Torah Reading

for Sabbath, the 7th of Ab, 181 JE

Bereshit

In the Beginning

Part One
(Parashah #1)

TORAH:                       Genesis 1:1–2:3

HAFTARAH:         Isaiah 42:5–9

APOSTOLIC: Colossians 1:1–23

TORAH:
Genesis 1:1–2:3

Chapter 1

1                      In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth: and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

2                      And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3                      And God said, “Let there be light”: and there was light.

4                      And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

6                      And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

7                      And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8                      And God called the firmament ‘Heaven’: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning—a second day.

9                      And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear”: and it was so.

10                    And God called the dry land ‘Earth’; and the gathering together of the waters He called ‘Seas’: and God saw that it was good.

11                    And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth”: and it was so.

12                    And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13                    And there was evening and there was morning—a third day.

14                    And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed times, and for days, and years:

15                    and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth”: and it was so.

16                    And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.

17                    And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth,

18                    and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

20                    And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heavens.”

21                    And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22                    And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”

24                    And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind”: and it was so.

25                    And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26                    And God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

28                    And God blessed them; and God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

29                    And God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.

30                    And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food”: and it was so.

Chapter 2

 1                 And the heavens and the earth and all their vast array were finished.

 2                      And on the sixth day God finished His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

 3                      And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because He rested in it from all His work, which God had created and made.

HAFTARAH:
Isaiah 42:5-9

5                       Thus saith God Jehovah, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

6                      I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations;

7                      To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

8                      I am Jehovah: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

9                      Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

APOSTOLIC:
Colossians 1:1-23

Chapter 1

1                      Paul, an apostle of Jehoshua the Messiah by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2                      To the saints and faithful brethren in the Messiah which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jehoshua the Messiah:

3                      We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jehoshua the Messiah, praying always for you,

4                      since we heard of your faith in the Messiah Jehoshua, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5                      for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, whereof ye heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel,

6                      which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

7                      as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of the Messiah;

8                      who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

9                      For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10                    that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11                    strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12                    giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

15                    who is the image of the invisible God, the First-begotten—before every creature.

21        And you, that were one time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled

22                    in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight—

23                    if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under the heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister…

E.G. White Commentary

Genesis

Chapter 1

1-3 ( Psalm 33:6, 9). A Reservoir of Means—God spoke, and His words created His works in the natural world. God’s creation is but a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure (Letter 131, 1897). { 1BC 1081.1 }

26 ( Ephesians 3:15). A Larger Family—Infinite love—how great it is! God made the world to enlarge heaven. He desires a larger family of created intelligences (Manuscript 78, 1901). { 1BC 1081.2 }

27. Man, a New and Distinct Order—All heaven took a deep and joyful interest in the creation of the world and of man. Human beings were a new and distinct order. They were made “in the image of God,” and it was the Creator’s design that they should populate the earth ( The Review and Herald, February 11, 1902). { 1BC 1081.3 }

29 ( Psalm 104:14). Fruit in Our Hands—The Lord has given His life to the trees and vines of His creation. His word can increase or decrease the fruit of the land. If men would open their understanding to discern the relation between nature and nature’s God, faithful acknowledgments of the Creator’s power would be heard. Without the life of God, nature would die. His creative works are dependent on Him. He bestows life-giving properties on all that nature produces. We are to regard the trees laden with fruit as the gift of God, just as much as though He placed the fruit in our hands (Manuscript 114, 1899). { 1BC 1081.4 }

Chapter 2

2 ( Exodus 20:8-11). Seven Literal Days—The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor, and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great fact of the first seven days ( Spiritual Gifts 3:90). { 1BC 1081.5 }

Isaiah

Chapter 42

5-12. Faithfulness Leads Men to Praise God—[Isaiah 42:5-12 quoted.] This work had been given to Israel, but they had neglected their God-appointed work. Had they been faithful in all parts of the Lord’s vineyard, souls would have been converted. The Lord’s praise would have been heard from the ends of the earth. From the wilderness and the cities thereof, and from the tops of the mountains, men would have shouted His praise, and told of His glory (Manuscript 151, 1899). { 4BC 1146.2 }

Colossians

Chapter 1

Instruction of Highest Value—The manifestation of real goodness is the bearing of fruit in good works. This bears the endorsement of heaven. Read the first chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. The instruction it contains is of the highest value. The religion of Christ makes all who possess it truly benevolent. It countenances no littleness, no mean transactions.

True Christians have a nobility which allows none of the cheap, covetous actions that are a disgrace to the doer of them (Letter 58, 1900). { 7BC 905.19 }

What Our Churches Should Be—The first and second chapters of Colossians have been presented to me as an expression of what our churches in every part of the world should be (Letter 161, 1903). { 7BC 906.1 }

9-11. God’s Will May Be Known—[Colossians 1:9-11 quoted.] How complete this prayer is! There is no limit to the blessings that it is our privilege to receive. We may be “filled with the knowledge of his will.” The Holy Ghost would never have inspired Paul to offer this prayer in behalf of his brethren, if it had not been possible for them to receive an answer from God in accordance with the request. Since this is so, we know that God’s will is manifested to His people as they need a clearer understanding of His will (Letter 179, 1902). { 7BC 906.2 }

15 ( Hebrews 1:3; see EGW comment on Acts 1:11). The Perfect Photograph of God—We have only one perfect photograph of God, and this is Jesus Christ (Manuscript 70, 1899). { 7BC 906.3 }

Torah Reading

for Sabbath, the 14th of Ab, 181 JE

Bereshit

In the Beginning

Part Two
(Parashah #2)

TORAH:                       Genesis 2:4-3:24

HAFTARAH:         Ezekiel 28:11-26

APOSTOLIC: Romans 5:12-21

TORAH:
Genesis 2:4 – 3:24

Chapter 2

4                       These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah Elohim made the earth and the heavens,

5                      and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for Jehovah Elohim had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6                      But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7                      And Jehovah Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8                      And Jehovah Elohim planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.

