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First Quarter 2012 (January–March)
Commentary on "Glimpses of Our God"

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Week 9: February 25 – March 2
Commentary on "The Bible and History"

MARTIN L. CAREY

Following is a commentary on the material included in the Bible Study Guide with references as necessary to the supplemental passages included in the E. G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons.

This week Martin Carey has chosen to write one commentary covering the whole week. Let us know if you like this different format.

 

Overview

This week’s lesson attempts to show how the great controversy (GC) is the best explanation for the history of man and the entire universe. How is God able to protect the free will of all His creatures, undo Satan’s schemes, and in the end, accomplish His will? If you accept the GC model, these are not easy questions, given the cosmic reach of Satan’s distortions about God’s character. According to Ellen White, Satan has roamed the entire universe with its myriads of intelligent beings, spreading his lies that God is arbitrary and His law unjust. All the inhabitants of these other worlds have been at risk of sympathizing with Satan.

God must handle the evil of Satan and his followers very carefully, knowing that He risks many others turning against Him if their freedoms are compromised. The ugly death of Christ was devised as a gentle persuasion to gain sympathy for God’s misunderstood character and turn the universe against Satan. This was risky for God, since in His human body, Christ was capable of sinning and failing in His mission.

Even so, Satan still has immense power to wreak havoc and misery, because, as Ellen White says, the principles of his administration must be shown for what they are. In short, the amazing brilliance of Satan in his opposition to God is Ellen White’s answer as to why God was helpless in stopping evil and pain from flourishing. History has its moments of beauty when God intervenes, but so much of it, the Lesson author states, is not God’s will. However, the Lesson asserts that despite the power of Satan as an independent agent of evil, and despite all the evil choices that human beings have freely made, God will somehow work His will in the end.

Observations

The Bible never satisfies all our philosophical questions about our free will. There are more important things to tell us about, such our desperate condition in sin and how we are incapable of seeking after God. The Bible proclaims God’s sovereign will in all things, even evil things, how He glorifies Himself in saving sinners. Adventists can rejoice in a truth far greater than the great controversy doctrine. God’s power has reach and influence infinitely beyond that of Satan. After all, who really is king?

“The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes.” Psalms 33:10

Satan has been given a certain measured power over the world, but it is borrowed power on borrowed time. There are numerous texts that make this clear; Satan is not the ultimate ruler of the earth. Many people want to “give the Devil his due,” believing that good and pleasant things come from God, while evil and unpleasant things come from Satan. This kind of good/evil dualism is not biblical. God is not capable of sinning, but He does have the ultimate control over life and death. Satan is a murderer, but he cannot take life without God’s permission. He may bring trouble, but God takes ultimate responsibility for death and calamity:

“See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand.” Deuteronomy 32:39

God is also the real Master of Disaster:

“ I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

Satan is called the god of this world, and he has the power to blind our minds into unbelief (2 Corinthians 4:4). Are we capable, by our gift of free will, to turn from Satan and open our eyes to see Christ’s beauty? Paul answers the question in verse 6,

“God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

It is only when God commands, “Let there be light!” that we can see light. Satan’s power must give way to God’s commands, every time. It is not by the power of our wills that we come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, but by His command for light. When we choose Him, and we must choose, it is only by His command and power. That is how Satan’s power is broken.

There are a great many texts showing God as the master of history, and in His word we can see that Satan can only act by God’s permission, to fulfill God’s purposes. Satan is not an independent agent of evil, for even in all his evil, he serves the purposes of God. The greatest disaster and crime in the history of mankind was the murder of the Son of God. This was also Christ’s triumph over Satan, not because he showed how bad Satan was. No, at the cross Jesus took our sin and became a curse for us, bearing the pain for what we deserved upon Himself. Satan, by his own free choice, was doing God’s will in inspiring his servants to kill Jesus. This great crime was predestined by God from all eternity (Rev. 13:8). Satan’s free acts of evil were instrumental in saving undeserving people like you and me. God is so great, even in the worst disasters, even when evil overtakes us, He is there, working all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11).

In the book of Genesis, there is a marvelous example of God working His loving purposes out of poor human choices. Remember that Abram was 75 years old when God first promised that he would be the father of many nations. Sarai was about 10 years younger, and her body was rapidly aging past childbearing. After more than a decade of waiting, poor Sarai finally gave up and told Abram,  

“Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her” (Gen. 16:2).

