Sunday School Lesson on Choose to Follow God

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Sunday School Lesson on Choose to Follow God

Introduction

A. The Dream Team

The film The Dream Team is a 1989 comedyabout mental patients who meet for group ther-apy. When their psychiatrist takes them on anouting, he witnesses a slaying and is nearly killedby the perpetrators. The group, not knowing whathappened to their doctor, is left in New York Cityalone. They soon learn they are wanted both forthe slaying and for the attempted murder of theirdoctor, who has ended up in a hospital.

The humor results from the need of this"dream team" to grapple with reality. How will they find their way out of the trouble they are in?In our days of psychiatrists and psychologists,support groups, and abundance of self-helpbooks, it sometimes makes us wonder where pre-vious generations got mental and emotional help.What did Christians do in all those centuries be-fore professional Christian counselors camealong?

Once I came across an ancient work entitledConferences. It was written by John Cassian, amonk who lived about AD 365-433. In this book,monastery leaders are portrayed as meeting withCassian in groups to discuss issues of how to livethe Christian life. In other words, they wouldcounsel together for the spiritual benefit of them-selves and for those to whom they ministered.Those with greater spiritual maturity could helpguide others.

Today's lesson also offers us a picture of mem-bers of a group coming together for counseling.Chief among the group members are the futureJewish exiles. The prophet Isaiah writes 100years before the Babylonian exile, but Isaiahknows that the Judeans will find themselves indeep trouble. They will not know where to turn.The counselor, however, is the Lord himself.His wisdom and knowledge are infallible. Weoften wonder, as though in a dream, where toturn in times of trouble. God often uses ourChristian friends who are wise enough to help usdeal with reality. At other times He providesthose with professional training to help. But be-hind any of these counselors must be the wis-dom of the Lord, who alone can bring hope fromdespair.

B. Lesson Background

In last week's text, the Lord sought to shockJudah into repentance. Their acts of worshipwere in vain unless their lives demonstrated in-ward purity and outward righteousness. Isaiah'sministry was a call to repentance. Failure to re-pent meant destruction. Isaiah was told twothings about Judah. First, since his preachingwould fall on deaf ears, destruction would occur.(In fact, it did in 586 tic.) Second, in order tokeep His covenant, the Lord would preserve aremnant of faithful people in spite of this de-struction (Isaiah 6:8-13). This remnant was theexiles surviving the Babylonian captivity, whichended in 539 BC. This week's lesson stresses thatmessage again.

The first section of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, ismostly judgment. The second section, chapters40-66, is mostly blessing; almost all of it is po-etry (except for 66:17-24), which means there is To spend money or exert one's own labor sum-marizes the human pursuit for happiness. TheLord uses a rhetorical question to stress thatthese yield what is not really bread. Whateverthe Judeans are striving for is not food that trulynourishes. It satisfieth not the deepest humanneed.

The command to hearken diligently means tounderstand and heed. The structure of the He-brew indicates that both of the next two state-ments will be the results of obeying Him. First,the readers will eat . . . that which is good. Sec-ond, they will experience delight in the plenty(fatness) of the land.

These images may be taken in a physicalsense, since the future exiles will return physi-cally to "the land of milk and honey" that theLord provides. But as figures of speech the impli-cations are much more profound: godly livingwill bring great spiritual blessings. To take thepromise merely in a physical sense would be tomiss the main message.

B. Benefits (v. 3)

3. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear,and your soul shall live; and I will make aneverlasting covenant with you, even the suremercies of David.

Every parent knows the frustration of givinginstructions and warnings to a child, only tohave the child blithely skip off to do whatever heor she wants to do anyway. That must be howGod feels on occasion. His prophets must feel thesame way as well (compare Ezekiel 33:31, 32).The people will behave sinfully right in themidst of the exile itself! Yet the result of theircoming back to the Lord will be that He willmake an everlasting covenant.

The please the sure mercies of David is quotedin Acts 13:34. There the phrase is applied to theresurrection of the Messiah. The name Davidusually refers to the human king in historicalwritings. David may also stand for his royal de-scendant. However, David is sometimes used by the prophets in an ultimate sense as a title for theMessiah (see Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23, 24;37:24, 25; Hosea 3:5). The next two verses offerclues as to which the Lord intends here.

