Commentary on "Trumpet, Blood, Cloud, and Fire"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, October 20, 2009

 

Overview

“What would you rather have: a silver trumpet bellowing in your ears or the knowledge of the love, the character, and care of the One who, ‘being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:6–8)?”

 

Problems

These two portions of the week’s lesson are about ways God led Israel. Even after they entered the Promised Land and the cloud-fire was no longer needed they still used the silver trumpets. And the Shekinah Glory filled the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple.

These were wonderful physical reminders of God’s care and leading.

And that’s where the author leaves them. God’s leading now apparently is somehow less real and more prone to guess work. The New Testament is referenced, but not in a way to build assurance.

As I have thought about what I once believed as a Seventh-day Adventist I have grown more and more convinced that the church, for all its claims regarding the “spirit of prophecy”, is completely ignorant of the Holy Spirit. (Of course, this is not true of every individual member, but official doctrine leaves the Holy Spirit almost entirely in Ellen White’s hands.)

This is a tragedy. Again, let me offer a few passages that offer assurance. Again, there are many, many more you can read for yourself.

“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God… ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:11, 16). (Read the entire second chapter.)

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:9-11).

I could go on and on. We have something far better than the cloud-fire or trumpets. We have the very mind of Christ living inside us if we are born again. Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6).

Just as each of us needed to be born from our mothers out of a sack of water, each of us needs to be born again of the Holy Spirit. (This takes the legalism out of baptism in the same way that understanding what Jesus accomplished on the cross takes the legalism out of the Lord’s Supper.)

This new birth was made possible by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. If He had not been raised, then we would be doomed (see 1 Corinthians 15). Instead, Jesus was raised and went back to His Father, sending us the Holy Spirit as promised according to John 16.

The Old Covenant Israelites were not and could not be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, because the indwelling could only take place after sin had been dealt with completely. Again, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, so sin continued to separate Israel from God and the intimate relationship He desired to have with them. But they still were His people, and He proved it by the cloud-fire, trumpets and a thousand other ways. (Being God, He could put the Spirit into a person for special tasks, but very few people ever experienced this kind of relationship with Him.)

It was not until the Second Adam, Jesus, conquered sin and death that the Spirit could come to indwell His children on a permanent basis.

So Israel needed external cues to know when to travel and when to camp. By contrast, we have internal cues because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1).

We can know God’s will. Sometimes His will is explicit, for example, to give thanks in all things (not for all things). Sometimes it is not. Regardless, we can know it, because He reveals it to us.

The next question usually is: How? The answer is: By faith. Faith has nothing to do with behavior. It is not the result of doing good things. It is the result of choosing to apply what we know about our guaranteed future to this moment. Here is that future. We have eternal life now, guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and this eternal life will culminate in a face-to-face relationship with God (see Revelation). Faith rests in that guarantee, and then chooses to live moment-by-moment in that reality. As you gain more experience and practice in resting from your labor, you will discover yourself listening more and more to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in your life.

This is the second of the two greatest differences between the Old and New Covenants. Because Jesus conquered death He is able to make us spiritually alive by sending the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. This was not possible in the Old Covenant, because that covenant was about sin and death. God in His mercy never left Israel without a physical, though external, manifestation of His leading, but, because of Jesus’ victory, each of us can have what no Israelite ever had – Christ in us, our hope of glory.

 

Summary

1. Monday’s and Tuesday’s lessons do a really nice job of demonstrating two of the ways God led Israel.
2. Because of Adventism’s failure to understand the Old and New Covenants, the church fails to acknowledge the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
3. Anyone who has been born again has the Holy Spirit living within him- or herself. Therefore, the child of God is led internally by the Spirit and knows the will of God.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised October 15, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 4

Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 4

Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Week 4

Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings