Daily Lesson for Sunday 26th of January 2025

The God of the Bible loves justice and hates evil. Sin and evil, therefore, provoke Him to passion, a passion expressed on behalf of those oppressed and abused, and even in cases in which one’s evil affects primarily oneself. God hates evil because evil always hurts His creatures, even if self-inflicted. In the biblical narratives, God is repeatedly provoked to anger by what biblical scholars refer to as the cycle of rebellion. This cycle goes as follows:

Image © Rolf Jansson at Goodsalt.com

The people rebel against God and do evil, sometimes even horrendous atrocities, such as child sacrifice and other abominations in His sight.

God withdraws according to the people’s decisions.

The people are oppressed by foreign nations.

The people cry to God for deliverance.

God graciously delivers the people.

The people rebel against God again, often more egregiously than before.

In the face of this cycle of egregious evil and infidelity, however, God repeatedly meets human unfaithfulness, but with unending faithfulness, long-suffering forbearance, amazing grace, and deep compassion.

According to the Bible, love and justice are intertwined. Divine anger is the proper response of love against evil because evil always hurts someone whom God loves. There is no instance in Scripture where God is arbitrarily or unfairly wrathful or angry.

And while God’s people repeatedly forsook and betrayed Him, over the centuries God continued patiently to bestow compassion beyond all reasonable expectations (Nehemiah 9:7-33), thus demonstrating the unfathomable depth of His long-suffering compassion and merciful love. Indeed, according to Psalms 78:38, God, “being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath” (NKJV).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-05-grieved-by-evil/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 25th of January 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Psalms 78:1-72; Jonah 4:1-4; Matthew 10:8; Matthew 21:12-13; Jeremiah 51:24-25; Romans 12:17-21.

Memory Text:

“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath” (Psalms 78:38, NKJV).

Though God’s compassion is often celebrated, many find the idea of His wrath disturbing. If God is love, they think He should never express wrath. That notion, however, is false. His wrath arises directly from His love.

Some claim that the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and that the New Testament God is a God of love. But there is only one God, and He is revealed as the same in both Testaments. The God who is love does become angry at evil—but precisely because He is love. Jesus Himself expressed profound anger against evil, and the New Testament teaches numerous times about the righteous and appropriate wrath of God.

God’s anger is always His righteous and loving response against evil and injustice. Divine wrath is righteous indignation motivated by perfect goodness and love, and it seeks the flourishing of all creation. God’s wrath is simply the appropriate response of love to evil and injustice. Accordingly, evil provokes God to passion in favor of the victims of evil and against its perpetrators. Divine wrath, then, is another expression of divine love.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 1.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-05-the-wrath-of-divine-love/

Join the HIt the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 4 – God Is Passionate and Compassionate. It’s the fastest hour of the week!

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/god-is-passionate-and-compassionate-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/

Inside Story for Friday 24th of January 2025

By Andrew McChesney

A drunken man accosted the 21-year-old missionary woman on a public bus and tried to hug and kiss her. As she struggled against his advances, the other passengers looked the other way until an elderly woman yelled something to the bus driver. The bus stopped, then under the guidance of the elderly woman, several passengers threw the man off. She came over to the sobbing missionary, patted her arm, and said something that the missionary couldn’t understand.

This was the nightmare that Joanne (Park) Kim seemed to face nearly every week in Mongolia. It was the early 1990s, and she was a single American woman serving as one of the first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in impoverished, post-Communist Mongolia.

Image © Pacific Press

On another occasion, a drunken neighbor mistook Joanne’s apartment for his own. He kicked down her flimsy wooden door with his steel-toe boots and started to beat her. Joanne grabbed a broom and, screaming, fought back. It was a losing battle until Joanne used the broom to bang on the ceiling and her fellow missionaries, a married American couple, heard from their apartment above, and rushed down to rescue her.

The last straw for Joanne came when she and a fellow missionary were waiting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. A mother had invited them to her child’s first haircut, which called for a big celebration in Mongolia. Joanne was instructed to wait at the bus stop because she would never be able to find the ger home on the unmarked streets, so she and the other missionary sat on the curb and waited for the mother to arrive.

Then four drunken men sat beside them and tried to hug and kiss Joanne.

Joanne and the other missionary moved away, but the men followed. Everyone at the crowded bus stop looked away. The men dragged the women to a deserted alley. Joanne screamed and kicked and fought back, but she was no match for the four men. Then the men threw the women onto the ground. Joanne thought it was the end.

Suddenly, the men’s faces turned pale. They turned and ran away.

Joanne looked around to see who had come to save them. No one was there. At that moment, Joanne knew that the men must have seen an angel.

This mission story offers an inside look at American mis­sionary Joanne (Park) Kim, who helped start the Seventh-day Adventist work in post-Communist Mongolia and continues to serve as a missionary there. You also can participate in the mission work through this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, part of which will help open a recreation center where children can grow spiritually, mentally, socially, and physically in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Read more about Joanne next week.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-04-inside-story-attacked-by-drunken-men/

Daily Lesson for Friday 24th of January 2025

Read Ellen G. White, “The Beatitudes,” Pages 6–44, in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus. He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden.’ Matthew 11:28. He bids you exchange your poverty for the riches of His grace. We are not worthy of God’s love, but Christ, our surety, is worthy, and is abundantly able to save all who shall come unto Him. Whatever may have been your past experience, however discouraging your present circumstances, if you will come to Jesus just as you are, weak, helpless, and despairing, our compassionate Saviour will meet you a great way off, and will throw about you His arms of love and His robe of righteousness. He presents us to the Father clothed in the white raiment of His own character. He pleads before God in our behalf, saying: I have taken the sinner’s place. Look not upon this wayward child, but look on Me. Does Satan plead loudly against our souls, accusing of sin, and claiming us as his prey, the blood of Christ pleads with greater power.”—Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, Pages 8, 9.

Discussion Questions

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-04-further-thought-god-is-passionate-and-compassionate/