Friday, November 18, 2016

Lesson 9 Intimations of Hope Nov 19-25 2016

Lesson 9November 19–25

Intimations of Hope


Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Prov. 17:28, Job 13:1–15, James 2:20–22, 1 Cor. 15:11–20, 1 Pet. 1:18–20, Gen. 22:8.
Memory Text: “ ‘He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before Him’ ” (Job 13:16, NKJV).
Man is the only animal,” wrote British essayist William Hazlitt, “that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.”
Things certainly aren’t what they ought to be. However, for a Christian who lives with the promise of the Second Coming, there is hope—a great hope of what things will become (2 Pet. 3:13). They will become something so wonderful that we, with sin-darkened minds (1 Cor. 13:12), can barely imagine it now. This is a hope that the secular mind, in all its narrowness and parochialism, has lost long ago.
This week, as we continue to explore the question of suffering in the book of Job, we will find that, even amid the unfair tragedy that befell him, that made no sense, and that was not justified, Job could still utter words of hope.
What was that hope, and what does it tell us that we can hope in, as well?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 26.
SundayNovember 20

Forgers of Lies

“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent” (Prov. 17:28, RSV).
Whatever one wants to say about the man Job, one can’t say that he was going to sit there amid his sorrow and quietly listen to what his friends were throwing at him. On the contrary, much of the book of Job consists of Job’s fighting back against what he knows is a mixture of truth and error. As we saw, these men were not showing much tact and sympathy; they were claiming to speak for God in justifying what had happened to Job; and basically they said he was getting what he deserved or that he deserved even worse! Any one of these lines of thought would have been bad enough; but all three (and others) were too much, and Job answered them back.
Read Job 13:1–14. What approach is Job taking here as he responds to what is being said to him?
We saw in chapter 2 that when these men first came and saw Job, they said nothing to him for seven days. Considering what eventually did start coming out of their mouths, this might have been the best approach. That’s certainly what Job thought.
Notice, too: Job says that not only are these men talking lies, they are talking lies about God. (That’s interesting in light of what happens toward the end of the book itself [See Job 42:7]). Surely it would be better not to speak than to say things that are wrong. (Who among us hasn’t experienced how true that is?) But it seems that to say things that are wrong about God is much worse. The irony, of course, was that these men actually thought they were defending God and His character against Job’s bitter complaints about what happened. Though Job remained at a loss to understand why all these things came upon him, he knew enough to recognize that what these men were saying made them “forgers of lies” (Job 13:4).
When was the last time you said things that were wrong and that shouldn’t have been said? How can you learn from that experience so that you do not make the same kind of mistake again?
MondayNovember 21

Though He Slay Me

When we started this quarter, we went right to the end of the book, and we saw how well things eventually turned out for Job. We saw that, even amid his terrible suffering, Job really had something to hope for. In fact, living when we do, and knowing the end of the whole book, i.e., the Bible, we can see that Job had a whole lot more to hope in than he could possibly have imagined at the time.
But when his children died, his property was taken, and his health was ruined, Job didn’t have the advantage of knowing how things would turn out. What he knew, instead, was that life had suddenly turned nasty.
At the same time, even amid his bitter laments about wishing he hadn’t been born or wishing that he had gone from the womb to the grave, Job still expressed hope, and this hope was in God—the same God who he thought was dealing so unfairly with him now.
Read Job 13:15. What hope is presented here in this verse? What is Job saying?
“Even if He will kill me, I will trust Him.” What a powerful affirmation of faith! With all that had happened to him, Job knew that very possibly the final thing, the only thing that hadn’t happened to him, death, could come—and God could cause it too. Yet, even if this happened, Job would die trusting in the Lord anyway.
“The riches of the grace of Christ must be kept before the mind. Treasure up the lessons that his love provides. Let your faith be like Job’s, that you may declare, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.’ Lay hold on the promises of your Heavenly Father, and remember his former dealings with you and with his servants; for ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’ ” — Ellen G. White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 20, 1910.
From a purely human perspective, Job had no reason to hope for anything. But the fact was, Job wasn’t looking from a purely human perspective. If he had done so, what hope could he possibly have? Instead, when he makes this amazing affirmation of faith and hope, he does it in the context of God and of trusting in Him.
A logical question could be: How did Job retain his faith in God amid all that happened to him? Read Job 1:1 andJames 2:20–22. How do they help answer this question, and what should the answer tell us about the importance of faithfulness and obedience in our Christian life? (See lesson 13.)
TuesdayNovember 22

