Participants:
Series Code: IIWSS
Program Code: IIWSS025009S
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00:00 [uplifting music]
00:11 ♪♪♪ 00:14 >>Eric Flickinger: Welcome to "Sabbath School," 00:15 brought to you by It Is Written. 00:17 Glad that you could join us today, 00:19 we are looking at an incredible subject. 00:21 We're looking at God's love and justice, 00:25 and this is part of a 13-lesson study. 00:28 Today we are looking at lesson number 9, 00:31 and that is "The Cosmic Conflict." 00:33 As we look at the greater scope of things, 00:36 the war between good and evil 00:39 that has existed for quite a few years now, 00:42 how does God's love and justice fit into this picture? 00:45 That's what we're going to be diving into today, 00:47 but let's begin with prayer. 00:50 Father, we thank You for drawing us together today 00:52 and giving us an opportunity to delve 00:54 into this incredible subject. 00:56 We ask that You will help us to understand not just the subject 00:59 today a little better but to understand You 01:02 a little bit better and Your love for us. 01:04 We ask that Your blessing would be upon us today, 01:06 and we thank You, in Jesus' name, amen. 01:10 Well, we're grateful once again to have John Peckham 01:13 with us today; he is the author 01:14 of this quarter's "Sabbath School" lesson. 01:16 He is an associate editor of the "Adventist Review" 01:19 and also a research professor 01:21 at the Theological Seminary at Andrews University. 01:24 John, thanks for joining us again today. 01:25 >>John Peckham: Thank you. 01:27 >>Eric: So, "The Cosmic Conflict," 01:29 we are looking at a--this is perhaps a term that many of us 01:32 are familiar with, perhaps some of us are not familiar with, 01:35 but what exactly is this cosmic conflict 01:38 as we look at biblical theology? 01:41 How does it help us? How does it help to shape our understanding 01:45 of the things that are going on in the world today, 01:47 the narrative of Scripture? 01:49 How does this pull things together? 01:51 >>John: Yeah, so the cosmic conflict 01:53 is the idea of a cosmic battle or a cosmic war 01:57 between God's kingdom of light and a demonic kingdom 02:00 of darkness, which consists of fallen angels 02:03 who rebelled against God's kingdom. 02:05 And this is actually a very prominent motif 02:09 throughout Scripture, and it peels back the curtain 02:11 to show us that more is going on than meets the eye 02:14 and provides a larger framework for dealing with this problem 02:17 of evil that we're discussing. 02:19 So, for those that have been kind of following along with us, 02:21 we've seen in past lessons that there are many things 02:24 we do not know, and we should not expect 02:26 to know everything, 02:27 what God is doing and why He's doing. 02:28 We've seen that God does not always get what He wants, 02:31 so you have providence in which God grants free will, 02:33 and God grants free will 02:35 because it is necessary for love. 02:37 But even with those pieces of the puzzle, 02:38 we recognize there are evils in the world 02:40 that it seems like God could and should prevent 02:43 without undermining anyone's freedom. 02:45 It seems like there must be a lot more to the story, 02:47 and there is in the Bible; 02:49 there is a much larger conflict that we sometimes call 02:52 "the great controversy" or "the cosmic conflict" 02:54 that is always operating in the background. 02:57 Sometimes it's visible, but very often it is invisible, 03:00 and I want to start by reading 1 John 3:8, 03:02 and I want to make it very clear from the outset 03:04 that the cosmic conflict, the great controversy, 03:06 is not some kind of peripheral narrative 03:09 or framework; it's central to the biblical story. 03:12 In fact, it's central to the gospel story. 03:14 You can't start in the book of Matthew-- 03:15 you can't read very far at all 03:18 without bumping into the cosmic conflict 03:19 over and over and over again. 03:22 So, it's central to the gospel story, 03:23 it's not a side narrative, 03:24 and it's central to Christ's own purpose 03:27 in redemption. 03:29 It says in 1 John 3:8 this: "He who sins is of the devil, 03:32 "for the devil has sinned from the beginning. 03:35 "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 03:38 that He might destroy the works of the devil." 03:42 So, for this purpose the Son of God was manifest, 03:45 to destroy the works of the devil. 03:48 So, dealing with this enemy, dealing with this adversary, 03:51 known as the devil, is central to Christ's redemptive purpose. 