Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

obedient"
words."
uprightness."
oats"
good."
pain."
Mt. Sinai there was terrible thunder
and lightning. The top of the mountain
flashed "like a devouring fire" and
smoke poured forth while the whole
mountain quaked greatly. Moses spoke
to God through all this and somehow
God answered him in thunder.
In getting ready for this Moses had
built a fence around the mountain so
that the people could not climb it or ev
en touch it. But they hardly needed the
fence. The people were so frightened
that they trembled and pushed back
from the mountain in fear. Only Moses
was unafraid. God called him to the
top of the mountain and there gave him
rules and directions for the people.
Moses wrote these rules and read aloud
to the people.
People are usually
firsts. We are very
excited about
proud of George
Washington, the first president of our
country. The first airplane to fly the
Atlantic Ocean is kept in a museum in
Washington, D. C. Everyone respects
Dr. Salk because he was the first man
to find a way to prevent polio.
Our lesson today is about a very im
portant first
the first written laws that
God gave to man. It has been so long ago
that we do not remember it in a special
way. But we should realize how very im
portant it was for the Children of Israel
and for us, too.
Turn in your Bible to Exodus 20. As
you read it you will see that it is the
Ten Commandments. Chapter 21, 22, and
23 are also laws. They are called "The
Book of the Covenant." They are laws
about worship, feasts, how to treat
slaves, strangers, widows and orphans,
the poor and even the enemy.
talk about being
ments for doing wrong.
fair about punish
They
Before Moses read these laws to the
people he built an altar and offerings
were made to the Lord.
Blood was
sprinkled on the altar and then Moses
read the Covenant. The people said, "All
that the Lord hath said will we do, and
be
(Ex. 24:7b
our memory
verse). Then Moses sprinkled blood on
the people and said, "Behold the blood
of the covenant which the Lord hath
made with you concerning all
these
Were you at the Covenant signing
ceremony at Grinnell or at your Church
Compare it with this service. The chil
dren of Israel saw God
through the
smoking mountains; we see Him through
Christ. We no longer offer sacrifice and
sprinkle blood because Christ gave His
life's blood as a sacrifice for us.
You might like to copy the Ten
Commandments in your notebook.
This might be a good meeting to dis
cuss rules. What are some rules we ob
serve in Church Why do we need
them
May 18, 1955
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON
June 5, 1955
Rev. W. J. McBurney
(Lessons based on International Sunday School
Lessons ; the International Bible Lessons for
Christian Teaching, copyrighted by the Interna
tional Council of Religious Education.)
MANASSEH'S SIN AND
REPENTANCE (Temperance)
2 Chronicles 33
PRINTED 2 Chronicles 33:9-20
Memory: Psalm, 143:10, "Teach me to
do thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy
spirit is good; lead me into the land of
Physical and mental traits are to some
extent inherited. Moral character is not.
The birth of a child is but the beginning
of parental obligation. The church and
the nation also have each a duty to pro
vide safeguards, opportunities and influ
ences that will help the child to develop
properly in body, mind and spirit. The
final determining factor in Christian
character is the grace of God.
Parents in trying to be kind may for
get that indulgence is not kindness. The
idea that youth should be allowed to
"sow his wild
has been grossly
overworked. Manasseh sowed many
crops of wild oats and harvested them
to his sorrow. Here is Mathew Henry's
summing up of Manasseh's sins, slightly
abbreviated;
Abandoned himself to impiety.
Copied abominations of the heathen.
Ruined the established religion.
Discouraged his father's glorious ref
ormation.
Profaned the House of God with idola
try-
Dedicated his children to Moloch.
Counciled with the devil's oracle.
Part of the physical means used to im
press on his soul the dangerous nature of
wild oats was a hook in his snout by
which he was led like a bull across
the weary desert to Babylon.
The Weakening Power of Sin
This is called a Temperance Lesson.
Temperance is "Total Abstinence from
the use of things that are bad, and
Moderation in the use of what is
God has favored us above any other
nation in the bountiful supply of good
things for our comfort and nourishment.
Nearly every medicine
advertised or
perscribed is for the pupose of relieving
the effect of intemperance in the use
of wholesome, or unwholesome, foods.
All our children know the evil effect
of the use of alcohol. They
hear about
it so often. But temperance in the use
of what is good has been largely ne
glected. This is reflected in the popular
advertising of foods and medicines.
Magazines give recipes for looks and
taste. Do they
Prepared foods are fortified by adding
vitamins. All known vitamins are in
ever mention health
natural food in perfect balance. The re
placement by imitations after the vital
vitamins have been removed, gives food
an appeal to a jaded appetite that en
courages intemperance in eating.
Notice the host of medicines offered
to relieve the ills of indigestion. Here
is a characteristic phrase; "When you
suffer pain
the only important
thing is to get rid of the That
is a deadly heresy in either physiology
or religion. Just find some excuse to
ease the conscience,
or the stomach.
The liquor and tobacco interests are
working that idea overtime. They appeal
to pride, glamour and appetite, and so
remove the pain of a live conscience.
Yes, we should study temperance.
God Used Wicked Nations to
Punish His People
David prayed, "Deliver my soul from
the wicked, which is thy sword (Psalm
17:13). God's sword. A hundred times
Israel and Judah are warned that if
they sin, the sword of heathen nations
will be used to punish them. Of course,
we have been on the right side in all
our wars, and have been victorious. But
we have been sorely punished. Were we
ever punished more than we had sinned
Esar Haddon, son of Nebuchadnezzer,
was allowed to punish and disgrace
Manasseh and his people for their gross
sins.
The King's Sorrow and Repentance
This repentance, not recorded in
Kings, seems to have come toward the
close of a long wicked reign. His sinceri
ty is shown in his confession and prayer,
followed by a courageous attempt to un
do the effect of his evil reign. What pur
ports to be his prayer was written cen
turies later in the Apocrypha.
Manasseh's disgraceful slavery in
Egypt seems to have been very brief.
On returning he immediately tried to
clean up the evil condition he had cre
ated. That was a hard task. It is easy
to pollute a house ; it is difficult to clean
it. A bad example may start a boy down
ward, but it takes more than a good
example to bring him back. Manasseh
tried to do a thorough job. There were
many idols scattered through Jerusalem.
There were some of special beauty that
he had carved. Some were in the House
of the Lord, the Holy Temple. He gath
ered them all up from the Temple and
from the city and threw them out. Out
of the city. On the dump. Where the
children played. He had a young son, a
child, who played on the dump where
the idols were thrown out. An up-to-date
city today forbids dumping. It uses an
incinerator. Manasseh dumped his idols.
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