FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
May 8, 2020
Nathaniel Fajardo
email: [email protected]
What Have We Learned Thus Far from the Divine Teacher?
“God is to be exalted by His power; who teaches like Him? Job 36: 22, K.J.V.
Jesus, the great I AM, is “the Teacher sent from God’ (John 3: 2). He is the “Prophet” prophesied by Moses to come “from among His people.” Deut. 18: 15, 18. (See also Acts 3: 22; 7: 37). Christ began teaching and instructing from the very beginning.
Before incarnating 4,000 years after the fall in “the great mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh” (2 Tim. 3: 16), partaking of the “flesh and blood” human nature that had no preexistence in His existence as the great I AM, He was already the Teacher and Instructor of the His very first students, Adam and Eve, the father and mother of mankind.
Their best-equipped classroom and most-ideal learning atmosphere was the garden of Eden. They were spiritually “wired” from their formation and creation to increasingly learn more of the Creator’s love, power, wisdom and divine artistry from His created works, both animate and inanimate. Of all the living things He created to surround them in uncorrupted abundance, the first-ever couple “communed with nature” even as the angels openly held converse with them.
After the fall and banishment from perfect Eden, Jehovah continued teaching mankind in its infancy through the righteous line of patriarchs. There were ten of them named, beginning with Adam and ending with Noah, whose name, certainly not coincidentally, means “rest.” It was this tenth patriarch, ten indicating “completion,” whom Jehovah entrusted with the uncomfortable task of warning the long-lived antediluvian race that had become so wicked they had corrupted themselves and all nature—animals, trees, plants and all the living things with all the minute and invisible things we now assign the names “bacteria” and “viruses” on the land and in the waters, verily the whole earth itself, so that it was “groaning and travailing.” God was going to cleanse the polluted and corrupted earth from every single living thing, from men to animals to vegetation by drowning, not burning with the first and last global deluge. The beautiful, seven-colored rainbow appearing in our skies is God’s symbol of His covenant with Noah and mankind that He will not cleanse the earth again with water but rather the other element, fire, to purify the corrupted earth in the “cleansing fires of the last days.”
From my KJV, I counted the number of times the following words occur. Teach- 123, teacher – 7; teaches—14; teachest—8; teacheth- 15; teaching- 25. A total of 191 times. Instruct- 9; instructed- 19; instructer- 1; instructers-2; instructing- 1; instruction- 34; instructor – 1. Total of 257 times. It is quite obvious that the role of a teacher and instructor is central to the education and preparation of man, inclusive of proper censure, correction and discipline that comes with the process, for God’s high and holy plan for him, even his fallen state.
Many Christians are saying, “God is in control,” helping to allay the fears of others as well as theirs. But diligent Bible students (should) know in what specific and special way “God is in control” in this coronavirus global pandemic. They constantly remind themselves that God in Christ Jesus, never ceased to be the Teacher personally teaching Bible theory and the Instructor in Bible laboratory, after Pentecost, through His vicegerent and vice-Chancellor, the third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.
His angels are His able assistants, in fact, personalized for each student, both for the “morning classes” and “afternoon classes.” And by the way, they also have to put on “masks” and “gloves” and “lab gowns” required for the afternoon experimenting and working sessions.
They know, in fact and truth by living faith and trust, gained under His wise, not merely erudite tutelage in all His previous life classes with them, that He is doing the very thing He does best and knows is only the best for mankind in general, and His people in particular, at this critical closing “last hours” of the “last semester of the school year” of earth’s probation.
He long has warned all students from all walks of life, “whether they will hear of whether they will forbear” (Eze.t_) that the long-anticipated (and feared by most) time of the final examination is already at hand.
By way of past history, both sacred and secular, prophecy, and current events, consistent with His character, nature and style of showing-how and telling-how, God in Christ has given us, in His divine-human professorial concern yet fatherly mercy and love, an abundance of heads-up on the very nature of the final test, what and where it will be based on. From the opening of their “class year,” He already revealed and has constantly reminded us throughout our “school year” from what two books of our sixty-six “textbooks,” mysteriously even highlighting the key chapters which would form the basis of our finals, emphasizing that the result of this finals would determine, not only our future but our eternal destiny, whether dark or bright, in their absolute sense. As always, since the fall, throughout each and every generation thereafter, till the final generation of earth-time, our time, there are students who pay close attention and others who don’t.
We are sitting in one global classroom—the University of Mortals—that offers only two divinely-predetermined classes and tutorials on the original dichotomy of two grand, overarching subjects from which all other branches of learning, disciplines and specialties branch out, namely: the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan and the Divine Plan of Redemption of the Everlasting Gospel.
Both subjects cannot be taken up separately because all classes are based on this two bound up together for one is the problem, the other, the solution as determined by the Divine Board of Regents of the Godhead, headed by the Master Teacher and Instructor.