Intimations of Hope

“ ‘He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before Him’ ” (Job 13:16, NKJV). This verse follows right after the one we read yesterday. How does it affirm even more the idea that, despite everything, Job had hope, and that his hope was in God?
What an interesting line to follow what came before. Even if Job were to die, even if God killed him, Job still trusted in his God for salvation. Though on one level it’s a strange contrast, on another it makes perfect sense. After all, what is salvation other than liberation from death? And what is death, at least for the saved, other than a quick moment of rest, an instant of sleep, followed by the resurrection to eternal life? Is not this hope of the resurrection to eternal life the great hope of all of God’s people through the millennia? This was Job’s hope, as well.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:11–20. What is the hope presented to us there? Without this hope, why would we have no hope at all?
Also, after this strong affirmation in salvation, Job says that the “hanef will not come before Him.” The root means “profane” or “godless,” a word with very negative connotations in Hebrew. Job knew that his salvation was to be found only in God, only in a life surrendered in faithful obedience to Him. That’s why the evil and godless man, the hanef, didn’t have that hope. Most likely Job was expressing what he understood as his “assurance of salvation.” Though Job faithfully offered animal sacrifices for sin, we don’t know how much he understood of their significance. Before the Cross, most faithful followers of the Lord such as Job surely didn’t have as full an understanding of salvation as we can have living after the Cross. Nevertheless, Job still knew enough to know that his hope of salvation was to be found only in the Lord and that those sacrifices were an expression of how this salvation was to be found.
WednesdayNovember 23

Hope Before the World Began

Who among us, having gone through what Job did, could utter such a powerful affirmation of hope? His words are an eternal testimony to the reality of his life of faith and obedience.
Job had hope, because he served a God of hope. Even amid all the sordid stories of human sinfulness, from the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden (Genesis 3) to the fall of Babylon at the end of time (Rev. 14:8), the Bible is a book brimming with hope, brimming with a vision of something beyond what this world itself offers.
“The world has been committed to Christ, and through Him has come every blessing from God to the fallen race. He was the Redeemer before as after His incarnation. As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 210. And who is the Savior other than the great Source of our hope?
How do these texts affirm the wonderful hope expressed in the Ellen G. White statement found in today’s study? Eph. 1:4; Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9; 1 Pet. 1:18–20.
These texts teach the amazing truth that, in His foreknowledge, God knew even before the Creation of the world that humanity would fall into sin. The Greek in
2 Timothy 1:9 says that we have been called by a grace given to us in Christ Jesus “before eternal time.” This is a grace given us, “not according to our works” (how could it have been “our works” if we didn’t even exist then?) but through Jesus. Even before we existed, God put a plan in place that offered humanity the hope of eternal life. The hope didn’t arise after we needed it; instead, it was already there, ready for us when we did need it.
As Christians, we have so much to hope for and to hope in. We exist in a universe created by a God who loves us (John 3:16), a God who redeemed us (Titus 2:14), a God who hears our prayers (Matt. 6:6), a God who intercedes for us (Heb. 7:25), a God who promises never to forsake us (Heb. 13:5), a God who promises to raise our bodies from death (Isa. 26:19), and to give us eternal life with Him (John 14:2, 3).
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). How can you make this hope your own even amid whatever struggles you are facing now?
ThursdayNovember 24

Images of Hope

Read the following texts. What hope does each of them reveal?
Follow the progression of thought presented in these texts. Together, what do they tell us about the hope that we as Christians can have in Jesus?
FridayNovember 25
Further Thought: From cover to cover, the Bible is filled with wonderful words of hope. “ ‘These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’ ” (John 16:33, NKJV). “ ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ ” (Matt. 28:20, NKJV). “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13, NKJV). “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12, NKJV). “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38, 39, NKJV). “ ‘The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth’ ” (Gen. 9:16, NKJV). “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1, NKJV). “Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Ps. 100:3, NKJV). These texts are just a small portion of what is revealed to us in the Word about what our God is like and what He offers us. What reasons would we have for hope at all, were it not from what is revealed to us in the Bible?

