The Second Generation: Admonitions
SABBATH AFTERNOON
Read for This Week's Study:
Memory Text:
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5).
True to His Word that the rebellious generation who had refused to enter the Promised Land would not enter it, the Lord now brought a new generation to the borders of that same land. There He directed Moses and the high priest, Eleazar, to number the congregation of males from 20 years and upward, “all that are able to go to war” (Num. 26:2). Surprisingly, the total in this second count amounted to 601,730 (vs. 51), nearly the same as that in the first count, 603,550, 40 years before (Num. 2:32). In spite of the divine judgment on the nation, in which the first generation (except for Joshua and Caleb) perished, God had multiplied them abundantly, and the armies of Israel mustered in the plains of Moab were for all practical purposes as large as those of the first generation.Many questions, however, remained: Was this new generation, having lived with the results of their parents’ bad mistakes, ready to learn from those mistakes and obey the Lord? How ready were they to take up the mantle now given to them? What lessons were they going to have to learn, and what can we learn from them, as well?
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 19.
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