THEME: JUSTICE DEFINED
TEXT: EXODUS 23:1-9
MEMORY VERSE: “Do not follow the crowd in
doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by
siding with the crowd.” — Exodus 23:2 (NIV)
LESSON AIMS: After participating in this lesson, each
student will be able to:
1.
List several “do nots”
that characterize godly interpersonal behaviour.
2.
Predict some results of
keeping God’s commands.
3.
Identify the command
that he or she has the hardest time keeping and make a plan for change.
INTRODUCTION
After the flood, God covenanted with all
creation never to destroy the earth again by water (Genesis 9:9-17). Sin would
come back, but repeating a cycle of destructive floods to bring renewal could
not be the permanent answer. Thus God committed himself to bring permanent
peace and order to a world made violent and chaotic by sin.
God’s solution began with making Abraham and
his descendents into a special people through whom all nations would be blessed
(Genesis 12:1-3). Before he could do this, however, this people would be
enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. During that time, God increased their number
and prepared the then-current occupants of the Promised Land for judgment (Genesis
15:13-16).
After delivering his people from Egypt with
a show of great power, God declared them to be his “treasured possession” and
“a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5, 6). If the Israelites
were to be a kingdom of priests, they first had to order their lives according
to God’s principles.
This “holy cultivation”
would provide the proper soil through which the Messiah could come. In this
light, it is a mistake to view God’s laws for Israel as a legalistic formula to
achieve a form of righteousness by means of good works. Rather, these laws were
God’s means of forming a special people who would get the world’s attention by
their faithfulness to God’s will. God’s laws cover a wide range of topics.
Today’s passage focuses on the everyday practice of justice.
[Please
note that you are free to reproduce this lesson for your Sunday school classes.
The talk points (in red prints) are to help your
discussions.]
A. ALLIANCES –
Exodus 23:1-2
1. How should you respond
if a fellow employee asks you to say you saw him at his workstation at a time
when you did not? (Dealing with peer pressure; Dealing with
guilt trips; Avoiding rationalization; Romans 12:2.)
2. How do we teach our children and
grandchildren to avoid following a crowd in doing wrong? (Peer pressure issues; Media influence issues; Deuteronomy
6:7; Proverbs 22:6.)
B. COMPASSION –
Exodus 23:3-5
1. What
are some ways to apply this verse in a non-agricultural context of the
twenty-first century? (Next-door neighbours; Co-workers;
Fellow church members.)
C. JUSTICE
– Exodus 23:6-9
1. How
should the fact that we were once strangers and aliens in the land of sin
affect how we treat others? (Treatment of fellow
Christians; Treatment of nonbelievers, those still held captive by sin.)
2. How
can our church do better at extending hospitality to the “aliens” who show up?
(Spiritual hospitality; Physical hospitality; Matthew
10:16.)
CONCLUSION
Hindsight makes it easy to see how Israel
should have witnessed God’s justice to the world. Israel was a God-chosen
people that had to enforce a God-given legal code throughout her God-chosen
territory. It is a bit more difficult to discern how the church should best
represent God’s justice in concrete ways today.
As God sends us throughout the world to make
disciples, we realize that our primary identity is not tied to a particular
nation inhabiting a specific location. Even so, the church can and must reflect
God’s justice. The apostle Peter quoted Exodus 19:6 to support his claim that
the church, like Old Testament Israel, possesses a distinct identity: “But you
are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to
God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).
In this way the church continues Israel’s
witness to God’s justice. When we order our lives accordingly, we serve as
God’s sign to the world that its twisted versions of justice stand under his
supreme judgment.
PRAYER
Lord God, we thank you for so loving this
world that you refuse to abandon us to our own faulty visions of justice. We
thank you for entrusting your people with your laws and your teachings
regarding the shape of true justice. Help us to discern how we ought to live
this out in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
THOUGHT TO REMEMBER
Order your life
according to God’s justice.
NEXT WEEK: NEXT WEEK: JUNE 10, 2012: LIVE AS GOD’S
JUST PEOPLE – Leviticus 19
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