03:55 We also see this cosmic conflict laid out very clearly 03:57 in many places in Scripture; 03:59 one of them is in Revelation 12, beginning in verse 7. 04:02 >>Eric: "And war broke out in heaven: 04:05 "Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; 04:08 "and the dragon and his angels fought, 04:10 "but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them 04:13 "in heaven any longer. 04:15 "So the great dragon was cast out, 04:16 "that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, 04:19 "who deceives the whole world; 04:21 "he was cast to the earth, 04:22 "and his angels were cast out with him. 04:24 "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 04:26 "'Now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, 04:29 "'and the power of His Christ have come, 04:32 "'for the accuser of our brethren, 04:33 "'who accused them before our God day and night, 04:36 "'has been cast down. 04:38 "'And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb 04:40 "'and by the word of their testimony, 04:42 and they did not love their lives to the death.'" 04:46 >>John: There's so many things in that passage, 04:48 and I just want to point out a few of them. 04:50 Obviously, the dragon, the great dragon-- 04:52 who stands behind the oppressive empires of the world 04:55 we'll talk about in a later lesson a little bit-- 04:57 is identified as this devil, 04:59 who's called the deceiver of the whole world. 05:01 So, we know that his modus operandi, if you will, 05:03 is deception, right? 05:05 He's the arch deceiver and the arch slanderer. 05:09 In fact, the Greek word "devil" just means "slanderer." 05:13 So, this is his strategy, is to slander God's character, 05:17 to deceive the whole world by lies. 05:20 He's also called in that passage "the accuser of our brethren" 05:24 who always "accuses them day and night before God." 05:27 And this is again his work as the accuser 05:29 in the heavenly court. 05:31 Before God there is a heavenly court or a heavenly council 05:34 that we'll see many scenes about in our discussions to come, 05:37 and the devil is standing there 05:39 kind of like a malevolent prosecuting attorney 05:42 who's raising accusations against God's people 05:45 and indirectly against God Himself. 05:47 So, that tells us there is a cosmic conflict 05:50 with massive implications that is not just affecting 05:53 what's happening on earth, 05:54 but there's actually scenes in heaven 05:57 that are very much tied in to what is going on 06:00 here on earth in this cosmic conflict. 06:02 >>Eric: So, that gives us a better idea 06:04 of what the cosmic conflict, the concept of that is. 06:07 I want to go to a parable now that Jesus tells 06:10 in Matthew, chapter 13 about the wheat and the tares. 06:14 As he shares this parable, 06:15 how does this help us to understand, 06:17 to comprehend the idea of evil in the world, 06:21 the presence of evil in this world, 06:23 and what kind of implications does that have for us 06:27 or does this have for us in understanding 06:30 God's actions? 06:32 >>John: Yeah, this is--there's many places you can go 06:34 to introduce the cosmic conflict to someone, 06:36 but if I was starting with someone 06:37 who'd never heard of this concept, 06:39 this is often where I like to start 06:41 because it's really a clear picture of the basic elements 06:45 of this cosmic conflict in this parable. 06:48 So, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner 06:50 who sowed good seed in his field 06:52 and only good seed in his field. 06:54 Then during the night, 06:56 an enemy comes and sows tares in that field. 07:00 Now, tares are like noxious weeds; 07:01 you don't want them in your field. 07:04 After a while, some of the wheat springs up 07:07 but tares spring up with the wheat. 07:10 And the servants of the landowner turn to him, 07:12 and they say, "[Master], did you not sow good seed in your field? 07:18 How then does it have tares?" 07:20 Now, this is very similar to the question that people ask today. 07:25 People very often ask, 07:26 "God, didn't You create the world good?" 07:29 Or, "Didn't God create everything perfect? 07:32 Why, then, is there evil in God's good creation?" 07:36 And the landowner's response is very profound, 07:39 very simple but very profound. 07:41 His answer is simply this: "An enemy has done this." 07:47 And we don't have to guess who the enemy is in the parable 07:49 because later when Jesus is explaining 07:51 the meaning of this parable, 07:53 He just says explicitly the enemy is the devil. 07:58 And so the servants don't stop there; they have 08:00 another question. They say, "Okay, so there's evil 08:02 "in the world because of this enemy, this devil. 