Monthly Archives: March 2020

A Just Servant

Leave a reply

International Sunday School April 5, 2020 Spring Quarter #6

Isaiah 42:1-9 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. (2) He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. (3) A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; (4) he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (5) This is what God the LORD says– the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: (6) “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, (7) to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (8) “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. (9) See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

Need for Just Leaders

Leave a reply

International Sunday School March 29, 2020

Malachi 2:1-9 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. [2] If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me. [3] “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. [4] And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD Almighty. [5] “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. [6] True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. [7] “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. [8] But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the LORD Almighty. [9] “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

Malachi 3:5-6 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty. Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes [6] “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

An Argument Against Corruption

Leave a reply

International Sunday School March 22, 2020

Micah 3:1-3  And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—  (2)  you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones,  (3)  who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.

Micah 3:9-12  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,  (10)  who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.  (11)  Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”  (12)  Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Micah 6:6-8  “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  (7)  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  (8)  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

 

Consequences for Injustice

Leave a reply

International Sunday School Spring #3 March 15, 2020

Habakkuk 2:6-14 (NIV) [6] “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “ ‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’ [7] Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. [8] Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. [9] “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin! [10] You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. [11] The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. [12] “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice! [13] Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? [14] For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

A Prayer for Justice

Leave a reply

International Sunday School March 8, 2020 Sprint Quarter #2

Habakkuk 1:1-4 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. (2) How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? (3) Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. (4) Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk 1:12-14 LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. (13) Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (14) You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.