What is the Role of Works and the Holy Spirit?
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Reading: Galatians 5
Memory Verse: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
Context: Paul is writing to an infant church he had founded among Gentiles in central Asia Minor (Turkey). Some Judiazers (Jewish believers who insisted that non-Jewish converts to Christ had to become Jews first and keep the whole Mosaic law including circumcision) had infiltrated these churches (about 55 AD during Paul's 3rd missionary journey). The "apostles and elders" in Jerusalem discussed the problem at length (Acts 15). Then Peter spoke clearly on God cleansing their own hearts by faith and being "saved by grace" just as these converts from paganism will be (vs.7-11). The whole assembly agreed and James said they would send word of this to the new Gentile churches. The letter is in Acts 15:23-29. This was around 49 AD. Just because the Council in Jerusalem settled the issue officially did not stop the Judiazers from keeping on trying to win over the new Gentile Christians. The crisis in Galatia was so serious that Paul omits his customary greetings and begins by asserting his apostleship and saying he is totally astonished that they are so quickly believing another gospel. Paul is concerned to defend and explain "justification by faith" but lest people think that means one can ignore the moral code and do as they please, he writes about how Christians are to live out the life of faith in a practical way. Paul says firmly that there IS NO OTHER GOSPEL than what he told them about. (See Map.)
The first thing Paul talks about in our chapter is freedom. When they/we believe in Christ and accept for ourselves the GIFT of new life and a new, right relationship with God, they and we are set free from the slavery of obeying our sinful human nature ("flesh") and are free to choose to live in obedience to God by the power God himself gives -- the Holy Spirit. Paul tells them that if they try to get a right relationship with God through the law they will have to keep it perfectly, which they cannot, so they will lose their new relationship of grace by faith in Christ. It is by faith alone that we receive the new, right relationship with Christ. Are there ways in which we try to get right with God by doing certain things? For example, church activities for the wrong reasons. What else?
But this justification by faith and God's grace does not stand alone--it produces good works through love in action. This new freedom is not a license to sin. For the first time we are free not to sin. Their actions toward others grow out of the response of faith to God in Christ.
What are the contrasts involving freedom? Freedom from the burden of sin. Freedom from the burden of guilt. Freedom from the burden of trying to justify yourself to God. Freedom from hopelessness. Set free for what? Set free to love by the Spirit. Set free to love and serve one another. Set free to persevere and hope by faith. Set free not to see freedom as the world sees it (as an opportunity for indulging ourselves), but freedom to act as God's Spirit leads.
Freedom in Christ is not meant to be used for self-indulgence, "to gratify the desires of the sinful human nature" but "through love be servants of one another." Life lived in the "flesh"/the sinful human nature and life lived by God's Spirit are opposed to each other. We can't have it both ways. What does Paul mean by "bite and devour one another", "be consumed by one another"? Instead of tearing each other down and destroying each other, we should build each other up. Contrasts:
self conceit vs not thinking ourselves better than others
gossip vs keeping confidences& not passing on rumors
provoking one another vs making peace
publicly criticizing vs praise, compliments (honest ones)
envy vs rejoicing over another's blessings
insults vs encouragement
yelling vs dealing with disagreements quietly and fairly
What else would you suggest?
The way the Holy Spirit leads is through agape love (not an emotion but committed to the other person's best interests). That is, faith expressing itself through love. As always, God looks at our hearts. and our motives. Prayer: Lord, soften my heart. Let me be pleasing to you from the inside.
Paul quotes Leviticus 19:18 in vs.14 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I AM the LORD." Jesus also quotes this and adds, "You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment…On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matt.22:37-40) Jesus is pointing to the basic core that God is after. This love is a response to what God has done. When God gives us the Holy Spirit we are able to act in love and that's what the law and the prophets were all about. When we have freedom in Christ by faith and are led by the Holy Spirit then god's law of love is written in our hearts. Word received: I talk about love through this reading. It is love that will bind your differences together. Look to Me for that love and I will guide you.
Notice the contrast between works (what we do when left to our own sinful human nature) verses 19-21 and the fruit of the Spirit (what God grows in us over time as we keep turning to Jesus by faith as seek to live/walk by the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own! We need to pray constantly that God's Spirit will lead us and give us guidance and strength. Prayer: Holy Spirit I want to live by your power every day. Lead me in your will. Cultivate in me the fruits of your Spirit, especially ________. Help me to keep in step with you. Show me the good works you have prepared in advance for me to do. [God has a good plan for our lives but it requires us to walk in step with Him daily.]
"Stand fast, therefore" in the freedom with which Christ has made us free (Galatians 5:1). We have to make the daily choice to "walk by the Spirit", to "keep in step with the Spirit", "to be led by the Spirit". We received new life through God's Spirit. In the same way we have to live out the walk of faith day by day, walking by the power of the Holy Spirit. This goes back to Abraham's walk of faith--never perfect--but over and over choosing to walk with God, trusting and obeying him. Word received: Stand in My Spirit. Walk in My Spirit. Run in My Spirit. Do the works of My Spirit.
Isaiah pointed to the same thing in Isaiah 40:31, "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles (on an updraft of wind, a symbol of the Holy Spirit), they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah in 30: 21 & 15 also talks about living our lives keeping in step by the Holy Spirit. "And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it' when you turn to the right or to the left." and "In returning (repentance) and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." We need to have the attitude Paul expressed in Philippians 3:12, "Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."
Now look at the Memory Verse. What is God's part and what is our part?? Notice that we are God's creation, workmanship. He made each of us uniquely, with his plan in mind. God has things, good works, in mind for us to do. But we will only do them as we walk by faith, day by day, in the power, guidance and wisdom his Spirit gives. Don't miss the special things God has planned for you to do . There is no greater joy than working with God according to his plan.
Like Abraham we are called to trust God, to trust His Word and to obey Him.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 30
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
REVIEW: 1. We can't earn a good/right relationship with God. Salvation is a gift. It comes by trusting Jesus and following him.
1.The purpose of the freedom Jesus gives is to make us free not to do wrong (sin).
2. The other purpose is to give us freedom and power to love Jesus and to love others.
3. God gives us His Holy Spirit to help us make right choices.
4. The Holy Spirit also wants to help us grow in the fruit of the Spirit. (Review what they are.)
5. God has many good things He wants us to do for Him. (We have to ask Him to show us what they are.)
6. Like Abraham we are called to trust God, trust His Word and obey Him.
Monday, June 18, 2007
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 29 May 15, 2005
Law or Promise
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Romans 4:13-25
Optional Readings: Galatians 3, 4:4-7, 5:4
Memory Verse: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Galatians 3:2b-3)
Background: Many religious Jews of Jesus' day, mainly the Pharisees, were totally focused on obeying the whole Law. (The Law actually included a lot of interpretations added by Rabbis through the centuries. Also some Jewish believers, called Judiazers, had been trying to convince new Gentile Christians that they had to become Jews first and obey the whole law (including circumcision) before they could become Christians.) Paul reminds us in Galatians 3:10-11, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.' Clearly no one can keep the whole law and therefore no one is justified before God by the Law…" He also says in Galatians 3:21, "Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not!" and in Galatians 3:24, "So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith."
Note on the word Law The Hebrew word that usually appears in the Old Testament is "torah" -- a statute or precept (a precept is a practical teaching or rule guiding behavior). A precept is a given, like an axiom in mathematics. You don't prove it but you build other things on it. A statute is a rule or law as we know it. Torah is a much broader idea than our idea of laws. The Greek word "nomos" which Paul uses just means laws.
(A Theological Word Book of the Bible Richardson, pages 122-123) The word "law" in the English Bible represents both Hebrew "Torah" and the Greek "nomos" which were not originally equivalent…Torah denotes the guidance or instruction which comes from God thru oracular utterances of the priests, or through the prophets. It is the whole content of God's revelation of His nature and purpose, which incidentally makes clear man's responsibility before God. In so far as this responsibility is clarified by a collection of maxims into a legislative code, the term may be applied to such a code and in this restricted sense it coincides with the meaning of "nomos"(as a legal corpus) . In our English Bible torah is often translated as "law" which gives a misleading impression of the way God dealt with Israel. Paul's use of the word "law" needs to be understood in the context of the continuing controversy with the "Judiaziers. The first council in Jerusalem settled this but did not end the controversy. See Acts 15 (probably about 49 AD) We are not saved by obeying the law but by grace and faith.
The purpose of God's Law, which came several centuries after God's promise to Abraham, was to identify, reveal, clarify to God's people his will and ways. It was given because of our sinful, fallen human nature. In spite of our good intentions we keep falling into our own ways that are opposed to God's ways. Paul in Romans 7 talks about his struggle and failure to completely obey God's law. He says that the commandments forbidding something actually caused "sin to spring to life." (Romans 7:11) That is, when you know something is forbidden, it often becomes that much more attractive! Any examples? Paul says in Romans 7:18b, "For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out." But Paul says of the whole of scripture, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." (Romans 15:4) The words, "it was reckoned to him were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also." (Romans 4:23-24) Word received: The scriptures are written for you.
Therefore what God offered to Abraham and to us is another way. Romans 4:13-14 says, "It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith." (If those who live by the Law are God's and Abraham's heirs, then faith and promise have no value.).
Abraham did not receive God's promises through the Law of God but through trusting/having faith in God's promise and word to him. That faith was what God counted as righteousness in Abraham. God gave His promise that way so that His promises might rest on grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham's descendents (vs.16, not only to the Jews but also to those who share in the faith of Abraham, "for he is the father of us all." There is nothing you can do to earn God's promises.
God gave us his teachings and laws to guide us and help us know his will but we do not earn a right relationship with God this way. We receive God's promises by faith, by putting our trust in what God offers us as a gift through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The gift is given by grace (God's undeserved favor) which we do not deserve. Jesus has already done what was/is needed to put us into a right relationship with God and give us eternal life. All we have to do is receive the gift -- and live it out with God's help. Prayer: Lord, help me to believe your promises as Abraham did. Strengthen my faith. Help my unbelief.
God is faithful and will do what he promises. "The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made." (Psalm 145:13b) "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19)
What about the Law, the Torah of God? Do we ignore or reject it? Paul says "Absolutely not." It was given to help us know how to respond in love and obedience to God. Word received: Pray for hearts that open to My purposes. Abraham received My direction. I also give direction to you. My Word is a lamp to your feet. Look to the whole of My word for direction.
But we can't do it perfectly so God has made a provision for those who accept his gift of salvation by faith. He gives us his Spirit and writes his laws/teachings on our hearts so we want to please God and we have a new power (His Spirit) in us to enable us to keep God's ways. Everything comes from God -- even the ability to respond is ours if we desire and ask for it. Prayer: Lord, pour out your Spirit on us. Increase our faith in you. Give us the power to do your will. Write your law and teachings on our hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33)
Paul is talking about this in the Memory Verse. We can't receive salvation as a gift and then turn around and try to obey God's laws and teachings in our own strength. We have to keep on coming to God for the power and wisdom of his Holy Spirit in order to do the things that please God. Word received: You received Me by faith, press on in faith and hope. I will do for you and in you what you cannot do yourselves.
Abraham is a model for us in trusting God. (vs. 20,21) He did not waver through unbelief in what God had promised. Do we waver? Abraham grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God. Where do we get our strength? Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. Are we convinced that God has the power to do what he promises? Paul says in Philippians 1:16 that he was confident that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." Abraham trusted in God's promises. Do we?? Notice that Abraham did not receive even that part of the promise, a son, for a very long time. Do we expect things to happen on our time table? Yes, we often do, but God gives us hope to wait for his answers.
The promise of the land was a promise Abraham never saw. It happened many generations later. "In hope he believed in hope." He trusted the ONE who promised even though he never saw it fulfilled.
How to teach SS teachers' word: Who will you be guided by? I have given you My word and My Spirit to guide you. Make the choice to be guided by Me.
Examples of the use of the word "Torah" in the Old Testament
"This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law/Torah of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand." (Exodus 13:9)
This, like the introduction to the Ten Commandments (actually Ten Words), begins and is based on God's saving word. What the people are to do is a response.
"The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law/Torah and commands I have written for their instruction." (Exodus 24:12)
Psalm 119:1, 18, 29, 34, 44, 142, 163, 165, and 174 ("thy law/Torah is my delight.")
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law/Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33)
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 29
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. No one can do enough good things to be saved by God.
2. God's gift of salvation comes through faith when we believe in His Son Jesus.
3. All good things come from God.
4. Our faith in Jesus grows as we trust Him.
5. God gave us the scriptures (Bible) and the laws and teachings in it to guide us.
God wants to give us direction like he did with Abraham.
The Holy Spirit writes God's laws on our hearts and gives us the power to obey God.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Romans 4:13-25
Optional Readings: Galatians 3, 4:4-7, 5:4
Memory Verse: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Galatians 3:2b-3)
Background: Many religious Jews of Jesus' day, mainly the Pharisees, were totally focused on obeying the whole Law. (The Law actually included a lot of interpretations added by Rabbis through the centuries. Also some Jewish believers, called Judiazers, had been trying to convince new Gentile Christians that they had to become Jews first and obey the whole law (including circumcision) before they could become Christians.) Paul reminds us in Galatians 3:10-11, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.' Clearly no one can keep the whole law and therefore no one is justified before God by the Law…" He also says in Galatians 3:21, "Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not!" and in Galatians 3:24, "So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith."