08:05 "Why don't we just uproot it? 08:06 "Do you want us to just go and pluck up the tares right now? 08:09 Why not just get rid of evil?" 08:11 And this is the same kind of question people ask today. 08:14 Okay, there's a devil; he's doing evil; 08:17 why doesn't God just destroy him and get rid of him right away? 08:20 And the answer that the landowner gives 08:22 is also instructive; he says, no, 08:25 because if you prematurely uproot the wheat-- 08:29 or the tares, rather-- some of the wheat 08:31 will also be uprooted with the tares 08:34 because they are intertwined. 08:35 In other words, in some way we don't fully understand, 08:38 for God to prematurely remove evil from the world 08:41 would result in a horribly unacceptable level 08:44 of collateral damage. 08:45 For some time, these must be allowed to grow together 08:49 in a way that God can deal with evil 08:51 without actually doing more damage 08:53 to uproot the evil once and for all 08:56 in a way that there will never be any evil again. 08:58 So, we see a number of things; that there is a conflict, and 09:01 that God has some good reasons for dealing with evil in the way 09:04 that He does, for allowing it for a time 09:06 in order to not actually uproot more good. 09:10 >>Eric: So, coming back to the concept of evil 09:12 in the world, it exists. 09:15 I think most of us will recognize that, 09:16 you'd have to be blind not to. 09:19 But the existence of evil, 09:21 how does that pose a challenge to the concept 09:24 that God's creation was wholly good? 09:28 How did evil get into this earth? 09:32 There are different ideas floating around out there, 09:35 one biblical one, and we want to try to go to that one. 09:37 >>John: Yeah, yeah, so Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 make it very clear 09:40 that God's creation was entirely good. 09:42 At the end of day six of creation, Genesis 1, 09:45 God looked at all that He had made 09:46 and it was very good. 09:48 And if you're reading, if someone was reading the Bible 09:50 for the first time, you can see the cosmic conflict 09:53 already beginning in Genesis 3. 09:55 You don't have to go to Revelation 12; 09:56 you don't have to go to Matthew 13; 09:57 we see it entering in Genesis 3. 09:59 God had made everything good, but then all of a sudden 10:01 in Genesis 3, there is something else-- 10:04 or I should say someone else who is there. 10:07 So, Genesis 3, if we look at that, 10:08 Genesis 3, beginning in verse 1 through 5. 10:12 >>Eric: "Now the serpent was more cunning 10:13 "than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. 10:16 "And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, 10:19 "'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'? 10:22 "And the woman said to the serpent, 10:23 "'We may eat [of] the fruit of the trees of the garden; 10:26 "'but of the fruit of the tree 10:27 "'which is in the midst of the garden, 10:28 "'God has said, "You shall not eat it, 10:30 "nor shall you touch it, lest you die."' 10:32 "Then the serpent said to the woman, 10:34 "'You will not surely die. 10:36 "'For God knows that in the day you eat of it 10:38 "'your eyes will be opened, 10:39 and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" 10:43 >>John: So, let's unpack a few things in that story. 10:45 You have this serpent that appears at this tree, 10:48 and Eve meets the serpent there, 10:50 and the serpent is described as "cunning," 10:52 or another translation for that is "crafty." 10:54 And the Hebrew term is ambiguous, 10:56 it could mean "crafty" good, it could mean "crafty" bad, 10:59 and if you didn't know the story already or you didn't know 11:01 who the serpent is already, 11:03 you don't know whether the serpent is good or evil yet. 11:07 But then the serpent begins to raise questions about God: 11:10 "Did God really say...?" 11:12 Just kind of planting that seed of doubt, right? 11:14 And if you notice, the serpent says almost the exact opposite 11:17 of what God had commanded. 11:19 God had commanded Adam and Eve that they could eat 11:21 from every tree in the garden except for one, 11:24 and the serpent twists it and turns it around and says, 11:26 "Has God really said you're going to only eat from one?" 11:29 And so Eve corrects him, right? 11:32 And she corrects him and says there's only one tree-- 11:35 "We're not to eat of it or touch it, lest we die." 11:37 And then the serpent says to Eve, "You surely will not die." 11:45 Which is to say... 11:46 God is a liar. 11:50 Now, at this point, even if we don't know anything else 11:53 about the story, we know that someone is a liar. 11:57 Someone has been lying. Someone has lied to Eve. 12:00 Either God has lied to Eve, or the serpent is a liar 12:04 and has lied to Eve. 12:05 And Eve herself has to make that choice. 