Lesson 4, April 20-26
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Corinthians 7:25-34, Matthew 19:8, Genesis 37:34, Isaiah 54:5.
Memory Text: “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18, NKJV).
A fascinating yet painful story made the news years ago. A young woman had been found dead in her apartment. Though the death was tragic itself, what made the story worse was that the woman had been dead for more than 10 years before being found. Ten years! Thus, the question that people had asked, and rightly so, was: How in a big city like this, with so many people, and with so many means of communication, could a woman, who was not a street person, have been dead for so long and no one know?
Though extreme, this story is an example of a reality: many people are suffering from loneliness. In 2016, The New York Times ran an article entitled, “Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness”. The problem is real.
From the start, we as human beings were not meant to be alone. From Eden onward, we were to live in fellowship with other human beings to some degree or another. Of course, sin came in, and nothing has been right since then. This week we will look at the question of companionship and loneliness at the various times of life that, perhaps, all of us have at some time faced. If not, then count yourself fortunate.