Note on the word Law The Hebrew word that usually appears in the Old Testament is "torah" -- a statute or precept (a precept is a practical teaching or rule guiding behavior). A precept is a given, like an axiom in mathematics. You don't prove it but you build other things on it. A statute is a rule or law as we know it. Torah is a much broader idea than our idea of laws. The Greek word "nomos" which Paul uses just means laws.
(A Theological Word Book of the Bible Richardson, pages 122-123) The word "law" in the English Bible represents both Hebrew "Torah" and the Greek "nomos" which were not originally equivalent…Torah denotes the guidance or instruction which comes from God thru oracular utterances of the priests, or through the prophets. It is the whole content of God's revelation of His nature and purpose, which incidentally makes clear man's responsibility before God. In so far as this responsibility is clarified by a collection of maxims into a legislative code, the term may be applied to such a code and in this restricted sense it coincides with the meaning of "nomos"(as a legal corpus) . In our English Bible torah is often translated as "law" which gives a misleading impression of the way God dealt with Israel. Paul's use of the word "law" needs to be understood in the context of the continuing controversy with the "Judiaziers. The first council in Jerusalem settled this but did not end the controversy. See Acts 15 (probably about 49 AD) We are not saved by obeying the law but by grace and faith.
The purpose of God's Law, which came several centuries after God's promise to Abraham, was to identify, reveal, clarify to God's people his will and ways. It was given because of our sinful, fallen human nature. In spite of our good intentions we keep falling into our own ways that are opposed to God's ways. Paul in Romans 7 talks about his struggle and failure to completely obey God's law. He says that the commandments forbidding something actually caused "sin to spring to life." (Romans 7:11) That is, when you know something is forbidden, it often becomes that much more attractive! Any examples? Paul says in Romans 7:18b, "For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out." But Paul says of the whole of scripture, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." (Romans 15:4) The words, "it was reckoned to him were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also." (Romans 4:23-24) Word received: The scriptures are written for you.
Therefore what God offered to Abraham and to us is another way. Romans 4:13-14 says, "It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith." (If those who live by the Law are God's and Abraham's heirs, then faith and promise have no value.).
Abraham did not receive God's promises through the Law of God but through trusting/having faith in God's promise and word to him. That faith was what God counted as righteousness in Abraham. God gave His promise that way so that His promises might rest on grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham's descendents (vs.16, not only to the Jews but also to those who share in the faith of Abraham, "for he is the father of us all." There is nothing you can do to earn God's promises.
God gave us his teachings and laws to guide us and help us know his will but we do not earn a right relationship with God this way. We receive God's promises by faith, by putting our trust in what God offers us as a gift through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The gift is given by grace (God's undeserved favor) which we do not deserve. Jesus has already done what was/is needed to put us into a right relationship with God and give us eternal life. All we have to do is receive the gift -- and live it out with God's help. Prayer: Lord, help me to believe your promises as Abraham did. Strengthen my faith. Help my unbelief.
God is faithful and will do what he promises. "The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made." (Psalm 145:13b) "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19)
What about the Law, the Torah of God? Do we ignore or reject it? Paul says "Absolutely not." It was given to help us know how to respond in love and obedience to God. Word received: Pray for hearts that open to My purposes. Abraham received My direction. I also give direction to you. My Word is a lamp to your feet. Look to the whole of My word for direction.
But we can't do it perfectly so God has made a provision for those who accept his gift of salvation by faith. He gives us his Spirit and writes his laws/teachings on our hearts so we want to please God and we have a new power (His Spirit) in us to enable us to keep God's ways. Everything comes from God -- even the ability to respond is ours if we desire and ask for it. Prayer: Lord, pour out your Spirit on us. Increase our faith in you. Give us the power to do your will. Write your law and teachings on our hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33)
Paul is talking about this in the Memory Verse. We can't receive salvation as a gift and then turn around and try to obey God's laws and teachings in our own strength. We have to keep on coming to God for the power and wisdom of his Holy Spirit in order to do the things that please God. Word received: You received Me by faith, press on in faith and hope. I will do for you and in you what you cannot do yourselves.
Abraham is a model for us in trusting God. (vs. 20,21) He did not waver through unbelief in what God had promised. Do we waver? Abraham grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God. Where do we get our strength? Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. Are we convinced that God has the power to do what he promises? Paul says in Philippians 1:16 that he was confident that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." Abraham trusted in God's promises. Do we?? Notice that Abraham did not receive even that part of the promise, a son, for a very long time. Do we expect things to happen on our time table? Yes, we often do, but God gives us hope to wait for his answers.
The promise of the land was a promise Abraham never saw. It happened many generations later. "In hope he believed in hope." He trusted the ONE who promised even though he never saw it fulfilled.
How to teach SS teachers' word: Who will you be guided by? I have given you My word and My Spirit to guide you. Make the choice to be guided by Me.
Examples of the use of the word "Torah" in the Old Testament
"This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law/Torah of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand." (Exodus 13:9)
This, like the introduction to the Ten Commandments (actually Ten Words), begins and is based on God's saving word. What the people are to do is a response.
"The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law/Torah and commands I have written for their instruction." (Exodus 24:12)
Psalm 119:1, 18, 29, 34, 44, 142, 163, 165, and 174 ("thy law/Torah is my delight.")
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law/Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33)
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 29
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. No one can do enough good things to be saved by God.
2. God's gift of salvation comes through faith when we believe in His Son Jesus.
3. All good things come from God.
4. Our faith in Jesus grows as we trust Him.
5. God gave us the scriptures (Bible) and the laws and teachings in it to guide us.
God wants to give us direction like he did with Abraham.
The Holy Spirit writes God's laws on our hearts and gives us the power to obey God.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 28 May 8, 2005
Faith or Works?
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Romans 4:1-12
Memory Verse: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. "Romans 5:1-2
Are we saved/brought into a right and personal relationship with God by faith in him or by "being a good person" (good things we do)? Jesus dealt with this question several times. He told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple. The Pharisee was an active, religious person and the tax collector was hated because he was co-operating with the enemy (Rome) and generally collected a generous amount of money for himself as well as for the government.
The Pharisee "prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like all other men--robbers, evil doers, adulterers, -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth (tithe) of all I get.'"
The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Which prayer was pleasing and acceptable to God? Which man did God justify and bring into a right relationship to himself ?? Stop and ask, then look at Jesus' answer (Luke 18:9-14). In John 6:28-29 people s?? aid to Jesus when they came looking for him, "What are we to do, that we may be working the works of God? Jesus replied, 'This is the work that God asks of you: that you believe in the one whom He has sent."
As Paul says in Romans 4:2, "if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about", (but not before God) and in Romans 3:27-28, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle or works? No, but on the principle of faith, for we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." (Romans 3:20) "For no human being will be justified in His sight by the works of the law since through the law comes knowledge of sin." The laws of God help us identify what is the will of God and what is sin and NO ONE can keep the law perfectly!
So God had to make another way because "all people, both Jews and non-Jews (Greeks) are under the power of sin,…No one is righteous, no not one"(Romans 3:9-10) "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified (forgiven, put in a right relationship with God) by his grace (undeserved favor) as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." In anticipation of the saving work of Jesus, God reckoned to Abraham as righteousness his faith in God(Galatians 3:8). Abraham's righteousness was in believing and trusting in God and His promises, and he demonstrated this by acting on those promises (obeying). Since this took place long before Abraham and family were circumcised, he can be the spiritual "father" of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised who trust and obey God like Abraham did. (Romans 4:11) Many of the Jews of Jesus' time were using Abraham as an example of justification by works, keeping the whole law. That is why Paul shows that that is not true. (The context of Galatians and parts of Romans is some Jewish believers were following Paul around and telling new converts that they had to become Jews first before they could be Christians. The infant church settled this issue at the Council of Jerusalem [Acts 15] but that didn't stop these people from trying to convince Gentile Christians of their views.)
REVIEW: what is the meaning of circumcision? It was an outward and visible sign of the inward covenant God gave Abraham. It was part of what Abraham did to respond to God's covenant. The inward change was the real meaning--"circumcision of the heart", a surrendered heart, a heart undivided in loyalty, trust and obedience to God. This is an OLD Testament idea, not just a New Testament one.
REVIEW: What is faith? (Genesis 15:6) Abraham believed/trusted God and what he had promised even though he did not see all of it and only saw the promised son after many years. Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Is it ever hard to believe? Yes, often. That's when we say to Jesus, like the father who brought his demonized son to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief." When our faith is weak we ask God to make it strong and reaffirm out trust in Him.
Paul asks, "Is this blessing only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised who believe?" Word received: That is the point of studying My dealings with Abraham. I have blessed him because he believed Me and trusted Me, not because of circumcision or works. I want you to seek Abraham's walk and make it your own. I want you on the same journey of faith that Abraham was on.
NOTE: believe/trust here refer to trust in GOD, believing GOD and not just believing a fact about him. You can hold correct beliefs and not trust God himself. Neither does faith here mean "faith in faith" as in thinking that somehow everything is going to work out all right, but trusting in God's hand in the situation.
The result of this faith/trust/believing God is what the Memory Verse talks about. The result of being forgiven, justified, put in a right relationship with God is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". Then we stand in a situation of grace (undeserved favor) with God. We are no longer enemies of God (Romans 5:10), at war with God, rebelling against him. God did it all. Forgiveness of our sins and being brought into a right relationship with God is a GIFT--a gift we receive by trusting in Jesus and accepting the gift. (2 Corinthians 5:19) "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us." (Notice that we are the ones that need to be reconciled to God not the other way around.) All we have to do is to accept and receive what he did and enter into it. Do we accept/receive/trust in what God has done and offered OR do we, like willful children, say, "I want to do it by myself?!?"
God made salvation so no one could boast. It is a gift to be received with thankfulness and joy. We are not saved by works but for works. (Ephesians 2:8-12 RSV) Sometimes people think that people in the Old Testament were saved by works. No! Paul repeats what it says at the beginning about Abraham, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6) Being justified by faith in God eliminates the pride of human effort. Salvation is based on responding to God in faith and a relationship with him, not on our (imperfect) performance. Of course we have to learn to trust like Abraham -- in incremental steps. It is a relationship we grow into.
Note: "Credited to him"
Paul is using financial terminology to explain how salvation works. This is just another example of how differently God works than how we understand how things should work.
Have you ever tried to get a loan at a bank? First of all, you need collateral and you need to show proof you can repay. That is why it is so difficult for young people to get credit and when they do, it is for such a small amount. Then as you prove yourself you get more credit. But God’s accounting system is so very different. He opens the flood gates of heaven to even those infant, first time believers; the greatest gift anyone could receive (again John 3:16). We don’t start off with just a part of God’s goodness, but we are given His fullness. It’s not that it isn’t there; it is just that we can not fully understand. We know the banker will not give us more than we ask for, yet God gives us more than we deserve.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 28
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the lesson and the parable Jesus told. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1.If you have good parents, do you have a good personal relationship with them because you always obey them or because they love you and you trust and love them and try to please them?? If they gave you a gift, is it because you earned it? If you did earn it, it is not a gift, it is a payment
2. Abraham trust God. That is what God wanted. God honored him for that. He wants us to do that too.
3. Salvation is a GIFT we can't earn no matter how hard we try because we keep doing bad things.
4. The Bible shows us how to act and what God likes us to do. We will always be happier when we follow what God says.
5. God calls us Abraham's children when we believe him and trust him.
6. "Grace" is getting something we don't deserve because we can't earn it.
SS lesson # 28: how to teach Teachers' word and reflections on Luke 18:9-14, May 3, 2005
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)
Word received: Look at the repentance of the Pharisee and the repentance of the tax collector. The Pharisee "turned" to himself, the tax collector turned to Me. Turn to Me as the tax collector did.
Repentance has the sense of turning around. The point of reference difference is God vs himself. This is ultimately where the whole issue of faith and works rests. The Pharisee is making himself the measure as he looks at others. (self-righteousness) The tax collector's measure is God Himself. On that standard he cries out for mercy.
The basis of Abraham's faith being counted as righteousness is because he made God the measure. He could trust God's word that He would do what He said He would.
Look at Paul in Romans 7. "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do." That is, 'I'm not big enough to pull it off'.
WHAT IS YOUR MEASURE? Amos talks about God holding up a plumb line over Israel, His people. It is a builder's tool, a standard of measure that shows whether something is really vertical or leaning in some direction. In Amos basically God is saying I'm the One doing the measuring. The Bible is called "The Canon of Scripture". Scripture is the measuring stick by which other things are measured. The word "canon" in this context means measuring line, rule, or model. Today many in the church are saying, my measuring stick is my experience. That's where Torre crashed and burned before he became a Christian.
The tax collector knew God was doing the measuring. The Pharisee was doing the measuring by his own standards. This shifts the center of gravity in the faith/works discussion from whatever the person does to God Himself. If I'm the measure, it's not going to work. If God is the measure and I trust in Him and what He can do then it can work.
Another example is in the letter to the Church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4. That church was and had been doing wonderful things BUT "I have this against you, you have left your first love (of Jesus himself)". They needed to REPENT, to turn back to their first love, not stopping their good deeds but letting Jesus be the center of their attention.