12:08 Who will she believe? Who will she trust? 12:11 Which is ultimately the choice that all of us 12:13 have to make in the cosmic conflict. 12:15 Because the serpent, who turns out later to be the devil, 12:18 Revelation identifies him as the devil 12:20 when we saw that in Revelation 12, 12:22 calls him the serpent of old, it's referring to this story. 12:25 The serpent always works to slander God's character, 12:27 and he does it from the beginning, 12:29 because he not only says God is a liar, 12:31 but then he suggests God has a motive for lying. 12:33 He says, "Because God knows that in the day you eat from it 12:36 you will become like God, knowing good and evil." 12:39 So, he not only says, "God is lying to you, Eve, 12:41 "but God doesn't really want what is best for you. 12:44 "He's withholding something from you 12:46 "to keep you in the dark, to keep you under His thumb. 12:49 "If you were to eat this, you'd become like God, 12:51 knowing good and evil." 12:52 Now, here again this is like a fishhook, right? 12:56 A lure with a hook inside that Satan twists the truth, 13:01 because if we think about it, Adam and Eve already had 13:04 knowledge of good; the only thing they didn't have 13:07 was the experiential knowledge of evil. 13:10 And I don't know about you, but if I could give that back, 13:12 I would, right? 13:14 There was no good thing that God was withholding 13:16 from Adam and Eve, but the serpent twists this, 13:19 and he suggests that God is a liar and God is lying 13:21 because He doesn't really want what is best for Adam and Eve. 13:25 And all throughout Scripture, this is the mode of operation 13:28 of the devil, to try to slander God's character 13:31 because this is a conflict not primarily over power 13:35 but a conflict over character. 13:37 And this point is crucial to understand 13:39 because there's many people when they hear about 13:41 a great controversy or cosmic conflict, 13:43 they say, "Oh, that would be impossible 13:46 "because God's all-powerful. 13:47 "How could God be in any kind of a war with a mere creature, 13:51 "even someone powerful like the devil? 13:53 God is all-powerful; there could be no conflict." 13:56 And this is true-- there could be no conflict 13:58 if it was a conflict of sheer power, 14:00 but this is a different kind of conflict, 14:02 it's a conflict over character that centers around 14:04 slanderous allegations raised by the devil, 14:08 and you cannot settle a conflict over one's character 14:12 by a show of power. 14:13 It's a different kind of conflict, 14:15 it's a conflict over these allegations, 14:16 and this plays out all throughout Scripture. 14:19 >>Eric: So, this theme that we're looking at this week, 14:20 this cosmic conflict, is a significant theme, 14:24 and as you mentioned, it runs from Genesis to Revelation, 14:26 and it's critical that we understand it. 14:29 The lesson that we have helps us to understand it, 14:31 but there's also a companion book 14:33 that goes along with this week's lesson 14:35 or with this quarter's entire lesson. 14:37 What are we going to get in that companion book? 14:39 >>John: Yeah, in that companion volume I can delve more deeply 14:42 into the nature of this cosmic conflict, 14:44 the conflict and how it has what I call 14:46 rules of engagement that we'll touch on a little bit, 14:48 and we do in the lesson and in our discussion, 14:50 but can go into much more depth about why, 14:54 how the controversy is operating, 14:56 and why God Himself is operating in a way 14:59 within this conflict that involves Him 15:02 even working around impediments in this conflict, 15:05 which peels back the curtain, so to speak, 15:07 on what's happening behind the scenes. 15:09 >>Eric: If you'd like to pick up that companion book, 15:11 you will find it at itiswritten.shop, 15:14 again, itiswritten.shop. 15:16 Look for the companion book to this quarter's 15:18 "Sabbath School" lesson about God and justice. 15:21 We're going to be right back as we continue 15:23 looking at "The Cosmic Conflict" here on "Sabbath School," 15:26 brought to you by It Is Written. 15:28 [uplifting music] 15:33 >>John Bradshaw: From the beasts of the land 15:34 to the fish of the sea, 15:36 from the birds of the air to the tiniest insects, 15:40 everywhere we look in nature we see selfishness, 15:44 creatures harming other creatures in order to survive. 