9                      And out of the ground made Jehovah Elohim to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10                    And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11                    The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12                    And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13                    And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14                    And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15                    And Jehovah Elohim took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16                    And Jehovah Elohim commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17                    but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die.”

18                    And Jehovah Elohim said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”

19                    And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what He would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20                    And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.

21                    And Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22                    and the rib, which Jehovah Elohim had taken from man, He made a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23                    And Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called ‘Woman’, because she was taken out of Man.”

24                    And the name of the third river is Hiddekel, which runneth on the east side of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

25                    And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Chapter   3

1                      Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah Elohim had made. And he said unto the woman, “Hath God indeed said, ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ ”

2                      And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3                      but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die’.”

4                      And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die:

5                      for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.”

6                      And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7                      And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8                      And they heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim amongst the trees of the garden.

9                      And Jehovah Elohim called unto Adam, and said unto him, “Where art thou?”

10                    And he said, “I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

11                    And He said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”

12                    And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

13                    And Jehovah Elohim said unto the woman, “What is this that thou hast done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

14                    And Jehovah Elohim said unto the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

15                    And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed: He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”

16                    Unto the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

17                    And unto Adam He said, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, ‘Thou shalt not eat of it’: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18                    thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19                    in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

20                    And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

21                    Unto Adam also and to his wife did Jehovah Elohim make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22                    And Jehovah Elohim said, “Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”:

23                    therefore Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24                    So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

HAFTARAH:
Ezekiel 28:11-26

11                     Moreover the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

12                    Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith Adonai Jehovah; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13                    Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

14                    Thou wast the anointed cherub

that covereth;

and I set thee,

so that thou wast upon

the holy mountain of God:

thou hast walked up and down

in the midst of the stones of fire.

15                    Thou wast perfect in thy ways

from the day that thou wast created,

till iniquity was found in thee.

16                    Of the abundance of thy merchandise

thou hast filled thy storehouses

with iniquity,

and hast sinned:

therefore thou hast been cast down

wounded

from the Mount of God,

and the cherub has brought thee out

of the midst of the stones of fire.

17                    Thine heart was lifted up

because of thy beauty,

thou hast corrupted thy wisdom

by reason of thy brightness:

I have cast thee to the earth:

I have laid thee before kings,

that they may behold thee.

18                    From the abundance of thine iniquity,

by the perversity of thy merchandise,

thou hast polluted thy sanctuaries;

therefore will I bring forth a fire

from the midst of thee:

it shall devour thee:

and I will bring thee to ashes

upon the earth

in the sight of all them that behold thee.

 19                    All they that know thee among the peoples

shall be astonished at thee:

thou shalt be brought to destruction,

and never shalt thou be any more.

20                    Again the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

21                    Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,

22                    And say, Thus saith Adonai Jehovah; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

23                    For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

24                    And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the House of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am Adonai Jehovah.

25                    Thus saith Adonai Jehovah; When I shall have gathered the House of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

26                    And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah their God.

APOSTOLIC:
Romans 5:12-21

12                     Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned—

13                    for until the Torah, sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no Torah.

14                    Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.

15                    But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jehoshua the Messiah, hath abounded unto many.

16                    And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

17                    For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jehoshua the Messiah.

18                    Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon the many to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon the many unto justification of life.

19                    For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous.

20                    Moreover the Torah entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21                    that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jehoshua the Messiah our Lord.

E.G. White Commentary

Genesis

Chapter 2

2 The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor, and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great fact of the first seven days
(Spiritual Gifts 3:90).

7 The Lord created man out of the dust of the earth. He made Adam a partaker of His life, His nature. There was breathed into him the breath of the Almighty, and he became a living soul. Adam was perfect in form—strong, comely, pure, bearing the image of his Maker (Manuscript 102, 1903).

Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect in organization and beautiful in form. The fact that he has for six thousand years withstood the ever-increasing weight of disease and crime is conclusive proof of the power of endurance with which he was first endowed (Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 7).

8. Adam was crowned king in Eden. To him was given dominion over every living thing that God had created. The Lord blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to any other creature. He made Adam the rightful sovereign over all the works of His hands. Man, made in the divine image, could contemplate and appreciate the glorious works of God in nature (Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, 7).
9. Adam had themes for contemplation in the works of God in Eden, which was heaven in miniature. God did not form man merely to contemplate His glorious works; therefore, He gave him hands for labor, as well as a mind and heart for contemplation. If the happiness of man consisted in doing nothing, the Creator would not have given Adam his appointed work. Man was to find happiness in labor, as well as in meditation (Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 7, 8).

17 Christ never planted the seeds of death in the system. Satan planted these seeds when he tempted Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge which meant disobedience to God (Manuscript 65, 1899)

Adam listened to the words of the tempter, and yielding to his insinuations, fell into sin. Why was not the death penalty at once enforced in his case?—Because a ransom was found. God’s only begotten Son volunteered to take the sin of man upon Himself, and to make an atonement for the fallen race. There could have been no pardon for sin had this atonement not been made. Had God pardoned Adam’s sin without an atonement, sin would have been immortalized, and would have been perpetuated with a boldness that would have been without restraint (The Review and Herald, April 23, 1901).