In some fundamental way, Abraham trusted God's measurement of things. He had no child, and had a barren wife, yet he trusted that He who promised was able to do it. We often use the word repentance. Now God has let us see into it more. One of the things we are to cry out for is repentance (for ourselves and for our church(es). What we are really asking for is that we will let God be the measuring rod in our lives. The issue in the Episcopal Church is what are we going to measure behavior by--our experiences or the Canon of Scripture and behind that God Himself.
Years ago we heard a sermon that told about an elderly woman who had given up reading the N.Y. Times for Jeremiah. She told her pastor, "The news is just as bad but the perspective is different." That is the big difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector.
If all our righteousness is "like filthy rags" then we need to cry out to God for his mercy and trust him. When we do this he not only adopts us as his children but he gives us the power to do things that please him. (I have a post card on my refrigerator that has blue scribbles on it--from our 2 ½ year old grandson, Alex. He did that work for us out of love and that makes us happy. God loves us when we trust him and try to please him.
For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)
Setting yourself or any other person as the measure gets in the way of repentance and wisdom.
Prayer: Jesus, please be the guide and compass, the measuring rod for my life. Thank you.
Possible object lesson: a yard stick.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Romans 4:1-12
Memory Verse: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. "Romans 5:1-2
Are we saved/brought into a right and personal relationship with God by faith in him or by "being a good person" (good things we do)? Jesus dealt with this question several times. He told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple. The Pharisee was an active, religious person and the tax collector was hated because he was co-operating with the enemy (Rome) and generally collected a generous amount of money for himself as well as for the government.
The Pharisee "prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like all other men--robbers, evil doers, adulterers, -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth (tithe) of all I get.'"
The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Which prayer was pleasing and acceptable to God? Which man did God justify and bring into a right relationship to himself ?? Stop and ask, then look at Jesus' answer (Luke 18:9-14). In John 6:28-29 people s?? aid to Jesus when they came looking for him, "What are we to do, that we may be working the works of God? Jesus replied, 'This is the work that God asks of you: that you believe in the one whom He has sent."
As Paul says in Romans 4:2, "if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about", (but not before God) and in Romans 3:27-28, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle or works? No, but on the principle of faith, for we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." (Romans 3:20) "For no human being will be justified in His sight by the works of the law since through the law comes knowledge of sin." The laws of God help us identify what is the will of God and what is sin and NO ONE can keep the law perfectly!
So God had to make another way because "all people, both Jews and non-Jews (Greeks) are under the power of sin,…No one is righteous, no not one"(Romans 3:9-10) "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified (forgiven, put in a right relationship with God) by his grace (undeserved favor) as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." In anticipation of the saving work of Jesus, God reckoned to Abraham as righteousness his faith in God(Galatians 3:8). Abraham's righteousness was in believing and trusting in God and His promises, and he demonstrated this by acting on those promises (obeying). Since this took place long before Abraham and family were circumcised, he can be the spiritual "father" of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised who trust and obey God like Abraham did. (Romans 4:11) Many of the Jews of Jesus' time were using Abraham as an example of justification by works, keeping the whole law. That is why Paul shows that that is not true. (The context of Galatians and parts of Romans is some Jewish believers were following Paul around and telling new converts that they had to become Jews first before they could be Christians. The infant church settled this issue at the Council of Jerusalem [Acts 15] but that didn't stop these people from trying to convince Gentile Christians of their views.)
REVIEW: what is the meaning of circumcision? It was an outward and visible sign of the inward covenant God gave Abraham. It was part of what Abraham did to respond to God's covenant. The inward change was the real meaning--"circumcision of the heart", a surrendered heart, a heart undivided in loyalty, trust and obedience to God. This is an OLD Testament idea, not just a New Testament one.
REVIEW: What is faith? (Genesis 15:6) Abraham believed/trusted God and what he had promised even though he did not see all of it and only saw the promised son after many years. Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Is it ever hard to believe? Yes, often. That's when we say to Jesus, like the father who brought his demonized son to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief." When our faith is weak we ask God to make it strong and reaffirm out trust in Him.
Paul asks, "Is this blessing only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised who believe?" Word received: That is the point of studying My dealings with Abraham. I have blessed him because he believed Me and trusted Me, not because of circumcision or works. I want you to seek Abraham's walk and make it your own. I want you on the same journey of faith that Abraham was on.
NOTE: believe/trust here refer to trust in GOD, believing GOD and not just believing a fact about him. You can hold correct beliefs and not trust God himself. Neither does faith here mean "faith in faith" as in thinking that somehow everything is going to work out all right, but trusting in God's hand in the situation.
The result of this faith/trust/believing God is what the Memory Verse talks about. The result of being forgiven, justified, put in a right relationship with God is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". Then we stand in a situation of grace (undeserved favor) with God. We are no longer enemies of God (Romans 5:10), at war with God, rebelling against him. God did it all. Forgiveness of our sins and being brought into a right relationship with God is a GIFT--a gift we receive by trusting in Jesus and accepting the gift. (2 Corinthians 5:19) "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us." (Notice that we are the ones that need to be reconciled to God not the other way around.) All we have to do is to accept and receive what he did and enter into it. Do we accept/receive/trust in what God has done and offered OR do we, like willful children, say, "I want to do it by myself?!?"
God made salvation so no one could boast. It is a gift to be received with thankfulness and joy. We are not saved by works but for works. (Ephesians 2:8-12 RSV) Sometimes people think that people in the Old Testament were saved by works. No! Paul repeats what it says at the beginning about Abraham, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6) Being justified by faith in God eliminates the pride of human effort. Salvation is based on responding to God in faith and a relationship with him, not on our (imperfect) performance. Of course we have to learn to trust like Abraham -- in incremental steps. It is a relationship we grow into.
Note: "Credited to him"
Paul is using financial terminology to explain how salvation works. This is just another example of how differently God works than how we understand how things should work.
Have you ever tried to get a loan at a bank? First of all, you need collateral and you need to show proof you can repay. That is why it is so difficult for young people to get credit and when they do, it is for such a small amount. Then as you prove yourself you get more credit. But God’s accounting system is so very different. He opens the flood gates of heaven to even those infant, first time believers; the greatest gift anyone could receive (again John 3:16). We don’t start off with just a part of God’s goodness, but we are given His fullness. It’s not that it isn’t there; it is just that we can not fully understand. We know the banker will not give us more than we ask for, yet God gives us more than we deserve.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 28
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the lesson and the parable Jesus told. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1.If you have good parents, do you have a good personal relationship with them because you always obey them or because they love you and you trust and love them and try to please them?? If they gave you a gift, is it because you earned it? If you did earn it, it is not a gift, it is a payment
2. Abraham trust God. That is what God wanted. God honored him for that. He wants us to do that too.
3. Salvation is a GIFT we can't earn no matter how hard we try because we keep doing bad things.
4. The Bible shows us how to act and what God likes us to do. We will always be happier when we follow what God says.
5. God calls us Abraham's children when we believe him and trust him.
6. "Grace" is getting something we don't deserve because we can't earn it.
SS lesson # 28: how to teach Teachers' word and reflections on Luke 18:9-14, May 3, 2005
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)
Word received: Look at the repentance of the Pharisee and the repentance of the tax collector. The Pharisee "turned" to himself, the tax collector turned to Me. Turn to Me as the tax collector did.
Repentance has the sense of turning around. The point of reference difference is God vs himself. This is ultimately where the whole issue of faith and works rests. The Pharisee is making himself the measure as he looks at others. (self-righteousness) The tax collector's measure is God Himself. On that standard he cries out for mercy.
The basis of Abraham's faith being counted as righteousness is because he made God the measure. He could trust God's word that He would do what He said He would.
Look at Paul in Romans 7. "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do." That is, 'I'm not big enough to pull it off'.
WHAT IS YOUR MEASURE? Amos talks about God holding up a plumb line over Israel, His people. It is a builder's tool, a standard of measure that shows whether something is really vertical or leaning in some direction. In Amos basically God is saying I'm the One doing the measuring. The Bible is called "The Canon of Scripture". Scripture is the measuring stick by which other things are measured. The word "canon" in this context means measuring line, rule, or model. Today many in the church are saying, my measuring stick is my experience. That's where Torre crashed and burned before he became a Christian.
The tax collector knew God was doing the measuring. The Pharisee was doing the measuring by his own standards. This shifts the center of gravity in the faith/works discussion from whatever the person does to God Himself. If I'm the measure, it's not going to work. If God is the measure and I trust in Him and what He can do then it can work.
Another example is in the letter to the Church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4. That church was and had been doing wonderful things BUT "I have this against you, you have left your first love (of Jesus himself)". They needed to REPENT, to turn back to their first love, not stopping their good deeds but letting Jesus be the center of their attention.
In some fundamental way, Abraham trusted God's measurement of things. He had no child, and had a barren wife, yet he trusted that He who promised was able to do it. We often use the word repentance. Now God has let us see into it more. One of the things we are to cry out for is repentance (for ourselves and for our church(es). What we are really asking for is that we will let God be the measuring rod in our lives. The issue in the Episcopal Church is what are we going to measure behavior by--our experiences or the Canon of Scripture and behind that God Himself.
Years ago we heard a sermon that told about an elderly woman who had given up reading the N.Y. Times for Jeremiah. She told her pastor, "The news is just as bad but the perspective is different." That is the big difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector.
If all our righteousness is "like filthy rags" then we need to cry out to God for his mercy and trust him. When we do this he not only adopts us as his children but he gives us the power to do things that please him. (I have a post card on my refrigerator that has blue scribbles on it--from our 2 ½ year old grandson, Alex. He did that work for us out of love and that makes us happy. God loves us when we trust him and try to please him.
For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)
Setting yourself or any other person as the measure gets in the way of repentance and wisdom.
Prayer: Jesus, please be the guide and compass, the measuring rod for my life. Thank you.
Possible object lesson: a yard stick.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 27 May 1, 2005
Abraham Dies
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 25:1-11
Memory Verse: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (Hebrews 11:13)
Look at the memory verse: "These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and exiles upon the earth." (Hebrews 11:13, The Amplified Bible) We have seen that lived out in the life and death of Pope John Paul II. He was seen by more people than any other person -- ever. He lived what he believed. He was faithful in proclaiming the Christian message and he spoke the truth to the various cultures of our day.
Now look at Abraham. He was content to be a stranger and temporary resident a good part of his life because that was what God had called him to. He trusted God's promise of the land even though he never saw it fulfilled. The only land he owned at his death was Sarah's grave site. A word received: Look at the fullness of a life lived in Me, in My purposes. Blessings are going to Isaac and through him all nations will be blessed. Blessing is what I do. Blessing is a quality of life that is independent of age and status. Blessing is My presence, My active hand on a person's life. I Am. I Am blessing people even now today. After Abraham's death (Genesis 25:11) God blessed his son Isaac. We see in Genesis 26:1-5 how God renews his covenant with Isaac and Isaac obeys. God was continuing to establish this special family to create a special people to be his "special possession" and to be a "light to the nations." God later, in Exodus 3, tells Moses that "I Am the God…of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were far from perfect but they valued and held to God's covenant promise.
Look how Abraham protects the covenant promise through Isaac. Abraham was generous and a man of peace. He gave generous gifts to the sons of his concubines (Hagar and Keturah) and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac to the east, just as he had sent away Ishmael. Here Abraham is a model for us. Do we recognize and value God's promises? Do we act like Abraham and separate ourselves from things that would come between us and God's plan for us? He guards everything he knows to keep that promise alive and prevent quarrels and trouble. Separating Isaac from his half-brothers was a continuation of the call to Abraham to leave his relatives behind. Isaac and Jacob also had to live as strangers and exiles on this earth.
[This area is not that big.] Abraham clearly had some contact with Ishmael and gave him gifts too so he would have heard of Abraham's death right away. (In hot countries people are buried within twenty-four hours unless they were embalmed like Egyptians.) Whatever the issues between Isaac and Ishmael, they joined together to bury their father. Note: Ishmael had twelve sons and settled near Egypt (Genesis 25:13,18) The Amplified Bible notes that Isaac would have been seventy-five and Ishmael near ninety. Jacob and Esau were fifteen and may have been present. Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah were later buried there.
God keeps his promises for Abraham to be "father of many nations" and to die at a "ripe old age". Now look at Genesis 25:7-8. God had kept his promise to Abraham long before (see Genesis 15:15, "You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.") There is a sense of God's blessing and gentleness at the natural end of his life. He lived a full, rich life -- not cut short by disease or violence. The way we die can be as much of a blessing as the way we are born. No one knows the length of his/her life. Now is all the time any of us have. The past is gone and tomorrow is not here yet. We all know young people can die in accidents, war, sickness, or tragedy. Think of the Christian girl (Cassie Bernall) who died at Columbine High School influenced others with her short life. The question is, How are we living now -- today before God and the world? Are we living out God's purposes for our lives? Or will we end our lives with regrets, having postponed responding to God in the present?