15:47 The Bible tells us that God is love, but if the God of love 15:51 created the earth and everything in it, how did the world come 15:54 to operate on principles so inconsistent with His character? 15:59 Join me for "The Selfishness Paradigm," part one 16:03 of It Is Written's series "Prequel of the Bible." 16:06 We'll begin to unravel how a world created by a God of love 16:10 could come to function on a system that is so unloving. 16:14 And we'll look to the Bible and see how God is going to restore 16:18 all things to the way they're meant to be. 16:21 Don't miss "The Selfishness Paradigm," 16:24 part one of our five-part series, 16:26 "Prequel of the Bible," on It Is Written TV. 16:32 [uplifting music] 16:37 >>Eric: Welcome back to "Sabbath School," 16:38 brought to you by It Is Written. 16:40 We're looking this week at "The Cosmic Conflict." 16:43 This is lesson number 9 of 13, 16:46 and if you find this week's lesson interesting 16:48 and you've missed any of the previous ones, 16:50 I want to encourage you to go back and watch some of those. 16:53 You can find them archived at itiswritten.tv 16:56 or on the It Is Written YouTube channel. 17:00 Both places you'll find the previous lessons 17:02 for this quarter's study. 17:05 John, we're looking at "The Cosmic Conflict" here. 17:09 It began when there was dissatisfaction 17:14 with the way God was doing things. 17:17 The adversary, the devil, Lucifer, first a created, 17:20 a perfectly-created being, exercised his free will 17:23 and chose to go a different direction. 17:25 There's a couple of places in the Bible where we find this 17:28 described, over in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. 17:31 How does this--what kind of insights can we gain 17:35 from the fall of Lucifer in helping us to understand 17:38 what's going on in the great controversy? 17:40 >>John: Yeah, this peels back the curtain even further. 17:42 We saw in Genesis 3 just a moment ago 17:45 that evil came to God's world as an alien, right? 17:49 God created everything good, and all of a sudden 17:51 there's this serpent who is a liar in the garden. 17:54 He must have come from elsewhere, 17:56 but the question is where did that evil come from? 17:58 And Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 peel back the curtain 18:01 and tell us about this fall of this angel 18:03 who was created perfect but then fell, 18:05 not because of anything God did but because of his own decision. 18:08 So, let's look at that passage 18:10 in Ezekiel 28, beginning in verse 12 together. 18:13 >>Eric: "Son of man, take up a lamentation 18:15 for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 18:17 "'Thus says the Lord God: 'You were the seal 18:20 of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.'" 18:24 >>John: Now, we see from that passage that this figure 18:27 called the king of Tyre is addressed. 18:29 And initially one might think this is just talking about 18:31 a mere human king of Tyre, 18:34 but as the passage goes along, we can see that 18:37 this is not talking about a mere human king; 18:40 it's actually using a common device in the Old Testament. 18:43 The Old Testament recognizes 18:45 that there are not just human rulers, 18:47 but there are also celestial rulers 18:49 behind the human rulers, 18:50 what are often referred to as "the gods of the nations." 18:52 They're actually fallen demonic rulers. 18:55 We'll see more evidence of that later in these lessons together, 18:58 but for now you wouldn't know just from the reference 19:01 "king of Tyre" who's being addressed, 19:03 whether the human king or this fallen angel 19:06 behind the human king or the celestial ruler, 19:08 but the passage itself gives us a number of clues. 19:11 And already in the first verse we see this statement: 19:14 "You were the seal of perfection, 19:16 full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." 19:18 Now, that could not refer to the human king of Tyre. 19:20 He was not perfect. 19:22 In fact, in the history of our world, 19:24 there's only a few possible agents that could refer to, 19:27 but let's keep reading. 19:28 >>Eric: "You were in Eden, the garden of God; 19:31 "every precious stone was your covering: 19:33 "the sardius, topaz, and diamond, 19:35 "beryl, onyx, and jasper, 19:37 "sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. 19:40 "The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes 19:42 was prepared for you on the day you were created." 19:45 >>John: Okay, so this narrows it down. 19:47 "You were in Eden," right? 