Bible Class Lessons

BIBLE CLASS LESSONS

YEAR 1

LESSONS 21 - 40

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS

Lesson 21 / Isaiah
Aim: / To show that God loves His people and is true to His covenant promise to save His own for all eternity and to judge those who do not believe.
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: Isaiah lived during the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC. When Isaiah was young both Judah and Israel were going through a time of prosperity. Samaria fell in 722 BC, and that was the final end of the kingdom of Israel. Isaiah prophesied over the reigns of four kings, the fourth being Hezekiah, to whom the prophet was loyal despite disagreeing with his desire to forge alliances with other kings.

1. Isaiah reminds God’s people that they are chosen, reared by God to be His own, and that their rebellion is anathema to Him (1:2-4). Their religious ordinances give God no pleasure (1:11), yet He still holds out the offer of forgiveness to His people (1:18ff).

1. That scenario sums up much of Isaiah’s prophecy – the fact that God’s people are chosen, that they have rebelled, and that He remains faithful to his covenant promises (Ch 3 & 4).

1. Chapter 6 describes Isaiah’s call to service. Note his realisation of unworthiness in the presence of the Lord (6:5), and the cleansing that is made available (6:6-7). Isaiah expressed repentance but he cannot cleanse himself. God sends His angels to cleanse him. His call follows immediately upon his cleansing. God chose His servant, brought him to repentance, cleansed him from his sin and then called him into service. This is the pattern to which the Lord works in the hearts of His people, although each person’s experience is different in detail.

1. Through Isaiah the Lord shows that He is judge of all the earth, not just of His chosen people (Chapter 8ff, 34).

1. Chapters 38-55 speak of the One who is to come, as do other shorter passages in the prophecy (e.g. 9:1-7, 11). The Saviour is seen as the Suffering Servant, most especially in chapter 53. This chapter describes in detail what salvation cost Almighty God, and how His plans were laid in eternity.

1. Chapter 56 indicates that salvation wrought by the Suffering Servant will extend beyond Judah. ‘I will gather still others to them beside those already gathered’ (v 8). Just as God’s judgement extends beyond the borders of Judah to all the world, so His offer of salvation extends to all who will believe.

1. Chapter 56 moves on from the Suffering Servant to the Anointed Conqueror. Just as God’s judgement is inevitable, so his day of redemption is secure. Chapter 63:3 moves from one to the other. ‘I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground. I will tell of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised …’ Judgement and mercy go together for they both have their origins in God.

1. It is worth noting the accuracy with which Isaiah’s prophecies have been realised historically in relation to Israel and Judah, and specifically in relation to the birth and death of Jesus. It is a worthwhile exercise to compare the details of His birth (referenced above) and His death in chapter 53 with the accounts of the Lord’s nativity and crucifixion.

1. The prophecy has been helpfully divided by Rev. Alex Motyer into three sections: the book of the King (chapters 1-37), where we see God’s rule and judgement over all nations; the book of the Servant (chapters 38-55), where we see the plan of salvation, and the book of the Anointed Conqueror (chapters 56-66) where we see what is yet to come of final and certain judgement and final and glorious victory.

Activities: Complete the worksheet.

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS

Lesson 22 / Jeremiah and Ezekiel / Jeremiah 13
& Ezekiel 4
Aim: / To show that God loves his people even when he severely disciplines them.
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: Jeremiah and Ezekiel lived at the same time. They lived at a time when God’s people were defeated by their enemies and sent into exile. This catastrophe comes on Judah in three waves over a period of twenty years. Jeremiah prophesies in Jerusalem whilst Ezekiel is one of the exiles living in the Babylonian empire.

1. Fundamental to an understanding of this part of Israel’s history is the key concept of the covenant God made with his people. Covenants were made between a king and his subjects. He promised to protect them and they promised to obey him. God made a covenant with Abraham which was to cover all his descendants (Genesis 17). He promised to be their God, take them as His people, give them a land to live in, bless them and bless all nations through them. They had to obey God and demonstrate this by accepting the sign of circumcision.

1. Later God renewed the covenant with His people at Sinai (Exodus 19:5-6). There Moses was given the law. There He renewed His commitment to bless them and to give them the promised land.