Paul started out as a well-intentioned murderer but after Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, he gave his life to Jesus, was forgiven, and became a great apostle to the Gentiles. He could say before he was martyred (tradition says he was beheaded in Rome)," I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord...will give me on that day…" (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (saints are not just a few people but those who have given their lives to God -- Paul often addresses his letters "To the saints at ____") God cares passionately about his people -- whether they die at a "ripe old age", are martyred, or die of other causes. Death is NOT the worst thing that can happen to us -- separation from God is! Abraham "died in faith".
Being re-united with loved ones Notice the phrase in Genesis 25:8, "and he was gathered to his people". This indicates some kind of belief in life after death though not as developed as it became later. David talked about, "I shall go to him" of his infant son who had died. If you have read anything about archaeology you know that grave sites of pagans all over the world show evidence of this general belief. However the Saducees in Jesus day did not believe in life after death.
Prayer: LORD, help me to live by faith in your promises. Help me to make the choices that fulfill your purposes for my life.
Note: Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi after Abraham's death. (They seem to have gone back and forth to Hebron.) That is the place mentioned in Genesis 16:7&14, a spring or well beside the road to Shur between Kadish and Berea where Hagar was found by God's angel after she ran away from Sarah when she was pregnant with Ishmael. Hagar gave the well this name and said, "I have seen the One who sees me." The name means "well of the Living One who sees me".
We all are living our lives in the sight of "the Living One who sees me". How are we living our lives right now? Are we living in a relationship of trust and obedience like Abraham? If we are, God will bless us. He wants to have an active hand in each of our lives.
Each of us, young, old, and middle-aged can serve God and walk with him and be a part of his plan. Look at Abraham and Moses whom God called late in life. Look at Samuel and David whom God called when they were quite young.
Our generation has made death a taboo subject and hidden it away. Earlier generations experienced it as a natural part of life and something to think about sometimes. The Lord doesn't want us to be afraid of death but to know that when we walk with him, he will be there with us and receive us into his heavenly kingdom to be with him forever. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you," and "Today you will be with me in paradise."
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 27
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God wants to bless us with his presence. Ask him to guide your life.
2. God keeps his promises. He is always faithful. He wants us to trust him.
3. We can only live in the present. (We can only remember yesterday and think about tomorrow.) Choose to trust and follow Jesus each day.
4. For those who choose to trust and obey Jesus, death doesn't need to frighten us. We will be with him forever.
5. We are never alone. Our Father in heaven always watches over us.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 25:1-11
Memory Verse: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (Hebrews 11:13)
Look at the memory verse: "These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and exiles upon the earth." (Hebrews 11:13, The Amplified Bible) We have seen that lived out in the life and death of Pope John Paul II. He was seen by more people than any other person -- ever. He lived what he believed. He was faithful in proclaiming the Christian message and he spoke the truth to the various cultures of our day.
Now look at Abraham. He was content to be a stranger and temporary resident a good part of his life because that was what God had called him to. He trusted God's promise of the land even though he never saw it fulfilled. The only land he owned at his death was Sarah's grave site. A word received: Look at the fullness of a life lived in Me, in My purposes. Blessings are going to Isaac and through him all nations will be blessed. Blessing is what I do. Blessing is a quality of life that is independent of age and status. Blessing is My presence, My active hand on a person's life. I Am. I Am blessing people even now today. After Abraham's death (Genesis 25:11) God blessed his son Isaac. We see in Genesis 26:1-5 how God renews his covenant with Isaac and Isaac obeys. God was continuing to establish this special family to create a special people to be his "special possession" and to be a "light to the nations." God later, in Exodus 3, tells Moses that "I Am the God…of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were far from perfect but they valued and held to God's covenant promise.
Look how Abraham protects the covenant promise through Isaac. Abraham was generous and a man of peace. He gave generous gifts to the sons of his concubines (Hagar and Keturah) and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac to the east, just as he had sent away Ishmael. Here Abraham is a model for us. Do we recognize and value God's promises? Do we act like Abraham and separate ourselves from things that would come between us and God's plan for us? He guards everything he knows to keep that promise alive and prevent quarrels and trouble. Separating Isaac from his half-brothers was a continuation of the call to Abraham to leave his relatives behind. Isaac and Jacob also had to live as strangers and exiles on this earth.
[This area is not that big.] Abraham clearly had some contact with Ishmael and gave him gifts too so he would have heard of Abraham's death right away. (In hot countries people are buried within twenty-four hours unless they were embalmed like Egyptians.) Whatever the issues between Isaac and Ishmael, they joined together to bury their father. Note: Ishmael had twelve sons and settled near Egypt (Genesis 25:13,18) The Amplified Bible notes that Isaac would have been seventy-five and Ishmael near ninety. Jacob and Esau were fifteen and may have been present. Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah were later buried there.
God keeps his promises for Abraham to be "father of many nations" and to die at a "ripe old age". Now look at Genesis 25:7-8. God had kept his promise to Abraham long before (see Genesis 15:15, "You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.") There is a sense of God's blessing and gentleness at the natural end of his life. He lived a full, rich life -- not cut short by disease or violence. The way we die can be as much of a blessing as the way we are born. No one knows the length of his/her life. Now is all the time any of us have. The past is gone and tomorrow is not here yet. We all know young people can die in accidents, war, sickness, or tragedy. Think of the Christian girl (Cassie Bernall) who died at Columbine High School influenced others with her short life. The question is, How are we living now -- today before God and the world? Are we living out God's purposes for our lives? Or will we end our lives with regrets, having postponed responding to God in the present?
Paul started out as a well-intentioned murderer but after Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, he gave his life to Jesus, was forgiven, and became a great apostle to the Gentiles. He could say before he was martyred (tradition says he was beheaded in Rome)," I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord...will give me on that day…" (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (saints are not just a few people but those who have given their lives to God -- Paul often addresses his letters "To the saints at ____") God cares passionately about his people -- whether they die at a "ripe old age", are martyred, or die of other causes. Death is NOT the worst thing that can happen to us -- separation from God is! Abraham "died in faith".
Being re-united with loved ones Notice the phrase in Genesis 25:8, "and he was gathered to his people". This indicates some kind of belief in life after death though not as developed as it became later. David talked about, "I shall go to him" of his infant son who had died. If you have read anything about archaeology you know that grave sites of pagans all over the world show evidence of this general belief. However the Saducees in Jesus day did not believe in life after death.
Prayer: LORD, help me to live by faith in your promises. Help me to make the choices that fulfill your purposes for my life.
Note: Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi after Abraham's death. (They seem to have gone back and forth to Hebron.) That is the place mentioned in Genesis 16:7&14, a spring or well beside the road to Shur between Kadish and Berea where Hagar was found by God's angel after she ran away from Sarah when she was pregnant with Ishmael. Hagar gave the well this name and said, "I have seen the One who sees me." The name means "well of the Living One who sees me".
We all are living our lives in the sight of "the Living One who sees me". How are we living our lives right now? Are we living in a relationship of trust and obedience like Abraham? If we are, God will bless us. He wants to have an active hand in each of our lives.
Each of us, young, old, and middle-aged can serve God and walk with him and be a part of his plan. Look at Abraham and Moses whom God called late in life. Look at Samuel and David whom God called when they were quite young.
Our generation has made death a taboo subject and hidden it away. Earlier generations experienced it as a natural part of life and something to think about sometimes. The Lord doesn't want us to be afraid of death but to know that when we walk with him, he will be there with us and receive us into his heavenly kingdom to be with him forever. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you," and "Today you will be with me in paradise."
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 27
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God wants to bless us with his presence. Ask him to guide your life.
2. God keeps his promises. He is always faithful. He wants us to trust him.
3. We can only live in the present. (We can only remember yesterday and think about tomorrow.) Choose to trust and follow Jesus each day.
4. For those who choose to trust and obey Jesus, death doesn't need to frighten us. We will be with him forever.
5. We are never alone. Our Father in heaven always watches over us.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 26 April 24, 2005
A Faithful Servant
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 24:10-66
Memory Verse: Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."
(Genesis 24:26-27)
This is another story of faithfulness: the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of Abraham's servant. It is also a great love story and God is the matchmaker. A word received: I will always remain faithful to you. What I want is your faithfulness to me. Prayer: LORD, help us to be your faithful servants as Abraham's servant was on Abraham's business.
First, look at Abraham's trust in God's guidance and provision of a wife for Isaac, the son of God's promise. He sends his servant back to his country (NW Mesopotamia) and his relatives (Genesis 24:4) and emphasized that no matter what happened his son was NOT to be taken back to where God first called Abraham. He trusted in God's promise of the gift of the land to his descendents (Genesis 24:7). He shared his conviction with the servant that God "will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there." This is a long journey, taking many weeks.
Now notice that the servant has the same trust on God's guidance and provision. He prays both for God to "give me success" and "show kindness to my master". Notice later (Genesis 24:27) "as for me, the LORD has led me". [He keeps referring to God as the God of Abraham but recall that the servant had learned his faith in God from Abraham and God has chosen to be known through the centuries as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: as well as by his name, "I Am", and other titles.] He's reached the town and now needs to know which girl, as well as find the family and asks for a pretty unusual sign. Watering ten thirsty camels is not a joke! Before he has finished praying God answers his prayer. Not only does she water his camels, she is Abraham's brother's granddaughter! (Genesis 24:21) He "watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful." God was faithful. God has led him straight to Abraham's family and the right girl! The servant "acknowledged God in all his ways and God did direct his paths". (Proverbs 3:6) Prayer: LORD, help me to acknowledge you in all my ways and ask you to direct my paths.
His first response is to worship and praise God (Genesis 24:26). When he tells the story to Rebekah's family and he also tells them how he praised and worshiped the LORD. (Genesis 24:48) When the servant heard the family's answer (Genesis 24:52) he bowed down and worshiped God. When we see God at work and answered prayer, do we stop and give thanks and praise to God? Remember the story of the 10 lepers. (Luke 17:12)
Notice that the servant tells the whole story again to Rebekah's family -- with all the details. This happens a number of times in the Bible. It is the story-teller's way of making sure people remember accurately. It also means that this is very important. Remember Saul/Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road is told three times in Acts. (Acts 9:3ff, 22:6ff, 26:13ff) Jesus says at the last supper, "Do this in remembrance of me." God wants us to be a remembering people: remembering his mighty deeds and his steadfast love and kindness. A word received: I want you to remember, as this man did, the events of my faithfulness to you. I want you to be a remembering people. My people are called to remember my deeds and pass on to others and their children the witness of my faithfulness to them. Let this man be a model for you in his telling of my faithfulness. Psalm 78:1-10 talks about the importance of remembering what God has don and telling the next generation. It talks also about the consequences of forgetting.
Now look at how Rebekah and her family respond to what God is doing when Abraham's servant tells who he is and the whole story. (Notice that the servant gives them an "out" in Genesis 24:49.) Laban (brother) and Bethuel (father) answer, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has directed." (Genesis 24:50-51) They saw the evidence of God's working and they and Rebekah responded and obeyed immediately. Notice that the servant doesn't waste any time. Contrary to custom (compare Abraham's three visitors in Chapter 15) he won't even eat till he tells them his assignment! The family wants to keep Rebekah their daughter and sister "ten days or so" (which could stretch out a long time). The servant wants to leave the next morning and wants to promptly return to his master. (Remember Abraham is very old, Isaac is forty, and the journey long.) Notice that Rebekah was given a free choice!! She was not forced but she too could see how God was working and obeyed promptly. Prayer: LORD, help me also to obey promptly.
The family agrees and sends her with their blessing. When Isaac meets the returning caravan he too sees God's work and promptly marries Rebekah and "loves her" and was comforted. At every step someone could have said, "No!" Prayer: LORD, help me to see you at work in my life. Help me to obey you promptly and with joy.
Note: God can accomplish his purposes through many different cultural forms. The important thing is His will. Sometimes arranged marriages were forced as in Romeo and Juliet and other famous cases but what I saw in India was that when the family loves the son or daughter they do their best to make a match that is good for both and with two families that get along -- since you also marry a family! When I was in India many families allowed their child to meet and veto or agree to the choice. When we see evidence of the LORD's working, do we take action promptly as Rebekah did and obey immediately?
A humorous note (often seen in Bible stories): Laban sees the gold nose ring and bracelets and hears the story and says, "Come, you who are blessed by the LORD…" This fits with what we know of Laban later when Jacob comes to him.
Notice God's timing in this story. God's timing is important. If we hesitate, when we know something is from God, we may miss out on the best God has for us. God has many "days" of the LORD, times and seasons of his special arrangement and we need to pray for eyes to see and hearts to respond. Prayer: LORD, please help me to be faithful and obedient when you give me clear directions.
God has a plan for his people's lives and cares about their choices -- including whom they marry. God wants us to "seek his face" and pray for guidance about these important decisions. Both Abraham and the servant had prayed over and over for the LORD's guidance and He gave it!
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 26
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God is faithful. We can trust Him. He wants us to be faithful to Him.
2. God has a plan for us. He wants us to obey Him. His plan is always best. He answers our prayers with what is best for us.
3. When we see God working, we need to give God the praise and glory He deserves.
4. God works in all cultures.
5. God wants us to remember His faithfulness and actions and tell other about them. That is being a witness.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 24:10-66
Memory Verse: Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."