Discussion Questions:

  1. What other Bible texts speak to us of hope? Which ones are especially important to you, and why?
  2. Of all the specific doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which ones do you find especially hopeful?
  3. Amid the personal trials and sometimes tragedies and hardships of life, how can we learn to rejoice in the hope that is presented to us in the Bible? Why is it so easy to get discouraged by events, even with so much hope presented to us? What can we do, on a practical level, to keep this hope ever before us and to rejoice in it?
  4. “Talk hope and faith and thanksgiving to God. Be cheerful, hopeful in Christ. Educate yourself to praise Him. This is a great remedy for diseases of the soul and of the body.” — Ellen G. White, Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 2, p. 492. Why is praise so important in helping us stay hopeful in the Lord?
Inside Story~ 

The Devil's Lies, Part 2

Rui began reading the Bible on his own. In this way he discovered references to the Sabbath day.
Rui knew that the Sabbath was Saturday, for the words are the same in Portuguese. But he didn't know of a church that worshipped on Saturday. Then a few weeks later Rui heard a radio program during which the speaker offered free Bible studies. He enrolled and began studying the lessons.
Almost immediately Rui began finding answers to the questions that had troubled him for so many years. But before he made a decision about what he was learning, Rui's study was interrupted when he met a young woman. Rui put aside the Bible studies and spent his time with his beloved. Eventually the couple married. At last he felt fulfillment in his life.
But whenever the couple attended church, Rui felt the old conflicts arising in his heart. He no longer believed that Sunday was the biblical day of worship, and he now understood that the dead are asleep, not alive in some other place. These religious tensions spilled out into his family life, causing unrest and arguments. Rui feared that if he followed his convictions, his marriage might be over.
Rui learned that his wife's cousin was a Seventh-day Adventist and that the Bible studies he had taken were sponsored by Adventists. Suddenly the questions he had asked all his life had answers. Everything fell into place. But still he faced a dilemma: what would his wife say if she knew of his interest in this church?
Rui began watching an Adventist television network while his wife wasn't home. When she went to visit her parents for several weeks, Rui attended the Adventist church. He found a spiritual home and was convinced that this was where God wanted him to be.
Rui struggled to tell his wife, and when he finally told her, she didn't take his religious fervor seriously, for she had seen him struggle spiritually since they had met. But Rui knew that he had found what he was looking for. He studied further and then asked to be baptized. "I'm at peace," he says. "The devil's lies no longer plague me, for I have found the truth."
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.  email: info@adventistmission.org  website: www.adventistmission.org

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Friday, November 11, 2016

Lesson 8 Innocent Blood November 12-18 2016

Lesson 8November 12–18

Innocent Blood


Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Job 10, Isa. 53:6, Rom. 3:10–20, Job 15:14–16, Job 1:18–20, Matt. 6:34.
Memory Text: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Algerian–born writer Albert Camus struggled with the question of human suffering. In his book, The Plague, he used a plague as a metaphor for the ills that bring pain and suffering upon humanity. He depicted a scene in which a little boy, afflicted with the pestilence, dies a horrific death. Afterward a priest, who had been a witness to the tragedy, said to a doctor who had been there, too: “That sort of thing is revolting because it passes our human understanding. But perhaps we should love what we cannot understand.” The doctor, enraged, snapped back: “No, Father. I’ve a very different idea of love. And until my dying day, I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which children are put to torture.”—Albert Camus, The Plague (New York: First Vintage International Edition, 1991), p. 218.
This scene reflects what we have seen in Job: pat and lame answers to what doesn’t have a simple solution. Job knew, as did the doctor here, that the answers given didn’t fit the reality at hand. Thus, that’s the challenge: How do we find answers that make sense of what so often seems without sense? This week we will continue the pursuit.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 19.
SundayNovember 13

Job’s Protest

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had a point: God does punish evil. Unfortunately, that point didn’t apply in Job’s situation. Job’s suffering was not a case of retributive punishment. God was not punishing him for his sins, as He would do with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Nor was Job reaping what he had sown, as can so often be the case. No, Job was a righteous man; God Himself says so (see Job 1:8), and so Job not only didn’t deserve what had happened to him, he knew that he didn’t deserve it. That’s what made his complaints so hard and bitter.
Read Job 10. What is he saying here to God, and why does it make so much sense, considering his circumstances?
At times of great tragedy, have not those who believe in God asked similar questions? Why, Lord, did You bother to create me at all? Or, Why are You doing this to me? Or, Would it not have been better that I had never been born than to have been created and face this?
Again, what makes it all harder for Job to comprehend is that he knows that he has been faithful to God. He cries out to Him: “‘Although You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can deliver from Your hand’” (Job 10:7, NKJV).
There’s a difficult irony here: in contrast to what his friends said, Job was not suffering because of his sin. The book itself teaches the opposite: Job was suffering here precisely because he was so faithful. The first two chapters of the book make that point. Job had no way of knowing that this was the cause, and even if he did, it probably would have made his bitterness and frustration worse.
However unique Job’s situation, it’s also universal in that it is dealing with the universal question of suffering, especially when the suffering seems so greatly out of proportion to whatever evil someone might have done. It’s one thing to go over the speed limit and get a speeding ticket; it’s another to do the same thing to kill someone in the process.
What can you say to someone who believes that he or she is suffering unjustly?
MondayNovember 14

Innocent Blood?

