Bible Study - Sabbath School Podcast

The end of history will come with the triumph of love over evil. But, in the meantime, many troubling questions remain. How can we think and talk about the problem of evil in a way that might be helpful? Read  Job 38:1–12 . How does God’s answer to Job shed light on the problem of evil? How much do we know and not know about what might be going on behind the scenes? In the narrative, Job had suffe...

The problem of evil is voiced not only in contemporary contexts but also in Scripture itself. Read  Job 30:26, Jeremiah 12:1, Jeremiah 13:22, Malachi 2:17, and Psalm 10:1 . How do these texts bring the problem of evil to the forefront of human experience? These texts raise many questions that are still with us today. Why does it seem as though the wicked prosper and those who do evil bene­fit from...

Read for This Week’s Study Job 30:26; Matt. 27:46; Job 38:1–12; Psalm 73; Gen. 2:16, 17; Rev. 21:3, 4 . Memory Text: Perhaps the greatest problem facing Christianity is the problem of evil—how to reconcile the fact that God is perfectly good and loving, with the fact of evil in this world. In brief terms, if God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there evil, and so much of it, too? This is not m...

Read Ellen G. White, “God’s Love for Man,” pp. 9–15, in Steps to Christ. “The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, ‘Show me Thy glory,’ the Lord answered, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before thee.’  Exodus 33:18, 19 . This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and graci...

Scripture consistently teaches that “ ‘the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments’ ” ( Deut. 7:9, NKJV ). His character of goodness and love was supremely demonstrated by Jesus at the cross (see  Rom. 3:25, 26; Rom. 5:8 ). According to  Psalm 100:5 , “The Lord is good; [H]is steadfast love...

Can God “repent”? If so, what would that mean? We have seen that God’s character never changes. However, some biblical texts speak of God as “repenting” or “relenting.” At least for humans, repentance involves recognition that one has done something wrong. How, then, can some biblical passages depict God as “repenting”? Read  Exodus 32:14  and compare it with  Jeremiah 18:4–10 . What do you make o...

Read  Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17 . What do these passages teach about God’s character? In  Malachi 3:6 , God declares, “ ‘I am the Lord, I do not change’ ” (NKJV). While some read this part of the verse and take it to mean that God does not change in any way whatsoever, the rest of the verse and its immediate context shows that the changelessness of God affirmed here is God’s moral changelessness....

God does not simply claim to love justice and call people to love and do justice, but God Himself perfectly and unwaveringly exemplifies these traits. Scripture teaches that God is entirely holy, faithful, righteous, and loving. God only and always does what is loving, righteous, and just. He never does any wrong. Read  Deuteronomy 32:4 and Psalm 92:15 . What do these passages teach about the fait...

Throughout Scripture, love and justice go together. True love requires justice, and true justice can be governed by and meted out only in love. We are not used to thinking of these two concepts together, but that is only because both love and justice have been greatly perverted by humanity. Read  Psalm 33:5, Isaiah 61:8, Jeremiah 9:24, Psalm 85:10, and Psalm 89:14 . How do these texts shed light o...

Read for This Week’s Study Ps. 33:5, Ps. 85:10, Deut. 32:4, James 1:17, Titus 1:2, Exod. 32:14, Matt. 5:43–48 . Memory Text: In the ancient Near East, the “gods” of the nations were not only fickle, immoral, and unpredictable, but they also commanded atrocities, such as child sacrifice. And even then, the pagan masses could not count on their favor, and so they dared not cross their tribal “deitie...

Read Ellen G. White, “Idolatry at Sinai,” pp. 315–330, in Patriarchs and Prophets. In the context of the sin of the golden calf, Ellen G. White wrote: “The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained justice must be visited upon th...

While divine wrath is a “terrible” thing, it is by no means immoral or unloving. On the contrary, in the Old and New Testaments, God expresses wrath against evil because of His love. Divine wrath is terrible because of the insidious nature of evil in contrast to the pure goodness and splendor of God. In this regard, love is essential to God; wrath is not. Where there is no evil or injustice, there...

Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly displays His passion in favor of the downtrodden and the oppressed and His corresponding righteous indignation against the victimizers and oppressors. If there were no evil, God would not be angry. His anger is only and always against that which harms His creation. According to  Lamentations 3:32, 33 , God does not afflict willingly (literally, God does not aff...