Chapter 3

1-6. A Succession of Falls—If the race had ceased to fall when Adam was driven from Eden, we should now be in a far more elevated condition physically, mentally, and morally. But while men deplore the fall of Adam, which has resulted in such unutterable woe, they disobey the express injunctions of God, as did Adam, although they have his example to warn them from doing as he did in violating the law of Jehovah. Would that man had stopped falling with Adam. But there has been a succession of falls. Men will not take warning from Adam’s experience. They will indulge appetite and passion in direct violation of the law of God, and at the same time continue to mourn Adam’s transgression, which brought sin into the world.

From Adam’s day to ours there has been a succession of falls, each greater than the last, in every species of crime. God did not create a race of beings so devoid of health, beauty, and moral power as now exists in the world. Disease of every kind has been fearfully increasing upon the race. This has not been by God’s especial providence, but directly contrary to His will. It has come by man’s disregard of the very means which God has ordained to shield him from the terrible evils existing (The Review and Herald, March 4, 1875).

1. Satan Uses Instruments—In Eden Satan used the serpent as his instrument. Today he makes use of the members of the human family, striving by means of every species of cunning and deception to hedge up the path of righteousness cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in (Letter 91, 1900).
2. No Change in Satan’s Propaganda—God does not consult our opinions or preferences. He knows what human beings do not know,—the future results of every movement, and therefore our eyes should be directed to Him, and not to the worldly advantages presented by Satan. Satan tells us that if we give heed to him, we shall reach great heights of knowledge. Ye shall be as gods, he said to Eve, if you eat of the tree forbidden by God. The test given to Adam and Eve was very light, but they could not bear it. They disobeyed God, and this transgression opened the floodgates of woe on our world (Manuscript 50, 1893).
3. With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict that was to decide the position of Adam and Eve. How attentively the angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he placed his own ideas above the commands of God, and sought to make of none effect the law of God through his deceptive reasoning! How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be deluded by the tempter, and yield to his arts! They asked themselves, Will the holy pair transfer their faith and love from the Father and Son to Satan? Will they accept his falsehoods as truth? They knew that they might refrain from taking the fruit, and obey the positive injunction of God, or they might violate the express command of their Creator.

The mildest test was given them that could be given; for there was no need of their eating of the forbidden tree; everything that their wants required had been provided (The Bible Echo, July 24, 1899).

Gained Only a Knowledge of Sin and Its Results—If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have imparted to them knowledge,—knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy. The only knowledge they gained by their disobedience was a knowledge of sin and its results ((Australasian) Union Conference Record, March 1, 1904).

Adam’s Fall Inexplainable—In what consisted the strength of the assault made upon Adam, which caused his fall? It was not indwelling sin; for God made Adam after His own character, pure and upright. There were no corrupt principles in the first Adam, no corrupt propensities or tendencies to evil. Adam was as faultless as the angels before God’s throne. These things are inexplainable, but many things which now we cannot understand will be made plain when we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known (Letter 191, 1899).

Fall Broke Golden Chain of Obedience—Adam yielded to temptation and as we have the matter of sin and its consequence laid so distinctly before us, we can read from cause to effect and see the greatness of the act is not that which constitutes sin; but the disobedience of God’s expressed will, which is a virtual denial of God, refusing the laws of His government….

The fall of our first parents broke the golden chain of implicit obedience of the human will to the divine. Obedience has no longer been deemed an absolute necessity. The human agents follow their own imaginations which the Lord said of the inhabitants of the old world was evil and that continually (Manuscript 1, 1892).

The plan of salvation was so arranged that when Adam was tested, temptation was removed from him as far as possible. When Adam was tempted, he was not hungry (The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1900).

God had power to hold Adam back from touching the forbidden fruit; but had He done this, Satan would have been sustained in his charge against God’s arbitrary rule. Man would not have been a free moral agent, but a mere machine (The Review and Herald, June 4, 1901).

7. Adam and Eve both ate of the fruit, and obtained a knowledge which, had they obeyed God, they would never have had—an experience in disobedience and disloyalty to God—the knowledge that they were naked. The garment of innocence, a covering from God, which surrounded them, departed; and they supplied the place of this heavenly garment by sewing together fig-leaves for aprons.

This is the covering that the transgressors of the law of God have used since the days of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They have sewed together fig-leaves to cover their nakedness, caused by transgression. The fig-leaves represent the arguments used to cover disobedience. When the Lord calls the attention of men and women to the truth, the making of fig-leaves into aprons will be begun, to hide the nakedness of the soul. But the nakedness of the sinner is not covered. All the arguments pieced together by all who have interested themselves in this flimsy work will come to naught (The Review and Herald, November 15, 1898).

10, 11. Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator, had they remained in the path of perfect rectitude, they could have known and understood God. But when they listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them; and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had lightened everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in His created works (The Review and Herald, March 17, 1904).

15. Adam and Eve at their creation had knowledge of the original law of God. It was imprinted upon their hearts, and they were acquainted with the claims of law upon them. When they transgressed the law of God, and fell from their state of happy innocence, and became sinners, the future of the fallen race was not relieved by a single ray of hope. God pitied them, and Christ devised the plan for their salvation by Himself bearing the guilt. When the curse was pronounced upon the earth and upon man, in connection with the curse was a promise that through Christ there was hope and pardon for the transgression of God’s law. Although gloom and darkness hung, like the pall of death, over the future, yet in the promise of the Redeemer, the Star of hope lighted up the dark future. The gospel was first preached to Adam by Christ. Adam and Eve felt sincere sorrow and repentance for their guilt. They believed the precious promise of God, and were saved from utter ruin (The Review and Herald, April 29, 1875).

As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew that He would have to suffer, yet He became man’s substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary (The Review and Herald, March 12, 1901).