We often hear the question of “innocent” suffering. The Bible even uses the phrase “innocent blood” (Isa. 59:7, Jer. 22:17, Joel 3:19), usually in the context of assault, or even murder, of people who didn’t deserve what happened to them. If we use this understanding of “innocent blood,” then, as we all know, our world is filled with many examples of it.
On the other hand, the Bible does talk about the reality of human sinfulness and human corruption, which brings up a valid question about the meaning of “innocent.” If everyone has sinned, if everyone has violated God’s law, then who is truly innocent? As someone once said, “Your birth certificate is proof of your guilt.”
Though theologians and Bible scholars for centuries have debated the exact nature of the human relationship to sin, the Bible is clear that sin has impacted all humanity. The idea of human sinfulness is not found only in the New Testament. On the contrary, the New Testament exploration of the theme expands on what was written in the Old Testament.
What do the following texts teach about the reality of sin? 1 Kings 8:46, Ps. 51:5, Prov. 20:9, Isa. 53:6, Rom. 3:10–20.
Besides the clear testimony of Scripture, anyone who has ever known the Lord personally, who has seen a glimpse of God’s goodness and holiness, knows the reality of human sinfulness. In that sense, who among us (we’re going to skip, for now, the whole question of babies and young children) is truly “innocent”?
On the other hand, that’s not really the point. Job was a sinner; in that sense he wasn’t innocent, any more than his own children weren’t innocent. And yet, what had he done, or they done, to deserve the fate that befell them? Is this not, perhaps, the ultimate question for humanity in regard to suffering? Contrary to his friends’ “defenses of clay” (Job 13:12, NKJV), Job knew that what was happening to him was not something that he deserved.
How does the experience of knowing God and His holiness, which makes our own sinfulness painful, help us see our absolute need of the Cross?
TuesdayNovember 15

Unfair Fates

Read Job 15:14–16. What truth is Eliphaz presenting to Job?
Again, Eliphaz was speaking truth (as did the others), this time in regard to the sinfulness of all humanity. Sin is a universal fact of life on earth; so is suffering. And as we also know, all human suffering ultimately results from sin. And there’s no question that God can use suffering to teach us important lessons. “God has always tried His people in the furnace of affliction. It is in the heat of the furnace that the dross is separated from the true gold of the Christian character.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 129.
There is, however, a deeper problem with suffering. What about the times we see no good come from it? What about the suffering of those who don’t have the dross separated from the gold in their character because they are killed instantly? What about those who suffer, never knowing the true God or anything about Him? What about those whose sufferings only made them bitter, angry, and hateful toward God? We can’t ignore these examples or try to put them in a simple formula; to do so would perhaps make us guilty of the same errors as Job’s accusers.
Also, what good arises from the fate of animals in a forest fire who are slowly burned alive in a horrible death? Or what about the thousands of people killed in a natural disaster? Or what about civilians in war? What possible lessons could they have learned, or their families, when their families were swept away with them? And one could reasonably ask questions not just about Job’s ten dead children but about his servants who were killed with “the edge of the sword” (Job 1:15) or those burned alive by “the fire of God” (Job 1:16) or the other servants killed “with the edge of the sword” (Job 1:17).
Whatever lesson Job and his accusers might learn, and whatever defeat Satan will face through Job’s faithfulness, the fate of these others certainly doesn’t seem fair. The fact is, these things are not fair, are not just, and not right.
We face similar challenges today. A six-year-old dies of cancer, and that’s fair? A 20-year-old college girl is pulled from her car and sexually assaulted, and that’s fair? A 35-year-old mother of three is killed in a car accident, and that’s fair? What about the 19,000 Japanese killed in the 2011 earthquake? Were all 19,000 guilty of something that made this a just punishment? If not, then their deaths were not fair either.
These are the hard questions.
WednesdayNovember 16

Sufficient for the Day . . .

Read the following verses and think about the immediate fate of those depicted in the texts. Then ask yourself the question: How fair was life treating them?
The Bible reflects a harsh fact about life in our fallen world: evil and suffering are real. It’s only a superficial reading of the Word of God, pulling a few texts out of the whole context, that could give anyone the idea that life here is fair, and just, and good, and that if only we remain faithful to God, suffering won’t come. Certainly faithfulness can reap great rewards now, but that doesn’t mean it provides an absolute barrier to suffering and pain. Just ask Job.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a powerful homily on why we need to trust God and not to worry about what we will eat, or drink, or wear. And Jesus used examples from nature as object lessons on why we can trust in God’s goodness to meet our needs. He then included these famous words: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34).
Notice, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Jesus wasn’t denying the presence in our lives, even the daily presence, of evil (from a Greek word that can mean “badness,” “depravity,” and “malignity”). If anything, He was doing the opposite. He was acknowledging the prevalence and presence of evil in our daily lives. How could He not? As the Lord, He knew more about the evil in the world than any of us ever could, and all of us certainly know a lot about it already.
Who hasn’t tasted a bit (or maybe a lot) of just how unfair and bitter life can be? How can focusing on Jesus’ acknowledgment of this evil’s reality help give us comfort and strength amid it?
ThursdayNovember 17