(Genesis 24:26-27)
This is another story of faithfulness: the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of Abraham's servant. It is also a great love story and God is the matchmaker. A word received: I will always remain faithful to you. What I want is your faithfulness to me. Prayer: LORD, help us to be your faithful servants as Abraham's servant was on Abraham's business.
First, look at Abraham's trust in God's guidance and provision of a wife for Isaac, the son of God's promise. He sends his servant back to his country (NW Mesopotamia) and his relatives (Genesis 24:4) and emphasized that no matter what happened his son was NOT to be taken back to where God first called Abraham. He trusted in God's promise of the gift of the land to his descendents (Genesis 24:7). He shared his conviction with the servant that God "will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there." This is a long journey, taking many weeks.
Now notice that the servant has the same trust on God's guidance and provision. He prays both for God to "give me success" and "show kindness to my master". Notice later (Genesis 24:27) "as for me, the LORD has led me". [He keeps referring to God as the God of Abraham but recall that the servant had learned his faith in God from Abraham and God has chosen to be known through the centuries as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: as well as by his name, "I Am", and other titles.] He's reached the town and now needs to know which girl, as well as find the family and asks for a pretty unusual sign. Watering ten thirsty camels is not a joke! Before he has finished praying God answers his prayer. Not only does she water his camels, she is Abraham's brother's granddaughter! (Genesis 24:21) He "watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful." God was faithful. God has led him straight to Abraham's family and the right girl! The servant "acknowledged God in all his ways and God did direct his paths". (Proverbs 3:6) Prayer: LORD, help me to acknowledge you in all my ways and ask you to direct my paths.
His first response is to worship and praise God (Genesis 24:26). When he tells the story to Rebekah's family and he also tells them how he praised and worshiped the LORD. (Genesis 24:48) When the servant heard the family's answer (Genesis 24:52) he bowed down and worshiped God. When we see God at work and answered prayer, do we stop and give thanks and praise to God? Remember the story of the 10 lepers. (Luke 17:12)
Notice that the servant tells the whole story again to Rebekah's family -- with all the details. This happens a number of times in the Bible. It is the story-teller's way of making sure people remember accurately. It also means that this is very important. Remember Saul/Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road is told three times in Acts. (Acts 9:3ff, 22:6ff, 26:13ff) Jesus says at the last supper, "Do this in remembrance of me." God wants us to be a remembering people: remembering his mighty deeds and his steadfast love and kindness. A word received: I want you to remember, as this man did, the events of my faithfulness to you. I want you to be a remembering people. My people are called to remember my deeds and pass on to others and their children the witness of my faithfulness to them. Let this man be a model for you in his telling of my faithfulness. Psalm 78:1-10 talks about the importance of remembering what God has don and telling the next generation. It talks also about the consequences of forgetting.
Now look at how Rebekah and her family respond to what God is doing when Abraham's servant tells who he is and the whole story. (Notice that the servant gives them an "out" in Genesis 24:49.) Laban (brother) and Bethuel (father) answer, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has directed." (Genesis 24:50-51) They saw the evidence of God's working and they and Rebekah responded and obeyed immediately. Notice that the servant doesn't waste any time. Contrary to custom (compare Abraham's three visitors in Chapter 15) he won't even eat till he tells them his assignment! The family wants to keep Rebekah their daughter and sister "ten days or so" (which could stretch out a long time). The servant wants to leave the next morning and wants to promptly return to his master. (Remember Abraham is very old, Isaac is forty, and the journey long.) Notice that Rebekah was given a free choice!! She was not forced but she too could see how God was working and obeyed promptly. Prayer: LORD, help me also to obey promptly.
The family agrees and sends her with their blessing. When Isaac meets the returning caravan he too sees God's work and promptly marries Rebekah and "loves her" and was comforted. At every step someone could have said, "No!" Prayer: LORD, help me to see you at work in my life. Help me to obey you promptly and with joy.
Note: God can accomplish his purposes through many different cultural forms. The important thing is His will. Sometimes arranged marriages were forced as in Romeo and Juliet and other famous cases but what I saw in India was that when the family loves the son or daughter they do their best to make a match that is good for both and with two families that get along -- since you also marry a family! When I was in India many families allowed their child to meet and veto or agree to the choice. When we see evidence of the LORD's working, do we take action promptly as Rebekah did and obey immediately?
A humorous note (often seen in Bible stories): Laban sees the gold nose ring and bracelets and hears the story and says, "Come, you who are blessed by the LORD…" This fits with what we know of Laban later when Jacob comes to him.
Notice God's timing in this story. God's timing is important. If we hesitate, when we know something is from God, we may miss out on the best God has for us. God has many "days" of the LORD, times and seasons of his special arrangement and we need to pray for eyes to see and hearts to respond. Prayer: LORD, please help me to be faithful and obedient when you give me clear directions.
God has a plan for his people's lives and cares about their choices -- including whom they marry. God wants us to "seek his face" and pray for guidance about these important decisions. Both Abraham and the servant had prayed over and over for the LORD's guidance and He gave it!
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 26
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God is faithful. We can trust Him. He wants us to be faithful to Him.
2. God has a plan for us. He wants us to obey Him. His plan is always best. He answers our prayers with what is best for us.
3. When we see God working, we need to give God the praise and glory He deserves.
4. God works in all cultures.
5. God wants us to remember His faithfulness and actions and tell other about them. That is being a witness.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 25 April 17, 2005
Abraham's Faithfulness to God and God's faithfulness to Abraham
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 24:1-19
Memory Verse: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
"Abraham was now old…and the LORD had blessed him in every way." The LORD knows what we need and how to satisfy us. Abraham had passed the test and withheld nothing from God at Mt Moriah. Now he needed a suitable wife for Isaac. Isaac was forty when he married (Genesis 25:20) -- maybe a year later. A word received: This is a story of my faithfulness to Abraham and his faithfulness to me. It is the way I want your relationship with me to work too.
This servant (probably Eliezer, Genesis 15:2) "was in charge of all that he had." His was a very important position, one of stewardship and Abraham had great trust in him. He had been with Abraham many years and clearly had some knowledge of God, not any god, but THE God (Yahweh), whom Abraham worshiped and obeyed. He had watched Abraham all through the years. This really is a faith journey for the servant. He has seen Abraham's life of faith and now is living out that faith himself. By our faith we influence the faith lives of our children and those around us. The servant is able to say, "Please give me success this day" (Genesis 24:12, 27b) to God. He is not like Saul who said to Samuel, "You pray for me to your God." When the servant prays for success it is not for self-fulfillment, but to fulfill the assignment from Abraham to the glory of God. We and the children need to think about being role models for others. What are we modeling for others by our lives, whether we intend to or not?
The servant prayed, "O LORD God, God of my master, Abraham". God has deliberately chosen to be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in personal, relationship terms rather than territorial or abstract terms. God identifies himself in Exodus 3:6, not only by his name, "I AM" (Yahweh) but also as "I Am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,…Isaac, and…Jacob." -- forever! (See Note on last page.) Word received: You are My chosen ones. I chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I chose you. I have chosen many. Who will answer My call and My choice? Abrahaam, Isaac and Jacob chose to respond to My choice of them. I want the lesson to have a clear call to choose Me in response to My choice.
Abraham made his chief Steward swear a special oath (Genesis 24:2-3) that society considered sacred to one's god because it was related to the source of fertility as well as in the name of God.
Abraham makes (him) swear the most solemn oath that under no condition is he to take Isaac back where Abraham came from. Abraham says it twice (Genesis 24:6 & 8). God had called Abraham and made it clear he was to leave his family and homeland and go to Canaan (which would one day belong to Abraham's descendants) and Abraham is determined to be obedient to this. It was hard enough for Abraham to leave. It would also be hard for Isaac if he went back and might not return. (Look how long Jacob stayed when he went there for a wife.)
Abraham is determined that his family will obey God's call to Canaan and not go back to what had existed before God called him. (Are we ever tempted to turn back for what seems at the time to be a good reason?) A word received: I want you to take your lead from me, not how the world leads.
WHY did Abraham want a wife from his own relatives and country and not from the Canaanites? Abraham's family had at least a minimal knowledge of God and they had been there when God called Abraham. [However we read later in Genesis 31:34, that they still worshiped some "household gods" along with the true God.] Equally important was that the Canaanite gods were truly horrible. The Canaanites offered their own children as burnt offerings to their gods. God forbad the Israelites to inter-marry with the Canaanites because then they would be led astray to worship idols, do horrible things and their children would not grow up to worship the only, true, and living God. Read Deuteronomy 7:2-4 and Deuteronomy 9:4-6. Unfortunately they did it anyway with predictable results.
[One disconnect for us is the idea of worshiping Yahweh, the true God, along with other gods. You must remember that the whole of the surrounding culture was polytheistic. From that perspective there was no problem. Most gods were territorial. What we have here is the beginning of understanding that Yahweh is THE universal God. Only later would Abraham's descendants understand that Yahweh was the ONLY God as well as being the God of the universe. They thought of Yahweh as the "most high god", God of gods. Modern polytheism is called relativism--i.e. there is no absolute truth or God and your god and my god are all true and all equal.]
Now look at the memory verse. A more literal translation says, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." The image is that of a pair of horses or oxen in one yoke and pulling in opposite directions. It was and still is a problem for the New Covenant people of God -- Christians. Malachi 2:11 talks about an Israelite marrying a pagan as "marrying the daughter of a foreign god." If Christian believers are sons and daughters of God through Christ, then marriage to an unbeliever yokes, ties, them to a false god--an idol.
Also Malachi 2:15, talking about marriage says, "has not the LORD made them one? Why one? Because He is seeking godly offspring." Children are likely to follow their parents. Modern pagans don't worship physical idols but whatever is your final authority is your god. Sometimes it is one's own will, opinions of others, money, fame, what is "politically correct", etc. St. Paul made one exception for new believers who were already married to a non-Christian. They should stay married if the other person was willing. (2 Corinthians 7:12-16) Perhaps the spouse would become a Christian. God's plan is that Christians marry other believers within God's covenant so that their children will choose the Living God also and the Church will be built up. Each generation has to choose God for itself, but it is a lot easier if they grow up with believing parents. The people of God are always one generation from falling away. A question to ask ourselves and the children: Who are our friends? Who do we hang out with?
Abraham expects and trusts God to take care of the details. "He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.," (Genesis 24:7) The servant is going off without an army, with a lot of treasures, on a long trip. Both Abraham and the servant are trusting God. Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in you for all the details of my life, especially important decisions like a job, a husband or wife, the place you want me to live.
(Verse 12) Now we see why this servant was trusted with all that Abraham had and this important assignment -- he knows how to call on the LORD! He obviously learned it from Abraham. He finds Abraham's family and the granddaughter of Abraham's brother. He asks for a sign, which is perfectly reasonable, since how is he to know which girl, even if he found the family? He does not pick an easy sign. Watering camels is very laborious work! They drink huge amounts of water, especially after a long journey. It is not something most women and girls would volunteer to do! Rebekah is obviously a generous person and kind to strangers. She had no idea what was behind the request. Prayer: Lord, help me to remember to call on you whenever I am faced with a difficult decision.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 25
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God wants to have a relationship with us like he had with Abraham, where each was faithful to the other.
2. How will you respond to God's choice of you? God wants you to choose Him in response to His choice and call to you.
3. God wants us to choose to follow his guidance not the wisdom of the world around us. He wants us to ask Him to show us the way.
4. God wants us to trust Him with all the big decisions and small details of our lives. He loves us and wants the best for us.
5. God wants us to marry other believers.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 24:1-19
Memory Verse: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
"Abraham was now old…and the LORD had blessed him in every way." The LORD knows what we need and how to satisfy us. Abraham had passed the test and withheld nothing from God at Mt Moriah. Now he needed a suitable wife for Isaac. Isaac was forty when he married (Genesis 25:20) -- maybe a year later. A word received: This is a story of my faithfulness to Abraham and his faithfulness to me. It is the way I want your relationship with me to work too.
This servant (probably Eliezer, Genesis 15:2) "was in charge of all that he had." His was a very important position, one of stewardship and Abraham had great trust in him. He had been with Abraham many years and clearly had some knowledge of God, not any god, but THE God (Yahweh), whom Abraham worshiped and obeyed. He had watched Abraham all through the years. This really is a faith journey for the servant. He has seen Abraham's life of faith and now is living out that faith himself. By our faith we influence the faith lives of our children and those around us. The servant is able to say, "Please give me success this day" (Genesis 24:12, 27b) to God. He is not like Saul who said to Samuel, "You pray for me to your God." When the servant prays for success it is not for self-fulfillment, but to fulfill the assignment from Abraham to the glory of God. We and the children need to think about being role models for others. What are we modeling for others by our lives, whether we intend to or not?
The servant prayed, "O LORD God, God of my master, Abraham". God has deliberately chosen to be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in personal, relationship terms rather than territorial or abstract terms. God identifies himself in Exodus 3:6, not only by his name, "I AM" (Yahweh) but also as "I Am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,…Isaac, and…Jacob." -- forever! (See Note on last page.) Word received: You are My chosen ones. I chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I chose you. I have chosen many. Who will answer My call and My choice? Abrahaam, Isaac and Jacob chose to respond to My choice of them. I want the lesson to have a clear call to choose Me in response to My choice.
