Jeloume De Guzman

BSN-1

SUMMARY OF DESIRE AGES

The Chosen People

For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had awaited the Saviour's coming. And
yet at His coming they knew Him not. The Beloved of heaven was to them "as a root out of
a dry ground" He had "no form nor comeliness;" and they saw in him no beauty. Yet God
had chosen Israel to preserve among men the knowledge of His law. Even after Israel had
been wasted by war and captivity, the promise was theirs. God's purpose could be wrought
out only through continued adversity and humiliation. From the time of their entrance to
the land of Canaan, they departed from the commandments of God. It was in vain that God
sent them warning by His prophets. In vain they suffered the chastisement of heathen
oppression. The heathen systems of sacrifice were a perversion of the system that God had
appointed. As idolaters were roused to crush out the truth, the Lord brought His servants
face to face with kings and rulers. They did not become the light of the world, but shut
themselves away from the world to escape temptation to idolatry. After the return from
Babylon, much attention was given to religious instruction. But these agencies became
corrupted. Many of the people had received heathen ideas and customs, and these were
brought into their religious service. As they departed from God, the Jews in a great degree
lost sight of the teaching of the ritual service. At the time of the birth of Christ the nation
was chafing under the rule of her foreign masters, and racked with internal strife. While the
Jews desired the advent of the Messiah, they had no true conception of His mission. They
did not seek redemption from sin, but deliverance from the Romans. They looked for the
Messiah to come as a conqueror, to exalt Israel to universal dominion. The Romans claimed
the right of appointing and removing the high priest, and the office was often secured by
fraud, bribery, and even murder. The people were subjected to their merciless demands,
and were also heavily taxed by the Romans. Greed and violence, distrust and spiritual
apathy, were eating out the very heart of the nation.

3 lesson the chosen people

In mathhew 22:14

For many are called, but few are chosen.

The Fullness of the Time

When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son". The Saviour's coming was foretold
in Eden, and Adam and Eve looked for its speedy fulfillment. But like the stars in the vast circuit of
their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay. In heaven's council the hour for
the coming of Christ had been determined, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem. At this time the
systems of heathenism were losing their hold upon the people. While the light of truth seemed to
have departed from among men, there were souls who were looking for light. It was not alone the
wailing of the mothers of Bethlehem, but the cry from the great heart of humanity that was borne
to the prophet across the centuries. For hundreds of years the Scriptures had been translated into
the Greek language, then widely spoken throughout the Roman Empire. Outside of the Jewish
nation there were men who foretold the appearance of a divine instructor. These men were seeking
for truth, and to them the Spirit of Inspiration was imparted. Through nature, through types and
symbols, through patriarchs and prophets, God had spoken to the world. The waning power of
Israel testified that Messiah's coming was at hand. They read how He would "set judgment in the
earth," how the isles should "wait for His law". The dying words of Jacob filled them with hope: "The
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come".By
contemplating and worshiping their own conceptions, the heathen had lost a knowledge of God,
and had become more and more corrupt. The Jews had sought to make a monopoly of the truth
which is eternal life. They had hoarded the living manna, and it had turned to corruption. They
robbed God of His glory, and defrauded the world by a counterfeit of the gospel. The deception of
sin had reached its height. All the agencies for depraving the souls of men had been put in
operation. The Son of God, looking upon the world, beheld suffering and misery. He saw how men
had become victims of satanic cruelty. They had chosen a ruler who chained them to his car as
captives. They were moving on in gloomy procession toward eternal ruin.
LESSON

God With US

By coming to dwell with us, Jesus was to reveal God both to men and to angels. In His prayer for His
disciples He says, "I have declared unto them Thy name," merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth. Our little world is the lesson book of the universe. God's
wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which "angels desire
to look". Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and
their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love.
"His strength setteth fast the mountains." "The sea is His, and He made it." Psalm 65:6; 95:5. And
upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father's love. Even now all
created things declare the glory of God's excellence. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that
moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly
blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life
without which neither man nor animal could live. Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering
cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-
exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. He led men to
doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. The night of woe settled down upon the world
through misapprehension of God. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of
Satan, and of the fall of man. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence.
So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son. It was an
unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God's throne. "Lo, I
come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God". In these words is
announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages. Christ was about
to visit our world, and to become incarnate. Had He appeared with the glory that was His with the
Father before the world was, we could not have endured the light of His presence. Lo, I come (in
the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God". Hebrews 10:5-7. In these words is
announced the fulfillment of a purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages. Christ was about to
visit our world, and to become incarnate. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our
Creator is the friend of sinners. In every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love,
we see "God with us" Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are." Hebrews 4:15. He endured
every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely
offered to us. As the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. It was Christ who from the bush on
Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, "I AM THAT I AM." In stooping to take upon himself humanity,
Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. As the high priest laid aside his
pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common priest, so Christ took the
form of a servant. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is
never to be broken. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon His shoulder" The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon
both.

