Key Thought: We can draw lessons from examples about marriage in the Scriptures to understand better how God relates to His people and can help us better understand last day events.
April 19, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 16:4-15.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What do the details about the bride teach us about God’s intentions toward us?
3. Personal Application: Why was Israel of the flesh finally rejected as a nation by God? Could the Christian church be rejected as well for similar reasons? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What are the dangers of a church teaching people that God loves them, God has saved them, and we are the apple of His eye; therefore we are saved and don’t have to worry about our relationship with God, because He has already saved us?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Hosea 1:2; 3:1; Revelation 7:1,2; 18:1-4.

1. a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What lessons can the Christian church learn from the story of Hosea?
3. Personal Application: How could any church be found dallying with spiritual fornication? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “What fornication is spoken of here in Revelation 17? Is it literal or spiritual? What false doctrines have entered the church that lead people astray from the pure gospel of salvation and protection from God?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Genesis 24:1-4.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why was it so important to Abraham that his son not marry from the Canaanites?
3. Personal Application: The Jews as a theocracy weren’t to marry outside their religion. But now, as Adventist Christians, should it be okay to marry any Christian, no matter what church they belong to. Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “You can marry in the church and still have problems and not have a close relationship with God. But one of my daughters married outside the church and doesn’t attend church anymore. But one married in the church and still goes to church. What is it about marrying a “good person” who is not a church member that is so wrong?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 19:1-9.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How is it possible that the end of the harlot and the marriage of the bride are celebrated at the same time?
3. Personal Application: How can we be sure that we have enough oil in our lamps and ready for Jesus to come, even in an apparent delay? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share this with them.

(“Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.” Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/3-images-from-marriage-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 15th of April 2025

God’s request of the prophet Hosea may be one of the strangest assignments ever given to one of His servants: marry a harlot—on purpose! But God was using Hosea to help us understand, from His own perspective, the pain of human sin and rebellion. God had lovingly chosen a wife, Israel, who repeatedly cheated on Him, and yet, astonishingly enough, He took her back and restored her.

Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com

The Bible reveals that the errors of Israel in the Old Testament would be largely repeated by Christ’s New Testament church. God’s covenant people went wildly astray prior to their exile, bringing the idolatrous practices of neighboring nations into God’s covenant nation. “Concerned over the growing rift within the church over Arius’s ideas, Constantine both convened and intervened in the Council of Nicaea.” — Christopher A. Hall, “How Arianism Almost Won,” Christianity Today, (2008). In each case, God’s people wandered outside of their relationship with Him in order to find “solutions” for perceived problems.

God’s choice of words makes it seem obvious that He is not only trying to show us what we’ve done wrong but also sharing how it makes Him feel. Those who have been betrayed by a spouse can begin to grasp the feelings of devastation that our infidelity to Christ might stir in the courts of heaven. Perhaps the most amazing part of Hosea’s story is the lengths to which the prophet went to redeem his wayward wife.

When we see the final cry to humanity, calling God’s people to come out of Babylon, it is noteworthy that He is calling His own people, and not strangers. He knows them intimately. He loves them. And as the world pitches toward its worst hour, He is still offering the redemption price that He had paid in order to purchase us back with His own blood. The cross of Christ, more than anything else, should show us just how earnestly the Lord wants to save His wayward people.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-03-hoseas-harlot-wife/

Daily Lesson for Monday 14th of April 2025

Ezekiel 16:1-63 shows us an astonishing picture of God’s regard for His people. He describes the nation of Israel as an abandoned baby, left in a field to die. He takes her home, cleans her up, and when she is fully grown, he marries her. It is a powerful picture of an unlikely marriage.

Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com

God told Israel that, under His care, she grew “ ‘exceedingly beautiful’ ” (Ezekiel 16:13, NKJV). When God first found her, nobody found her beautiful; she was a reject among other children, cast aside in the hopes that she would die. But as God showered His attention on her, she became more and more beautiful, until she was the talk of the world. In the earliest days of the Hebrew kings, under David and Solomon, this was particularly true. The queen of Sheba even made a special trip in order to see the splendor of Israel for herself!

Israel’s beauty, however, was entirely the gift of God. She was ­beautiful—the talk of the nations—precisely because she was His bride. God says that her beauty “ ‘was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you’ ” (Ezekiel 16:14, NKJV).

This is a recurrent theme in the Bible: God’s bride is beautiful, not because of anything she has done but because God has showered His favor on her and made her that way. In a similar way, believers appear beautiful in the estimate of heaven, not because of anything we have done to earn it but because of the favor of God, the salvation that He has showered on us. We are beautiful because we are covered in His righteousness, the “righteousness of God” Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).

All was good, however, until the next verse in Ezekiel: “ ‘But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it’ ” (Ezekiel 16:15).

We were created to reflect the goodness and glory of God. When God’s creations assume that their beauty is their own, that beauty is cheapened, and trouble awaits.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-03-the-beautiful-bride/