Abraham made his chief Steward swear a special oath (Genesis 24:2-3) that society considered sacred to one's god because it was related to the source of fertility as well as in the name of God.
Abraham makes (him) swear the most solemn oath that under no condition is he to take Isaac back where Abraham came from. Abraham says it twice (Genesis 24:6 & 8). God had called Abraham and made it clear he was to leave his family and homeland and go to Canaan (which would one day belong to Abraham's descendants) and Abraham is determined to be obedient to this. It was hard enough for Abraham to leave. It would also be hard for Isaac if he went back and might not return. (Look how long Jacob stayed when he went there for a wife.)
Abraham is determined that his family will obey God's call to Canaan and not go back to what had existed before God called him. (Are we ever tempted to turn back for what seems at the time to be a good reason?) A word received: I want you to take your lead from me, not how the world leads.
WHY did Abraham want a wife from his own relatives and country and not from the Canaanites? Abraham's family had at least a minimal knowledge of God and they had been there when God called Abraham. [However we read later in Genesis 31:34, that they still worshiped some "household gods" along with the true God.] Equally important was that the Canaanite gods were truly horrible. The Canaanites offered their own children as burnt offerings to their gods. God forbad the Israelites to inter-marry with the Canaanites because then they would be led astray to worship idols, do horrible things and their children would not grow up to worship the only, true, and living God. Read Deuteronomy 7:2-4 and Deuteronomy 9:4-6. Unfortunately they did it anyway with predictable results.
[One disconnect for us is the idea of worshiping Yahweh, the true God, along with other gods. You must remember that the whole of the surrounding culture was polytheistic. From that perspective there was no problem. Most gods were territorial. What we have here is the beginning of understanding that Yahweh is THE universal God. Only later would Abraham's descendants understand that Yahweh was the ONLY God as well as being the God of the universe. They thought of Yahweh as the "most high god", God of gods. Modern polytheism is called relativism--i.e. there is no absolute truth or God and your god and my god are all true and all equal.]
Now look at the memory verse. A more literal translation says, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." The image is that of a pair of horses or oxen in one yoke and pulling in opposite directions. It was and still is a problem for the New Covenant people of God -- Christians. Malachi 2:11 talks about an Israelite marrying a pagan as "marrying the daughter of a foreign god." If Christian believers are sons and daughters of God through Christ, then marriage to an unbeliever yokes, ties, them to a false god--an idol.
Also Malachi 2:15, talking about marriage says, "has not the LORD made them one? Why one? Because He is seeking godly offspring." Children are likely to follow their parents. Modern pagans don't worship physical idols but whatever is your final authority is your god. Sometimes it is one's own will, opinions of others, money, fame, what is "politically correct", etc. St. Paul made one exception for new believers who were already married to a non-Christian. They should stay married if the other person was willing. (2 Corinthians 7:12-16) Perhaps the spouse would become a Christian. God's plan is that Christians marry other believers within God's covenant so that their children will choose the Living God also and the Church will be built up. Each generation has to choose God for itself, but it is a lot easier if they grow up with believing parents. The people of God are always one generation from falling away. A question to ask ourselves and the children: Who are our friends? Who do we hang out with?
Abraham expects and trusts God to take care of the details. "He will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.," (Genesis 24:7) The servant is going off without an army, with a lot of treasures, on a long trip. Both Abraham and the servant are trusting God. Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in you for all the details of my life, especially important decisions like a job, a husband or wife, the place you want me to live.
(Verse 12) Now we see why this servant was trusted with all that Abraham had and this important assignment -- he knows how to call on the LORD! He obviously learned it from Abraham. He finds Abraham's family and the granddaughter of Abraham's brother. He asks for a sign, which is perfectly reasonable, since how is he to know which girl, even if he found the family? He does not pick an easy sign. Watering camels is very laborious work! They drink huge amounts of water, especially after a long journey. It is not something most women and girls would volunteer to do! Rebekah is obviously a generous person and kind to strangers. She had no idea what was behind the request. Prayer: Lord, help me to remember to call on you whenever I am faced with a difficult decision.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 25
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1. God wants to have a relationship with us like he had with Abraham, where each was faithful to the other.
2. How will you respond to God's choice of you? God wants you to choose Him in response to His choice and call to you.
3. God wants us to choose to follow his guidance not the wisdom of the world around us. He wants us to ask Him to show us the way.
4. God wants us to trust Him with all the big decisions and small details of our lives. He loves us and wants the best for us.
5. God wants us to marry other believers.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 24 April 10, 2005
Sarah dies and Abraham is an alien in a strange land
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 23
Memory Verse: In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (Psalm 18:6)
When we read the Bible, we read it as God's story in which we have a part. A word received: I Am. Start with that. I Am. Call my people into my story. You are my people. I love you and want you to enter into all that I have for you. You are my children. Don't be afraid. I will do what you cannot. Come to me; turn to me.
In the lesson the LORD is trying to show us something out of this event of Sarah's death and burial. Although the chapter is about the death of Sarah, that is not the focus of the lesson. Abraham and Sarah are back in Hebron, roughly twenty-five to thirty miles from Beersheba. Abraham is very aware of being a foreigner, far from relatives and his original homeland. As with Abraham, our citizenship is in God's kingdom. That is our condition as Christians, but we live in a culture that is growing increasingly hostile to Christianity. Jesus said his disciples were to live IN the world but not OF it. How? Psalm 137:4 asks the question, "How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?" A word received: That is the question I want you to ask in prayer. I want you to come to me for my direction on how to be my people among strangers. I will show you the way.
Abraham was very respected by the "people of the land", the Hittites, even though he was a foreigner. They tell him, "You are a mighty prince among us." In those days the elders and rulers of a city would transact business at the city gates so Abraham goes there to try to buy a burial plot from the elders of the community. We too are participants in a larger culture and community. We too are "foreigners" and the world is watching us. Do we act in a way that brings honor to the gospel? Several Bible passages talk about this. Philippians 1:27 says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
Ruth is another example of a foreigner, this time in the land of Israel. She asks Boaz, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me, a foreigner?" Boaz replies, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law…May the LORD repay you for what you have done." (Ruth 2:10-11) Proverbs 3:3a,4 says, "Let love and faithfulness never leave you…then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man." [Note: it doesn't always work that way. Jesus' enemies falsely accused him, as did Daniel's enemies. In such cases we have to cry out to God to vindicate us and reveal the truth.]
Abraham loved Sarah and mourned and cried for her. He was a very rich man but he didn't own any land even to bury his wife but the LORD provided even for the dead and for Abraham once again. Look at the Memory Verse: God hears our cries. A word received: If you cry out to me, I will hear you. I Am not an idol of gold or silver, wood or stone, that has ears and cannot hear. If you cry out to me, I will hear you. A word received: As you cry out to me, I will provide for all your needs. God sees every need and helps Abraham with each one. The Hittites could have said there was no land, no caves available (to a foreigner).
Cultural aspects: Every culture has rituals about death and about buying and selling.
In this chapter there is a very important practice that is taking place: bargaining. Most Americans are very uncomfortable with bargaining and prefer a set price. Many other cultures prefer bargaining and prize it as a valued form of social interaction. There are many cultural issues that are neither right nor wrong and a Christian has to discern what is a moral issue and what is merely another culture's way of doing business.
An issue here is ownership: can land be permanently sold to someone outside the tribe? Can something that important be permanently alienated from the group? For example, when we considered adopting a child in Liberia, we discovered that while we might "adopt" a child there, the local culture did not see this as in way as the birth family giving up its rights to the child. The child BELONGED to the birth family and would only be PLACED with the adoptive parents. When it came time for us to leave Liberia, we probably would not have been permitted to take the child away permanently. In Genesis 23 Abraham is seeking a clear and permanent title to the burial site. Therefore he is asking to pay the full price, even in the context of the bargaining. This Tomb of the Patriarchs exists today in Hebron. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are buried there.
In a bargaining culture, there are very ritualized expressions which do not imply insincerity on the part of either party. For example Ephron says, "No, my lord. Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead." Essentially Ephron is indicating that he is willing to bargain. The common pattern is bargaining is that the seller names too high a price and the buyer names too low a price and they then work towards a price acceptable to both. Ephron says, "Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead." Because Abraham wants a full and clear title, he does not attempt to bargain the price down. Also, it is in Abraham's character to be generous in reaching a peaceful settlement. Remember how he settled the issue of the well that had been seized by Abimelech's servants.
We need to respect cultural traditions--ours and other people's but NOT confuse them with the gospel. Some will work fine for Christians but others will be directly opposed.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 24
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1.God will always provide for our needs as we cry out to Him.
2. We always need to pay attention and be sensitive to the people we live around. God uses us as witnesses by what we say and do. But we are not to be governed by what the world thinks about something.
3. Respect for cultural traditions is important, both ours and other people's but NOT to confuse them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. As Christians, we are strangers, living in a sinful world. God wants us to ask Him for guidance as to how to live in this situation.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 23
Memory Verse: In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (Psalm 18:6)
When we read the Bible, we read it as God's story in which we have a part. A word received: I Am. Start with that. I Am. Call my people into my story. You are my people. I love you and want you to enter into all that I have for you. You are my children. Don't be afraid. I will do what you cannot. Come to me; turn to me.
In the lesson the LORD is trying to show us something out of this event of Sarah's death and burial. Although the chapter is about the death of Sarah, that is not the focus of the lesson. Abraham and Sarah are back in Hebron, roughly twenty-five to thirty miles from Beersheba. Abraham is very aware of being a foreigner, far from relatives and his original homeland. As with Abraham, our citizenship is in God's kingdom. That is our condition as Christians, but we live in a culture that is growing increasingly hostile to Christianity. Jesus said his disciples were to live IN the world but not OF it. How? Psalm 137:4 asks the question, "How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?" A word received: That is the question I want you to ask in prayer. I want you to come to me for my direction on how to be my people among strangers. I will show you the way.
Abraham was very respected by the "people of the land", the Hittites, even though he was a foreigner. They tell him, "You are a mighty prince among us." In those days the elders and rulers of a city would transact business at the city gates so Abraham goes there to try to buy a burial plot from the elders of the community. We too are participants in a larger culture and community. We too are "foreigners" and the world is watching us. Do we act in a way that brings honor to the gospel? Several Bible passages talk about this. Philippians 1:27 says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
Ruth is another example of a foreigner, this time in the land of Israel. She asks Boaz, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me, a foreigner?" Boaz replies, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law…May the LORD repay you for what you have done." (Ruth 2:10-11) Proverbs 3:3a,4 says, "Let love and faithfulness never leave you…then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man." [Note: it doesn't always work that way. Jesus' enemies falsely accused him, as did Daniel's enemies. In such cases we have to cry out to God to vindicate us and reveal the truth.]
Abraham loved Sarah and mourned and cried for her. He was a very rich man but he didn't own any land even to bury his wife but the LORD provided even for the dead and for Abraham once again. Look at the Memory Verse: God hears our cries. A word received: If you cry out to me, I will hear you. I Am not an idol of gold or silver, wood or stone, that has ears and cannot hear. If you cry out to me, I will hear you. A word received: As you cry out to me, I will provide for all your needs. God sees every need and helps Abraham with each one. The Hittites could have said there was no land, no caves available (to a foreigner).
Cultural aspects: Every culture has rituals about death and about buying and selling.
In this chapter there is a very important practice that is taking place: bargaining. Most Americans are very uncomfortable with bargaining and prefer a set price. Many other cultures prefer bargaining and prize it as a valued form of social interaction. There are many cultural issues that are neither right nor wrong and a Christian has to discern what is a moral issue and what is merely another culture's way of doing business.
An issue here is ownership: can land be permanently sold to someone outside the tribe? Can something that important be permanently alienated from the group? For example, when we considered adopting a child in Liberia, we discovered that while we might "adopt" a child there, the local culture did not see this as in way as the birth family giving up its rights to the child. The child BELONGED to the birth family and would only be PLACED with the adoptive parents. When it came time for us to leave Liberia, we probably would not have been permitted to take the child away permanently. In Genesis 23 Abraham is seeking a clear and permanent title to the burial site. Therefore he is asking to pay the full price, even in the context of the bargaining. This Tomb of the Patriarchs exists today in Hebron. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are buried there.
In a bargaining culture, there are very ritualized expressions which do not imply insincerity on the part of either party. For example Ephron says, "No, my lord. Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead." Essentially Ephron is indicating that he is willing to bargain. The common pattern is bargaining is that the seller names too high a price and the buyer names too low a price and they then work towards a price acceptable to both. Ephron says, "Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead." Because Abraham wants a full and clear title, he does not attempt to bargain the price down. Also, it is in Abraham's character to be generous in reaching a peaceful settlement. Remember how he settled the issue of the well that had been seized by Abimelech's servants.
We need to respect cultural traditions--ours and other people's but NOT confuse them with the gospel. Some will work fine for Christians but others will be directly opposed.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 24
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones:
1.God will always provide for our needs as we cry out to Him.
2. We always need to pay attention and be sensitive to the people we live around. God uses us as witnesses by what we say and do. But we are not to be governed by what the world thinks about something.