C. Agent (vv. 4, 5)

4.Behold, I have given him for a witness to thepeople, a leader and commander to the people.The tense of have given does not rule out anevent later than the time of writing; the contextis future. Therefore the historical King Davidcannot be in view. A strictly human king of theline of David could be possible, except that nosuch ruler is ever the cause of the actions inverse 5, below.

Therefore, the name David as used in verse 3(him here in v. 4) seems to refer to the ideal, ulti-mate one: the Messiah. As witness to the love ofGod, the Messiah will make plain God's love toHis people. As leader and commander, the Mes-siah is qualified to rule the people.

5.Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thouknowest not, and nations that knew not theeshall run unto thee, because of the Lamp thyGod, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hathglorified thee.

As we work through our lesson text, rememberthat we are trying to figure out who is speakingand who is being spoken to at every point. Herethe words thou and thee may refer to Zion beingspoken to. If so, then the Lord's future kingdom,redeemed Zion, will call a nation it previouslydid not know. This seems to look forward to thetime when redeemed Zion is the church.

If thee and than refer ultimately to die church,then shalt call refers to the preaching of the gospelto the world by the church, and shall run refers tothe Gentiles' inclusion into the church. From Isa-iah's perspective, this will happen because of theLord thy God. From our perspective, this has in-deed happened and continues to happen.

The phrase for he hath glorified thee probablyalso refers to redeemed Zion and to the church.Isaiah 46:13 predicts the glorification of redeemedZion (Israel; see also Isaiah 61:3). Romans 11:11-24 describes the glorification of the church interms of a restored relationship between God andall believers, both Jewish and Gentile.

We should realize, however, that it is also at-tractive to understand thou as indicating that theLord now turns to speak to "David," meaning theMessiah, while in the presence of Zion. If this isthe case, then it is the Messiah who will call na-tions to the Lord; the nations will run to the Lordbecause He will have glorified His Son (see Acts3:13; Hebrews 1:1-3).

Hebrews 5:5 implies that the Son was glori-fied by the Father. Under this idea, the divineMessiah calls a nation that thou knowest not andnations that knew not thee in the sense of estab-lishing relationships.

The Messiah will indeed have that relation-ship with the Gentiles under the new covenant.That relationship was not really a part of the oldcovenant (Hosea 1:10; 2:23; both quoted in Ro-mans 9:25, 26; see also 1 Peter 2:10).

11. Acceptance Urged(Isaiah 55:6, 7)

A. Seeking Required (v. 6)

6. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,call ye upon him while he is near.

The speaker is now the prophet Isaiah. This isindicated in verse 7 (below), where he refers to"our God." The idea in the verse before us is notthat the readers should seek God before Godmoves away and becomes distant. Rather, theidea is for the readers to seek God while theirhearts are soft and willing to believe. They needto seek Him and grow in their faith.

In Hebrew poetry, the center of a poem oftenis the main point. Isaiah's urge to Zion is thecenter of the chapter. Therefore, this appeal toseek the Lord is the main point.

B. Forsaking Required (v. 7)

7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and theunrighteous man his thoughts: and let himreturn unto the Lou, and he will have mercyupon him; and to our God, for he will abun-dantly pardon.

Isaiah tells Zion that two things are involvedin seeking the Lord. First, the wicked must for-sake his way; that means that unrighteouslifestyles are to be left behind. Second, the un-righteous man must forsake his thoughts: this is achallenge to abandon the internal sins of theheart. These are summarized with the challengeto return unto the Lard. . . and to our God. Theresults of returning to the Lord are twofold: first,the Lord will have mercy upon the one who doesso. Second, the Lord will abundantly pardon.What comfort this must bring the exiles whilethey are suffering! They will be in exile some 70years, without temple or homeland. When thattime comes (in about 100 years from Isaiah's per-spective), many will see no hope of restoration.The years will drag on and on. Well may theywonder, "Has the Lord rejected us forever?"The Lord affirms that there is abundant for-giveness. Even so, every individual outside of Christ today is God's enemy. Once one learns thereality and depth of the life of sin—a life gov-erned by self without God—one asks the samequestion, "Is there no hope for what I have donein rejecting God?" The good news is that there isthe "wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all mysin." IS. question #3, page 374.1

III. Unfailing Word Affirmed(Isaiah 55:8-11)A. Thoughts and Ways (vv. 8, 9)

8, 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.For as the heavens are higher than the earth, soare my ways higher than your ways, and mythoughts than your thoughts.