16, 17. God forbears, for a time, the full execution of the sentence of death pronounced upon man. Satan flattered himself that he had forever broken the link between heaven and earth. But in this he was greatly mistaken and disappointed. The Father had given the world into the hands of His Son for Him to redeem from the curse and the disgrace of Adam’s failure and fall (Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ in The Wilderness, 17).

17, 18. All nature is confused; for God forbade the earth to carry out the purpose He had originally designed for it. Let there be no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord. The curse of God is upon all creation. Every year it makes itself more decidedly felt (Manuscript 76a, 1901).

The first curse was pronounced upon the posterity of Adam and upon the earth, because of disobedience. The second curse came upon the ground after Cain slew his brother Abel. The third most dreadful curse from God, came upon the earth at the Flood ( Spiritual Gifts 4a:121).

The land has felt the curse, more and more heavily. Before the Flood, the first leaf which fell, and was discovered decaying upon the ground, caused those who feared God great sorrow. They mourned over it as we mourn over the loss of a dead friend. In the decaying leaf they could see an evidence of the curse, and of the decay of nature (Spiritual Gifts 4a:155).

The Lord’s curse is upon the earth, upon man, upon beast, upon the fish in the sea, and as transgression becomes almost universal the curse will be permitted to become as broad and as deep as the transgression (Letter 59, 1898).

After the transgression of Adam, God might have destroyed every opening bud and blooming flower, or He might have taken away their fragrance, so grateful to the senses. In the earth seared and marred by the curse, in the briers, the thistles, the thorns, the tares, we may read the law of condemnation; but in the delicate color and perfume of the flowers, we may learn that God still loves us, that His mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth (The Review and Herald, November 8, 1898).

18. Not one noxious plant was placed in the Lord’s great garden, but after Adam and Eve sinned, poisonous herbs sprang up. In the parable of the sower the question was asked the Master, “Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? how then hath it tares?” The Master answered, “An enemy hath done this.” All tares are sown by the evil one. Every noxious herb is of his sowing, and by his ingenious methods of amalgamation he has corrupted the earth with tares (Manuscript 65, 1899).

22-24. Transgression of God’s requirements excluded Adam from the Garden of Eden. A flaming sword was placed around the tree of life, lest man should put forth his hand and partake of it, immortalizing sin. Obedience to all the commandments of God was the condition of eating of the tree of life. Adam fell by disobedience, forfeiting by sin all right to use either the life-giving fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden, or its leaves, which are for the healing of the nations.

Obedience through Jesus Christ gives to man perfection of character and a right to that tree of life. The conditions of again partaking of the fruit of the tree are plainly stated in the testimony of Jesus Christ to John: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and many enter in through the gates into the city” (Manuscript 72, 1901).

Ezekiel

Chapter 28

12. Evil originated with Lucifer, who rebelled against the government of God. Before his fall he was a covering cherub, distinguished by his excellence. God made him good and beautiful, as near as possible like Himself (The Review and Herald, September 24, 1901).

12-15 Satan, the chief of the fallen angels, once had an exalted position in heaven. He was next in honor to Christ. The knowledge which he, as well as the angels who fell with him, had of the character of God, of His goodness, His mercy, wisdom, and excellent glory, made their guilt unpardonable.

There was no possible hope for the redemption of those who had witnessed and enjoyed the inexpressible glory of heaven, and had seen the terrible majesty of God, and, in presence of all this glory, had rebelled against Him. There were no new and wonderful exhibitions of God’s exalted power that could impress them so deeply as those they had already experienced. If they could rebel in the very presence of glory inexpressible, they could not be placed in a more favorable condition to be proved. There was no reserve force of power, nor were there any greater heights and depths of infinite glory to overpower their jealous doubts and rebellious murmuring (Redemption: The Temptation of Christ, pages 18, 19).

It will be in the last great day when every case receives as his works have been; it will be the final and eternal condemnation of the devil and all his sympathizers and all who have served under his jurisdiction and have identified themselves with him. Will he have a reason to assign for his rebellion? When the Judge of all the world demands, Why have ye done thus? what reason can he assign, what cause can he plead? Bear in mind every tongue is silent, every mouth that has been so ready to speak evil, so ready to accuse, so ready to utter words of recrimination and falsehood is stopped, and the whole world of rebellion stands speechless before God; their tongues cleave to the roof of their mouth. The place where sin entered can be specified.

“Thou wast perfect in thy ways … till iniquity was found in thee.” “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.” All this was the gift of God. God was not chargeable with this—making the covering cherub beautiful, noble and good. “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: … thou has defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic.” In this place “traffic” is the emblem of corrupt administration. It denotes the bringing of self-seeking into spiritual offices. Nothing in spiritual service is acceptable to God except the purposes and works that are for the good of the universe. To do good to others will redound to the glory of God.

The principles of Satan’s working in heaven are the same principles by which he works through human agents in this world. It is through these corrupting principles that every earthly empire and the churches have been increasingly corrupted. It is by the working out of these principles that Satan deceives and corrupts the whole world from the beginning to the ending. He is continuing this same policy-working, originally begun in the heavenly universe. He is energizing the whole world with his violence with which he corrupted the world in the days of Noah (Letter 156, 1897).

Romans

12-19. Christ came to this world to show us what God can do and what we can do in cooperation with God. In human flesh He went into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy. He knows what it is to hunger and thirst. He knows the weakness and the infirmities of the flesh. He was tempted in all points like as we are tempted.

Our ransom has been paid by our Saviour. No one need be enslaved by Satan. Christ stands before us as our divine example, our all-powerful Helper. We have been bought with a price that it is impossible to compute. Who can measure the goodness and mercy of redeeming love (Manuscript 76, 1903)?