1. Centuries later God renewed the covenant with King David. There he further showed that the full blessing would come through the descendants of David. In the light of the New Testament we know that King David’s greater Son was Jesus, the Saviour of the whole world. Through Jesus Christ all the promises made to Abraham, Moses and David would be fulfilled in ways more wonderful than anyone had imagined.

1. However, the history of Israel was not one of obedience but of rebellion. Time and time again they forgot God. Each time God brought them back to himself. This was seen, often dramatically, in the incident of the golden calf at Sinai, during the time of the judges and throughout the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah. God sent His prophets to warn His people. Sometimes they listened. Mostly they did not.

1. At the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel sin had become so deeply rooted in the life of the nation that God had to act decisively and drastically. The Babylonian army invaded in 605 BC and carried away some of the people to Babylon. Again the same happened in 597 BC and 587 BC. This last time Jerusalem was totally destroyed. Jeremiah was one of the few not taken into exile while Ezekiel had been taken away early on.

1. But God could not forget his promise made to Abraham. His covenant was permanent. He would punish the Babylonians, change his people and bring them back to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 25:11-12). God’s eternal plan could not be upset, even by His disobedient people. The promised Messiah did come and the Kingdom of God was set up.

1. Jeremiah had a very difficult task. He had to tell his people, whom he loved very much, that they were going to be punished for their sins. He was often accused of being a traitor as he told the people of Judah they should hand themselves over to the king of Babylon to avoid being destroyed by him. God had brought this disaster on them and they could not escape. He sometimes acted out his message as in chapter 13.

1. Ezekiel lived with a work party on the Chebar canal. He often acted out his message which told the people in exile the same as Jeremiah was telling those still left in Jerusalem. There were false prophets who promised God would deliver Jerusalem from the Babylonians and those already in exile would be able to go back home. Ezekiel denounced these messages as lies and emphasised that Jerusalem would be destroyed.

1. However unpopular, God’s message of punishment for sin must still be made clear to all. Salvation comes through confession and repentance.

Activities: Complete worksheet

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS

Lesson 23 / Malachi / Malachi
Aim: / To understand the importance of a right relationship with God and its outworking in daily life.
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: Malachi is the last prophet in the Old Testament and has important lessons for us today. An understanding of the historical context helps us learn from this book.

1. Malachi lived at the time of Ezra, who came to Jerusalem in 458 BC, and Nehemiah who followed in 445 BC. His prophecies probably predate Nehemiah’s period as governor in Jerusalem.

1. The Babylonian empire that had destroyed Jerusalem was conquered by the Persians. Cyrus initiated a policy of encouraging the exiled Jews to return to their own land. Over a period of some decades groups of Jews did return and set up home again in their ancestral lands. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them to rebuild the temple. Malachi’s ministry came to the people more than half a century later. The city of Jerusalem was still largely ruined and its walls still destroyed.

1. God’s love for his people involved choices. God chose them rather than any others. They were to choose to serve Him rather than any other god.

1. After the first flush of enthusiasm in rebuilding the temple the people settled into a daily routine of getting what they could for themselves. They were religious on the surface, offering sacrifices at the temple without putting their hearts into it. Malachi denounced them for cheating God by not paying all the tithes for the support of the temple worship (Malachi 3:8) and by bringing the weak of the flock as sacrifices rather than offering the best to God (Malachi 1:6-8). The priests were also to blame in this devaluing of the temple worship. We, too, have to ask ourselves if our heart is in our worship.

1. Their choices came down to practical details in everyday living. Malachi had to rebuke them for their hard hearted attitude to the poor, for their dishonesty and lies and also their unfaithfulness to their wives (Malachi 3:5). It is the same for us today. How we live in the details of daily life says a lot about the state of our hearts before God.

1. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets. The people of his day were probably confused about God’s plan. The exile in Babylon and their current position as a weak province in the Persian empire made some doubt God’s intentions. But some were faithful and would be kept as treasure by God (Malachi 3:16,17). After him there would be a period of about 400 years before the Messiah came to Bethlehem. During Malachi God’s people had to wait patiently for the fulfilment of the promises made through the prophets.