Things Not Seen

Read Proverb 3:5. Though it is such a common text, what crucial message does it have for us, especially in the context of what we have been studying?
Though the case of Job is extreme, it does reflect the sad reality of human suffering in our fallen world. We don’t need the story of Job or even the other stories we can read in the Bible to see this reality. We see it all around us. Indeed, to some degree, we all live it.
“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not” (Job 14:1, 2).
So again, the question we struggle with is how do we account for suffering, the kind that seems to make no sense to us, that kind in which innocent blood is shed?
As the early chapters of Job have shown, and as the Bible elsewhere reveals, Satan is a real being and is the cause, directly or indirectly, of so much suffering. As we have seen early in this quarter (see lesson two), the great controversy template works so well in helping us deal with the reality of evil in our world.
Still, it’s hard to understand at times why the things that do take place happen. Sometimes—many times, actually— things just don’t make sense. It’s at times like these, when things happen that we don’t understand, that we need to learn to trust in the goodness of God. We need to learn to trust God even when answers are not readily apparent and when we can see nothing good coming from the evil and suffering around us.
Hebrews 11:1 reads: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” From the things that we do see, how can we learn to trust God about the things that we don’t see? From what we have read in the book of Job so far, in what sense has Job learned to do just that? How can we learn to do the same?
FridayNovember 18
Further Thought: Last Sabbath’s introduction began with Albert Camus, who wrote a lot about his struggle for answers, not just to the question of suffering but to the question of life’s meaning in general, which suffering made only more problematic. As with most atheists, he didn’t make much headway. His most famous quote shows how little: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”—The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (New York: Vintage Books, 1955), p. 3. For sure, the question of human suffering is not an easy one to answer. The book of Job pulls back a veil and shows us a bigger picture than what we might have seen otherwise, but even when we read it all, the book still leaves many questions unanswered.
There is, however, a crucial difference between those who struggle for answers to the question of suffering without God and those who do so with God. Yes, the problem of pain and suffering becomes more difficult when you believe in the existence of God, because of the inevitable problems His existence in the face of evil and pain bring. On the other hand, we have what atheists such as Camus don’t have—and that is the prospect of answer and of resolution. (There is evidence that Camus later in life had wanted to be baptized but he was soon killed in a car accident.) We have the hope that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Even if someone didn’t believe this promise or many of the others in the Bible, that person would have to admit, if nothing else, how much nicer life would be now to have at least that hope as opposed to the prospect of just living here amid our toils and struggles and then dying forever, with it all meaning nothing.

Discussion Question:

  1. One argument that people bring up in regard to the question of evil is the idea that, Well, yes, there is evil in the world, but there is also good, and the good outweighs the evil. The first question would be, How does one know that the good outweighs the evil? How does one make that comparison? The second question would be, Even if true, what good would that idea do for Job (or others) amid their suffering?
  2. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer used a powerful example to debunk that whole notion of some sort of balance between good and evil in this world now. “The pleasure in this world,” he wrote, “it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other.” How would you respond to the idea that good somehow balances out the evil?
Inside Story~  Inter-European Division

The Devil's Lies, Part 1

Rui lived with his grandparents in Portugal. But when he was 7 years old his grandparents died. Rui wanted to know what happened to people when they died, but his uncle, with whom he'd gone to live, didn't have the answers.
Rui began a long search for answers. He started by attending a Sunday School near his uncle's home. Hoping to find answers to his spiritual questions there, he often recited the prayers he had memorized, but he couldn't seem to bridge the gap between himself and God.
Rui bought a Bible, hoping it would help him understand God. But because he had been taught that common people can't understand it, he placed it on a shelf of honor and didn't read it.
Then one day he moved the Bible to clean the shelf. The Bible flipped open to Exodus 20. Rui noticed that the page heading said "The Ten Commandments." He sat down and read the chapter. He had memorized the Ten Commandments in church, but he was startled to find that the commandments in the Bible differed from those he had memorized.
That Sunday he asked the priest why the commandments he had learned in church differed from those in the Bible. He was disappointed when the priest simply told him to follow the commandments of the church and ignore the Bible version. Rui's frustration grew, and he stopped attending the church. But the emptiness in his life remained.
Rui remembered hearing his relatives say that his grandmother used to speak to spirits. Rui wondered whether he had the same ability. Feeling frustrated because he couldn't find the answers to his spiritual questions in church, he decided to seek the answers from the dead.
He went to meetings to call on the spirits and soon began to sense a spiritual presence with him. Soon he was deeply involved in the spirit world. He found a book on witchcraft and began studying it. But some of the instructions were so horrifying that he destroyed everything he had that related to the spirits. He kept only his Bible.
Rui again began searching for answers about God. He attended several churches and asked many questions. But what they told him left him confused and frustrated.
To be continued.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.  email: info@adventistmission.org  website: www.adventistmission.org

