The Sabbath-School Worker

LESSON XVII

JANUARY 25, 1890. Hebrews 8:8-13

1. With whom was the old covenant made? Jeremiah 31:31, 32. SSW 12.1

2. With whom did the Lord say he would make a new covenant? Hebrews 8:8. SSW 12.2

3. Have Gentiles any part in the covenants? Ephesians 2:11, 12. SSW 12.3

4. What were the promises of the old covenant? SSW 12.4

5. What did the people really bind themselves to do? SSW 12.5

6. Wherein was that covenant faulty? SSW 12.6

7. What made the promises faulty? SSW 13.1

8. In what was the second covenant better than the first? Hebrews 8:6. SSW 13.2

9. Repeat the promises of the new covenant?Verses 10-12; Jeremiah 31:33, 34. SSW 13.3

10. Who makes these promises? SSW 13.4

11. What is the order of their fulfillment? See note. SSW 13.5

12. What is meant by putting the law into the minds of the people? Ans.—So impressing it upon their minds that they would not forget it, and causing them to delight in it, and acknowledge its holiness. Romans 7:12, 22. SSW 13.6

13. What is meant by writing it in their hearts? Ans.—Making it the rule of their lives, the spring of all their actions. In other words, making it a part of them. SSW 13.7

14. What is said of those in whose hearts the law of God is? Psalm 119:11; 37:31. SSW 13.8

15. Whom will such a one be like? Psalm 40:7, 8. SSW 13.9

16. What will be the characteristic of those who have the law written in their hearts? Titus 2:14. SSW 13.10

17. Is not this the object set before the people in the first covenant? Exodus 19:5, 6. SSW 13.11

18. Then wherein is the great difference between the first covenant and the second? Ans.—In the first covenant the people promised to make themselves holy; in the second, God says that he will do the work for them. SSW 13.12

19. In order that this work may be done, what must men do? James 4:7, first clause; 1 Peter 5:6; Romans 6:13. SSW 13.13

20. What is the reason why man who profess to desire righteousness do not obtain it? Romans 10:3. SSW 14.1

21. If they would humble themselves and submit to God, what would he do for them? Isaiah 61:10. SSW 14.2

22. Through whom alone can this righteousness be obtained? Romans 5:17, 19. SSW 14.3

23. What is the condition on which it is given? Romans 3:22. SSW 14.4

NOTES

The first of the blessings of the gospel is the forgiveness of sins. The term for this in the quotation in Hebrews is. “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” The next is the writing of the law in the hearts of the people. Then comes the final blotting out of sins: “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” And then comes the close of probation, and the eternal inheritance, when “they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:34. Then all the people will be taught of the Lord. Isaiah 54:13. SSW 14.5

Israel were indeed be called the people of God; but his dealings with them abundantly prove, what the New Testament plainly declares, that only the faithful are really Israel, and no others were truly his people. The Lord sent word to Pharaoh, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” Again he said, “Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” He also said he had seen the affliction of his people, and had come to deliver them, and to bring them into the land of Canaan. He did indeed deliver them out of Egypt, but of all the host that went out, only two were brought into the land of Canaan. The rest fell in the desert because of their unbelief. When they rebelled against God, they cut themselves off from being his people. And as he said in the prophecy, and in the text we have been considering, when they refused to continue in his covenant, he regarded them not. To be the people of God in truth, we must have his law in our hearts. SSW 14.6