November 1927
734
T it e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
V. 20. The king, realizing his utter in ability to save himself, called upon God for deliverance, asking that God would give deliverance in such a way that all kings of the world might know that Her Jehovah, is God, the only true God. This petition was veryunselfish and was prompted by a desire to have God glorified. '■ -O-^■'v. D ecem ber 11, 1927 God’s Care for Jerusalem Isa. 37:5-11, 14-20, 36,37 Memory Verse: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Psa. 33:12). Approach: The little folk will enjoy the dramatic events of this lesson. Tell them of the life of the good king Hez- ekiah. One of the first things he did
Malachi names Elijah as the forerun ner of "the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Mai. 4:5; cf. Mk. 5:15; Lki 9:8; Mt. 16:14; Mk. 8:28^ Luke 9:19; M t 27:47-49; Mk. 15:35-36). Jesus declared that John the Baptist came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17; Mt. 11:14). The appearance of Elijah with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration is re corded in Mt: 17:1-13. Jesus alluded to Elijah and his sojourn in the land of Sidon (Lk. 4:25-26). Paul makes use of Elijah’s experience at Horeb (Rom. 11:2-4). James uses Elijah as an instance of the powerful supplication of a righteous man (Jas. 5:17-18). He was transferred into Heaven and so becomes a type of the saints who will be caught up when the Lord returns (1 Thess. 4 :14-16). ■ ISAIAH The prince of àll the prophets of Is rael. His writings are among the pro- foundest in Biblical literature. Isaiah is called the St. Paul of the Old Testament. His great theme is salvation by faith. His name means “Jehovah is salva tion.”- ‘ ■ He was the son of Amoz (not Amos) and seems to have belonged to a family of rank. Lived in Jerusalem and became court preacher. He was married and had two sons, Shear-Jashub and Maher-Shalal-hash- baz. In the year that King Uzziah died, while worshiping in the temple, he ap parently received his call to the proph etic office (Ch. 6 ). He accepted the com mission knowing that his task was to be one of fruitless warning and exhorta tion (6:9-13), The experience which prepared him for his work was the vision of the thrice- holy God which he saW in the temple. For brilliancy of imagery and versa tility of expression many believe Isaiah had no rival. His style marks the climax of Hebrew literary art. Nothing definite is known concerning his end. There is a tradition that he suf fered martyrdom in the heathen reaction which occurred under Manasseh. Justin Martyr (150 A. D.) reproaches the Jews with the charge of having sawed Isaiah asunder with a wooden saw. It is possible that there is an allusion to this in Heb. 11:37. His prophetic activity extended over a period of more than forty years. Critics in recent years have attempted to make out that Isaiah was not the sole author of the book known by his name, but that it consists of a compilation of writings by unknown authors, The unan imity of the Jews and of the Christian church, however, until a few German crit ics arose about a century ago and called in question the unity of the book, is a sufficient answer to this caviling. AMOS Tekoa, five miles south from Bethle hem; was the native place of Amos. The neighborhood at the present day is the pasture ground for large flocks of sheep and goats. Amos did not belong to the profes sional class of prophets (7:14), but was a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees. Nothing is said of his having special
FRED S. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
P r o p h e t s m a n y r o c l a im M e s s a g e s God speaking to men.—Heb. 1:1, 2.
which filled Hezekiah’s heart with fear. Now what do-you think the king did? He took the letter which the messengers had brought, and read it. Then the king went to the House o f the Lord and spread the letter out before the Lord. Oh, boys and girls, if we can learn this beau tiful and wonderful lesson of taking everything to God in prayer, we need never fear anything that may come to us. King Hezekiah prayed to God and ac knowledged Him as the Creator of Heav en and earth. He asked the Lord to see and hear all that the wicked king planned to do. He told God how this wicked king had destroyed other nations. Then he asked God to save them from the hand of the enemy, that all the world might know that He was the Lord. The next morning all was very quiet, for, thorn sands of the soldiers of the enemy king lay dead in camp and the king had fled away and was later killed by his own sons. God heard the prayer of faith ful King Hezekiah, and kept them safely. They did not even have to fight, for God fought for them. We have a great many temptations and hard things to bear, and if we, too, like King Hezekiah, will go to God in prayer and will tell Him about what is troubling us, He will help us, too. Our memory verse is a precious truth for us to re member. Let us say it together: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Things that are too hard for us are easy for the Lord. Of course, we must re member God cannot hear our prayers um less we obey Him. Closing Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy loving care over us: Help us to always trust and obey Thee. ; We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Quarter His mission was to •destroy, at what ever cost, the heathen worship which had crept into Israel, which else would have destroyed Israel itself: The Scripture historian does not fur nish us with a character study of Elijah. One brief characterization we find in Jas. 5 :17: " Elijah was a man of like passions with us.” Upon the surface of the narrative he appears as. a man of great faith in Je hovah as the .covenant ■God, consum ing zeal against false religions, keen vis ion to perceive hypocrisy, sharp wit to' lash deceivers, boldness and disregard of self in contending for the truth of God. The miraculous element is very prom inent in the work of Elijah. Look up the outstanding miracles.
after becoming king was to repair and clean God’s ,temple, w h i c h had b e e n sadly neglected. He also destroyed thè places where people worshiped i d o l s. .King Hezekiah was a g r e a t ma n of prayer. That w a s
what made him such a good man. This, lesson can be used.as an opportunity for, emphasizing the value of prayer, not only in great emergencies, but in the needs and trials and joys of daily life. The great Christians down through the ages have been men and women of prayer. Teach also the lesson of God’s protecting care, which is always over His children. Prayer. Lesson: In our story lasjt week we learned the only way to please. God was to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to love and serve Him. We. had the sad picture of Israel’s disobedience. Are we obeying His word? We have a wonderful and very interesting story, today about the good king Hezekiah, who was put in a very hard place. The Assyrian king, who was an enemy to God’s people Israel, had sent his commander with a great army and surrounded the city of Jerusalem. This wicked commander told the people of Israel not to listen to King Hezekiah. Messengers brought word to Hezekiah of the great army outside the city wall,
D ecem ber 18, 1927 Review: The Early Prophets of Israel For Fourth
ABOUT 194 years are covered in the "■'lessons of this quarter. We have dealt in a very fragmentary way with the prophecies of five prophets—Elijah, Isa-
idh, Amos, Hosea and Micah. Seven of the eleven lessons have been devoted to Eli jah and Isaiah,. who are outstanding p e r- sonalities. To assist the teach-
, ef in arranging a re view lesson, we are presenting some thoughts concerning each of the ’ five prophets. ELIJAH' The great prophet of the times of Ahab, king of Israel. His native place was Tishbeh (1 Kgs.
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