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Friday, November 4, 2016

Lesson 7 Retributive Punishment Nov 5-11 2016

Lesson 7November 5–11

Retributive Punishment


Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Job 8:1–22, Job 11:1–20, Isa. 40:12–14, Gen. 6:5–8, 2 Pet. 3:5–7.
Memory Text: “ ‘Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?’ ” (Job 11:7, NKJV).
The problem of human suffering surely continues to daunt humanity. We see “good” people suffer immense tragedy, while evil ones go unpunished in this life. A few years ago a book came out called Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? It was one of numerous attempts over the millennia to come to a satisfactory answer to that problem. It didn’t. Many other writers and thinkers have written of their struggle to come to terms with human suffering. They don’t seem to have found the right answers.
This theme, of course, is the theme of the book of Job, and in it we continue to explore why even “good” people, such as Job, suffer in this world. The crucial difference between the book of Job and the others, though, is that Job is not based on human perspectives of suffering (though we get plenty of that in the book); rather, because it’s the Bible, we get a look at God’s perspective on the problem.
This week we read more speeches from the men who came to Job in his misery. What can we learn from them, especially from their mistakes as they, as others have done, try to come to grips with the problem of pain?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 12.
SundayNovember 6

More Accusations

As if getting a lecture from Eliphaz weren’t bad enough, Job then faced one from Bildad, who said something similar to what Eliphaz had said. Unfortunately, Bildad was cruder and harsher toward Job than even Eliphaz was. Imagine going up to someone whose children had died and saying to the person: “ ‘If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression’ ” (Job 8:4, NKJV).
This is ironic, because the first chapter of Job (Job 1:5) makes it clear that Job offered sacrifices on behalf of his children for that very reason, in case they had sinned. So, we see a contrast here between an understanding of grace (as seen in Job’s actions) and Bildad’s opening words, which reveal a harsh, retributive legalism. Even worse, though, is that Bildad speaks this way in his attempt to defend the character of God.
Read Job 8:1–22. What is Bildad’s argument, and how much truth is he speaking? That is, if you were to forget the immediate context and just look at the sentiments expressed, what fault, if any, could you find with his words?
Who can find fault with so much of what he is saying here? “ ‘For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow’ ” (Job 8:9, NKJV). That’s powerful, true, and very biblical (James 4:14). Or what’s wrong with his warning that the godless man who puts his hope in earthly worldly things is really trusting in something no firmer than a “spider’s web” (Job 8:14)? That’s about as biblical a thought as one could get.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that Bildad is presenting just one aspect of God’s character. It’s an example of being in a ditch on one side of the road or the other. Neither place is where you really should be. Someone can, for instance, focus only on law and justice and obedience, while someone else can focus on grace and forgiveness and substitution. Either overemphasis usually leads to a distorted picture of God and of truth. We see a similar problem here.
As humans we should always strive for the right balance between law and grace in our theology and in our dealing with others. If, however, you were to err on one side or the other (and as humans we eventually do), which side would it be better to err on when dealing with the faults of others, and why?
MondayNovember 7