The second Adam was a free moral agent, held responsible for His conduct. Surrounded by intensely subtle and misleading influences, He was much less favorably situated than was the first Adam to lead a sinless life. Yet in the midst of sinners He resisted every temptation to sin, and maintained His innocency. He was ever sinless (The Southern Work, September 29, 1903).

As related to the first Adam, men receive from him nothing but guilt and the sentence of death. But Christ steps in and passes over the ground where Adam fell, enduring every test in man’s behalf. He redeems Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall by coming forth from the trial untarnished. This places man on vantage ground with God. It places him where, through accepting Christ as his Saviour, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Thus he becomes connected with God and Christ (Letter 68, 1899). { 6BC 1074.7 }

Torah Reading

for Sabbath, the 21st of Ab, 181 JE

Bereshit

In the Beginning

Part Three
(Parashah #3)

TORAH:                            Genesis 4

HAFTARAH:         Jeremiah 1

APOSTOLIC:     Romans 3:1-24

TORAH:
Genesis 4

1                       And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man from Jehovah.”

2                      And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

3                      And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah.

4                      And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

5                      but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

6                      And Jehovah said unto Cain, “Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?

7                      If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”

8                      And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

9                      And Jehovah said unto Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” And he said, I know not: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10                    And He said, “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.”

11                    And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;

12                    when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.”            13                And Cain said unto Jehovah, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.

14                    Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”

15                    And Jehovah said unto him, “Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”

16                    And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

17                    And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

18                    And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

19                    And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

20                    And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.

21                    And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

22                    And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

23                    And Lamech said unto his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

24                    If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”

25                    And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: “For God,” said she, “hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

26                    And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah.

HAFTARAH:
Jeremiah 1

1                      The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

2                      To whom the Word of Jehovah came in the days of Josih the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3                      It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

4                      Then the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

5                      Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee: I appointed thee to be a prophet unto the nations.

6                      Then said I, Ah, Adonai Jehovah! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

7                      But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

8                      Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.

9                      Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

10                    See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

11                    Moreover the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

12                    Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

13                    And the Word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

14                    Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

15                    For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

16                    And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

17                    Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

18                    For, behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

19                    And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.

APOSTOLIC:
Romans 3:1-24

 1                 What, then, is the superiority of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of the circumcision?

 2                      Much in every way; for first, indeed, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

3                      For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

4                      Far be it: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, “that Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”

5                      But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man.)

6                      Far be it: for then how shall God judge the world?

7                      For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

8                      And why may we not do evil that good may come?—as we are injuriously charged, and as some affirm that we say; whose condemnation is just.

9                      What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and nations, that they are all under sin;

10                    as it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one:

11                    There is none that understandeth,

there is none that seeketh after God.

12                   They are all gone out of the way,

they are together become unprofitable;

there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13                   Their throat is an open sepulcher;

with their tongues they have used deceit;

the poison of asps is under their lips:

14                   Whose mouth is full of cursing

and bitterness:

15                    Their feet are swift to shed blood:

16                    Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17                    And the way of peace have they not know

18                    There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19                    Now we know that what things soever the Torah saith, it saith to them who are under the Torah: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20                    Therefore by the deeds of the Torah there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Torah is the knowledge of sin.

21                    But now the righteousness of God without the Torah is manifested, being witnessed by the Torah and the Prophets;

22                    even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jehoshua the Messiah unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

23                    for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24                    being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in the Messiah Jehoshua.

E.G. White Commentary

Genesis

Chapter 4

4. In every offering to God we are to acknowledge the one great Gift; that alone can make our service acceptable to him. When Abel offered the firstling of the flock, he acknowledged God, not only as the Giver of his temporal blessings, but also as the Giver of the Saviour. Abel’s gift was the very choicest he could bring; for it was the Lord’s specified claim. But Cain brought only of the fruit of the ground, and his offering was not accepted by the Lord. It did not express faith in Christ. All our offerings must be sprinkled with the blood of the atonement. As the purchased possession of the Son of God, we are to give the Lord our own individual lives (Review and Herald, November 24, 1896).

Fallen man, because of his guilt, could no longer come directly before God with his supplications; for his transgression of the divine law had placed an impassable barrier between the holy God and the transgressor. But a plan was devised that the sentence of death should rest upon a substitute. In the plan of redemption there must be the shedding of blood, for death must come in consequence of man’s sin. The beasts for sacrificial offerings were to prefigure Christ. In the slain victim, man was to see the fulfillment for the time being of God’s word, “Ye shall surely die” (Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, 19).

6. The Lord saw the wrath of Cain, He saw the falling of his countenance. Thus is revealed how closely the Lord marks every action, all the intents and purposes, yes, even the expression of the countenance. This, though man may say nothing, expresses his refusal to do the way and will of God…. Well might the question be asked you of the Lord, when you cannot follow the impulse of your own rebellious heart, and are restrained from doing your own unrighteous, unsanctified will, “Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?” Such exhibitions reveal that because they cannot do after Satan’s arts and devices they are provoked, and can only manifest a spirit similar to that of Cain (Manuscript 77, 1897).

8. There could be no harmony between the two brothers, and contention must come. Abel could not concede to Cain without being guilty of disobedience to the special commands of God (Letter 16, 1897).

Satan is the parent of unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion. He filled Cain with doubt and with madness against his innocent brother and against God, because his sacrifice was refused and Abel’s accepted. And he slew his brother in his insane madness (The Review and Herald, March 3, 1874).

15. God has given to every man his work; and if any one turns from the work that God has given him, to do the work of Satan, to defile his own body or lead another into sin, that man’s work is cursed, and the brand of Cain is placed upon him. The ruin of his victim will cry unto God, as did the blood of Abel (Review and Herald, March 6, 1894).

