Key Thought: While we struggle with the presence of evil in this world, we must recognize our limitations and approach the evilsof this world with hope, the eternal solution.
February 15, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read Job 38:1-12.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. How does God’s answer to Job shed light on the problem of evil?
3. Personal Application: How does Job’s response reflect what we should recognize about our own position? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “How do you explain to a young family how come their husband and father died of a heart attack at 34 when he had started taking Bible studies, got his Sabbaths off from work so he could attend church, and was going to church?.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Psalm 73. Isaiah 55:8,9.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does the Psalmist approach the evil and injustice around him? What does he see that puts his understanding in a different perspective?
3. Personal Application: How does our understanding of the sanctuary and the judgment shed light on the problem of evil? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “How can we have hope when our political system is corrupt and broken, our industries and corporations are based on greed and corruption, our ministers are greedy for power and money, criminals are rampant in gangs and every evil device, and our mass media seems to promote and relish every filthy and evil thing?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Genesis 2:16,17.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How do these verses display the moral freedom granted to Adam and Eve?
3. Personal Application: How does misusing our moral freedom impact our relationship with God and our relationship with our family and with others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “How do we give encouragement to someone who is suffering because of bad choices they have made that are a large part of their suffering?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Romans 8:18, Revelation 21:3,4.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How do these texts give us confidence to trust in God’s goodness despite all the evil in the world?
3. Personal Application: How does knowing that God gives us free will help us from thinking that everything that happens in our lives and in the world is God’s will? 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 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/7-the-problems-of-evil-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 11th of February 2025

God proclaims in Isaiah 55:8-9, “ ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’ ” (NKJV).

God’s thoughts are far higher than ours. We cannot even imagine the complexities of God’s plan for history. Given this, why should we expect to be in a position to know just what God’s reasons are for what He does or does not do in various situations?

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com

One way of approaching the problem of evil, based on recognizing how little we know, is called “skeptical theism.” The skeptical theist is one who believes God has good reasons for acting as He does, but given our limited knowledge, we should not expect to be in a position to know just what those reasons are. The skeptical theist is skeptical regarding the human capacity to be aware of or to understand fully God’s reasons relative to the evil in this world. Just because one cannot see, for instance, germs floating in the air all around us does not mean there are no germs floating in the air all around us. The fact that one does not know what God’s reasons are certainly does not mean that God has no good reasons.

The psalmist was deeply troubled by the evil in the world. He looked around him and saw the wicked prospering. Everything seemed unjust and unfair. He had no answers to give. He wondered whether it was even worth believing in and serving God. Until, that is, he looked into the sanctuary.

The sanctuary provides part of the key to the problem of evil—namely, recognizing there is a righteous Judge who will bring justice and judgment in His own time.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-07-the-skeptical-theist/

Daily Lesson for Monday 10th of February 2025

The end of history will come with the triumph of love over evil. But, in the meantime, many troubling questions remain. How can we think and talk about the problem of evil in a way that might be helpful?

Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com

In the narrative, Job had suffered much and had voiced many questions himself about why so much evil and suffering had befallen him. He requested an audience with God in order to seek answers to his questions, not knowing that far more was going on behind the scenes, in the heavenly court (see Job 1:1-22; Job 2:1-13).

God’s response to Job is striking. Specifically, “the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’ ” (Job 38:1-2, NKJV). One translation puts it this way: “Why do you talk so much when you know so little?” (Job 38:2, CEV). And, God adds in Job 38:4, “ ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding’ ” (NKJV).

By His responses to Job, God made it clear to Job that there are many things that Job did not know and did not understand. Like Job, we, too, should humbly recognize that there are many things going on in the world, and behind the scenes, that we know nothing about. The fact that we may not know the answers to our questions does not mean there are no good answers or that one day everything will not be resolved. Until then, we need to trust in the goodness of God, which has been revealed to us in so many ways.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-07-there-are-many-things-we-do-not-know/

In February, the thoughts of  many turn to “love” in connection with Valentine’s day.  It has become known as a day to share flowers, chocolates, cards, gifts, and loving pleasantries, Quite aside from the day’s questionable history, I ask, do Christians need a day to celebrate love? Isn’t it rather an everyday mandate given to us by Jesus Himself in John 13:35 and Mark 12:30-31?

Long  before Christ was born, Israel was instructed in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 to love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves. For more than a thousand years, the Jewish nation would recite the Shema both morning and evening to serve as a reminder of their duty to love God supremely, above anything else. This reminder was designed to keep the hearts of the people focused on the one true God and keep them from self-focus and idolatry in its many manifestations.

The Bible is replete with references to “love,” with  Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 13 perhaps being the most popular. These verses are often recited or referenced in wedding ceremonies. Rather than a checklist of things to accomplish, these attributes are only obtainable through the work of the Holy Spirit. We are naturally self-centered creatures who want to receive love more than we give it, and only through the Holy Spirit can we overcome that tendency. We have been studying about God being love and the many ways he uses to communicate that love, including in discipline, which we might call “tough love.”