3. Respect for cultural traditions is important, both ours and other people's but NOT to confuse them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. As Christians, we are strangers, living in a sinful world. God wants us to ask Him for guidance as to how to live in this situation.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 23 April 3, 2005
God's Faithfulness and Love for Us
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Hebrews 11:17-10; Luke 24:36-49 Review Genesis 22:1-18
Optional: Romans 5:8-11
Memory Verse: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
God's purpose is always LIFE. Look at the memory verse, John 3:16, to see that God's underlying purpose and main goal in the whole story of his actions in human history is LOVE. What great love he had to want to bring us back to himself. That is what is best for us. He always knows best. God LOVED (agape love as an act of the will) the world (which He had made) SO MUCH that he GAVE his only Son so that whoever believes (puts their trust) in him should not perish (die apart from God) but have eternal LIFE (not only life after death but a new quality of life in this world). John 3:17 says that God's purpose in this was not to condemn the world but to RESCUE all who put their trust in Jesus, the Son.
[Remember that Jesus said, "I and the Father are ONE." "God was IN Christ, reconciling the world to himself."] The cross was not something that the Father did to the Son but something that Jesus, the Son, came into the world to do (Revelation 13:8), to make himself an offering for sin as the Lamb of God (Philippians 2:8). Jesus is both the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and the offering -- the Lamb of God. He is the Giver and the Gift. Jesus himself said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord and have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again, this charge I have from my Father." (John 10:18) Notice that Jesus' statement ends with resurrection!
The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 has two main sides. 1.) One side (foreshadowing) is that it points beyond itself to God sending his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for sin -- to make atonement for sin, the Lamb of God in our place. This is so that we could have life. The cross is God's provision to deal with sin and give new life. 2.) The other side is Abraham's great trust and obedience toward God. There were other times where the Bible tells us about Abraham having trouble believing God (about a son) and arguing with God (about Sodom). This time he seems not have done either in spite of the seeming contradiction. The passage in Hebrews explains why he believed that God, who gave him Isaac, would provide and that God, who miraculously gave him Isaac, could also raise him from the dead. A word received: Abraham trusted Me, obeyed Me and I "credited it to him as righteousness." I want you to trust Me as Abraham did. The same behavior is possible for you by believing what I say and obeying -- then your faith will grow. After the testing of Abraham, God provided a lamb as a substitute offering and life for Isaac. After the testing of Jesus, God provided a substitute for us in Jesus' death on the cross and then raised him to life forever so that through giving our lives to Jesus and trusting him we too might have life -- now and for eternity.
God met Abraham in the moment of extremity when he was about to sacrifice Isaac and God met the disciples grieving in the Upper Room (Luke 24), when they were at the end of their rope,--with hope, with joy and with love. God also meets us at that place of extremity with his faithfulness and love. (Do you have and example of this to share?)
In Luke 24:36-49 Jesus surprises his disciples with joy, incredible joy -- that he really, truly is alive again. Abraham must have experienced the same joy when he received Isaac back again after giving him to God. This whole passage shows the Lord's great love and patience with his disciples. See how gentle Jesus is with them after they had seen him die a horrible death. He even invites them to touch him, not just see and hear him and proves he is not a ghost -- he can eat and be touched. He is really alive again! A word received: My love is just as great for you as for my disciples. If anyone doubts that God really loves you, look at what Jesus did for you! Think how difficult it was for Jesus, for his heavenly Father. Think how difficult it was for Abraham to obey God.
The Scriptures are the key to understanding God's ways.
Jesus tells them, reminds them, of what he had told them before the crucifixion (Luke 24:44-49), "that everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures." For example, look at how Isaiah 53:7 is fulfilled. If you are not familiar with it read Isaiah 52:14-53:12. Now they could see how everything fit together and he summarized the good news (read Luke 24:44-49). A word received: As you actively seek My Holy Spirit and read My word I will open the Scriptures for you too. Stop and pray that you will be faithful in doing this and that the Lord will open the Scriptures for you too.
KEY WORDS
"Justified" "Reconciled" "Atonement"
Now look at Romans 5:8-11. How amazing it is that Christ died for us while we were still rebellious sinners and before you and I were even born or thought of! That is God's amazing love. Romans 5:1 uses the word "justified". Go back to Romans 4:24. It will be reckoned to us (as righteousness) who believe (faith, trust) in him who raised Jesus from the dead, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 5:9 says "we are justified by his blood." Justified means put back into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. The wages of sin is death and the Judge of all the earth paid the price for our sins himself so that we who accept this gift might be put back in a right relationship with God and receive the gift of life, new life in Jesus.
Another verse says Jesus is the atonement for our sins. A simple way of understanding that is to say "at-one-ment." In the Old Testament sin was dealt with, covered, forgiven, paid for by making an atonement with a sin offering. This offering/ sacrifice represented the people it was made for and was done in their place. See Numbers 29:5, "a sin offering to make atonement for you" In Romans 5:10-11 Paul uses that word to describe what Jesus did for us. He paid the penalty for our sin so that we might be forgiven and made right with God and receive forgiveness and new life. (Romans 5:11, "we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement…")
Romans 5:10 talks about being "reconciled" to God by the death of his Son--while we were still his enemies because of the rebellion of sin (going our own way; doing our own thing). It means that when we accept the gift Jesus offers, we are no longer God's enemies but can receive his gift of new life. Because he loves us he paid the price so that we can no longer be enemies but become God's beloved children. With his forgiveness God also wants to give us his Holy Spirit so we can have the power to live this new life.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your great love for me. You gave your son so that I could live! Show me how to live in you.
Deuteronomy 30:14-20, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses."
THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE! so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life."
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 23
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones.
1. God has such great love for us. He gave His only Son so that we could live.
2. God want us to trust Him. Then He can show us His way. God's way is always best.
3. God wants to "open the scriptures" to us too. Our part is to read the Bible daily and ask our Father in Heaven to guide us by His Holy Spirit to understand Him and His ways.
4. As we follow Jesus' way, and seek His Holy Spirit, He will work in us and our faith will grow.
5. God always wants us to choose life. That means to choose Him and His ways. His way is always best for us.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Hebrews 11:17-10; Luke 24:36-49 Review Genesis 22:1-18
Optional: Romans 5:8-11
Memory Verse: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
God's purpose is always LIFE. Look at the memory verse, John 3:16, to see that God's underlying purpose and main goal in the whole story of his actions in human history is LOVE. What great love he had to want to bring us back to himself. That is what is best for us. He always knows best. God LOVED (agape love as an act of the will) the world (which He had made) SO MUCH that he GAVE his only Son so that whoever believes (puts their trust) in him should not perish (die apart from God) but have eternal LIFE (not only life after death but a new quality of life in this world). John 3:17 says that God's purpose in this was not to condemn the world but to RESCUE all who put their trust in Jesus, the Son.
[Remember that Jesus said, "I and the Father are ONE." "God was IN Christ, reconciling the world to himself."] The cross was not something that the Father did to the Son but something that Jesus, the Son, came into the world to do (Revelation 13:8), to make himself an offering for sin as the Lamb of God (Philippians 2:8). Jesus is both the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and the offering -- the Lamb of God. He is the Giver and the Gift. Jesus himself said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord and have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again, this charge I have from my Father." (John 10:18) Notice that Jesus' statement ends with resurrection!
The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 has two main sides. 1.) One side (foreshadowing) is that it points beyond itself to God sending his Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for sin -- to make atonement for sin, the Lamb of God in our place. This is so that we could have life. The cross is God's provision to deal with sin and give new life. 2.) The other side is Abraham's great trust and obedience toward God. There were other times where the Bible tells us about Abraham having trouble believing God (about a son) and arguing with God (about Sodom). This time he seems not have done either in spite of the seeming contradiction. The passage in Hebrews explains why he believed that God, who gave him Isaac, would provide and that God, who miraculously gave him Isaac, could also raise him from the dead. A word received: Abraham trusted Me, obeyed Me and I "credited it to him as righteousness." I want you to trust Me as Abraham did. The same behavior is possible for you by believing what I say and obeying -- then your faith will grow. After the testing of Abraham, God provided a lamb as a substitute offering and life for Isaac. After the testing of Jesus, God provided a substitute for us in Jesus' death on the cross and then raised him to life forever so that through giving our lives to Jesus and trusting him we too might have life -- now and for eternity.
God met Abraham in the moment of extremity when he was about to sacrifice Isaac and God met the disciples grieving in the Upper Room (Luke 24), when they were at the end of their rope,--with hope, with joy and with love. God also meets us at that place of extremity with his faithfulness and love. (Do you have and example of this to share?)
In Luke 24:36-49 Jesus surprises his disciples with joy, incredible joy -- that he really, truly is alive again. Abraham must have experienced the same joy when he received Isaac back again after giving him to God. This whole passage shows the Lord's great love and patience with his disciples. See how gentle Jesus is with them after they had seen him die a horrible death. He even invites them to touch him, not just see and hear him and proves he is not a ghost -- he can eat and be touched. He is really alive again! A word received: My love is just as great for you as for my disciples. If anyone doubts that God really loves you, look at what Jesus did for you! Think how difficult it was for Jesus, for his heavenly Father. Think how difficult it was for Abraham to obey God.
The Scriptures are the key to understanding God's ways.
Jesus tells them, reminds them, of what he had told them before the crucifixion (Luke 24:44-49), "that everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures." For example, look at how Isaiah 53:7 is fulfilled. If you are not familiar with it read Isaiah 52:14-53:12. Now they could see how everything fit together and he summarized the good news (read Luke 24:44-49). A word received: As you actively seek My Holy Spirit and read My word I will open the Scriptures for you too. Stop and pray that you will be faithful in doing this and that the Lord will open the Scriptures for you too.
KEY WORDS
"Justified" "Reconciled" "Atonement"
Now look at Romans 5:8-11. How amazing it is that Christ died for us while we were still rebellious sinners and before you and I were even born or thought of! That is God's amazing love. Romans 5:1 uses the word "justified". Go back to Romans 4:24. It will be reckoned to us (as righteousness) who believe (faith, trust) in him who raised Jesus from the dead, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 5:9 says "we are justified by his blood." Justified means put back into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. The wages of sin is death and the Judge of all the earth paid the price for our sins himself so that we who accept this gift might be put back in a right relationship with God and receive the gift of life, new life in Jesus.
Another verse says Jesus is the atonement for our sins. A simple way of understanding that is to say "at-one-ment." In the Old Testament sin was dealt with, covered, forgiven, paid for by making an atonement with a sin offering. This offering/ sacrifice represented the people it was made for and was done in their place. See Numbers 29:5, "a sin offering to make atonement for you" In Romans 5:10-11 Paul uses that word to describe what Jesus did for us. He paid the penalty for our sin so that we might be forgiven and made right with God and receive forgiveness and new life. (Romans 5:11, "we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement…")
Romans 5:10 talks about being "reconciled" to God by the death of his Son--while we were still his enemies because of the rebellion of sin (going our own way; doing our own thing). It means that when we accept the gift Jesus offers, we are no longer God's enemies but can receive his gift of new life. Because he loves us he paid the price so that we can no longer be enemies but become God's beloved children. With his forgiveness God also wants to give us his Holy Spirit so we can have the power to live this new life.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your great love for me. You gave your son so that I could live! Show me how to live in you.
Deuteronomy 30:14-20, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses."
THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE! so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life."
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 23
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones.
1. God has such great love for us. He gave His only Son so that we could live.
2. God want us to trust Him. Then He can show us His way. God's way is always best.
3. God wants to "open the scriptures" to us too. Our part is to read the Bible daily and ask our Father in Heaven to guide us by His Holy Spirit to understand Him and His ways.
4. As we follow Jesus' way, and seek His Holy Spirit, He will work in us and our faith will grow.
5. God always wants us to choose life. That means to choose Him and His ways. His way is always best for us.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 22 March 13, 2005
Abraham Tested - Jesus Tested
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 22:1-18
Optional: Matthew 26:36-46
Memory Verse: Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)
This is a very painful lesson to study, but the reason Abraham is such a towering figure in the Bible is that he, like Jesus, desired God's approval and desired to do what was pleasing to God -- to follow God's agenda, not his own. Abraham knew very little about God compared to later generations and had times of failure but the core of his life was to hear God and obey as does here. Jesus says in John 5:30b, 'for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." and in John 5:44 "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?"
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) was an Italian designer, sculptor, goldsmith, architect and writer. He was Florentine and first came to prominence as winner of the 1401 competition for a set of bronze doors to the Florence Baptistry. Abraham welcomes the mysterious visitors (God); they tell him that his aged wife Sarah will bear a long-sought son. At God's command Abraham attempts to sacrifice Isaac.
God does test people but doesn't tempt although he allows it. God tested Abraham (Genesis 22:1). Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1) "And lead us not into temptation (or hard testing)." (Matthew 6:13) "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (James 1:2-3) When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:13-14) The English word "tempt" has narrowed in meaning since the translation of 1616 and now usually means only to "entice". But its Biblical meaning is often to "prove" or "test". In Greek "temptation" and "testing" are the same word.