Yes, there are countless “other universities and colleges” whether on-campus, off-campus or on-line, offering their own classes and post-graduate studied and specialties, with their own vaunted professors, teachers and instructors. But be constantly aware that you enroll in them at your own risk and assume all the accrued responsibilities and liabilities that come with your choice. I’m not going to say, even in good faith and even with the best intentions, “good luck,” or “God speed,” instead, “Don’t even try.” But again, that’s your call as man was created a free moral agent with a will endowing him with the power of choice—the essence of true freedom and religious liberty.
Whether they realize it or not, accept it or not, willingly register or are “forced to enroll,” all are automatically registered in the “University of Mortals.” Its on-site global campus is fallen, cursed earth. (Gen. 3: 17-19). Yes, it is the same fallen planet that the zealous and commendable yet misguided earth preservers are vainly trying to save; they just “celebrated” Earth Day last April 22, whose mission is environmental protection, expressed in the familiar slogan “Save the Earth.” Whether viewed from the electronic eyes of the satellites roving, patrolling, and snooping from the space above us, its doleful information, sights and so-called “secrets” stored in man-made “clouds” used for both good and evil purposes, or seen on earth by earth-bound mankind so that “even creation groaneth and travaileth even now,” “Mother Earth” “the late great planet earth,” the only planet in rebellion against God and His law throughout God’s measureless unfallen universe, “the one lost sheep,” is irreversibly rotting away, as prophesied. That’s the bad news. But the so very-good and so very-true news trumping all the accumulated falsehoods, lies, deceptions, abominations, desolations caused on the earth by the “father of lies and murderer from the beginning” is that the Creator of all things, in the final redemption, will not just “save the earth” but John was shown “A new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth has passed away . . .God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death [no more Covid-19 diseases], nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away [not recycled]. Then He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me. Write, for the words are true and faithful.” Rev. 21: 1, 4, 5.
All become, not only students but actors, playing out individual roles in the real drama of the ages continuously playing out 24/7 on the grandest stage called earth and the biggest silver screen of life, keenly watched, as in, “seen by all men, angels and the world.” Here are the questions we all need to answer at this time:–
Q. Thus far—barely five months now since 2020 was giddily welcomed with all the traditional and over-the top celebrations to usher in a “Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year,” only to be suddenly waylaid in broad day light with this global Covid-19 enemy—what have we learned first, of ourselves and only next of others in the way we immediately reacted (and are still probably doing so) to this present calamity. (a) Was it a reflex, activated by habit stemming from previous discipline and practical, living experiences in “the things of God” so that the reaction, while deeply concerned and connected, was rational, calm, measured, thoughtful and spiritual or (b) was it a revelation of alternating and vacillating between faith and fear (c) none of these so that one could not tell the difference between the people of the world and the people of God?
Let’s be honest. This is the only way, attitude and spirit we must cherish if we would learn vital lessons at this moment that would prove to be even more critically useful as safeguards of our hearts and minds in the prophesied worse calamities yet to come, leading to the “stupendous” final events which shall be “rapid ones” just before Jesus Christ comes.
If the following applies to you, one critical lesson we should quickly learn from this current crisis is proclaiming, “God is good!” God is in control!” yet lie to our hearts and contradict ourselves by crying out in prayers of fear instead of prayers of faith. Now this:
“The powers of darkness gather about the soul and shut Jesus from our sight, and at times we can only wait in sorrow and amazement until the cloud [of this Covid-19 crisis] passes over. These seasons are sometimes terrible. Hope seems to fail, and despair seizes upon us. In these dreadful hours we must learn to trust, to depend solely upon the merits of the atonement, and in all our helpless worthlessness, cast ourselves upon the merits of our crucified and risen Savior. We shall never perish while we do this—never! [Remember this, all who fear perishing from the Covid-19!]. When light shines in our pathway [times of prosperity ], it is no great thing to be strong in the strength of grace. But to wait patiently in hope when clouds envelope us and all is dark [times of adversity and calamity], requires faith and submission which causes our will to be swallowed up in the will of God. We are too quickly discouraged, and earnestly cry for the trial to be removed from us, when we should plead for patience to endure and grace to overcome.” – Ellen G. White, “God’s Amazing Grace,” p. 114.
Did we quickly become fearful and panicky when this Covid-19 suddenly struck? Are we now discouraged because it is persisting without any sure end in sight so that we are earnestly crying out to God—who is supposed to be in “control” and therefore “knows what He is doing–to “change what He is doing and immediately remove the trial we are going through instead of “pleading for more patience to endure” and more grace to overcome all our sinful propensities, pernicious bad habits and defects of character?
Look, this terrible, fiery trial of the global Covid-19 pandemic may be the greatest blessing ever—if we really know the invisible Lord and still recognize His inaudible voce, even if He “works silently and in mysterious ways” in the past and thus recorded as “it is written.” The greater problem causing our fear maybe perhaps we are not really familiar with His written word. This may be one of the last opportunities to learn terrible lessons in righteousness that that the Holy Spirit wanted to teach us in the past yet we “hardened our hearts” and refused to “hear the still small voice.” Such a “strange and extraordinary time” like this maybe so in order for us to examine our hearts, put our houses in order and prepare for “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Rev. 3: 10.
(To be continued next week, God willing)