Lesson 11, March 6-12
Sabbath Afternoon
Memory Text: “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, And satisfy the afflicted soul; Then shall thy light rise in obscurity, And thy darkness be as the noonday” Isaiah 58:10
A Jewish cantor (worship leader) and his wife who lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, began receiving threatening and obscene phone calls. They discovered the calls came from a leader of an American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Knowing his identity, they could have turned him in to the police. But they decided on a more radical approach. When they learned that he was crippled, they showed up at his door with dinner! He was utterly flabbergasted. His hatred melted before their love. The couple kept visiting him, and the friendship grew. He even thought of becoming Jewish!
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, And to let the oppressed go free, And that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, … ?” (Isaiah 58:6, 7). Ironically, the couple in Lincoln kept such a fast by sharing their feast with a hungry oppressor, thereby setting him free from his own bonds of unjust prejudice!
Let’s learn more about this important spiritual principle as depicted by the prophet Isaiah.
