November 19

    “For hundreds of years the Scriptures had been translated into the Greek language, then widely spoken throughout the Roman Empire. The Jews were scattered everywhere, and their expectation of the Messiah's coming was to some extent shared by the Gentiles. Among those whom the Jews styled heathen were men who had a better understanding of the Scripture prophecies concerning the Messiah than had the teachers in Israel. There were some who hoped for His coming as a deliverer from sin. Philosophers endeavoured to study into the mystery of the Hebrew economy. But the bigotry of the Jews hindered the spread of the light. Intent on maintaining the separation between themselves and other nations, they were unwilling to impart the knowledge they still possessed concerning the symbolic service. The true Interpreter must come. The One whom all these types prefigured must explain their significance.”
          Desire of Ages, page 33 from the chapter, 'The fulness of the time'

     Settle back for a journey this morning. You may be wondering what is being described here. People before the time of Christ were not just yearning for light from God. It wasn’t just that prophecies were being given to Gentiles. God had made sure that His people had access to the Word of God.

     Years before, the people of God, the ones who lived in what we know as modern Israel had found themselves being invaded by foreign powers and transported off to foreign lands.

     The Assyrians came first, the Babylonians came second. Transport to different countries followed. After that, a large remnant in Jerusalem decided, against the prophet Jeremiah’s advice to go south to live in Egypt.

     God’s people had been well and truly scattered. With this dispersion came the need to learn new languages. The situation began to be resolved as, according to prophecy, the Greek Empire developed. With that vast Empire came one tongue – God took the opportunity to make sure that the Bible was available in that one tongue. Today we can still read a translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. If you want a flavour of a translation of that into English have a look here. If you want to find out more about the Septuagint look here.

     That was a bit of history, now for the point. When you sit down to read the Bible you are not just reading a book. The words you read have been preserved for you so that you can accurately understand what God wants of you.

     How does God make sure that you can understand what you read? The paragraph gives a good answer. The true interpreter came. Jesus was born in a stable, grew to be a man and removed the dust of the ages so that God could be revealed.

     There is a graphic illustration of the lengths God will go to in order for us to read understand His will and way. In Acts 8 an Ethiopian government official has travelled miles to find some understanding. God provides a human being as an interpreter, Philip, the newly appointed Deacon.

     Can that process of spiritual intervention take place today? Of course. It happens as you invite the Holy Spirit into your life. If you want to read more have a look at this, the introduction to the book, The Great Controversy, where you can read more of God’s process of creating His Word and then processing it so that we can understand it.


     How are you getting on with that Bible verse I would love you to learn this week. We are to look for the coming in glory of Jesus Christ. What is the prophetic voice there calling us to do?

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

                    Titus 2:11-14

 

     Housekeeping details for you

     The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.

     A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here

     From October 21st this site will continue going through 'Desire of Ages' - but begin to advance rather faster than one paragraph at a time.

     Our sister site, at the Upper Room, will progress at a rather slower pace - one paragraph at a time. If you want to head to our sister site for the slower trip through an excellent book you will eventually follow a link to the Upper Room. This will start on October 21st.