Monthly Archives: January 2022

Nathan Condemns David

International Sunday School February 6 2022 Winter Quarter #10

2 Samuel 12:1-9 NIV  The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.  (2)  The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,  (3)  but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.  (4)  “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”  (5)  David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die!  (6)  He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”  (7)  Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.  (8)  I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.  (9)  Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 12:1-9 NIV 

2 Samuel 12:13-15 NIV  Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.  (14)  But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.”  (15)  After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.

2 Samuel 12:13-15 NIV 

Justice and the Marginalized

International Sunday School Winter Quarter #9 January 30 2022

Deuteronomy 24:10-21 NIV  When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.  (11)  Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.  (12)  If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession.  (13)  Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.  (14)  Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.  (15)  Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.  (16)  Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.  (17)  Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.  (18)  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.  (19)  When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  (20)  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.  (21)  When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.

Deuteronomy 24:10-21 NIV 

Justice, Judges, and Priest

International Sunday School January 23 2022

Deuteronomy 16:18-20 NIV  Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly.  (19)  Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent.  (20)  Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20 NIV 

Deuteronomy 17:8-13 NIV  If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—take them to the place the LORD your God will choose.  (9)  Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.  (10)  You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do.  (11)  Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.  (12)  Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.  (13)  All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.

Deuteronomy 17:8-13 NIV 

Justice and Fairness

Exodus 23:1-12 NIV  “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.  (2)  “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd,  (3)  and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.  (4)  “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it.  (5)  If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.  (6)  “Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.  (7)  Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.  (8)  “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.  (9)  “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.  (10)  “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops,  (11)  but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.  (12)  “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

Exodus 23:1-12 NIV 

Injustice and Hope

International Sunday School January 9 2022 Winter Quarter #6

Genesis 21:8-20 NIV  The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.  (9)  But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,  (10)  and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”  (11)  The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.  (12)  But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  (13)  I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”  (14)  Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.  (15)  When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes.  (16)  Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.  (17)  God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.  (18)  Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”  (19)  Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.  (20)  God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.

Genesis 21:8-20 NIV