November 7
“With all their minute and burdensome injunctions, it was an impossibility to keep the law. Those who desired to serve God, and who tried to observe the rabbinical precepts, toiled under a heavy burden. They could find no rest from the accusings of a troubled conscience. Thus Satan worked to discourage the people, to lower their conception of the character of God, and to bring the faith of Israel into contempt. He hoped to establish the claim put forth when he rebelled in heaven,--that the requirements of God were unjust, and could not be obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did not keep the law.”
Desire of Ages, page 29 from the chapter, 'The chosen people'
Yesterday we saw that God’s way of helping His people to understand the love of God, the rites and ceremonies of the sanctuary, became corrupted by leaders who added extra heathen ideas and customs to their life and teachings. Many of the people, not all of the people, continued with the religion of their fathers – but lost sight of God. As the reading put it,
“They measured their holiness by the multitude of their ceremonies, while their hearts were filled with pride and hypocrisy.”
We note today that the people had many burdensome injunctions added to their daily life so that keeping the law became impossible. The original idea sounds good. The religious teachers thought it good to put a hedge around the law so that it would be easier to keep the law. Hedges can become impenetrable and grow so high that communication with the godly neighbours is impeded or blocked.
When you have lists of rules to remember it is no wonder that guilt increases. The number of opportunities to realise that you have failed rises. There is nothing wrong with guilt in itself. Guilt is designed to help you realise you need a Saviour.
What happens when you can’t see the Saviour for the height of the hedge? Satan steps in and reminds you that you can’t keep all these laws. He does not, of course, step in and point to Jesus as the remedy for guilt.
Satan instead points out God’s failings in providing a law that can’t be kept – without reminding the people that the failing in the law was created by the people themselves.
Remind yourself today that when you are tempted to sin the understanding that you can’t keep the law is provided by Satan. In God we trust! He doesn’t lie.
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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.