Clearly the Lord has resumed as speaker be-cause it is the Lord's thoughts that are unsur-passed. That He is speaking to Zion is clearbecause the pronoun your in Hebrew is plural.The fact that God's thoughts are so far beyondours has at least two applications. First, this factcan give us hope when we see no way out oftrouble. God can see a way out when we can't.Second, this fact should make us humble aboutour own ability to know. When we are "sure"that we know the motives of others who havehurt us, we ought to remember that only Godtruly knows the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9, 10).(See question #4. page 374.(

HIS THOUGHTS, AND OURS

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was an Italian im-migrant and nuclear physicist who played an im-portant role in building America's atomic bomb His brilliance was evident early in his career. Hereceived his PhD in 1922 at the age of 21. At hisgraduation ceremony he gave a lecture that putsome of his professors to sleep; it was more intri-cate than they could follow.

He was present at the explosion of the firstatomic bomb on July 16, 1945. Wills others, hewas safely some distance away at the moment ofexplosion. Most of the witnesses were transfixedby the nature of the explosion itself. But Fermiwas focused on determining the amount ofpower that the explosion released. Fermidropped pieces of paper before, during, and afterthe passage of the blast wave. By measuring thedisplacement of lire pieces, he was able to esti-mate the strength of the blast.

We can see the grandeur of God's creation,and that is well and good as far as it goes (Psalm19:1). Yet we can miss the power and force ofHis values if we're not careful. His thoughts andways are indeed far beyond our OW11, and one ofHis highest values is the repentance of the sinnerand the power of forgiveness. Though none of orsaw the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, theimmeasurable power of the cross still reaches us.—J. B. N.

B. Intent and Outcome (vv. 10, 11)10, 11. For as the rain cornett) down, and thesnow from heaven, and returneth not thither,but watereth the earth, and maketh it bringforth and bud, that it may give seed to thesower, and bread to the eater: so shall my wordbe that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall notreturn unto or void. but it shall accomplishthat which I please, and it shall prosper in thething whereto I sent it.

The Lord illustrates the certainty of His wordby referring to ruin and snow from heaven in re-lationship to what gives life on earth. Returned)not thither brings out the point that the precipita-tion does not go back into heavers without hav-ing a useful effect.

Verse 11 is the lesson to be learned from the il-lustration. Precipitation Irons above correspondswith the Lord's Word that goeth forth out of Hismouth. He sends it down to earth through Hisprophets, but His Word does not return to Himwithout effect. Rather, it accomplishes what Heintends. (See question #5, page 3741

Conclusion

A. "You Can't Miss It"

I do not have a reputation in my family for al-ways being able instinctively to find my wayaround while traveling. Since I know this, I (un-like many men) do not have any qualms aboutstopping to ask directions.

However, some people are better at giving di-rections than others. Upon finishing the descrip-tion, he or she may utter those often-heardwords, "You can't miss it." Since on occasion Ihave indeed "missed it," those words do not offerme much comfort!

However, the Lord is saying to the exiles whowill experience His punishment, "If you listen towhat I say, if you give up trusting in your ownways, and if you seek me, then restoration willoccur. Its scope will be beyond anything you canimagine. And this restoration is as certain as myWord: you can't miss it."

His directions are clear: seek Him. This alwaysleads home. This was comfort to the faithfulremnant. It is comfort to all who seek the Lordtoday. No one is too far away to come to theLord. One does not have to be free from sin to dothis (otherwise no one would come). One has tobe willing only to stop demanding to be the bossof one's life and let the Lord be the boss.

B. Prayer

Dear Father, We thank You for being ab-solutely trustworthy and effective. For all thetimes we still struggle wills wanting to run ourown lives apart from You, we ask Your forgive-ness. We, the most defiled, thank You for the re-lationship You have built with us through Christ,the Messiah, in whose name we pray, amen.

C. Thought to Remember

"Behold, what summer of love the Father bathbestowed upon us" (1 John 3:1).

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