Any man, be he minister or layman, who seeks to compel or control the reason of any other man, becomes an agent of Satan, to do his work, and in the sight of the heavenly universe he bears the mark of Cain (Manuscript 29, 1911).

25. Seth was of more noble stature than Cain or Abel, and resembled Adam more than any of his other sons. The descendants of Seth had separated themselves from the wicked descendants of Cain. They cherished the knowledge of God’s will, while the ungodly race of Cain had no respect for God and His sacred commandments (Spiritual Gifts 3:60).

Torah Reading

for Sabbath, the 28th of Ab, 181 JE

Bereshit

In the Beginning

Part Four
List of Generations
(Parashah #4)

TORAH:                Genesis 5:1 – 6:8

HAFTARAH:         Isaiah 30:8-15

APOSTOLIC:     Matthew 23

TORAH

Genesis 5

1                      This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God He made him;

2                      male and female He created them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3                      And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

4                      and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

5                      and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

6                      And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

7                      And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:

8                      and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

9                      And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

10                    and Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:

11                    and all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

12                    And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:

13                    and Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:

14                    and all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

15                    And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:

16                    and Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:

17                    and all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

18                    And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

19                    and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

20                    and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

21                    And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

22                    and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

23                    and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

24                    and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

25                    And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:

26                    and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:

27                    and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

28                    And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

29                    and he called his name Noah, saying, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.”

30                    And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

31                    and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

32                    And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6

1                      And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

2                      that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

3                      And Jehovah Elohim said, “My Spirit shall certainly not remain in these men, for they are flesh; but their days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”

4                      There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

5                      And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6                      And it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.

7                      And Jehovah said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

8                      But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah.

HAFTARAH

Isaiah 30

8                       Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever:

9                      That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the Torah of Jehovah:

10                    Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

11                    Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

12                    Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

13                    Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

14                    And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

15                    For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

APOSTOLIC

Matthew 23

1                      Then spoke Jehoshua to the multitude, and to His disciples,

2                      saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

3                      all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

4                      For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5                      But all their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6                      and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

7                      and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, ‘Rabbi’, ‘Rabbi’.

8                      But be ye not called ‘Rabbi’, for One is your Doctor, and all ye are brethren;

9                      and call no one on earth ‘Father’, for there is but One, your Father who is in Heaven;

10                    neither be ye called ‘directors’: for One is your Director, even the Messiah.

11                    But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant:

12                    and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.

13                    But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

14                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of Gehenna than yourselves.

16                    Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.’

17                    Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater—the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18                    And, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty’.

19                    Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater—the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20                    Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21                    And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

22                    And he that shall swear by Heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon.

23                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Torah: judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24                    Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26                    Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

28                    Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29                    Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,

30                    and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets’.

31                    Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32                    Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33                    Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna?

34                    Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35                    that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36                    Verily I say unto you, ‘All these things shall come upon this generation’.

37                    O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even ‘as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings’ [2 Ezra 1:30]; and ye would not!

38                    Behold, ‘your house is left unto you desolate’ [Jer. 22:5]!

39                    For I say unto you, ‘Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of Jehovah” [Ps. 118:26]’.”

E.G. White Commentary

Genesis 5

22-24. Did he [Enoch] see God by his side? Only by faith. He knew that the Lord was there, and he adhered steadfastly to the principles of truth. We, too, are to walk with God. When we do this, our faces will be lighted up by the brightness of His presence, and when we meet one another, we shall speak of His power, saying, Praise God. Good is the Lord, and good is the word of the Lord (Manuscript 17, 1903).

We can have what Enoch had. We can have Christ as our constant companion. Enoch walked with God, and when assailed by the tempter, he could talk with God about it. He had no “It is written” as we have, but he had a knowledge of his heavenly Companion. He made God his Counsellor, and was closely bound up with Jesus. And Enoch was honored in this course. He was translated to heaven without seeing death. And those who will be translated at the close of time, will be those who commune with God on earth. Those who make manifest that their life is hid with Christ in God will ever be representing Him in all their life-practices. Selfishness will be cut out by the roots (Manuscript 38, 1897).

Let us realize the weakness of humanity, and see where man fails in his self-sufficiency. We shall then be filled with a desire to be just what God desires us to be—pure, noble, sanctified. We shall hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ. To be like God will be the one desire of the soul.

This is the desire that filled Enoch’s heart. And we read that he walked with God. He studied the character of God to a purpose. He did not mark out his own course, or set up his own will, as if he thought himself fully qualified to manage matters. He strove to conform himself to the divine likeness (Letter 169, 1903).

While trusting in your heavenly Father for the help you need, He will not leave you. God has a heaven full of blessings that He wants to bestow on those who are earnestly seeking for that help which the Lord alone can give. It was in looking in faith to Jesus, in asking of Him, in believing that every word spoken would be verified, that Enoch walked with God. He kept close by the side of God, obeying His every word…. His was a wonderful life of oneness. Christ was his Companion. He was in intimate fellowship with God (Manuscript 111, 1898).

He [Enoch] did not make his abode with the wicked. He did not locate in Sodom, thinking to save Sodom. He placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. Then at times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message. Every visit he made to the world was painful to him. He saw and understood something of the leprosy of sin. After proclaiming his message, he always took back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning. Some of these became overcomers, and died before the Flood came. But some had lived so long in the corrupting influence of sin that they could not endure righteousness (Manuscript 42, 1900).

24. Enoch walked with God, while of the world around him sacred history records, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Enoch’s righteous life was in marked contrast with the wicked people around him. His piety, his purity, his unswerving integrity were the result of his walking with God, while the wickedness of the world was the result of their walking with the deceiver of mankind. There never has been and never will be an age when the moral darkness will be so dense as when Enoch lived a life of irreproachable righteousness (Manuscript 43, 1900).