God becomes angry at evil because God is love. God is so compassionate and gracious that one biblical prophet even chastised God for being too merciful! Consider the story of Jonah and reflect on Jonah’s reaction to God’s compassionate forgiveness of the Ninevites, in  Jonah 4:1–4 . What does this tell us about Jonah, and about God? (See also  Matt. 10:8 .) Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy is telli...

God becomes angry at evil because God is love. God is so compassionate and gracious that one biblical prophet even chastised God for being too merciful! Consider the story of Jonah and reflect on Jonah’s reaction to God’s compassionate forgiveness of the Ninevites, in  Jonah 4:1–4 . What does this tell us about Jonah, and about God? (See also  Matt. 10:8 .) Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy is telli...

The God of the Bible loves justice and hates evil. Sin and evil, therefore, provoke Him to passion, a passion expressed on behalf of those oppressed and abused, and even in cases in which one’s evil affects primarily oneself. God hates evil because evil always hurts His creatures, even if self-inflicted. In the biblical narratives, God is repeatedly provoked to anger by what biblical scholars refe...

Read for This Week’s Study Psalm 78; Jonah 4:1–4; Matt. 10:8; Matt. 21:12, 13; Jer. 51:24, 25; Rom. 12:17–21 . Memory Text: Though God’s compassion is often celebrated, many find the idea of His wrath disturbing. If God is love, they think He should never express wrath. That notion, however, is false. His wrath arises directly from His love. Some claim that the Old Testament God is a God of wrath...

Read Ellen G. White, “The Beatitudes,” pp. 6–44, in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing. “All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus. He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden.’  Matthew 11:28 . He bids you exchange your poverty for the riches of His grace. We are...

The God of the Bible is compassionate and passionate, and these divine emotions are supremely exemplified in Jesus Christ. God is sympathetic (compare with  Isa. 63:9, Heb. 4:15 ), deeply affected by the sorrows of His people ( Judg. 10:16, Luke 19:41 ), and willing to hear, answer, and comfort ( Isa. 49:10, 15; Matt. 9:36; Matt. 14:14 ). Read  1 Corinthians 13:4–8 . In what ways does this passage...

The God of the Bible is the “compassionate God.” In Hebrew, God is called el raḥum ( Deut. 4:31 ). The term “el” means “God,” and raḥum is a different form of the root for compassion (raḥum). Yet, God is called not only the compassionate God but also the jealous God, el qana’. As  Deuteronomy 4:24  puts it, “ ‘The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God [el qana’].’ ” (See  Deut. 4:24, De...

In the New Testament, the same kind of imagery as in the Old is used to depict God’s compassion. Paul refers to the Father as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” ( 2 Cor. 1:3, NKJV ). Further, Paul explains in  Ephesians 2:4  that God is “rich in mercy” and redeems humans “because of His great love with which He loved us” (NKJV). In various parables, Christ Himself repeatedly uses terms...

The incalculable depths of God’s compassionate love for humanity are manifested in Hosea. God had commanded the prophet Hosea, “ ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord’ ” ( Hos. 1:2, NKJV ).  Hosea 11  later depicts God’s relationship with His people, but with the metaphor of a loving father for his child...

Perhaps the greatest love common to human experience is the love of a parent for a child. The Bible often uses the imagery of the parent-child relationship to depict God’s amazing compassion for people, emphasizing that God’s compassion is exponentially greater than even the deepest and most beautiful human expression of the same emotion. Read  Psalm 103:13, Isaiah 49:15, and Jeremiah 31:20 . What...

Read for This Week’s Study Ps. 103:13, Isa. 49:15, Hos. 11:1–9, Matt. 23:37, 2 Cor. 11:2, 1 Cor. 13:4–8 . Memory Text: Emotions are often viewed as undesirable and to be avoided. For some people, emotions are intrinsically irrational, and thus, the good man or woman would not be described as “emotional.” In some ancient Greek philosophy, the idea of the “rational” man, who is (mostly) either imper...

Read Ellen G. White, “ ‘Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,’ ” pp. 662–680, in The Desire of Ages. “The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He...