Sabbath School From Home

There are a few ways in which the Exodus gets off to a rough start.  This week we focus on a strange story that occurs between the burning bush commission and Moses's return to Egypt. It is yet another apparent hiccup in the flow of the Exodus story, and we are challenged by the way God is described as being angry with Moses. Given everything that takes place, it is fascinating that the "the peopl...

The burning bush is a well-known story, and helps to introduce us further to Moses.  Two great things happen in Exodus three: God introduces himself by "name" with the famous "I am", and we have one of the greatest-ever stories of God's calling. It is interesting to ponder how reluctant Moses is, and we explore various ways this challenges us today.

We're starting a season exploring the book of Exodus, and the story opens with a focus on amazing women.  By the time baby Moses gets his name in this story, the only other named characters are the midwives Shiphrah and Puah. In fact, almost all the people doing anything proactive are women! We notice a few fresh perspectives on this well-known narrative, and are interested to see how even chapter...

What is Jonah's challenge for a prophetic-future focused Christian?  There is a widespread idea of some prophecies being conditional on our response, and others being unconditional. The more we look at it in the Old Testament the more it seems this distinction is not often all that clear in the prophecy and its wording. We are intrigued by some of the implications for reading and applying prophecy...

Reading last-day prophecies with hope rather than fear is a profound perspective shift.  We can't help focus on the Sabbath commandment, which features so prominently in in the "Seventh-day Adventist" name and also in our reading of last-day prophecy. It is striking that Jesus stirred up considerable controversy over his Sabbath actions, and the lesson this week has an intriguing description that...

Moral growth and moral decline may be intertwined throughout history.  The story of Ruth is well-known and widely loved, and for good reason. It's a love story, with vivid characters and fabulous prophetic echos of Jesus the Redeemer. Interestingly, it also intersects with the idea of moral decline that came up in last week's episode. We are challenged to look deeper than the all-too-easy dismissi...

How to "preach our unique remnant message" while staying alert to the challenge that we too can fall into the "heinous sins described in Rev 13"?  The first situation sounds like confidence and an assurance of being right, while the second is all about recognising the insidious ways we can become the monster we claim to fight. Probably each individual christian feels more at home in one or the oth...

The Psalms explore themes of suffering, judgement, good and evil.  However, it is possible this is due to such things being an almost universal part of human experience. The lesson this week asks us to consider how Psalm 67 might inform our understanding of the role of God's people in end times. At first glance it seems more interested in telling us about the role of God himself, and it is possibl...

How can we best use images and symbols in "God's songbook", the Psalms?  The lesson this week comments on judgement themes in Psalm 5. We find it somewhat difficult to identify all the connections, but find value in the challenging poetic images. We are particularly intrigued by what it might meant to recognise some of the "bloodthirsty and deceitful" aspects in our own lives. Can we cope with the...

The foundation of prophecy is perhaps hope.  In the end, the Bible says in so many ways, God and goodness do triumph. Prophecy seems to use this long-term hope for the future as a lens through which to examine and evaluate present actions. We examine the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, where a prophet is called to speak God's words "whether the people listen to them or not". 

Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive symbols in the Bible, and yet is foreign to modern society. One interesting aspect of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament is that God sometimes declared he rejected it! Does this perhaps illuminate what might be the actual substance behind this ritual? We explore how "simply going through the motions" can perhaps be valuable spiritual disciplin...

God seems entirely willing to work with imperfect people, cultures, and institutions. This episode follows on from our last one, exploring issues of human government and nation-states. There's an interesting connection with themes in a recent Ezra Klein Show podcast from the New York Times . Jesus reminded the people who were proud of being Abraham's descendents that God could make stones into chi...

Nations fall short of God's ideals, but removing government usually leads to anarchy.  When listing the nations descended from Noah, Genesis 10 points out that Nimrod built a kingdom including places such as Babel and Ninevah. That's somewhat foreboding given our knowledge of the subsequent stories. Although it is good to be counter cultural, is the government (or government in general) always bad...

Marriage is a strong but tricky image throughout the Bible.  It is interesting to see that God is able to reveal aspects of himself through this image both when marriage is at its best and also when it doesn't go as hoped. 

Genesis is a foundation for many of the symbols and images that become significant throughout the Bible.  But it is fascinating to reconsider just how detailed these introductions actually are. What is the resolution of the imagery in Genesis, and does it add value forwards through time? Could some of it only make sense in retrospect? We focus particularly on themes of "the lamb" and sacrifice, an...

One principle of prophecy is that God wants to be understood.  But it does sometimes seem strange then that He chooses such mysterious analogies and images. This new season will explore a few of these allusions, images, and symbols. One key issue with prophecy is whether these aspects should be interpreted literally or figuratively, but there are numerous other contrasts that could be explored: pr...

"Love and Justice" is often narrowed to "Love or Commandments".  This may not be the most helpful juxtaposition. The Adventist lesson guide this week asks "how could we express love to God, or love to others, if we are violating any one of the Ten Commandments?" In one sense this seems reasonable (the Commandments do relate to loving God and others). But in the light of Jesus famous Sermon on the...

What does God's concern for justice mean for us today?  This Psalm is only brief, but resonates deeply with numerous bible passages about God's passion for justice. How can we engage with Him in "upholding the cause of the poor and the oppressed", and how do we make sure to avoid "defending the unjust"?

How much does understanding actually help us to cope with suffering? An interesting feature of the Sabbath School lesson this quarter is that it consistently assumes there is comfort in knowing why bad things happen. This may well be true in some situations, but we ponder on the story of Job who was never told the answer to this question. The question of what more God could have done is posted in...

Are there rules for the Cosmic Conflict?  The lesson this week sets out to explore the "rules of engagement" in the conflict between God and Satan. Is this a helpful framing of the situation if Satan - the great deceiver - disregards any rules and tries to cheat? The idea has value in attempting to explain why God might not step in sometimes as we wish, but we explore a surprising alternative idea...

What about celebrating what God  does , more than analysing what he might not prevent?  This conversation grows out of the previous episode, revisiting the idea of comparing or weighing good versus evil in the world. In a profound sense it seems that goodness really must outweigh all the suffering. This is the fundamental core of hope in the Christian message, and there are some provocative ways i...

How does God's love and providence work with our free will?  A lot has been said over Christian history about how we might understand God's will, His providence, and the difficult wording of predestination used in this opening passage of Ephesians. Our discussion turns to the implications these somewhat theoretical ideas have on the very practical experience of pain and suffering. There are obviou...

When is it more important to love kindness?  Exploring aspects of perverted justice invariably leads to any number of scenarios that defy the just/unjust categorisation. What are we to do in such situations? While Micah 6 calls us to  do  justice, it also reminds us to  love kindness.

What does it mean for God to love justice?  The idea of justice appeals to everyone who feels ripped off, but "God's judgement" can sound threatening. There are aspects of justice that are difficult for us to comprehend, let alone achieve. 

Divine wrath can be a difficult concept to put alongside a "loving God".  In fact, this attribute of God is perhaps more prominent in the Bible than in many contemporary expressions of Christianity. It makes sense for us to tend to avoid thinking about it, given the abundance of situations in which human anger is unhelpful. We discuss how anger might fit in to our understanding of God? Is anger ev...