Friday, July 29, 2011

Walk in God's Path, Judges 13:1-8, 24-25; The Adult Sunday School Lesson for 8-7-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Walk in God’s Path, on Judges 13:1-8, 24-25 for the 8-7-11 International Sunday School Lesson.  You will find the 7-31-11 lesson, Return to Obedience aka Return to God’s Ways directly beneath this message and on the right side.
I continue to see my commentary on other sites and I appreciate your following the link back to http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/ if you find you are reading it in places that have only their glory and not God’s in mind!  Your support of my blog is appreciated!

Jed




Walk in God’s Path
Judges 13:1-8, 24-25
International Sunday School Lesson
August 7, 2011



Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



How have you considered Samson over the years?  Was he a success, a failure or a mixture of both?  Did he have a good or bad start, middle and end?

In today’s scripture we see a barren couple receive the news that they will be blessed with child.  As is customary in our Bible, these two were for all appearances good people who feared God.

The wife doesn’t hide the news of the rather unique visitor but immediately shares it with her husband.  The man doesn’t doubt his wife and they take it as a matter of faith that what they were told would occur but they do have a concern.  They want to do the job right.

If everyone you study with could be encouraged to read through the 16th chapter it would be interesting to see how they thought Samson turned out.

He marries a Philistine, he takes honey from a decaying carcass, gave his wife away because she caved in to murderous threats, sought vengeance because the wife he gave away was no longer available which led to more and more violence.

At some point Samson became the leader of Israel.

Back to Samson’s escapades; he visits a prostitute, fell in love with another Philistine woman and to say he was gullible with her is an understatement.  Having been taken captive and put on display he concludes his life by praying to God for revenge and God grants it to him.

My ways are certainly not God’s ways.  I know too that Samson is also among the greats of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11.

So where do you come down on Samson?  Good, bad, both, literal, figurative or exactly the way Israel herself was?




For Discussion:
1.      How many times in the Bible were children born to barren women?
2.      See Numbers 6:1-21 concerning Nazirites.
3.      If you read through Judges 16, discuss how Samson is like Israel.
4.      If as we read in 13:5 that Samson began the deliverance from the Philistines, who concluded it?
5.      Discuss 14:4
6.      Did Samson leave his wife?

8-14-11:   Making a Choice (Choosing a Community) Ruth 1:8-18
8-21-11:   Empowering the Needy Ruth 2:8-18
8-28-11:   Respecting Community Standards (Caring for One Another) Ruth 4:1-10







Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Friday, July 22, 2011

Return to Obedience aka Return to God's Ways, Judges 10:10-18 or Judges 10:10-18,11:4-6, 32-33; The Adult Sunday School Lesson for 7-31-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Return to Obedience aka Return to God’s Ways, on Judges 10:10-18 or Judges 10:10-18; 11:4-6, 32-33 for the 7-31-11 International Sunday School Lesson.  You will find the 7-24-11 lesson, Let God Rule directly beneath this message and on the right side.
ATTENTION # 2:  If you read this anywhere else on the Internet other than http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/ than you are reading it at a location that has taken this content without permission!  Please visit my blog!


Jed




Return to Obedience
or
Return to God’s Ways
Judges 10:10-18
or
Judges 10:10-18; 11:4-6, 32-33
International Sunday School Lesson
July 31, 2011



Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



How many times will we keep this up, this return to sin and the forsaking of God and what He did to save the people of Israel in these lessons?  Are you getting tired of it?  Imagine how God must have felt!  Imagine how God must feel even now!
We are told that not one of us is righteous (Romans 3) and that is certainly true.  I have seen in my own life how it took a lot of years to get to the point where I consistently serve Him.  Yet, even now it is when I am most oppressed that I am most anxious for His protection.
Seek God in times of trouble only and He may or may not answer your call.  Those that seek Him infrequently in this manner may have to find they have to be refined in the fire for a time to remove the impurities.  For some that time in the fire might become permanent.
This is where we start out today in our scripture when once again the people of Israel identify that God alone is their rock.  This time God says in effect seek relief from the gods you have chosen.
We don’t know based on the scriptures how much time went by before God responded to their pleas.  They sought Him out and He turned away.  They persisted earnestly and sincerely and eventually He took pity on them.  Again though, how much time did that take?  What was the cost in suffering?
What we see though was that they knew what they needed to be and that was humble.  They acknowledged that God should use whatever means He saw fit to deal with their plight.  They also acknowledged what God said concerning their gods and returned to serving Him.
Though not all continue on in this week’s scripture, if you do you’ll see that again He uses the lowly instead of the high and mighty to accomplish His plans.  Just like Rahab who was a prostitute, Jephthah was a social castaway, himself the son of a prostitute.  He had been driven from his home because of his lack of position but now was being called upon to be their leader.
Much is left out of the scripture about who was communicating with God during this time and whether this communication included the subject of Jephthah.  In any event, Jephthah calls on the Lord and the Lord empowered him with the Spirit and granted him success just as he did the other judges.
In all these cases in Judges we see this turning back to evil and then turning back to the Lord over and over again.  I began today by saying how tired God must have been of it all and it does seem He was growing very “ tired”, but still He had compassion for them.  But what about others who are His, those that don’t even do what they did?
I am an American and though as patriotic as the next man, I cannot as a Christian be blind to her ways so I will use her as an example.  Has America acknowledged the error of her ways?  Has America admitted that she has strayed, become humble and truly put herself in God’s hands?
We read about the nation of Israel and I mention the nation America, but nations are made of individual citizens who are the ones that do evil or good in God’s sight.  Only the citizenry can lead the country in obedience to God.

For Discussion:

1.      In today’s scripture the people know what they need to do to return to God.  What if a people are oblivious to this need?
2.      When given the chance will we choose the best person for the job such as Jephtah or will someone who is “more electable” be chosen?
3.      Discuss the fact that not all of Israel would have acknowledged their sin, perhaps not even a large percentage.  A few made a difference.
4.      Read and Discuss Judges 11:29-40
5.      The ever increasing gods that Israel was serving (7 mentioned in 10:6) signifies the great depths of their depravity.
6.      This time (10:16) Israel turned and served God before He reconsidered.
7.      Note that Jephthah was to lead Gilead and not Israel but the outcome benefited all of Israel.

8-07-11:   Walk in God’s Path Judges 13:1-8, 24-25
8-14-11:   Making a Choice (Choosing a Community) Ruth 1:8-18
8-21-11:   Empowering the Needy Ruth 2:8-18
8-28-11:   Respecting Community Standards (Caring for One Another) Ruth 4:1-10




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Friday, July 15, 2011

Let God Rule, Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25 or 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a; The Adult Sunday School Lesson for 7-24-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Let God Rule, on Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25 or 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a for the 7-24-11 International Sunday School Lesson.  You will find the 7-17-11 lesson, Use God’s Strength directly beneath this message and on the right side.
Attention # 2:  If you are reading this anywhere besides http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/ you are reading it at a location that has taken this content without permission.  Please visit my blog!


Jed




Let God Rule
Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25
or
Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a
International Sunday School Lesson
July 24, 2011



Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



I have to say this week’s scripture has me baffled and I almost once again thought about saying that The Adult Sunday School blog is on vacation this week!
The selection of these particular verses out of these two chapters if you read the chapters in their entirety don’t really do much of a job in telling you what Gideon was like, what the people were facing or how they overcame with God’s help.
I finally have given up coming away with too much useful for you from the selection and my advice to you is to look at Judges Chapters 6-9.  This might be the best way for you to glean something and bring it to class.
I did come away with the fact that God can use any of us to accomplish His goals.  In Gideon’s own words found in Judges 6:15 Gideon’s clan was the weakest in Manasseh and Gideon himself the least in his own family.  But as I said, God can do with whomever He wishes whatever it is that He sets out to do and He tells Gideon it will be like the Midianites were but one man.
The next thing I found was that though we might want our heroes to be flawless they are just men with insecurities like all men.  Gideon couldn’t just accept at face value who he was talking to.  No, he needed a sign and the angel of the Lord gave him one by miraculously burning up an offering that Gideon had presented, disappearing and later speaking to him twice more evidently without appearing.
Did I mention Gideon was insecure?  Despite all he had just witnessed and experienced when told by the Lord to demolish an alter and build one to Him, Gideon did it in secret under the cover of darkness because he was afraid.
I don’t think insecure quite covers it with Gideon!  Two more tests of God were requested to prove in Gideon’s mind that this really was God’s will for him to save Israel from the Midianites.  To cap it off God seems to head off a request for another sign when He reduces Gideon’s force from 22,000 to 300.  This sign came through the dream and its interpretation which Gideon over hears.  This seems to have finally done it and Gideon accomplishes the rest of his mission with zeal.
This brings us to that part of the scripture from today that finds the Israelites so grateful that they wish to make Gideon and his heirs after him their king.  I will go out on a limb here and say though Gideon says, “The LORD will rule over you.” I think he still led them and was simply honoring God by the statement.  The scripture says that “during Gideon’s lifetime, the land enjoyed peace forty years.”  Also after his death one of Gideon’s many sons Abimelech said, “Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s (Gideon) sons rule over you, or just one man?”  So yeah, I think he was their king.
This man, seemingly just an ordinary man with insecurities just like us still had a faith that earns a place in the 11th chapter of Hebrews unfortunately you can’t ensure that your faith is passed on. This son, Abimelech, didn’t carry on the faith any more than did the rest of Israel. 





