Revenge and Forgiveness

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

The long blade of the machete glinted as 21-year-old Wilder swung it over his head.

Image © Pacific Press

His eyes flashed with anger. He aimed for his stepfather’s neck.

At that moment, his stepfather, Alberto Rui Quaresma, raised his arm, and the blade sliced deeply into his forearm.

Alberto spent the next 24 days in the hospital in São Tomé, capital of the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe off the West African coast. He underwent surgery, and doctors put a metal plate in his arm. He angrily plotted revenge. He would get a machete and cut Wilder’s arm, too.

Wilder wasn’t arrested after his biological father pulled some connections. He had attacked his stepfather over a scolding.

Lying in the hospital bed, Alberto noticed that a woman, Maria Rita, came every day to visit her brother, injured in a motorcycle accident, in the same room. He admired her kindness to her brother and announced one day, “I have fallen in love with you”.

“No”, Maria Rita replied. “I don’t want to have a husband. All men should be thrown in the fire”.

Her reaction surprised Alberto, who realized that she was carrying hurt from a past relationship. He could understand. At the age of 44, he had had three common-law wives, and the son of his most recent wife had tried to kill him.

Maria Rita didn’t want to discuss marriage. She changed the subject to God.

“God is love, and God can change your life and make you a new creation”, she said. “God will help you to forget what happened and forgive that boy”.

After being released from the hospital, Alberto saw Maria Rita occasionally on the street. One day she invited him to attend a 40-day revival meeting at her Seventh-day Adventist church.

Alberto was fascinated by the presentations and was baptized five months later. Later, he proposed to Maria Rita, and she accepted.

Today, Alberto, pictured left, is 50 and works as foreman at a cement warehouse. He also is the treasurer, stewardship director, and Sabbath School teacher at his local church.

He is praying for an opportunity to share with Wilder how God changed his life. The two sometimes meet on the street and exchange greetings.

He laughed when reminded that Wilder tried to kill him the last time they had a serious conversation.

“I’m not worried because God is with me”, he said.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Assyrian Captivity”, pages 279-292; “The Call of Isaiah”, pages 303-310, in Prophets and Kings.

“Against the marked oppression, the flagrant injustice, the unwonted luxury and extravagance, the shameless feasting and drunkenness, the gross licentiousness and debauchery, of their age, the prophets lifted their voices; but in vain were their protests, in vain their denunciation of sin”. – Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 282.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

For Isaiah, “the outlook was particularly discouraging as regards the social conditions of the people. In their desire for gain, men were adding house to house and field to field … Justice was perverted, and no pity was shown the poor … Even the magistrates, whose duty it was to protect the helpless, turned a deaf ear to the cries of the poor and needy, the widows and the fatherless …

In the face of such conditions it is not surprising that when, during the last year of Uzziah’s reign, Isaiah was called to bear to Judah God’s messages of warning and reproof, he shrank from the responsibility. He well knew that he would encounter obstinate resistance”. – Pages 306, 307.

“These plain utterances of the prophets … should be received by us as the voice of God to every soul. We should lose no opportunity of performing deeds of mercy, of tender forethought and Christian courtesy, for the burdened and the oppressed”. – Page 327.

Discussion Questions:

Summary: 

The Old Testament prophets were passionate and often angry and upset defenders of the way and will of God to their people. Reflecting the expressed concern of God Himself, this passion included a strong focus on justice for the poor and oppressed. The prophets’ calls to return to God included putting an end to injustice, something God also promised to do in His visions for a better future for His people.

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Read Isaiah 1:15-23; Isaiah 3:13-15; and Isaiah 5:7-8. How would you describe the prophet’s response to what he observes in society around him?

Isaiah’s opening sermon—the first five chapters—is a mix of scathing criticism of the kind of society God’s people had become, warnings of impending judgment in response to their rejection of God and continued wrongdoing, and offers of hope if the people would turn back to God and reform their lives and society.

Isaiah

But perhaps the strongest emotion that comes through his words is a sense of grief. Based on his understanding of who God is and what He wants for His people, the prophet is mourning what has been lost, the countless forgotten people who are being hurt, and the judgment that is to come on the nation.

Isaiah continues this pattern through his prophetic ministry. He urges the people to remember what God has done for them. He also offers these people the hope of what God wants to do for them in the future. Thus, they should seek the Lord now, for this renewed relationship with Him will include repenting of their current wrongdoing and changing the way that they treat others.

In chapters 58 and 59, Isaiah specifically returns to the concern for justice. He again describes a society in which “justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isa. 59:14, NIV). But he also affirms that God is aware of it and that God will rescue His people—the “Redeemer will come” (Isa. 59:20, NIV).

Throughout the book of Isaiah, a significant part of the prophet’s attention is given to proclaiming the coming Messiah, one who would ultimately reestablish God’s reign on earth and would bring justice, mercy, healing, and restoration with Him.

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You can view an in-depth discussion of “The Cry of the Prophets” in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. You may download an MP4 video file, and audio file or a PDF lesson outline from the HopeSS site.

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

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Key Thought: The prophets were focused on justice for the poor and oppressed. The call was to put an end to injustice.

August 3, 2019

1. Have a volunteer read Amos 5:12-15.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does it mean to turn the poor aside from their right?
3. Personal Application: Have you ever had to speak harshly to correct wrong? How do we know when such actions might be appropriate? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “How are Adventists proactive and exerting an influence in society? How do you fight for the rights of the poor? ” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Micah 3:8-12

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What is the link between doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God?
3. Personal Application: Have you ever experienced people in leadership positions using that advantage to gain power or money? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Is it wrong for preachers, prophets, and judges to seek to gain money for their work? Why does God condemn them for getting paid for their work? Is this speaking of bribes and under the table money to advantage someone against another?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 34:2-4.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. Who are the shepherds of Israel, and why is God upset with them?
3. Personal Application: How do we relate to the sick, poor, and oppressed in our community? Is it hard to help people sometimes because they make it hard to help? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “What does it mean that the shepherds didn’t strengthen the diseased, heal the sick, bind up the broken, return the outcasts, or seek the lost? Is this literal or spiritual in application?” How would you reply to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Isaiah 1:17, 23

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. How do we keep our leaders from becoming selfish and greedy which causes a lack of pity and help to the needy?
3. Personal Application: In what ways can we be more aware of and helpful to the fatherless and widowed? 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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