The Teacher’s Comment of this week’s Sabbath School Lesson makes a statement under the heading "Witnessing" that I would like to address. While discussing the theme of the lesson, the last days of the Northern Kingdom, the comment refers to "people who refused to listen to those who witnessed to them. It was God who decided the time had come, not mankind" (emphasis mine).

This statement, and others like it in this and other recent lessons, supports a view in the Old Testament that God brought about whatever happened—whether good or bad. This is surely an erroneous assumption about God’s character that was initiated by the adversary.

The Sabbath School lesson gives some rather obvious but superficial reasons for the downfall of nations, as well as the punishment of Judah through the Babylonian captivity. These reasons include inability to resist pagan influences, unwillingness to listen, and disobedience.

Let us reconsider such reasons, beginning with God’s creation of humans. According to the Bible, we were created "in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:27).1 Psalms 8 further illuminates the nature of humans by answering the question, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" by saying, "For You have made him a little lower than the angels." According to a footnote in my New King James Version, the translation should be "a little lower than Elohim, God."

This is a mind-boggling thought! It tells us that each human has selfhood, creativity, intelligence, reasoning abilities, and the ability to choose between good and evil according to the knowledge available. But what happens when an enemy distorts knowledge concerning the character of God and the purpose for which he created intelligent beings? The Creator is worshiped for the wrong reason.

When God created Adam and Eve, they could walk with him in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). This passage suggests a close, intimate relationship. Jesus affirmed that God desires a relationship based on friendship when he said to the disciples in John 15:15, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you."

Jesus came to earth on his costly errand to set the record straight as to the character of God: God is love and he desires our friendship. In contrast, the long list of Israel’s sins in 2 Kings 17:5–17 revolves around a distorted view of God’s character as wrathful and punishing, as one that at times even required human sacrifices in the tradition of Molech and Baal. Long before, God had condemned such practices (Lev. 18:21).

In contrast, the references cited in Hosea and Amos in the September 10 lesson indicate that these prophets correctly understood the cause of the Northern Kingdom’s demise. Hosea says in chapter four, verse one, "There is no truth or mercy of knowledge of God in the land" (italics supplied). Authors of the New Testament also stress the importance of this understanding. For example, 2 Peter 1:2–8 says:

the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Only a few Old Testament characters saw the need for such an understanding, among them Enoch, who walked with God; and Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, and Moses, who conversed with him. Most believed that God must be feared, and instead of walking with him in friendship they sought to satisfy their own desires.

So it was with the Northern Kingdom, which increased its own wealth and whose rich took advantage of the poor. Amos identified these tendencies in chapter two, verse six: "[T]hey sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals." He continues in chapter three, verse ten: "For they do not know to do right." In chapter four, verse one, Amos criticizes the rich, "who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands ’bring wine, let us drink!’"

The people lost knowledge of God’s ways as they submitted themselves more and more to their own desires. No wonder Jesus, whose life reflected God’s character, said in Luke 9:23–25, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

How did God deal with his wayward children? Did he spurn them? Hosea suggests that God’s love is infinite. "How can I give you up, Ephraim?" reads the eighth verse of chapter eleven. "How can I hand you over, Israel?…My heart churns within Me: my sympathy is stirred." This God has infinite selfless love; he epitomizes forgiveness.

We need to emphasize God’s character of infinite love, mercy, and kindness more, as well as his eternal invitation for forgiveness, healing, and restoration—all of which are evident in the Psalms and many of the prophets in the Old Testament. If we did, we could help inspire confidence in God as a friend, rather than foster obedience out of fear, as suggested in the first paragraph of the lesson for September 12: "God says what He means, and He means what He says."

Let us cry with our Lord God, who risked heaven itself in creating his beloved children with freedom of choice, as we study the history of their rebellion. Their choices, their behavior, their worship of God and other gods for the wrong reason brought about a chain reaction that led to their destruction and demise.

Notes and References

1. All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version.

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