1. Malachi could look back on a long line of God’s messengers who spoke to the people, always warning them about their sinful ways and always reminding them that God would be true to his promises. Throughout it all, there runs a thread that does not become clear until Christ came. The prophecy ends with a promise that Elijah (John the Baptist) would come before the Messiah to prepare the hearts of the people, and a solemn warning of God’s anger directed at those who would not repent.

Activities: Complete the worksheet.
LESSON 24 IS A REVISION OF THE LESSONS ON THE PROPHETS USING THE PREVIOUS NOTES

TIME TO TALK

Lesson 25 / The Prophets
Aim: / To discuss subjects raised in the lessons on the prophets.
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: The prophets brought up some interesting subjects, but were they just for long ago and far away? Do they have anything to say to us today?

1. Ask members of the class to read the comments made on the front page of the worksheet. Take them individually with time for discussion in between.
2. The first comment tackles some interesting topics, for example, we are Christians because we live in a ‘Christian’ country. You could remind the students of God’s words of judgement, spoken through the prophets, against those who disobeyed him, even if they were from the nation that was his chosen people. The comment also raises the issue of God ‘understanding us’ in a way that is taken to mean that he understands our failings and failures and will let us off with them. What is meant by a ‘Christian’ country anyway? That is a good subject for discussion as we often assume that the UK is in some way a Christian country, when it long ago left that behind, if it ever really was true.
3. The second comment raises the issue of God’s judgement not being real. How can a God of love also be a judge? Point out that it IS hard to understand Scripture’s apparent paradoxes but that we have to accept them because they are in God’s Word and God is Truth, therefore they must be true because God cannot tell lies. ‘The God of all the earth does right’ even when we can’t begin to understand. The second comment also suggests you cannot believe in heaven and yet find yourself there when you die, the ultimate wonderful surprise. Try to get the young people to express the ridiculousness of this. Only those whose hearts are right with God will be in heaven, even though there will be surprises there for us as we don’t know what is in the heart of man.
4. The third comment raises issues from both Isaiah and Jonah. God calls all his chosen people into Christian service, and each one of us is called to pass on the good news about the Lord Jesus in some way or another. Point out that this need not be in Africa or India, but in their own classroom or café, within their own groups of friends. Accept that this is really hard. Try to help the young people to discuss Jonah’s reaction – running a mile (many miles!) to get away from doing God’s will because he thought the people to whom he was being sent didn’t deserve the opportunity of repentance. Do we pick and choose who we think should be Christians and discount others we see as unsuitable? Compare Jonah with Isaiah who was willing to go wherever God sent him with the words he was given to speak.
5. There are four other discussion topics on the back of the worksheet that should help to open up subjects. If the young people are slow to speak, you could suggest that they act the parts of a group of friends sitting in a youth club discussion the Christian faith, with one of them trying to be a missionary. Try to get them to relax and be themselves as they do this.

Activities: Complete worksheet

PERSONAL RELIGION

Lesson 26 / Prayer / Matthew 6:5-15
Aim: / To learn from Jesus’ teaching on prayer
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: Begin by exploring how we relate to one another. Think for a while about what makes for good personal relationships, especially listening and speaking. Go on to explain that we will be looking at how we can talk with God.
1. It is an amazing fact that God hears prayer. We are so used to it that we often fail to realise what a privilege prayer is. God is real. God is personal. He made us in his image so we can have a personal relationship with him. We can speak to him and be sure he will hear us. We are not alone even at the worst of times. He is always there. Prayer is “the highest activity of the soul”. Man is at his greatest when he is on his knees before God. Jesus was a man of prayer. It clearly was important to him and He took time to teach His disciples about prayer.
2. Jesus starts by saying how not to pray. First we must avoid hypocrisy. We are not to pray so as to draw people’s attention to ourselves. The Pharisees prayed like that to get praise from men. Secondly, we must avoid simply repeating words without meaning. Some other religions use prayer wheels or prayer flags. Some ‘Christians’ use prayer beads. These look on prayer as something mechanical we do to please God and get his attention. We do not have to force God to listen to us (Mat 6:5-7). It is not wrong to repeat prayers which have been written down by others, and certainly not wrong to think about what we will say before we pray. But it is insulting to God to make prayer some kind of magic formula that enables us to make Him do what we want. When we pray we must mean what we say.
3. Jesus then goes on to tell us how to pray. Unless we are taking part in a prayer meeting with others, we should go somewhere private where we can be alone with God, where all that matters is what God hears and what he thinks of our prayers. (Mat 6:6)
4. Jesus then gives us a model for prayer (Matt 6:9-13). We start with ADORATION by remembering who God is.He is our Father and also the high and holy One who lives in eternity. God’s glory matters more than anything else. He knows what we need before we ask and is able to do much more than we ask or even dream of.
5. The Lord’s Prayer goes on to SUPPLICATION, asking for six things - three with regard to God and three with regard to ourselves. We start with God as we always should. a) “Hallowed be thy name”. We want everyone everywhere to know God as He has revealed Himself to us in Christ. b) “Thy kingdom come”. We ask that the Kingdom of God which came with Christ two thousand years ago and exists in the hearts of his followers today will come fully. c) “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. We wish to see God’s rule extended over the whole earth with all evil banished.

