Wednesday, October 14
There are great benefits to following God’s law, as evidenced in the people whom God prospered. Joshua closely followed God’s precepts and he led the people of Israel well. Time and again, the Lord told Israel that if they obeyed the law, they would prosper.
Read 2 Chronicles 31:20, 21. What were the key reasons in this passage as to why Hezekiah prospered?
Whatever education venue we are in, we must stress the importance of obedience. Yet our students aren’t stupid. They will notice, sooner or later, the harsh fact that some people are faithful, loving, and obedient. And yet – what? Disaster strikes them as well. How do we explain this?
The fact is, we can’t. We live in a world of sin, of evil, a world in which the great controversy rages, and none of us are immune to it.
What do these texts teach us about this difficult question? Mark 6:25-27; Job 1, 2; 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.
Without question, good and faithful people, law-abiding people, have not always prospered, at least as the world understands prosperity. And here, too, might be a partial answer to this difficult question, a question that as we seek to teach the importance of the law is no doubt going to be raised. What exactly do we mean by “prosperity”? What did the psalmist say? “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalms 84:10). There’s no question that, by the world’s standards, even those faithful to God and obedient to His law don’t always “prosper,” at least for now. We do our students a disservice to say otherwise.
Read Hebrews 11:13-16. How do these verses help us understand why those who are faithful still suffer in this life?