For Discussion:

1.      Discuss some of the qualities that God displays versus those of Gideon.
2.      Discuss 8:27
3.      Discuss 7:2 with reference to your own church.  Has there been boasting instead of glorifying God?
4.      Who else within the scriptures reminds you of Gideon?
5.      Discuss Gideon in light of scriptural guidance for Christian leaders.
6.      I mention Gideon’s insecurity, but identify the point where based on evidence found within the scriptures his faith matured to the point he merits mention in Hebrews 11.

7-31-11:   Return to Obedience (Return to God’s Ways) Judges 10:10-18 or Judges 10:10-18; 11:4-6, 32-33
8-07-11:   Walk in God’s Path Judges 13:1-8, 24-25
8-14-11:   Making a Choice (Choosing a Community) Ruth 1:8-18
8-21-11:   Empowering the Needy Ruth 2:8-18




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Friday, July 8, 2011

Use God's Strength, Judges 3:15-25, 29-30; The Adult Sunday School Lesson for 7-17-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Use God’s Strength, on Judges 3:15-25, 29-30 for the 7-17-11 International Sunday School Lesson.  You will find the 7-10-11 lesson, Listen to God’s Judges directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed




Use God’s Strength
Judges 3:15-25, 29-30
International Sunday School Lesson
July 17, 2011



Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



March 5, 1953; April 15, 1998; August 16, 2003.  These are the dates respectively that Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot and Idi Amin each died of natural causes.
Joseph Stalin was responsible for so many deaths through purges, torture, repression and mass killings that historians cannot come to an agreement on the numbers he was responsible for.  The most conservative estimates agree to say that there were no fewer than 15 million deaths attributable to him.
Pol Pot’s attempt at starting history over in Cambodia resulted in the death of an estimated 2 million of his people with the possibility of it being much higher.  To put this in perspective, the total population of Cambodia in 1980 was roughly 6.7 million.
The estimated 500,000 that died due to Idi Amin’s terror is no less a nightmare if you belonged to the wrong religion, class, profession or whatever motive was moving this Ugandan.
Justice was not served upon these men while they were living and if it were and we heard about it over the news, what would we have thought?  What did you think about when you heard that justice was brought to bear upon Osama bin Laden?  What if justice had found Hitler in the 1930’s instead of death coming by his own hand in the 40’s?
If your thoughts on these questions are like the majority I’ve heard, why do most that look at today’s scripture think and say some of the things that they do?  Most want the Ehuds of the world to take justice to these Stalins and bin Ladens but it bothers them to read of it in their Bible.
Most that prepare for these lessons look at the world through more civilized eyes than the Ehuds do and that is a good thing.  But when we face great oppression and persecution we cry out to God for justice just as the Israelites did.
God rose up Ehud to be a deliverer and through his actions 80 years of peace were brought about.  Was the killing of the one justifiable for the sake of the many?  The answers may vary but the killing of the one or the oppression that preceded it would not have happened if the many had not forsaken God.

