Theme: Grace
Background (this is the seventh of 39 lessons)
The book of Joshua was the first intermediate Bible lesson, and the two most important things to remember from the book of Joshua are (1) how the people all said, "AMEN" and (2) agreed not to be afraid of sacrificing unintentional sin even when people around them were sacrificing intentional sin. The next 30 lessons teach The Pattern of Sound Teaching by teaching 30 lessons to explain the difference between intentional and unintentional sin, so we can line our witness testimony up with the Chief Cornerstone by sacrificing unintentional sin.
Learning Objective for Joshua:
I can be good when I mix with people who are denying God's grace and seeking prosperity.
Essential Questions:
Can I be good?
Can I accept God's grace if I am chasing prosperity?
How can I align my witness up with the Chief Cornerstone's, Jesus, sacrifice?
Define Terms:
Prosperity -
Tolerance -
Wretched -
book of Judges - Lesson
Students will read pages 12-15 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.
After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"
The Issue:
The book of Joshua said, "Fear the Lord." This is because people who do not fear the Lord will serve their desires. Now we are moving into the book of Judges to see what happens when people stop fearing the Lord. After students read pg. 12-15 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching, they will understand how the Israelites would turn away from God and mix with the people committing intentional sin. Then, when the Israelites would turn to God and ask for forgiveness, God would rise up a judge, and punish the people who were committing intentional sins and protect the Israelites. After reading pages 12-15 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching, questions to ask students: What is prosperity? Can you accept God's grace if you are chasing prosperity? How will Satan try and tempt people with prosperity? Why did the Israelites cry?
Students will read Judges 2:10, "And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." and realize that when a generation fails to remember what God has done for them, they will not learn the word of God, or know what God has promised. We have to remember that God will still do what He promised to do even if we do not do what we promise to do. The next generation in the book of Judges did not remember what God had promised. This is when the people would begin to sacrifice intentional sin with the Gentiles and then they would be punished by God. Then they would turn back to God and repent. Then, God would rise up a Judge and the people would sacrifice unintentional sin. It is important for each generation to remember the promises of God, so they can teach them to the next generation.
Students read a story about Micah to learn about how when the Israelites forgot about the miracles the Lord performed for them, the Israelites would mix God's grace with the corrupt nations that had faith in serving false gods, and a prosperity message. Because the people who served false gods were so mean, the Israelites would have an ah-ha moment and realize that God's law (the law of Moses) was given to the Israelites to protect them from evil people.
The Israelites had a pattern where they would turn away from God and do crazy things, and then the Israelites would be oppressed by the people that they were mixing with. Then the Israelites would turn to God because the Israelites would be severely oppressed by the people who were not under the law of Moses. When the Israelites would humble themselves and mourn intentional sin, God would rise up a judge and punish the people who were oppressing the Israelites. The Israelites would then follow the judge. The Israelites realized that the law of Moses was to protect them. Today when the world goes crazy, craziness becomes the law. There are stories in the Bible of twelve judges who rose up to help the people. Students are to read the following story about Micah.
The biggest problem in the book of Judges was stated, "Every man did what was right in his own eyes."
The Israelites had twelve messages of miracles with a judge where God protected the people. However, the Gentiles had twelve messages of Gentile blood being shed. With each of the twelve judges, the Israelites were becoming crazier. When this happens, the world will go crazy, and then craziness becomes the law.
Do you have inner peace when you are chasing prosperity or accepting God's grace?
When the world goes crazy, how does this affect the laws that say what is right or wrong?
What happens when people who are chasing prosperity make our laws?
We have to make laws that are embedded with justice for all people to give people faith to sacrifice revenge and forgive others. When justice becomes injustice, this takes away hope, and the people who are committing unintentional sin will become wretched and begin to fight back with intentional sin. When we look at the sacrifice Christ made, we are being taught how to sacrifice. We are now to live among intentional sin and not separate from it. This includes us being able to forgive sin. However, we should not confuse tolerance with forgiveness. When someone commits intentional sin, they always hurt another person. This is why it is important to control intentional sin. How can we know the difference between intentional and unintentional sin? In the book of Judges, the main problem was how every man did what was right in his own eye. In other words, each person was defining intentional sin according to his own definition.
Activity:
We are back to our initial question: How can the creation know what the Creator wants? Students will then take on the role of a creator. Twelve sheets of paper, tape, and books are needed for this. Students will watch the following video again. Then they will be put in groups and decide on which structure they will design for their group. Each group will be given a piece of paper and pencil and they will design how they can use 12 sheets of paper to build a structure like in the video. The goal is to create a structure that will hold the most books. In a later lesson, groups will then test the structures to see who designed the structure to hold up the most books in the lessons that continue this horizontal teaching pattern to be vertical. Students will get into groups and test the structure during (lesson 7 out of 39) in the book of Judges, (lesson12 out of 39) in the book of Ruth, (lesson17 out of 39) in the book of 1 Samuel, (lesson 22 out of 39) in the book of 2 Samuel, (lesson 27 out of 39) in the book of 1 Kings, (lesson 32 out of 39) in the book of 2 kings. Today students will each look over the structures they designed in lesson 7; then, the groups will agree on one structure that they will build together in lesson 12. Then in lessons 17, 22, 27, and 32 groups will begin to test their creation to see who can stack the most books on the structure that they created. Some groups will go first on the 17th lesson and some will go in later lessons. However, groups are not allowed to change their structure once a group goes. We will video each group as they videoed the group below.
As we designed structures, God designed us. The relationship between the Creator and creation is not easy to understand. Does the tower understand that it is supposed to hold up books? How can God teach us to enter into a covenant relationship? How can the creation understand the Creator?
BLOG
When you do not see eye to eye with another person, you should not fear doing what is right. When faced with a tough decision, God can take our burden. We can be still when we do not know how to react. For the blog look in the word of God and post one Bible verse about being still.
Next Lesson:
What does it look like when everyone tolerates everyone's intentional sin? When the world is crazy the laws of the world reflect crazy. By the end of the book of Judges, this is what their world was: lawless! The people were becoming wretched. The people asked the prophet, Samuel, for a king. The people wanted a king who would teach them because the book of Leviticus clearly states that a king would teach and govern the people with the law of Moses.
The next book, lesson eight, 1 Chronicles, teaches us to Awaken to know that we need to live in a city built on God's grace, or the people who are saying AMEN to the word of God will be made wretched by the people who are not saying AMEN to the word of God.
By the end of the book of Judges, people were no longer saying AMEN to the law of Moses, and crazy was the new standard. The next lesson to be taught in The Pattern of Sound Teaching is that King David awoke people to look for a different type of city that was not built with prosperity but was built with grace. The next book lists the generation of people who had faith that God would protect them, and also includes the prayer of Jabez where people were awakened to look for a city that had no borders.
"Do not confuse toleration for forgiveness." ~ Melody
"The main thought is when you do not see eye to eye with someone else, make sure you are at peace with the way you judge them and do not become wretched." ~ Melody
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