19:49 And this is a created being, so it's not God. 19:51 Who else is in Eden? 19:52 You have Adam; you have Eve; you have the serpent, 19:55 as we just saw, right? And they're all created perfect. 19:58 Let's keep reading and see if we have some more clues 20:00 about who this is. 20:01 >>Eric: "You were the anointed cherub who covers; 20:03 "I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; 20:07 you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones." 20:10 >>John: Okay, now this narrows it down even further. 20:12 You have this anointed cherub who covers. 20:14 Another way of describing that is the covering cherub, 20:17 and the covering cherub-- 20:19 there were two cherubim in the most holy place 20:21 of the sanctuary that covered over the ark of the covenant. 20:24 And so, this is identifying this figure that's being addressed, 20:28 who was created perfect, as one of the covering cherubim 20:32 in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary. 20:36 So, this is an angelic creature that's being addressed. 20:39 Let's keep going. 20:40 >>Eric: "You were perfect in your ways from the day 20:42 you were created, till iniquity was found in you." 20:45 >>John: Okay, so this creature is created perfect; 20:49 then iniquity is found in him. 20:51 There's no explanation given for that iniquity, 20:54 but it's not the result of God's creation. 20:56 God created this covering cherub perfect; 20:58 then iniquity is found in him. 21:01 >>Eric: "By the abundance of your trading 21:03 "you became filled with violence within, 21:05 "and you sinned; therefore I cast you 21:07 "as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; 21:10 "and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, 21:12 from the midst of the fiery stones." 21:14 >>John: Okay, that last part of the passage 21:15 is what's called a prophetic perfect. 21:17 So, this being has not already been destroyed, but he's 21:20 as good--his destruction is as good as certain. 21:23 That's what's being described there. 21:25 But earlier you have this phrase, 21:27 "by the abundance of your trading," 21:29 and the language that is used there, the Hebrew root 21:33 that is used there, the Hebrew word is "rekullah," and it's 21:36 from a root that means "slander" or "slanderer," "rakal." 21:40 It can refer to kind of going around and spreading wares, 21:44 but it also refers to going around and spreading lies 21:47 or just literally being a slanderer. 21:49 And this we've already seen the devil doing in Genesis 3, 21:52 and here in Ezekiel 28 21:54 he's described as doing it in heaven. 21:55 He goes around and he spreads lies about God's character 21:58 in an attempt to raise himself to the throne of God. 22:02 >>Eric: "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; 22:04 "you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; 22:07 "I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, 22:10 that they might gaze at you." 22:12 >>John: So, here we see that this creature, 22:15 this covering cherub, falls because of pride. 22:18 He looks at himself and he takes pride in himself and his beauty. 22:21 Now, some people might be tempted to think, 22:23 "Oh, well, why did God make him so beautiful? 22:26 "Maybe if God didn't make him so beautiful, 22:27 he wouldn't have fallen." 22:29 But actually, I think this is a mistake 22:30 to think this way on a number of counts. 22:32 Number one, there is no explanation for what the Bible 22:37 calls "the mystery of iniquity." 22:39 The devil exercises his free will to do evil, 22:42 and there is no rational reason for that choice 22:44 because evil itself is irrational. 22:46 And to give a bottom-line reason-- 22:48 why did he choose to go that way?-- 22:50 would be to justify the evil. 22:52 And in this case, his beauty is no justification at all, 22:57 because did he make himself beautiful? 22:59 No, God created him that way, so he should have 23:03 actually gloried in the Creator and not himself 23:05 for the beauty with which he was created. 23:07 That should have just turned his worship more to God. 23:10 So there is no reason for him to turn inward, 23:13 but he chooses that, and he falls 23:15 because of his own pride from this status 23:17 as a covering cherub, and he slanders God's character. 23:21 We see another scene in Isaiah, chapter 14, verses 12-14, 23:25 and here again you have a reference to a ruler 23:29 who refers to a celestial ruler behind the earthly ruler. 23:33 It says of this celestial ruler in verse 12 of Isaiah 14, 23:37 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! 23:40 "How you are cut down to the ground, 23:42 "you who weakened the nations! 