The Baptism

Tidings of the wilderness prophet and his wonderful announcement, spread throughout Galilee.
The message reached the peasants in the remotest hill towns, and the fisher folk by the sea. In
Nazareth it was told in the carpenter shop that had been Joseph's, and One recognized the call. John
the Baptist waited in faith, believing that in God's own time all would be made plain. John
recognized in Jesus a purity of character that he had never before perceived in any man. Among the
multitudes that had gathered about him at the Jordan, John had met souls bowed down with the
burden of myriad sins. Yet he shrank from granting the request of Jesus. How could he, a sinner,
baptize the Sinless One "And straightway coming up out of the water," Jesus "saw the heavens
opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him." John, yielding, led the Saviour down into
the Jordan, and buried him beneath the water. Jesus did not receive baptism as a confession of guilt
on His own account. He identified himself with sinners, taking the steps that we are to take, and
doing the work that we must do. His coming must be as the unsheathing of a sword. He who was
the foundation of the ritual and economy of Israel would be looked upon as its enemy and
destroyer. The Sinless One must feel the shame of sin. The peace lover must dwell with strife, the
truth must abide with falsehood, purity with vileness. Every sin, every discord, every defiling lust
that transgression had brought, was torture to His spirit. John saw Jesus bowed before the throne of
God, with His eyes beseeching the Father for power to overcome their unbelief. Direct from the
throne issue the beams of His glory, and upon his head descends a dovelike form of purest light.
From the open heavens a voice was heard saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased". In the ram divinely provided in the place of Isaac, Abraham saw a symbol of Him who was
to die for the sins of men. The Holy Spirit through Isaiah, prophesied of the Saviour, "He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter" God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and
weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the
love of God for us. By sin, earth was cut off from heaven, and alienated from its communion; but
Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory. The light which fell from the open portals
upon the head of our Saviour will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation.

The Sabbath
The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into communion with the Creator. In the
song of the bird, sighing of the trees, and the music of the sea we may hear His voice who talked
with Adam in Eden. Since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love
and power of Christ. Isaiah 1:8: To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare
unto Him? And the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah declares: He that sitteth upon the circle of
the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a
curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who
hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by
the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power. The Sabbath was embodied in the law
given from Sinai, but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. It had been made known to
man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. So long
as the heavens and earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. But as
the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the
Sabbath lost its significance. In the days of Christ the Sabbath had become so perverted that its
observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the loving heavenly
Father. Jesus' disciples were accused of desecrating the Sabbath by gathering grain on a field of
ripening grain. They ate the kernels after rubbing them in their hands, a double offense under
Jewish law. Jesus rebuked His accusers for ignorance of the Sacred Writings. "The Son of man is Lord
also of the Sabbath". If it was right for David to pluck the grain on the Sabbath, then it was also right
for Jesus's disciples to do the same thing. In doing the work of Christ, the disciples were engaged in
God's service, and that which was necessary for their accomplishment was right to do so on a
Sabbath. The Sabbath was designed to bring men into communion with God. But when the mind
was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward
observance was a mockery. Jesus knew that in healing on the Sabbath He would be regarded as a
transgressor. Jesus: How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well
on the Sabbath days. This illustrates the working of all false religions, which degrade man below the
brute. Every religion defrauds man of the glory which was his at the creation, and which is to be
restored in Christ.
REFLECTION

