Lesson 3 · July 21, 1894

Preparing for His Coming.—Luke 12:41-59; 13:1-5

In studying this lesson, do not forget to review the whole chapter until you can "think through" the whole of it. This lesson is rather difficult of close analysis, and perhaps the heading of the lesson may be sufficient to indicate that portion of it which is in the twelfth chapter. Close study will enable you to master the details. The necessity for repentance may serve to keep in mind the subject of the first five verses of the thirteenth chapter, although it does not indicate all the lesson that is to be learned from them.

1.With what illustration did the last lesson close?
2.What question did Peter ask?
3.How did the Lord answer him?
4.What will be done for the faithful servant? Compare .
5.What other class of servants is mentioned?
6.How does he say, "My Lord delayeth His coming"?
7.What is the outward evidence of what he is saying in his heart?
8.What will be done to such a servant?
9.What is said about the degrees of punishment?
10.What did Christ say He had come to send on the earth?
11.What will the gospel of Christ cause?
12.How do people judge of the weather?
13.When people can so readily read the face of the sky and of the earth, what else ought they to be able to do?
14.With what exhortation and lesson does the chapter close?
15.Of what did some who were present tell Jesus?
16.What did Jesus say of them?
17.What did He say of those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell?
18.What did He say of all who should not repent?

Notes

1. The gospel of Christ is the "gospel of peace" (), yet it causes division and strife, because of the hardness of men's hearts. The Lord, through the Psalmist, says, "I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war." .

2. Do not make the mistake of trying to make an application of all the details of the illustration in the close of chapter twelve. Remember that we are not told what the adversary, the officer, the magistrate, and the judge signify, or that they are designed to have any particular significance. Consequently, any attempt to apply them in detail, as to God, the law, Satan, etc., can be nothing but idle speculation. In the absence of any application of the terms in the Scripture, it is sufficient to be admonished by the illustration to give diligence to be at peace with God, and to be delivered from the bondage of sin.

3. Christ teaches that it is a mistake to suppose that every calamity is a punishment for some specific sin. This is shown, not only in the present lesson, but in . The entire book of Job shows the same thing. Jesus does not say that these Galileans and the others were not sinners, but that they were no greater sinners than others who had received no injury. Read the seventy-third psalm, and learn that God does not settle accounts in this life; and read also the book of Job, to learn that affliction is not necessarily a sign of God's displeasure. See also .

Bible texts in this lesson

Revelation 21:7 · Ephesians 6:15 · Psalms 120:7 · John 9:1-3 · James 5:11

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