For Discussion:

1.     What other methods of God do we take exception to?
2.     How much of the evil in the world is solely of human nature?  Ephesians 6 tells us we are battling spiritual forces of evil.
3.     Being glad for justice is good but celebrating judgment not so much.  What did you think when you saw the celebrations over bin Laden’s death?
4.     Discuss when force for justice is justified, if ever?
5.     God can choose a deliverer and when and how deliverance should be achieved, can we?
6.     Where do we draw the line?  Is it all in the hands of authorities that God puts in place?
7.     How do we apply the following scripture to the issue?

Romans 12:14-21

 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary:

   “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
   if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.





7-24-11:   Let God Rule Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a or Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25
7-31-11:   Return to Obedience (Return to God’s Ways) Judges 10:10-18 or Judges 10:10-18; 11:4-6, 32-33
8-07-11:   Walk in God’s Path Judges 13:1-8, 24-25
8-14-11:   Making a Choice (Choosing a Community) Ruth 1:8-18




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved


Friday, July 1, 2011

Listen to God's Judges, Judges 2:11-19; The Adult Sunday School Lesson for 7-10-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Listen to God’s Judges, on Judges 2:11-19 for the 7-10-11 International Sunday School Lesson.  You will find the 7-03-11 lesson, God Responds to Disobedience aka God Reacts to Disobedience directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed




Listen to God’s Judges
Judges 2:11-19
International Sunday School Lesson
July 10, 2011



Commentary
By
Jed Greenough




When you are gone, will your children remember what you taught them?    For me the thought of their not is heartbreaking and troubling to say the least.

Also troubling to me is the idea that these people in our scripture for today en masse turned from the ways of their fathers in the very next generation.  Though we make our own choices, I would judge myself as a failure if my descendants in the very next generation chose this path.  Should I make the same call on Joshua’s generation?  Let’s examine those that followed Joshua.

Our scripture for today says that they “neither knew the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.”  By this I read that they did not have any relationship with Him nor did they care what He had done for their people.

Because they did not have this relationship with God or care, they attempted to fill the void that naturally exists within each of us when this occurs.  They started to serve other gods and in turn God did what He said He would do.

Outside of His protection they received the brunt of His seething anger.  No longer His protectorate they became His target, yet God offered them escape.  Through those men, those judges, who God raised up, Israel again succeeded.  But even after rising up and prevailing for a time, as each judge passed away, the people of Israel sank even lower in their depravity.

As we began I said that I would judge myself a failure if my next generation of descendants took this path but let’s look at it a different way.  Does our generation’s faith resemble that of those who went before us?

I cannot mask the fact that I feel that for the most part we are only a shadow, a poor copy of the great faith we have had demonstrated by our forbearers.

Too often what we demonstrate is just another spin on what we are looking at in Judges today.  Many today claim to know God, to remember God, but what they show is prophesied in 2 Timothy 3 as a form of godliness, but very little remains that resembles the faith of our fathers.  By this I don’t just mean dad and I don’t just mean their generation.  I think that we in many ways mirror these Israelites.  We have had our greats rise up and save us through God’s mercies but as with those in today’s scripture, we return to ways even more corrupt.

As with them, God will do what He promised He would do.





For Discussion:

1.      Discuss whether you think we are like the generation of Joshua or the generation that followed.
2.      Of course God knew this would happen and told Moses before he died, read Deuteronomy 31:14-32:47
3.      Under the strong leadership and teaching of Moses and Joshua the people for the most part did not stray.  Discuss ways that you and yours can stem the tide of possible apostasy.
4.      What do you know of Baal and the Ashtoreths?
5.      Become a champion for true Bible Study type classes as opposed to the classes that many would rather participate in today.
6.      When the judge died, once again the people returned to the evil ways.  Many that could still lead us retire from active leadership within our churches.  The judges led obviously for life, encourage the continued participation of those who can offer so much.



7-17-11:   Use God’s Strength Judges 3:15-25, 29-30
7-24-11:   Let God Rule Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a or Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25
7-31-11:   Return to Obedience (Return to God’s Ways) Judges 10:10-18 or Judges 10:10-18; 11:4-6, 32-33
8-07-11:   Walk in God’s Path Judges 13:1-8, 24-25




Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved