Lesson 5, July 23-29
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 22, Hosea 2:1-12, Job 1:6-2:10, 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, Isaiah 43:1-7.
Memory Text: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” Isaiah 53:10
As the wife of the famous Christian writer C.S. Lewis was dying, Lewis wrote, “Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God’s really like.’ ” — A Grief Observed (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1961), pp. 6, 7.
When things become really painful, some of us reject God completely. For others like Lewis, there is the temptation to change our view of God and imagine all sorts of bad things about Him. The question is, Just how hot can it get? How much heat is God willing to risk putting His people through in order to bring about His ultimate purpose of shaping us into the “image of his Son” (Romans 8:29)?
The Week at a Glance: Why do you think God is willing to risk being misunderstood by those He wants to know Him and love Him? How much do you think God is willing to be misunderstood in order to mold you into the “image of his Son”?
