Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

start"excellent."gifts"first mention of the Philistines, the people who later gave the Israelites so much-trouble. Gen. 10:14. From which ofNoah's sons did theycome? Can youthink of one reason why so much more istold of the family of Shem than of thefamilies of his brothers? Perhaps you andyour leaders can find otherinterestingfacts in these chapters that we usuallyskip over as fast as possible.Last week we learned the story of theFLOOD and of the new beginning madeby one family left in the world, the family of Noah. God destroyed all the livingthings of the world, you remember, because of the great wickedness He sawthere, and now we hope that in the new"beginning there will be no more sin. Butthough all the wicked people were destroyed, yet Satan was still alive and hebegan to work almost as soon as theFlood was over. He even made trouble inthe family of Noah for he tempted Noahhimself, and Noah, though he was agreat and good man, fell into sin. Did youever make a "newsometimes, atNew Year's, or on your birthday or at aconference, and promise to be a bettergirl or boy? Satan is right on hand tosee that although it is a new beginning, itwill soon be the same old story, unlessthe Holy Spirit helps us keepour promise. Noah was forgiven, but how it musthave grieved the Lord to have the freshlywashed world so soon dirtied with sin.Years go by very fast in these chaptersin Genesis, and soon the families of thesons of Noah moved farther and fartheraway from the mountain of Ararat wherethe Ark rested, and began to spread farand wide over the earth. They came toa very fertile plain in the land of Shinarbetween two great rivers, and there theythought would be a good place to live andto build their homes. Then, because theyproud and thought themselveswere veryto be a great people and forgot to askthe Lord about it, they decided to builda great city and a tower that would reachup to heaven. They wanted to make itso high that it would be seen from a greatdistance, and they would never get lostfrom it. They had many good workmenwho could make -bricks and dry them inthe sun. For mortar to hold the brickstogether they found a sort of sticky slime.So they began to build. Theywould calldirections to each other, to bring morebricks, or more slime, then another loadof bricks. What a busy, noisy place itmust have been! Then the Lord came tosee the city. If you have a Bible withreferences in it, look at the tiny letters inthe first of the fifth verse and the last ofthe sixth verse of chapter eleven.Towhat other verses in the Bible do theseletters point you? To the words of thevery Psalms we were to sing in our meeting. Read those verses in Psalms fromJuly 21, 1&54the Bible. Do you suppose David wasthinking of this very story when he wrotethose words? The Lord is still lookingdown on all that goes on in the worldtoday, and though manypeople forget allabout Him or think that He does notknow about them, yet wenothingknow thatcan happen without His knowledge and .permission. And that is a greatcomfort to all God's people. When Godsaw the great tower, He did not wantthem to continue building it, for He knewthey would think theywere greater andstronger than God and that they coulddo anything they wanted to do.So what did God do? He did not throwdown what they had built by a storm orwind, he did not kill the workmen. Hedid something we would never havethought of His doing. He made themspeak in different languages so theycould not understand one another. Whenone man called for bricks, the otherwould say, "What did you say? I can'tunderstandyou."And the first mancould not understand what the other mansaid to him. They got louder and louderand angrier and angrier, and finally gaveup building altogether. Here in our bigcountry, we do not know so well whatit means to hear some one speaking in aforeign language. But our missionariesknow, and one of the first things theymust do is to spend long, hard hourslearning to speak the language of thepeople whom they want to tell about thespeak throughGospel. Sometimes theyan interpreter, a person who knows bothlanguages: and tells what the missionaryis saying. If the interpreter is not anhonest man, he may sometimes not saywhat the missionary told him to say atall, but just what he wants to say himself, for he knows the missionary cannot tell what he is saying. Many peoplehave spent years of time and greatamounts of money and work to translatethe Bible into the different languages inthe world; that work is not even yetcompleted. No wonder when God wantedto stop the building, he simply confusedtheir language. And that is what Babelmeans,"Confusion."Sincethe peoplecould no longer understand each other'sspeech, they moved away from eachother,and those who spoke one language lived in one country and those whospoke another language lived in a different country. Read Gen. 11:12.Underline the proper answer.1. The people built their buildingswith (brick, wood, stone).2. The people decided to build a (road,house, tower).3. God (wanted, did not want) them tobuild the tower.4. God stopped their work by (sendinga flood, confusing their language, sendinga great sickness among the people).5. The Way to heaven is by (our goodworks, believingon the Lord JesusChrist).For the leader. For the flash card, (No.6) draw on the card the picture of a tower built of brick; over it write in largeletters the word, PRIDE,the reference of the memoryand beneath itverse. Forreview this week, cover the reference oneach card and ask for the memory versewith its reference. The Junior giving verseand reference correctly may hold the card.Put all the cards on the board. Whileeyes are closed, remove one of the cards.Ask for the missing story and memoryverse. Remove one or two more cards inthe same manner. Repeat a memory verseand ask the Juniors to give the corresponding story. The first to answer correctly may hold the card.SABBATH SCHOOL, LESSONAugust 8, 1954by Rev. Joseph A. Hill(Lessons based on International Sunday SchoolLessons ; the International Bible Lessons forChristian Teaching, copyrighted by the International Council of Religious Education.)CHOOSING THE BESTLesson Material: Matthew 6:19-34; Galatians 5:16-23; Philippians 1:9-11; 4:8;1 Thessalonians 5:21-22.Printed Text: Matthew 6:24-33; Philippians 1:9-11; 4:8.Memory verse: Phil. 1:9, 10a "And thisI pray, that your love may abound yetmore and more in knowledge and in alljudgment; that ye maythat areapprove thingsIn shopping for merchandise, whetherit be food, clothing or power lawn mower,every normal person wants the best. Wiseshoppers will not accept second-rate merchandise, even if it is less expensive, provided theycan afford the best. Sometimes, however, when we would choosethe best, circumstances make it impossible to obtain the best, and we mustsettle for the second-best. This is oftentrue of material thingsi.But this is not true of spiritual things.We do not choose the second-best amongthe things of God's spiritual provisionbecause there are no second-best things.There is nothing inferior in the realm ofsalvation. The choice is between the material and spiritual assets of life, between merchandise and saving grace, asa life-value. It is sinful to covet earthlytreasures, but it is commendable to"covet earnestly the best (I Cor.12:31).We might easily spend the entire timeon any one of the passages assigned. Aword about each will have to suffice, andis intended only as a "starter" for theteacher.1. Choosing treasures in heaven insteadof treasures on earth.Matthew 6:19-24. This is part of43