Less Than Your Iniquity Deserves

“ ‘Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea’ ” (Job 11:7–9, NKJV; see also Isa. 40:12–14). What truth is being expressed, and why is it important for us always to remember it?
The words here are beautiful expressions of the fact that there is so much about God we don’t know and that all our efforts to search Him out by ourselves will still leave us knowing so little. It’s interesting that one of the twentieth century’s most famous philosophers, the late Richard Rorty, basically argued that we are never going to understand reality and truth, and so we ought to give up the attempt. Instead of trying to understand reality, Rorty argued, all we can do is try to cope with it. How fascinating: 2600 years of the Western philosophical tradition culminates in this expression of defeat. If all our searching leaves us in the dark about the nature of the reality that we live in, then who “by searching” is going to understand the Creator—the one who made that reality to begin with, and so is even greater than it? Rorty essentially affirmed what we just read from the Bible.
Yet, these texts, profound as they are, were from a speech from Zophar, the third of Job’s acquaintances, and he used those words as part of a faulty argument against Job.
Read Job 11:1–20. What is right with what Zophar is saying, but what is wrong with his overall argument?
It’s so hard to understand how someone could come up to a man suffering as Job is and say to him, basically, you are getting what you deserve. No, in fact, you are getting less than you deserve. What’s even worse is that he is doing it, as were the two others, all in an attempt to vindicate the goodness and the character of God.
Sometimes, merely knowing truths about the character of God do not automatically make us reflect it. What more do we need in order to reflect God’s character?
TuesdayNovember 8

Divine Retribution

Job’s three friends undoubtedly had some knowledge about God. And they were earnest in their efforts to defend Him too. And, as we saw, as misguided as their words to Job were (especially given the context), these men were expressing some crucial truths.
And central to their arguments was the idea that God is a God of justice and that sin brings divine retributive punishment upon evil and special blessings upon goodness. Though we don’t know the exact time that the men lived, because we accept that Moses wrote the book of Job while he was in Midian, they lived some time before the Exodus. Most likely, too, they lived after the Flood.
Read Genesis 6:5–8. Though we don’t know how much these men (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) knew about the Flood, how might its story have influenced their theology?
Clearly the story of the Flood is an example of divine retribution for sin. In it God directly brings punishment upon those who specifically deserved it. Yet, even here the concept of grace is revealed as seen in Genesis 6:8. Ellen G. White wrote, too, of the fact that “every [hammer] blow struck upon the ark was preaching to the people.” — The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 70. Nevertheless, to some degree we can see in this story an example of what these men were preaching to Job.
How is this same idea of retributive judgment seen in Genesis 13:13; 18:20–32; 19:24, 25?
Whether or not Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar knew much about these incidents, they reveal the reality of God’s direct judgment upon evil. God wasn’t simply abandoning sinners to their sin and letting that sin itself destroy them. As with the Flood, God was the direct agent of their punishment. He functioned here as the judge and destroyer of wickedness and evil.
However much we want to (and should) focus on God’s character of love, grace, and forgiveness, why must we not forget the reality of His justice, as well? Think about all the evil that has yet gone unpunished. What should this tell us about the necessity of divine retribution, whenever and however it comes?
WednesdayNovember 9

If the Lord Creates a New Thing

Many instances of direct divine punishment upon evil, as well as blessing for faithfulness, are recorded in Scripture long after all the characters in the book of Job were dead.
What great promise is given here for obedience? Deut. 6:24, 25.
The Old Testament is filled with promise after promise of the blessings and prosperity that God would directly bring to His people were they to obey Him. So, we can see here examples of what these men had said to Job regarding God’s blessing the faithfulness of those who seek to obey Him and His commandments and to live a godly and upright life.
Of course, the Old Testament is also filled with warning after warning about direct divine punishment that would come for disobedience. In much of the Old Testament, especially after the covenant with Israel at Sinai, God is warning the Israelites about what their disobedience would bring upon them. “‘But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against [His] commands, [His] hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors’” (1 Sam. 12:15, NIV).
Read Numbers 16:1–33. What does this incident teach about the reality of divine retributive punishment?
Given the nature of how the rebels were destroyed, this incident cannot be chalked up to the idea of “sin bringing its own punishment.” These people faced divine and direct retribution from God for their sin and rebellion. In this case we see supernatural manifestations of God’s power; it seemed that the very laws of nature themselves were changed. “‘But if the LORD creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the LORD.’” (Num. 16:30, NKJV).
The verb “creates” here is from the same root used for “created” in Genesis 1:1. The Lord wanted everyone to know that it was He Himself who immediately and directly brought this punishment upon the rebels.
ThursdayNovember 10