It was quite a revelation to me to learn about the different “love languages” as taught by Gary Chapman. To me, it made perfect sense that rarely do both people in a marriage express and experience love in the same way. It really was revolutionary to me to learn that of my spouse, and I suggest you ask your spouse, friend or family member what makes them feel loved. You will probably discover their “love language.” No wonder that, when I would told my wife that I loved her,  she would say, “so what!” At first I thought she was being was rude and insulting, until I learned that she primarily experiences love through quality time and acts of service. Meanwhile my primary love languages are words of affirmation, and acts of service. Using my love language which she didn’t understand had failed to communicate love to her.

So let’s think a little more about “love” and how we express it to others, even to God Himself.

Contrary to common understanding, love isn’t primarily a feeling, or emotion. Rather it’s a principle of action.  It shapes our behavior.

I’m sure that Jesus didn’t feel like going to Calvary. We see that in his struggle in Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:38-44) I believe that Jesus’ encounter with Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguration, as well as His love for humanity, strengthened Him to commit to the Father’s will, in spite of His feelings.

If Jesus had operated out of the feeling or emotion of love, instead of the principle of love, Planet Earth would have been surrendered to Satan. People who believe love to be a feeling or an emotion, will often bail when the going gets tough and the feelings are gone. By contrast, love as a principle of action overrules feelings and fulfills 1 Cor. 13.

In the English language  the word love  is an umbrella term  applied to everything from our pet, pizza, spaghetti, grandma, our parents, siblings, spouse, and children. And love is the word most used in popular spoken English rather than other more precise synonyms.. 

Even in Koine Greek (the common language of the people in New Testament times) three distinct words were commonly used to  cover what we popularly see as “love.”  There’s phileo, a brotherly type of love, to describe the love of Jesus for His disciples or for His friend Lazarus. It is used twenty-five  times in the New Testament and denotes a friendship or emotional kind of love. Philadelphia is derived from it. 

 Storge is familial love that we have for our parents, siblings, our children, and other family members. While the word doesn’t occur in the New Testament, the concept does. The negative form of storge, astorgos is used twice. It means  “devoid of natural or instinctive affection, without affection.”

Agape, the third Greek term for love, is used 106 times in the New Testament  as a noun, and also appears as a verb, agapein, which means “to love.”  Some call it the purest, and highest form of love. It is a love that loves with the whole heart, even the unlovable. It is unmerited or undeserved love, even unreciprocated. It is “love” as a principle. I consider it the John 3:16 type of love.

I believe that it is this totally other-centered agape love that prompted Jesus to allow Himself to be crucified on the cross of Calvary for the sake of a world totally undeserving of it.

Every day can be a celebration of love when we remember the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:5, and the words of Jesus in John 13:35 and Mark 12:30-31. God wants and expects us to reciprocate His love back to him and out to a world that is dying for lack of it. Why? Because he first loved us. (1 Jn. 4:19)

Some believe that the Bible teaches that “all you need is love.” No, that was “The Beatles!” What we need is a faith which works by love (agapēs). (Galatians 5:6) We need to learn to speak the language of “love” in our everyday interactions with our family, friends, and even strangers.

Why was it that the multitudes thronged to Jesus? Could it be, because he spoke the language of love to them? I believe so. When the church learns to speak the language of love like Jesus did, then people will beat a path to our doors. They don’t care how much we know, until they know how much we care.

The Pharisees were great debaters and arguers but they were very weak in love. We can win the argument but lose the relationship and the opportunity to lead people into a relationship with Jesus. We can be so “right” that we’re wrong. “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’” (Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 143.)  In other words, Jesus spoke the language of love to them. It worked then, and will still work today.

Will we show and share Christ’s love with those in our sphere of influence? Will we love them like Jesus loves? Heaven is counting on us.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/love-much-more-than-a-feeling/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 8th of February 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Job 30:26; Matthew 27:46; Job 38:1-12; Psalms 73:1-28; Genesis 2:16-17; Revelation 21:3-4.

Memory Text:

“ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away’ ” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV).

Perhaps the greatest problem facing Christianity is the problem of evil—how to reconcile the fact that God is perfectly good and loving, with the fact of evil in this world. In brief terms, if God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there evil, and so much of it, too?

This is not merely an academic problem but something that deeply troubles many people and that keeps some from coming to know and love God.

“To many minds the origin of sin and the reason for its existence are a source of great perplexity. They see the work of evil, with its terrible results of woe and desolation, and they question how all this can exist under the sovereignty of One who is infinite in wisdom, in power, and in love. Here is a mystery of which they find no explanation.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 492.

Many atheists identify the problem of evil as the reason that they are atheists. But as we will see in this week and in coming weeks, the God of the Bible is entirely good, and we can trust Him—even despite the evil that so infects our fallen world.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 15.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25a-07-the-problem-of-evil/