-27. The vision includes the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, and the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation would seem to be a complement of the portion included in this lesson.
LESSON XII.—Daniel in Babylon. Dan. 1:8-20. Golden Text: "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself." Verse 8. When Daniel set his heart to do right, regardless of probable consequences, the Lord opened the way for him by giving him favor with the man in whose charge he was. When the children of Israel went forward at the Lord's command, "by faith," the Red Sea and the Jordan gave way before them. These things were "written for our learning." Rom. 15:4. Daniel's experience is also an illustration of the importance of being "temperate in all things," if one would "strive for the mastery." 1 Cor. 9:25.