Enoch the First Prophet—Enoch was the first prophet among mankind. He foretold by prophecy the second coming of Christ to our world, and his work at that time. His life was a specimen of Christian consistency. Holy lips alone should speak forth the words of God in denunciation and judgments. His prophecy is not found in the writings of the Old Testament. We may never find any books which relate to the works of Enoch, but Jude, a prophet of God, mentions the work of Enoch (Ibid.).

Genesis 6

2. Had man co-operated with God, there would have been no Cain-worshipers. Abel’s example of obedience would have been followed. Men might have worked out the will of God. They might have obeyed His law, and in obedience they would have found salvation. God and the heavenly universe would have helped them to retain the divine likeness. Longevity would have been preserved; and God would have delighted in the work of His hands (Review and Herald, December 27, 1898).

3. God granted them one hundred and twenty years of probation, and during that time preached to them through Methuselah, Noah, and many others of His servants. Had they listened to the testimony of these faithful witnesses, had they repented and returned to their loyalty, God would not have destroyed them (Review and Herald, April 23, 1901).

Before the destruction of the antediluvian world, Enoch bore his testimony unflinchingly (Review and Herald, November 1, 1906).

God determined to purify the world by a flood; but in mercy and love He gave the antediluvians a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During this time, while the ark was building, the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message (Review and Herald, September 19, 1907).

For one hundred and twenty years Noah proclaimed the message of warning to the antediluvian world; but only a few repented. Some of the carpenters he employed in building the ark believed the message, but died before the Flood; others of Noah’s converts backslid (Manuscript 65, 1906).

Many of the believing ones kept the faith, and died triumphant (Manuscript 35, 1906).

The sermon preached by Enoch, and his translation to heaven was a convincing argument to all living in Enoch’s time. It was an argument that Methuselah and Noah could use with power to show that the righteous could be translated (Manuscript 46, 1895).

Those who believed when Noah began to build the ark, lost their faith through association with unbelievers who aroused all the old passion for amusement and display (Review and Herald, September 15, 1904).

4. From the Lord, by studying the formation and habits of different animals. Every animal is a lesson book, and from the use they make of their bodies and the weapons provided them, men have learned to make apparatus for every kind of work. If men could only know how many arts have been lost to our world, they would not talk so fluently of the dark ages. Could they have seen how God once worked through His human subjects, they would speak with less confidence of the arts of the antediluvian world. More was lost in the Flood, in many ways, than men today know. Looking upon the world, God saw that the intellect He had given man was perverted, that the imagination of his heart was evil and that continually. God had given these men knowledge. He had given them valuable ideas, that they might carry out His plan. But the Lord saw that those whom He designed should possess wisdom, tact, and judgment, were using every quality of the mind to glorify self. By the waters of the Flood, He blotted this long-lived race from the earth, and with them perished the knowledge they had used only for evil. When the earth was repeopled, the Lord trusted His wisdom more sparingly to men, giving them only the ability they would need in carrying out His great plan (Letter 175, 1896).

True knowledge has decreased with every successive generation. God is infinite, and the first people upon the earth received their instructions from that infinite God who created the world. Those who received their knowledge direct from infinite wisdom were not deficient in knowledge.

There are many inventions and improvements, and labor-saving machines now that the ancients did not have. They did not need them….

The greater the length of time the earth has lain under the curse, the more difficult has it been for man to cultivate it, and make it productive. As the soil has become more barren, and double labor has had to be expended upon it, God has raised up men with inventive faculties to construct implements to lighten labor on the land groaning under the curse. But God has not been in all man’s inventions. Satan has controlled the minds of men to a great extent, and has hurried men to new inventions which has led them to forget God.

In strength of intellect, men who now live can bear no comparison to the ancients. There have been more ancient arts lost than the present generation now possess. For skill and art those living in this degenerate age will not compare with the knowledge possessed by strong men who lived near one thousand years.

Men before the Flood lived many hundreds of years, and when one hundred years old they were considered but youths. Those long-lived men had sound minds in sound bodies. Their mental and physical strength was so great that the present feeble generation can bear no comparison to them. Those ancients had nearly one thousand years in which to acquire knowledge. They came upon the stage of action from the ages of sixty to one hundred years, about the time those who now live the longest have acted their part in their little short life time, and have passed off the stage. Those who are deceived, and flattered on in the delusion that the present is an age of real progress, and that the human race has been in ages past progressing in true knowledge, are under the influence of the father of lies, whose work has ever been to turn the truth of God into a lie (4SG 154-156).

At the first resurrection all come forth in immortal bloom, but at the second, the marks of the curse are visible upon all. All come up as they went down into their graves. Those who lived before the Flood, come forth with their giant-like stature, more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and well proportioned. The generations after the Flood were less in stature (Spiritual Gifts 3:84).

5. We have the history of the antediluvians, and of the cities of the plain, whose course of conduct degenerated from lightness and frivolity to debasing sins that called down the wrath of God in a most dreadful destruction, in order to rid the earth of the curse of their contaminating influence. Inclination and passion bore sway over reason. Self was their god, and the knowledge of the Most High was nearly obliterated through the selfish indulgence of corrupt passions (Letter 74, 1896).

The sin of the antediluvians was in perverting that which in itself was lawful. They corrupted God’s gifts by using them to minister to their selfish desires. The indulgence of appetite and base passion made their imaginations altogether corrupt. The antediluvians were slaves of Satan, led and controlled by him (Manuscript 24, 1891).

