Key Thought: Israel was by their kind treatment of the marginalized to be a powerful witness to their God and of their faith.
October 30, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 10:1-11..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What here shows that God forgave their sins and reaffirmed His covenant promise?
3. Personal Application: As you look at you response to the Bible standards and the Spirit of Prophecy writings on Christian living and behavior, do you consider your self coicrcumcised in the heart oir stiff necked? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “What is the meaning of the images God uses here in circumcision, the heart, and the stiff-necked?” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Psalm 146:5-10..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is God saying here and what does it mean to us as Christians today?
3. Personal Application: Are we guilty of oppressing people, treating others badly, not giving or fighting for justice? Can we be guilty by not being involved? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “I don’t see how God is protecting the weak, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick or freeing the oppressed. It looks like all these things are just getting worse all over the world.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 1:16; 16:19; 24:17..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What does it mean not to pervert justice or judgment for the stranger, fatherless, widow, or poor?
3. Personal Application: Have you ever experienced what you perceived as injustice because of who you are? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “I think all Christians should be actively involved in promoting and insuring human rights, not only here, but in every country. The rights of women, gays, illegal immigrants, prisoners, all the oppressed should be supported.“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 24:10-15.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does this tell us about borrowing and lending and helping the poor?
3. Personal Application: Are people today more concerned with money and things rather than with people? 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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Read Deuteronomy 24:10-15. What important principles are being expressed here regarding how we are to treat those who are under our control?

Again, we see the Lord’s concern for basic human dignity. Yes, someone owes you something, and it’s time to collect — but show the person a bit of respect, a bit of dignity, will you? Don’t go barging into his place and demand it. Instead, wait outside and let him come and give it to you.  Deuteronomy 24.12-13 seem to say that if some poor soul gave you his garment as “collateral,” you need at least to let him sleep in it overnight. The other verses deal with how one treats the poor who work for him or her, who can be so easily oppressed.

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Don’t oppress them, because in the eyes of God it is a sin, and surely a grievous one too. Again, if Israel were to be a witness, a holy people walking in truth amid a world steeped in error, idolatry, evil, and sin, surely they would have to be kind to the weakest and most marginalized among them. Otherwise, their witness would be nothing.

Read James 1:27-2:11. What is James saying here that reflects what the Lord was telling His people in Deuteronomy? What significance is there in the fact that in these verses James links mistreatment of the poor with the Ten Commandments?

Though nothing in the Ten Commandments themselves directly relates to showing partiality to the rich over the poor, sternly adhering to the letter of the law while at the same time mistreating the poor or needy makes a mockery of one’s profession of faith and any claim to keep the commandments. Loving your neighbor as yourself is the highest expression of God’s law — and this is present truth now as much as it was in the time of James, and as it was when Moses spoke to Israel on the borders of the Holy Land.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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You can view an in-depth discussion of The Stranger in Your Gates in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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This video is produced by the South Pacific Division Discipleship team.

Week 5 _The Stranger in Your Gates_ study this lesson for Oct 30 from SPD Discipleship on Vimeo.

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As believers, we have been called to reflect the character of God. Paul wrote, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). After all, we had originally been made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), an image later defaced by sin. And as we saw, when Moses talked about the power and majesty of God, he also said that God didn’t take a bribe and that He cared about the weak and the outcast. God does this; therefore, we need to do the same, as well.

Read the following texts in Deuteronomy. What is the common theme among them all?

Deuteronomy 1:16

Deuteronomy 16:19

Deuteronomy 24:17

Deuteronomy 27:19

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It’s all but proverbial how the weak, the poor, the outcasts don’t get the same kind of “justice” in most human courts as do those with money, power, and connections. It doesn’t matter the country, the era, the culture, nor how lofty the principles of justice and equity that are enshrined in constitutions or laws or whatever; the reality remains the same: the poor, the weak, and the outcasts almost never get the justice that others do.

That’s what is so remarkable about what the Lord Himself was saying here. This unfairness, which is everywhere else, should not be done in Israel, among God’s people, the ones who are to represent Him to the world. In a sense, to use a term from the modern era, the Lord wanted there to be “equal justice under the law” in ancient Israel.

But this goes even deeper than mere jurisprudence. “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Yes, they knew who the true God was, and they had the correct forms of worship, and they brought the right kinds of offerings. That’s all fine. But in the end, what good was all that if they were mistreating the weak and poor among them? Over and over, in the prophets, the Lord rails against the oppressors of the poor and the needy in Israel. How can you be “holy” and mistreat others at the same time? You can’t, regardless of how strictly you adhere to proper religious rituals.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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