23:44 "For you have said in your heart: 23:46 "'I will ascend into heaven, 23:48 "'I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; 23:50 "'I will also sit on the mount of the congregation 23:53 "'on the farthest sides of the north. 23:55 "'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, 23:57 I will be like the Most High.'" 24:01 And you see here that the goal of this fallen angel 24:05 is to ascend to take God's very throne, 24:07 to put himself in the place of God 24:09 and usurp the rulership and the worship 24:12 that belongs to God alone. 24:14 >>Eric: So, this great controversy, 24:16 this cosmic conflict that we're seeing 24:19 kind of the origins of here in Isaiah and Ezekiel, 24:22 it continues down through time. 24:24 Jesus dealt with it throughout His ministry; 24:28 He continues to deal with it right now. 24:31 There's an account of Jesus' temptation 24:33 that appears in both Luke and Matthew. 24:36 How does this temptation kind of help us 24:40 to see the ongoing nature of the conflict? 24:42 >>John: Yeah, so this temptation, again, 24:44 gives us more glimpses into what is going on. 24:47 And so, we have in both Matthew 4 and Luke 4, 24:50 you have this instance where Jesus has been fasting 24:53 for a long period. 24:55 He's driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. 24:57 So, this is a prearranged encounter, 24:59 which is very significant. 25:01 Because in the wilderness you have the devil 25:04 who comes to Jesus to tempt Him, and he tempts Him 25:08 with three temptations. 25:11 The first one is that he tells Him--of course, Jesus 25:15 is very hungry because He's been fasting a long time, 25:17 and so he tempts Him to turn stones into bread, 25:23 to turn stones into bread. 25:25 And Jesus refuses and says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, 25:29 but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." 25:32 There's a couple things just to mention. 25:33 In each of the temptations, the devil quotes Scripture, 25:36 which tells us, number one, the devil can quote Scripture, 25:38 but he can't quote all of it consistently. 25:41 He twists it; he takes it out of context. 25:43 And Jesus always answers with Scripture, 25:46 with these words, "It is written." 25:47 But in that temptation, you might ask, 25:49 why is that a temptation? 25:50 Is there anything morally wrong with turning stones into bread? 25:54 And there isn't anything morally wrong, 25:57 but Jesus was not supposed to use His power 25:59 for His own benefit, so it would have been against the rules, 26:02 what we might call the rules of engagement 26:03 in the cosmic conflict. 26:04 And this is one of the examples of those rules. 26:07 Jesus is not supposed to use His power for His own benefit. 26:10 Another temptation in this narrative of the three 26:14 is where the devil takes Him to a high place; 26:17 one of the temptations is cast yourself down, 26:19 God will save you, and Jesus refuses: 26:21 "You should not put your Lord to the test." 26:23 But the third one--it's in different orders 26:25 in the two stories-- but the third one 26:27 I haven't mentioned yet is he shows Him 26:29 all the kingdoms of the world 26:31 and all their glory. 26:33 And the devil says to Jesus, 26:34 "I can give you all of this power, 26:38 all of this glory, all these kingdoms," 26:40 because in Luke's account, at least, he says, 26:42 "They have been, given over to me 26:44 and I give them to whomever I wish." 26:46 That's in Luke 4, verse 6. 26:48 And so, he claims to be the ruler of the world 26:50 with the authority to give this to Jesus, 26:53 if only He will bow down and worship him. 26:56 So, it's like he's saying to Jesus, 26:57 "I will give all of this to You if You will just bow down 27:02 "to me right now. You don't have to go to the cross. 27:04 You don't have to go through all of these horrible things." 27:07 So, in this temptation account, 27:08 we see that there is a real ruler in the world. 27:11 Jesus calls him three times the ruler of this world 27:14 and that he has some real jurisdiction, 27:16 which shows us there's much more going on 27:19 in this cosmic conflict than meets the eye initially. 27:22 >>Eric: So, very insightful lesson this week that helps us 27:25 to understand the greater scope of what is going on. 27:29 And it leads us into the remaining weeks 27:31 and lessons that we have left. 27:33 You don't want to miss one of them. 27:34 We'll be back again next week as we continue our journey here 27:37 on "Sabbath School," brought to you by It Is Written. 27:41 [uplifting music] 28:23 ♪♪♪ 28:26 [Captions provided by Aberdeen Captioning www.abercap.com] |
Revised 2025-02-20