Sabbath School From Home

The "Heros of Faith" chapter at last! Lachlan takes issue with some of the inclusions in the list of Faith Heros, and we explore what aspects of their faith led to them "earning a good reputation". We are intrigued that the resurrection hope is so clearly invoked for characters from parts of the Old Testament where this idea seemed less developed. It is also important to notice the list ends with...

After many metaphors for Jesus, Hebrews returns to what it means for us here and now: perseverance. Hebrews 10 starts with a nice recap of the previous chapter, and so we focus our attention on the second half of the chapter. In many modern translations it has been given a heading about perseverance, and we again dwell on the role of good works. It is also fascinating to ponder what to do with an...

The sanctuary is invoked to further expand the revolutionary theme of Hebrews. This topic has been important in various ways throughout the history of the Seventh-day Adventist church, and has also been associated with painful events (starting perhaps with a need to make sense of a failed prediction of Christ's return). We attempt to read the chapter with fresh eyes and are intrigued by the specif...

In the NLT: "Here is the main point..." The theme of Jesus as priest in a tabernacle has been pre-empted and teased a bit already in Hebrews, but in Chapter 8 it is presented in full. We find the metaphor to be powerful, and are intrigued by the substantial quote from Jeremiah to bolster an articulation of the "New Covenant". It is necessary to acknowledge that some historical readings of Hebrews...

Here's the substantial engagement with Melchizedek that we've been waiting for! The slightly enigmatic character of Melchizedek from the Genesis story of Abraham must have been a bit more embedded in Hebrew culture than his "screen time" would suggest. The logic (and rhetoric) of the developing idea at this point in Hebrews is fun to follow, and opens a few challenging questions. Who are the "Melc...

Maturity of understanding Jesus seems to be connected with implementing our faith as love. This chapter seems to take a temporary diversion from the building "high priest" theme to explore the idea of Christian maturity. We grapple a bit with the agricultural analogy, but the idea of "doing" as well as "believing" is pretty consistent. This chapter seems to suggest aspects of the famous faith-vs-w...

The theme of Jesus as high priest is presented with some intriguing details. We are particularly surprised by descriptions of Jesus "learning obedience" and the role of His suffering. Some of the wording invokes the Creation narrative, which was something we also noticed last week in chapter 4, and this leads us to some new ideas.

We rarely pause to recognise that we ourselves might be like those who "failed to enter God's rest". Sabbath inescapably enters this chapter's discussion of God's rest, and the concept is applied with some elegance to the idea of salvation. There's a nicely intricate argument developed here, and the chapter seems to end with a nice recapitulation of the developing themes of the book.

The developing argument moves on to Moses, and we benefit from the previous season's focus on Deuteronomy. One of the key ideas in this chapter is the connection between belief and action, and this poses some valuable challenges. It is obvious that the book of Hebrews is developing an argument, and we anticipate some of the questions posed here will be addressed in subsequent chapters.

We grapple with how the incarnation might have changed God. Hebrews 2 seems to present almost an opposite argument to the first chapter: namely that Jesus was made slightly lower than the angels in his humanity. There's a clear statement that his death somehow made him better able to minister as our high priest, and we find various aspects of this passage to be slightly uncomfortable - in a good w...

We begin a study of Hebrews by wondering how similar we are to the first audience. The SDA Sabbath School lesson is starting a quarter on the book of Hebrews. We are so taken by the coincidence of this book having 13 chapters that we're going to follow along with the Sabbath School themes while going chapter by chapter for each episode of this season.

The death (and resurrection) of Moses brings us to the end of Deuteronomy. Jude mentions a slightly curious conflict between the Archangel Michael and the devil over the body of Moses that connects with a greater tradition about Moses' resurrection. This concludes our study of Deuteronomy, and we discuss how our perceptions and appreciation of this book has changed after studying it for 13 weeks....

We turn to Stephen's defense in Acts 7 to explore the topic of Deuteronomy in the New Testament. Deuteronomy tells history in order to establish identity, and a similar "big-picture history" approach occurs in a number of the sermons in Acts. Interestingly Stephen focuses on very much the same part of the story as Deuteronomy. How do we tell our collective story, and how much does this change with...

The topic of "Deuteronomy in the later writings" realigns us with the SDA lesson for this week. Deuteronomy features in a number of subsequent Old Testament stories, and we look particularly at Josiah (2 Kings 23) and Jeremiah (chapter 7). Blessings and curses feature prominently in these re-engagements with the book of Deuteronomy.

It's time to focus on the curses in Deuteronomy. Some of them seem to make more sense than others, but it still feels a bit strange to read the sets of curses in this part of the Bible.

How permanent or immovable are some of the laws in Deuteronomy? Inspired with a changed view of the world after Jesus, the New Testament apostles didn't always follow the letter of the law from Deuteronomy. Even within a few generations of the context of Deuteronomy there are biblical examples of some flexibility. We look at a few interesting examples, and explore what this means for a contemporar...

The cultural inaccessibility gets deep in parts of Deuteronomy 19-21, but we still find value in their contemplation. We're still "wandering in the wilderness" while the SDA lesson remains stuck in the earlier chapters of Deuteronomy. We will be rejoining the lesson topics more closely soon! This week we read laws about warfare, justice, captives, and trouble children. Many of these passages chall...

In some specific advice for future kings of Israel we find some useful and relevant ideas. We're still deviating somewhat from the SDA Lesson because it seems a bit stuck around chapter 9. We're exploring the gap of almost 20 chapters that the lesson guide skips, and in this episode we read instructions for "when Israel wants a king". A number of interesting ideas connect this passage to other wel...

This phrase is familiar, but it's true call is often overlooked. We continue our slightly uncharted journey through Deuteronomy (mostly untethered from the SDA lesson this week), but there's so much good stuff to discover! Our conversation explores a call to help the poor, and the profound promise of an ear piercing!

An emphasis on "one place of worship" in Deuteronomy 12 becomes the cause of conflict within a generation. The SDA lesson guide dwells on Deuteronomy chapter 10 for a number of weeks, and we've already shared our thoughts on that fantastic chapter. We launch out into some of the chapters that will be overlooked by the lesson guide, and Cameron takes us to a lesser-told story in Joshua that highlig...

We each have a different discussion point from Deut 6-10. There are some great parts of these chapters, interspersed with "light genocide" that we still find troubling.

It is remarkable that God describes his Law as having evangelistic effect. This conversation starts with some exploration of current issues arising from COVID-19 vaccinations, and that turns out to be somewhat connected to the themes of Deuteronomy. The focus this week is Deut 4:4-7, where God's Law is anticipated to attract the attention (positively) of surrounding nations.

We start our journey through Deuteronomy by examining some interesting details in chapters 1 and 2. The lesson this week covers the first 3 chapters of Deuteronomy, but we run out of time after considering a few curious details in this introductory section of the book. It dramatically condenses the story of wandering in the wilderness, and there seem to be some places where Moses exercises exercis...

We explore hardened hearts in the Exodus story to set the context for a season in Deuteronomy. The story of the Exodus is the direct context for the book of Deuteronomy, and so it's a great place to start a season looking at that 5th book of the Bible. Cameron shares some interesting insights about the Plagues on Egypt that featured in a recent sermon he preached.

Proverbs often speaks of large scale consequences, so how does death relate to rest? The Sabbath School lesson this week is about "The Ultimate Rest", and it is interesting to note that the book of Proverbs typically invokes death as a stern warning of consequences for evil. On the flip side, it speaks of righteousness and wisdom "delivering from death".