1. The three petitions for ourselves ask for daily bread, forgiveness for sin and protection from temptation. It is right and proper that we ask for the things we need in this life. It reminds us that we are not self-sufficient but that every good and perfect gift comes down from above. Our spiritual needs are of greatest importance. CONFESSION and forgiveness is vital. Recognition that we have a spiritual enemy who is too strong for us should drive us frequently to our knees to ask for God’s help in fighting temptation.
2. Someone once summarised prayer as ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Although thanksgiving is not mentioned explicitly in the Lord’s Prayer, it is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture.
3. There is a final solemn warning that we can only expect mercy if we show mercy. We must forgive others if we wish God to forgive us.

PERSONAL RELIGION

Lesson 27 / Bible Reading / Psalm 119
Aim: / To show how important it is to feed on God’s Word and how to go about studying the Bible.
Materials: / Bible, pens/pencils, worksheets
Introduction: Start with a short discussion on how we know something we are told is true.

1. The canon of our OT was determined by the time Jesus was teaching in Palestine. There were other Jewish books (apocrypha) which some Christian traditions have in their Bibles today. Our Old Testament was Jesus’ Bible. The NT canon was fixed when the Church recognised the clear divine inspiration of the books we have in our NT today. There were other false gospels, some made notorious by those who talk of a conspiracy by the Church to suppress opinions the Church leaders were not happy with. These books were written much later and are clearly less reliable.
2. The Bible was written originally in Hebrew and Greek with a little Aramaic. It was written over centuries by men who varied in their education, their cultural setting and their temperaments. Yet it is all God’s Word.
3. Jesus valued the Scriptures. He read them publicly. He used them to resist the Devil. He quoted from them frequently as he taught. He said about the Bible, “the Scriptures cannot be broken” and “Your word is truth”).
4. The foundation principle for approaching Scripture is to be found in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed ...” The Bible is not a collection of human wisdom. It is not the best of human effort to seek after God. It is God speaking to man. It is inspired in the sense that God has spoken (the Greek is “theopneustos”=”God-breathed”). He has chosen not to be a remote and silent God. We often fail to realise just how great is our privilege in having God’s will recorded for us in written form. Add to that the promise of the Holy Spirit to enable us to understand the message and we are truly privileged indeed. The Bible is entirely trustworthy. You can stake your life on what the Bible teaches.
5. It was communicated through men prepared by the Holy Spirit. It was not dictated to them nor presented to them as a vision of a heavenly original. They wrote with their own styles and in the context of their own cultures but under the control of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).
6. The following suggestions might help in making good use of the Bible.

• Never lose sight of the main purpose of Scripture. “The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism)
• Always approach the Bible with humility and prayer.
• Look at each text in its context, i.e. as part of the teaching of the passage it belongs to.
• Compare Scripture with Scripture. One text cannot contradict what another teaches. Use different translations if that helps.
• Plan to make sure there is a time each day when you can be alone with the Bible. There are many useful schemes (such as SU notes) to help with regular Bible reading.
• Try to memorise Scripture and think of how to put its teaching into practice.

7. Psalm 119 is all about God’s Word. It is an acrostic poem where every verse in each section starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Every verse except two of them contains a word (law, statutes, rules, testimonies etc,) that refer to God’s Word.
Activities: Complete the worksheet. Investigate the work of Bible translators today.

PERSONAL RELIGION