THE CHOOSEN PEOPLE

When you hear the term "chosen," words like "selected," "special," "put aside," "different," etc.
may immediately spring to mind. However, there is a significant distinction between people and a
selected people the second chapter of Desire of Ages, we learn of a people who were selected by
God Himself and believed they could shine a light on the rest of the world. Israel was supposed to
be the ones to spread Christ's love to everyone they met, yet they frequently fell short of this
duty. They had been given almost a thousand years to expose the nature of Christ, but they never
did. Attempt to imagine God's emotions. He made an aside Think about God's emotions. He
picked a people to be a light in the darkness, but they didn't seem to understand that being
chosen had less to do with their privilege than it did with their unique goal and mission. They fell
short of the mark. They didn't understand that it wasn't about the rituals or the
materialistic/tangible sanctuary they could touch or see, it was all about how Christ created a
pathway for them to be saved. God, in His love and mercy, thought it appropriate to choose Israel
to help others understand the importance of knowing the One who would save them from their
sins. They started by claiming that the name had no significance to them since since it was only
something they used as "decorative," according to them. "They knew Him not" when He
appeared in the flesh. They were unaware of Him not because their minds were not in the right
place; rather, they believed that their greatest need for rescue was from sin rather than from the
Romans. The Bible claims that they "focused their hopes upon worldly grandeur," and that your
heart is where your wealth is kept. We need to fix our eyes to Jesus and allow the things of this
world to become curiously faint in order to avoid slipping into the same trap that Israel did in the
past. Israel was taken captive by a number of pagan kings because they did not abandon the
things of this world. They believed that when Christ told them not to "conform themselves to the
world," he meant that they were to influence others to see Jesus as the Savior of mankind from
their sins rather than allowing the heathens to influence them. They lost sight of who God was
each time they strayed from Him and His laws. Instead of understanding how crucially important
Christ was to illuminating the manner in which the plan of redemption would be carried out, the
sanctuary's very institution was reduced to a ritualistic ceremony. Remembering Christ in the
sanctuary, our high priest who is pleading for us, or our sins is important.

THE FULLNESS OF THE TIME

When Christ was to arrive, there was a craving for a religion that would sate the hungry heart
because heathenism no longer had a hold on the populace. Those seeking a pure real light,
something other than the meaningless, vain existence they found popular in their time, were
among the people of darkness. Others were hungry for God. The Jewish nation had been terrified
by death because they did not comprehend the "mystery" beyond grace. The enigma and the
gloom were to be revealed by Jesus. Others living outside of the "selected" world were
prophesying the return of Christ. God gave them the Spirit of Inspiration to aid them in their
search for the truth. This provided a gateway for the teaching of the gospel of truth to the non-
Christians. Some people believed that Jesus' advent would lead to their redemption from sin, but
in order to make that hope a reality, they would require the support of the Jews, whose "big-
headedness" served as a barrier for the Gentiles. They puffed themselves up and waited for the
One to make them an even greater country rather than doing what they were told and spreading
the news to other countries.There were still a select few devoted individuals who were aware of
the relationship between God and the redemptive plan. They knew that the diminishing authority
of Israel pointed to the coming of the Prophet and Son of God, who would teach us the path, who
would "preach good news unto the humble" and "establish judgment in the earth." Some people
were under biblical Satan made a concerted effort to remove God from people's hearts so that
Christ would leave Earth under the control of the devil. He even perverted the faith of the chosen
people of Israel by getting them to worship other gods rather than Jesus.

GOD WITH US

Christ descended from heaven to reveal to us the physical manifestation of God. Christ and the
Father were one from before time even existed. Christ made the nature of the light-dwelling God
known to us. Christ, however, came not just to demonstrate God's love for us, but also to show
the rest of the universe the God they already believe in. the loving and kind God. God was just
when he created the entire universe, not just Earth. "Before mankind and angels" is where we
are to defend God's integrity. His methods are right and true. All things were flawless when the
Godhead Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created this enormous creation. It was created. God's work
of creation was magnificent; He created the skies above and the flowers below. The air was full
with melody, and the ground was beautiful. The word of the Father's love was sent forth into the
universe, the air, and the sky. But sin came into existence. But always think that no matter what
happen Jesus always with us pray to hi if we have problem let Jesus hold your future and all your
decision let Jesus hold.

The Baptism

Even after the baptism, his life of affliction and patient perseverance serves as an example for us.
Jesus served as our spokesman when God spoke to him. We are not seen as worthless despite all
of our faults and failings. We are now welcomed in the Beloved because of him. The most poor,
persecuted, and despised people can now reach the Father because our Redeemer has made a
path for them. Like other people who want to be a servant of god they need to Baptist and let
them know the words of god.

The Sabbath

The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. Because He had rested upon the Sabbath, “God
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,”set it apart to a holy use.
He made sabbath for all his people to remember him served him and follow his 10
commandments seventh day is a blessed day and rest from work, school it is a sacred day to
worship the lord. Sabbath is the day of our time for god.