Isaiah 30

15. We need a calm waiting upon God. The need of this is imperious. It is not the noise and bustle we make in the world which proves our usefulness. See how silently God works. We do not hear the noise of His steps, and yet He is walking about us, laboring for our good. Jesus did not seek for notoriety; His life-giving virtue was going out to the needy and the afflicted through silent actions, whose influence extended far into all countries and was felt and expressed in the life of millions of human beings. Those who desire to labor with God have need of His Spirit every day; they need to walk and labor in meekness and humility of spirit, without seeking to accomplish extraordinary things, satisfied to do the work before them and doing it faithfully. Men may not see or appreciate their efforts, but the names of these faithful children of God are written in heaven among His noblest workers, as scattering His seed in view of a glorious harvest. “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Manuscript 24, 1887).

The Lord wants human beings to take time to rest, time to think of and appreciate heavenly things. Those who do not value the things of heaven sufficiently to give time to them will at last lose all (Letter 181, 1903).

Matthew 23

8. Those who, in the spirit and love of Jesus, will become one with Him, will be in close fellowship one with another, bound up by the silken cords of love. Then the ties of human brotherhood would not be always on the strain, ready at any provocation to snap asunder. “All ye are brethren” will be the sentiment of every child of faith. When the followers of Christ are one with Him, there will be no first and last, no less respected or less important ones. A blessed brotherly fellowship one with another will bind all who truly receive the Lord Jesus Christ in a firm loyalty that cannot be broken. All will be equally one with Christ (Manuscript 28, 1897).

God has made men responsible beings, and placed them in circumstances favorable to obedience to His will. In the dignity of their God-given manhood, they are to be governed and controlled by God Himself, not by any human intelligence in our world. Man is ever to acknowledge that God lives and reigns; men are never to become lords over God’s heritage. They are to consider that “all ye are brethren.” In the very fact that men are free moral agents, God teaches us not to be forced or compelled into any course of action, also that as responsible beings in copartnership with God we are to represent God in character. We are to have an interest in our brother, in our neighbor, in all around (Letter 65, 1895).

8-10. The oft repeated “Rabbi,” was very acceptable to the ear, but Jesus warned His disciples against this. He said to them, “But be not ye called rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”

By these words Christ meant that no man is to place his spiritual interest under another as a child is guided and directed by his earthly father. This has encouraged a spirit to desire ecclesiastical superiority, which has always resulted in the injury of the men who have been trusted, and addressed as “Father.” It confuses the sense of the sacredness of the prerogatives of God (Manuscript 71, 1897).

12. The rebuke of Christ to the Pharisees is applicable to those who have lost from the heart their first love. A cold, legal religion can never lead souls to Christ; for it is a loveless, Christless religion. When fastings and prayers are practiced in a self-justifying spirit, they are abominable to God. The solemn assembly for worship, the round of religious ceremonies, the external humiliation, the imposed sacrifice, all proclaim to the world the testimony that the doer of these things considers himself as righteous. These things call attention to the observer of rigorous duties, saying, This man is entitled to heaven. But it is all a deception. Works will not buy for us an entrance into heaven. The one great offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe (Manuscript 154, 1897).

Torah Reading

New Moon of Elul, 181 JE

Bereshit

In the Beginning

Part Five
The Flood
(Parashah #5)

TORAH:                Genesis 6:9 – 7:24

HAFTARAH:         Isaiah 54:9-10

APOSTOLIC:     1 Peter 3:13-22

TORAH

Genesis 6

9                      These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

10                    And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11                    The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

12                    And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

13                    And God said unto Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

14                    Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

15                    And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

16                    A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

17                    And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under the heavens; and everything that is in the earth shall die.

18                    But with thee will I establish My covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

19                    And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

20                    Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

21                    And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.”

22                    Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

Genesis 7

1                      And Jehovah said unto Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.

2                      Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

3                      Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

4                      For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”

5                      And Noah did according unto all that Jehovah commanded him.

6                      And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

7                      And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8                      Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth,

9                      there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

10                    And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11                    In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the New Moon, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12                    And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13                    In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14                    they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.

15                    And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

16                    And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and Jehovah shut him in.

17                    And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

18                    And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19                    And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under all the heavens, were covered.

20                    Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

21                    And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

22                    all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

23                    And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

24                    And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

HAFTARAH

Isaiah 54

9                      For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

10                    For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee.

APOSTOLIC

1 Peter 3

13                    Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14                    We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15                    Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16                    Hereby perceive we the love of God: because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17                    But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

18                    My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

19                    And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

20                    For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

21                    Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

22                    And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

E.G. White Commentary

Genesis 6

11. They worshipped selfish indulgence,—eating, drinking, merry-making,—and resorted to acts of violence and crime if their desires and passions were interfered with.

In the days of Noah the overwhelming majority was opposed to the truth, and enamored with a tissue of falsehoods. The land was filled with violence. War, crime, murder, was the order of the day. Just so will it be before Christ’s second coming (Manuscript 24, 1891).

12, 13. Before the destruction of the old world by a flood, there were talented men, men who possessed skill and knowledge. But they became corrupt in their imagination, because they left God out of their plans and councils. They were wise to do what God had never told them to do, wise to do evil. The Lord saw that this example would be deleterious to those who should afterwards be born, and He took the matter in hand. For one hundred twenty years He sent them warnings through His servant Noah. But they used the probation so graciously granted them in ridiculing Noah. They caricatured him and criticized him. They laughed at him for his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling in regard to the judgments which he declared God would surely fulfill. They talked of science and of the laws controlling nature. Then they held a carnival over the words of Noah, calling him a crazy fanatic. God’s patience was exhausted. He said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will destroy them from the earth” (Manuscript 29, 1890).

Genesis 7

21-23. It was Christ who kept the ark safe amid the roaring, seething billows, because its inmates had faith in His power to preserve them (Review and Herald, March 12, 1901).