God tests people to see what is in them and to show them what is in their hearts. He doesn't do it to be mean. A teacher or a coach has to test students for the same reason. A soldier is tested under fire to see what he will do. The Bible talks about gold being tested or tried by fire 1) to see how pure it is, and 2) to burn off impurities. The devil and our fallen human nature -- ours and other people's -- tempt us to make us fall ("the world, the flesh and the devil"). God allows this to see what is in us and to strengthen us. God tests to purify and strengthen and protect us. "Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands...to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:2-3) "God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." (Exodus 20:20) God also does this to strengthen and equip us. It is part of our training as his children, just as an athlete is strengthened by the strenuous training he goes through. "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart." (Proverbs 17:3) "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for a temptation…since gold is tested in fire, and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation." (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 2:1 & 5) A word received: I tested Abraham and I will test you too. I want you to turn to me for help in the test; then your faith will grow.
Jesus was tempted by Satan to misuse his Messiah-ship. God led him into that to strengthen him for what was ahead. He was tempted/tested other times too such as the time he told Peter, "Get behind me, Satan" and in the Garden when he faced the horror of the cross and what God's call for him was. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, " For this reason he had to be made like his brothers (us) in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Jesus knows exactly what we are going through when we are tested or tempted and he wants us to ask him to help us.
Look at the Memory Verse. Jesus says three times in the garden, when he was asking Father God if there was any other way than through the cross, "yet not as I will, but as you will." We are not told Abraham's thoughts but they must have been similar. We only know what he did! The next morning he obeyed. A word received: That is the way it always is for those who walk in my ways, my way or their way, my will or their will. Jesus chose my ways and will, so did Abraham. I want you to choose my way and will as well.
"We worship God when we obey Him." and "Partial obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience." The Purpose Driven Life
We see in both Abraham and Jesus a trusting obedience. This thing God asked of Abraham seems awful and cruel (and was common among the Canaanites), but Abraham knew God's character: loving him, blessing, providing for and protecting him and his family so Abraham really trusted God to make the whole situation come out right. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham says, "we will come back".
Hebrews 11:17-19 suggests that "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking he did…" God is not asking Abraham to do something that he himself didn't do later. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…" Remember that Jesus also said, "I and the Father are one." "God was IN Christ reconciling the world to himself." (2 Corinthians 5:19) This was something that God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) had planned "from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
We don't know how old Isaac was, Abraham stayed in this area a long time (Genesis 21:34) and returns there (Genesis 22:9). Isaac was old enough for a three-day journey to the mountain of Moriah (verses 2 and 4) and old enough to carry the wood.
Notice that Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice and Jesus carried his own wooden cross.
Sometimes God asks us to give him something or someone we care a lot about. Sometimes he gives it back and sometimes not. God provided a substitute for Isaac but he asked Jesus to go to the cross. Is there anything we are deliberately withholding from God (something more important to us than God)? If so, there will come a time when he asks us to give him that thing (for example, Torre's smoking and scholarship to graduate school). How has God tested you? How has he/is he testing others in our parish?
Abraham and Isaac were accustomed to worshiping God with burnt offerings and sacrifices so Isaac's question in verse 7 is natural. Abraham's answer in verse 8 is a statement of faith. A word received: This is the statement of faith of all those who come to Me. They trust that I will provide and I do. How many can you name who come to Me trusting that I will provide? (Name people from the Bible who do this.)
Human sacrifice, often of children, was common among the Canaanites. After God provided a substitute for Isaac there was to be no more human sacrifice to be allowed among the Israelites. See Leviticus 18:21. "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech for you must not profane the name of your God," but they did, over and over. King Solomon even built altars to those gods for his foreign wives.
The purpose of human sacrifice then and as we saw in Liberia was to force the gods you worshiped to give you what you wanted. This was one of the reasons God punished the Israelites with the Exile. What is happening in this story and with Jesus is totally different. Here Abraham was willing to give everything to God. Jesus laid down his life. Isaac didn't run.
The mountain of Moriah later became the threshing floor David bought to build an altar and later the Temple Mount. Abraham named the place (verse 14) "The Lord will provide." (See the map in the hallway.)
God stops Abraham at the last minute. Abraham has passed the test. "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." God gives Isaac back to Abraham and promises great blessings to Abraham and his offspring and promises again that through a descendant of Abraham (Jesus) all nations will be blessed (Genesis 22:16-18). God is glorified when he provides in a way it is clear could come no other way. God did provide a lamb, a ram for the sacrifice. Jesus however had to go through the crucifixion. John the Baptist (John 1:29) said of him, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus bore our sins on the cross so that by faith in him we might have life.
Notice that Abraham twice responds immediately to God's call to him (Genesis 22:1 & 11) with "Here I am." He didn't hide like Adam and Eve. A word received: This is Abraham's response and this is Isaiah's response (Isaiah 6:8) and this is the response of all who desire Me and My ways. I want you to say as well, when I call you, "Here I am". (The boy Samuel was also instructed by Eli to say, "Here I am.")
Abraham remained faithful through this trial just as Jesus remained faithful through the struggle and trial in the Garden of Gethsemane when even Jesus' friends failed him. A word received: Stay faithful through your struggles by leaning on me and crying out like My Son did. Prayer: Help us Lord remain faithful to you. Help us to remember to cry out to you for help in our times of trial, temptation, and testing.
What does it mean to stay and watch with someone? Jesus' friends failed him in his hour of trial and agony. Jesus found them sleeping and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40) A word received: I want the children and the adults to set aside time to be with Me.
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot, missionary martyr in South America
Prayer: Lord, help us to keep ever before us the wonder of your majesty, to be obedient and grateful for your plan, even though we can't see or understand it. Help us in times of trial and affliction to keep our focus on the task you set before us and trust in you as Abraham did and cry out to you as Jesus did.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 22
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones.
1. God loves all his people. He has a wonderful plan.
2. Sometimes God tests us to make us stronger.
3. When God tests us we can turn to him and ask for help.
4. When we cry out to God, He will always help and listen. God is faithful.
5. The result of God's testing us will always be good when we obey Him.
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Readings: Genesis 22:1-18
Optional: Matthew 26:36-46
Memory Verse: Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)
This is a very painful lesson to study, but the reason Abraham is such a towering figure in the Bible is that he, like Jesus, desired God's approval and desired to do what was pleasing to God -- to follow God's agenda, not his own. Abraham knew very little about God compared to later generations and had times of failure but the core of his life was to hear God and obey as does here. Jesus says in John 5:30b, 'for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." and in John 5:44 "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?"
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) was an Italian designer, sculptor, goldsmith, architect and writer. He was Florentine and first came to prominence as winner of the 1401 competition for a set of bronze doors to the Florence Baptistry. Abraham welcomes the mysterious visitors (God); they tell him that his aged wife Sarah will bear a long-sought son. At God's command Abraham attempts to sacrifice Isaac.
God does test people but doesn't tempt although he allows it. God tested Abraham (Genesis 22:1). Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1) "And lead us not into temptation (or hard testing)." (Matthew 6:13) "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (James 1:2-3) When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:13-14) The English word "tempt" has narrowed in meaning since the translation of 1616 and now usually means only to "entice". But its Biblical meaning is often to "prove" or "test". In Greek "temptation" and "testing" are the same word.
God tests people to see what is in them and to show them what is in their hearts. He doesn't do it to be mean. A teacher or a coach has to test students for the same reason. A soldier is tested under fire to see what he will do. The Bible talks about gold being tested or tried by fire 1) to see how pure it is, and 2) to burn off impurities. The devil and our fallen human nature -- ours and other people's -- tempt us to make us fall ("the world, the flesh and the devil"). God allows this to see what is in us and to strengthen us. God tests to purify and strengthen and protect us. "Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands...to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:2-3) "God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." (Exodus 20:20) God also does this to strengthen and equip us. It is part of our training as his children, just as an athlete is strengthened by the strenuous training he goes through. "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart." (Proverbs 17:3) "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for a temptation…since gold is tested in fire, and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation." (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 2:1 & 5) A word received: I tested Abraham and I will test you too. I want you to turn to me for help in the test; then your faith will grow.
Jesus was tempted by Satan to misuse his Messiah-ship. God led him into that to strengthen him for what was ahead. He was tempted/tested other times too such as the time he told Peter, "Get behind me, Satan" and in the Garden when he faced the horror of the cross and what God's call for him was. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, " For this reason he had to be made like his brothers (us) in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Jesus knows exactly what we are going through when we are tested or tempted and he wants us to ask him to help us.
Look at the Memory Verse. Jesus says three times in the garden, when he was asking Father God if there was any other way than through the cross, "yet not as I will, but as you will." We are not told Abraham's thoughts but they must have been similar. We only know what he did! The next morning he obeyed. A word received: That is the way it always is for those who walk in my ways, my way or their way, my will or their will. Jesus chose my ways and will, so did Abraham. I want you to choose my way and will as well.
"We worship God when we obey Him." and "Partial obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience." The Purpose Driven Life
We see in both Abraham and Jesus a trusting obedience. This thing God asked of Abraham seems awful and cruel (and was common among the Canaanites), but Abraham knew God's character: loving him, blessing, providing for and protecting him and his family so Abraham really trusted God to make the whole situation come out right. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham says, "we will come back".
Hebrews 11:17-19 suggests that "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking he did…" God is not asking Abraham to do something that he himself didn't do later. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…" Remember that Jesus also said, "I and the Father are one." "God was IN Christ reconciling the world to himself." (2 Corinthians 5:19) This was something that God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) had planned "from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
We don't know how old Isaac was, Abraham stayed in this area a long time (Genesis 21:34) and returns there (Genesis 22:9). Isaac was old enough for a three-day journey to the mountain of Moriah (verses 2 and 4) and old enough to carry the wood.
Notice that Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice and Jesus carried his own wooden cross.
Sometimes God asks us to give him something or someone we care a lot about. Sometimes he gives it back and sometimes not. God provided a substitute for Isaac but he asked Jesus to go to the cross. Is there anything we are deliberately withholding from God (something more important to us than God)? If so, there will come a time when he asks us to give him that thing (for example, Torre's smoking and scholarship to graduate school). How has God tested you? How has he/is he testing others in our parish?
Abraham and Isaac were accustomed to worshiping God with burnt offerings and sacrifices so Isaac's question in verse 7 is natural. Abraham's answer in verse 8 is a statement of faith. A word received: This is the statement of faith of all those who come to Me. They trust that I will provide and I do. How many can you name who come to Me trusting that I will provide? (Name people from the Bible who do this.)
Human sacrifice, often of children, was common among the Canaanites. After God provided a substitute for Isaac there was to be no more human sacrifice to be allowed among the Israelites. See Leviticus 18:21. "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech for you must not profane the name of your God," but they did, over and over. King Solomon even built altars to those gods for his foreign wives.
The purpose of human sacrifice then and as we saw in Liberia was to force the gods you worshiped to give you what you wanted. This was one of the reasons God punished the Israelites with the Exile. What is happening in this story and with Jesus is totally different. Here Abraham was willing to give everything to God. Jesus laid down his life. Isaac didn't run.
The mountain of Moriah later became the threshing floor David bought to build an altar and later the Temple Mount. Abraham named the place (verse 14) "The Lord will provide." (See the map in the hallway.)
God stops Abraham at the last minute. Abraham has passed the test. "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." God gives Isaac back to Abraham and promises great blessings to Abraham and his offspring and promises again that through a descendant of Abraham (Jesus) all nations will be blessed (Genesis 22:16-18). God is glorified when he provides in a way it is clear could come no other way. God did provide a lamb, a ram for the sacrifice. Jesus however had to go through the crucifixion. John the Baptist (John 1:29) said of him, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus bore our sins on the cross so that by faith in him we might have life.
Notice that Abraham twice responds immediately to God's call to him (Genesis 22:1 & 11) with "Here I am." He didn't hide like Adam and Eve. A word received: This is Abraham's response and this is Isaiah's response (Isaiah 6:8) and this is the response of all who desire Me and My ways. I want you to say as well, when I call you, "Here I am". (The boy Samuel was also instructed by Eli to say, "Here I am.")
Abraham remained faithful through this trial just as Jesus remained faithful through the struggle and trial in the Garden of Gethsemane when even Jesus' friends failed him. A word received: Stay faithful through your struggles by leaning on me and crying out like My Son did. Prayer: Help us Lord remain faithful to you. Help us to remember to cry out to you for help in our times of trial, temptation, and testing.
What does it mean to stay and watch with someone? Jesus' friends failed him in his hour of trial and agony. Jesus found them sleeping and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40) A word received: I want the children and the adults to set aside time to be with Me.
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot, missionary martyr in South America
Prayer: Lord, help us to keep ever before us the wonder of your majesty, to be obedient and grateful for your plan, even though we can't see or understand it. Help us in times of trial and affliction to keep our focus on the task you set before us and trust in you as Abraham did and cry out to you as Jesus did.
Teaching Ideas for Lesson 22
Please read the Study Guide first.
Go over Memory Verse to make sure the children understand it and then if they have memorized it.
Remind them their parents need to sign a report slip monthly if they have read the lessons, so they will get credit at the end of the year.
Make sure they know what happened in the story. Get them to tell you.
Basic points of the lesson for little ones.
1. God loves all his people. He has a wonderful plan.
2. Sometimes God tests us to make us stronger.
3. When God tests us we can turn to him and ask for help.
4. When we cry out to God, He will always help and listen. God is faithful.
5. The result of God's testing us will always be good when we obey Him.
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