Sabbath School Lesson for February 8-14, 2025
Memory Text: ” ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, now crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ ” Revelation 21:4 NKJV
Even when we discover God’s immense love and sense of justice, there are still questions that haunt us when times get hard. Why, for instance, has God allowed evil to exist in the first place? Especially when times are unbearably difficult for many people, there are those who turn away from God altogether for His apparent inaction when it comes to our suffering.
We would love to have an explanation for why evil has so infected our planet. But if there was an explanation for sin’s existence, it would amount to an excuse for its presence in our lives. Therefore, we must be content to know that it can’t be explained away or justified. It’s just there.
How long are we to endure oppression is also a familiar question posed by many followers of God throughout the Bible. Two things must be remembered though. First, our finite minds can’t comprehend many things in the world; so we shouldn’t expect a satisfactory understanding of so complex an issue as sin and how long it will last.
Instead, we must hang on to the hope God has revealed to us in His word, which includes a final eradication of evil. Someday, God will wipe away every tear we cry for ourselves and for others.
- Sunday: How Long, O Lord?”–the question we long to know: how long must we suffer?
- Monday: “There Are Many Things We Do Not Know”–humility is needed to recognize our limited ability to understand evil
- Tuesday: The Skeptical Theist–the sanctuary is meant to teach us many things about God
- Wednesday: The Freewill Defense–we have misused our freedom of choice
- Thursday: Love and Evil?–force is contrary to the principles of God’s government
Sunday: How Long, O Lord?
Evil can be very bad. We must not trivialize it or ignore its effects. God hates it as much as we do. But there are times when we can’t see an end to our suffering and it becomes very disheartening, even for the most devout person of God.
Many in the Bible, including Job, Jeremiah, Malachi, and David, raised heart-wrenching questions about why and how long we must suffer. We know God is sympathetic to those pleas for mercy and understanding.
His own Son, Jesus, experienced the feeling of abandonment when He cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) And yet, we know that God was very close to Christ in His final suffering. The sky darkened and the earth quaked–unmistakable signs that our Creator was very close indeed and disturbed by our treatment of His Son.
Verses to discuss:
Job 30:26, Jeremiah 12:1, 13:22, Malachi 2:17, and Psalm 10:1
- What was the response of these patriarchs and prophets to the suffering they endured?
- When have you felt a similar desire to question God about some trial you or someone you love were facing?
Matthew 27:46, 51 and Luke 23:44
- Why did Jesus feel forsaken by God as He hung on the cross?
- How do we know God was not absent from the scene?
Monday: “There Are Many Things We Do Not Know”
We can learn a lot about suffering from Job’s story. Job was an honest, praying, righteous individual. But seldom has one faced so many disastrous events in so short a time. Losing his livelihood, his family, and then his own health would certainly make us wonder why he was enduring such enormous trials.
Job wondered as well. How could he not question God about why he was repeatedly experiencing such traumatic events? God’s answer to him was both humbling and revealing. God laid out the creation of the world, with all its complex design and beauty. We can never know all there is to know about the forces of nature around us. We must simply accept and learn to live with them the best we can.
Reading the book of Job helps us understand evil by showing us that there were things going on behind the scenes with God and Satan. Ultimately, Job, and all of us, must wait for better things to come–either now or in the earth made new. Trusting in God’s overall care for us helps us to have hope for something better in the future.
Verses to discuss:
Job 38:1-12 and 42:3
- What kind of questions did God have for Job?
- What was Job’s response to this questioning?
- How does Job’s story help us when we have trials?
Tuesday: The Skeptical Theist
The skeptical theist is someone who has questions about God and why we suffer, but who continues to trust and love God, despite the pain and anguish he may be going through.
Asaph, a Levite singer and prophet in the courts of King David, wrote several Psalms and was an example of someone we would call a skeptical theist. He wrote Psalm 73, which reveals many questions he desired God to answer.
Psalm 73:17 tells us where he found many answers about their enemies and why they triumph at times. He found answers in the sanctuary, which was a place designed to teach us the plan of salvation. It was here that he learned the key to the problem of evil and how God will bring all to justice in His own time and way.
Verses to discuss:
Psalm 73
- In what ways do we still struggle to find answers to questions such as the ones in this Psalm?
- How would the sanctuary have been a source of answers for him (Psalm 73:17)?
- How can we still find solace and comfort in a study of the sanctuary and its symbols today?
Wednesday: The Freewill Defense
One of the things that makes us God’s higher creatures, those made in His image, is our freedom to choose whom we love and want to serve. What a blessing to have that choice. True love and happiness can’t exist without our voluntary consent.
Adam and Eve, the first to inhabit our earth, were given free will from the very start. In Genesis 2:16-17, God warned them that they could eat of every tree in the Garden but one. If they had loved God enough to obey that simple restriction, they would have listened and believed His word and stayed away from the tree of knowledge which would lead to their death.
Sadly, they chose the path of unbelief and rebellion, with the horrific consequence later being the murder of their son Abel. That first murder, and all the death and evil that has followed, lead us to the conclusion that evil is the result of misusing our God-given freedom of choice.
Verses to discuss:
Genesis 2:16-17
- Why did God place this one restriction on Adam and Eve?
- What was the result of their unfortunate choice?
- What do we know about God’s love for us from the fact that we still have a chance for eternal life today?
Thursday: Love and Evil?
The exercise of our free will, which is God’s way to keep love alive, is totally opposite the exercise of force, which is Satan’s way to highjack our love and cause us to worship him. Any kind of worship that doesn’t include choice is motivated by evil forces.
Forced compliance is not representative of the kind of willingly-offered love God desires from His creatures. There is value in human laws that protect our relationships with each other–laws against killing, stealing, and lying, for instance. But often, laws are made that single out or favor one religion over another, and end up telling us how, where, and when to worship. Coercive governments and manmade laws that take away our religious freedom must be avoided, if at all possible.
Only God knows the end from the beginning. He knew the tremendous cost and sorrow that would result from evil running its course. Not just the cost for us, but for Him–in losing His dear Son as a sacrifice to save us from sin. Thankfully, He chose to love us despite our rejection of Him.
Verses to discuss:
Romans 8:18 and Revelation 21:3, 4
- What kind of glory will make all our suffering worth the cost?
- Why have we been given the choice of what our final destiny will be?
Friday: Final Thoughts
The problem of evil is more easily understood with this explanation…
“The inhabitants of heaven and of the worlds, being unprepared to comprehend the nature or consequences of sin, could not then [when Satan was cast out of heaven] have seen the justice of God in the destruction of Satan…some would have served God from fear rather than from love…For the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, he [Satan] must more fully develop his principles, that his charges against the divine government might be seen in their true light by all created beings, and that the justice and mercy of God and the immutability of His law might be forever placed beyond all question.” ~Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 42, 43.
Next Week: Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence
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