Now Sarai had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. Hagar had probably been a gift to Abram from Pharaoh, in exchange for Sarai when he tried to take her into his harem. In exchange for Sarai as a new wife, Pharaoh gave Abram a rich gift of livestock and servants. However, this decision became a disaster for Pharaoh, as we know from Genesis 12. So Hagar was to become Abram’s concubine, to bear children for the couple. Hagar had been a slave in Pharaoh’s household, and was probably young and pretty, as most royal servants were, and capable enough to earn the privilege of being Sarai’s personal servant. Sarai wanted Abram to have a child with her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to “build her up.” Surrogate parenting was an accepted practice in those days, and the family name was sometimes preserved in this way. This was not at all a fulfillment of God’s promise, as God later reminded Abram forcefully. The promised child was to come through Sarai, not Hagar.

Nevertheless, God allowed Hagar to become pregnant through Abram, and some painful events soon followed. When Hagar saw she was pregnant, she looked with contempt on aging, barren mistress, Sarai. This added insult to injury, and Sarai went to Abram in a rage. Abram denied responsibility and told Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.”  Sarai treated Hagar very harshly, so that Hagar fled into the desert. Here again, the schemes of Abram and Sarai go rather badly. The aging couple’s desperate measures to fulfill God’s promises by their own efforts only created greater problems.

It is tempting at this point in the story to believe that Abram’s and Sarai’s lack of trust in God had created a real problem for God. Now God would have to work much harder to bring about good from this chaotic situation. But that is not how the story transpired. God had greater plans for His glory than he had told anyone, plans that included Hagar and her son.

This young woman, now probably about 3 months pregnant, was heading for Egypt on foot with few supplies, and no apparent protection. Her rage at Sarai must have driven her as she trudged across the wasteland, mile after mile. She must have hoped Egypt would be near, and maybe one of her old Egyptian gods might rescue her. But she had to feel very alone and vulnerable in that desolation. Finally, she made it to a spring near Shur to refresh herself. Her life was about to change.

Suddenly she heard someone call her name, her Hebrew name. “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” When she saw Him, she knew this was no slave patrol that had tracked her down. This was no ordinary man. The “Angel of the Lord” was none less than the Messenger of the Covenant, and He knew everything about her. She could only tell the truth: “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” Then He said, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” What? Submit to that woman? This was probably the last thing Hagar wanted to do. But the Lord gave her great promises about her son, that he was to be a great nation, and that He would bless her son. His name was to be called “Ishmael,” meaning “God hears.”

Hagar had an appointment with God there in the desert, and He had purposes for her and Ishmael. Her life was changed forever from that meeting, for she knew He was the true God, the “living God who sees me.” She turned her back on Egypt and obeyed His command to return and submit to Sarai once again. When Sarai and Abram heard the name of the new baby, they could only feel God’s gentle rebuke in the baby’s name, “God hears.” He heard indeed when Sarai laughed, and when Hagar was afflicted and lost. He is the Messenger of His covenant, and He sees and hears his own.

God had promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him, and Hagar’s eventual exile to the desert with her teenage son Ishmael was a fulfillment of that promise. Hagar knew the true God; He had rescued her twice and reaffirmed His promises to her. When she was cast out of Abraham’s house, she did not return to Egypt. She was not just cast out; she was sent out for a purpose. She raised her son in the desert and saw God keep His words to her. The gospel of God’s sovereign faithfulness was taken to the gentiles, long before the Great Commission.

It is tempting to concoct clever schemes to explain why God allows painful things to happen. When Satan seems to be in control, instead of trembling before his power, let us flee to God’s promises which are always true. He will turn the worst of our decisions into His glory and our good (Romans 8:28). He is the God of all history, and He determines the periods and boundaries of all the nations and peoples (Acts 17:26). God-Who-Sees-Me is our faithful Lord who watches over His lost, pregnant, rebellious slaves, for He hears our affliction. As He did for lost Hagar, He will also pursue us to the ends of the earth to rescue us. He gathers us up in His arms, and no one can snatch us out of His hand.

 

 

 

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