The Second Death

Certainly the greatest and most powerful manifestation of retributive judgment will be at the end of time, with the destruction of the wicked, called in the Bible “the second death” (Rev. 20:14). This death, of course, must not be confused with the death common to all the descendants of Adam. This is the death from which the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, will spare the righteous at the end of time (1 Cor. 15:26). In contrast, the second death, like some of the other punishments seen in Old Testament times, is God’s direct punishment upon sinners who have not repented and received salvation in Jesus.
Read 2 Peter 3:5–7. What is the Word of God telling us about the fate of the lost?
“Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10. The earth’s surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men—‘the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.’ Isaiah 34:8.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 672, 673.
Though sin can bring its own punishment, there surely are times that God Himself does directly punish sin and sinners, as Job’s protagonists argued. It’s true that all suffering in this world has arisen from sin. But it’s not true that all suffering is God’s punishing of sin. That was certainly not the case with Job, nor in most other cases as well. The fact is that we are involved in the great controversy, and we have an enemy who is out to do us harm. The good news is that, amid it all, we can know that God is there for us. Whatever the reasons for the trials we face, whatever the present outcomes of those trials, we have the assurance of God’s love, a love revealed as so great that Jesus went to the cross for us, an act that alone promises to end all suffering.
How can we be sure that someone’s suffering is direct punishment from God? If we can’t be sure, then what’s the best approach for us to take with that suffering person? Or even with our own suffering?
FridayNovember 11
Further Thought: As said earlier in this quarter, it’s important to try to put ourselves in the place of the characters in the story, because doing so can help us understand their motives and actions. They didn’t see the battle going on behind the scenes as we do. If we put ourselves in their shoes, it shouldn’t be that hard for us to see the mistake that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar made in regard to Job’s suffering. They were making a judgment that they were really not qualified to make. “It is very natural for human beings to think that great calamities are a sure index of great crimes and enormous sins; but men often make a mistake in thus measuring character. We are not living in the time of retributive judgment. Good and evil are mingled, and calamities come upon all. Sometimes men do pass the boundary line beyond God’s protecting care, and then Satan exercises his power upon them, and God does not interpose. Job was sorely afflicted, and his friends sought to make him acknowledge that his suffering was the result of sin, and cause him to feel under condemnation. They represented his case as that of a great sinner; but the Lord rebuked them for their judgment of His faithful servant.” — Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary,vol. 3, p. 1140. We need to be careful in how we deal with the whole question of suffering. Sure, in some cases it seems easier to understand. Someone smokes cigarettes and gets lung cancer. How much simpler could it be? That’s fine, but what about those who smoke all their lives and never get it? Is God punishing the one but not the other? In the end, like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, we don’t always know why suffering comes as it does. In one sense, it almost doesn’t matter if we know or not. What matters is what we do in response to the suffering that we see. Here’s where these three men were totally wrong.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does the reality of retributive punishment teach us about how we can trust in the ultimate justice of God, even despite how things seem now?
  2. These three men really didn’t understand all that was happening to Job in his suffering. In a sense, isn’t that the case with us all? We don’t fully understand the reasons for human suffering. How, then, should this realization help us be more compassionate with those who are suffering? As stated above, how important is it that we even know the immediate causes?
Inside Story~  Inter-European Division

Beautiful in God's Time, Part 2

While Mihaela worked and kept house, her husband neither worked nor studied. One day he told her that he had received a visa to go to Spain, but hers hadn't yet come. So he went to Spain without her.
Mihaela lived with her in-laws after her husband left. She had plenty of time on her hands, so she began reading Adventist literature that her mother had given her. Finally her visa came, and she planned to join her husband. She promised God that if they could be reunited, she would be baptized at the first opportunity.
When Mihaela arrived in Spain she moved into the apartment she and her husband would share with two other families and a single woman. She was delighted to find that one of the families was Adventist, and they had been taking her husband to church. Joyfully the couple began attending church together.
Mihaela found work as a nanny, which required that she be away from home from Monday morning until Friday evening. She lived for the weekends when she could be with her husband.
Things seemed to be going well for the couple. Her husband had found work, and she looked forward to being able to afford their own apartment soon.
Then one by one people began telling Mihaela that her husband was spending too much time with the single woman who lived in the same apartment. Mihaela noticed that the two seemed quite friendly, but they denied any secret relationship.
Then her husband's interest in attending church waned. He began asking Mihaela to cook or go shopping with him on Sabbath. When she refused, he threatened to take the other woman instead. Finally she gave in and went shopping with her husband and the other woman. She was miserable and decided she wouldn't give in to his threats again.
The following week the Adventist pastor visited, and Mihaela told him she wanted to be baptized. Later that week her husband's boss confirmed that her husband and the other woman were more than just friends. Mihaela confronted the woman, who admitted it was true.
Mihaela couldn't return to the apartment, so asked her employers if she could stay in their home on the weekends as well.
In spite of losing her husband to another woman, Mihaela has found joy in her constant friend, Jesus, who has given her faith and the strength to deal with her broken marriage. She rejoices to see how God is working in her life, and her parents are happy that she has committed her life to Christ in baptism.
Mihaela Budau lives in Coslada, Spain,
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.  email: info@adventistmission.org  website: www.adventistmission.org
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Sabbath School Lesson Ends
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