Concordia Adult Bible Class

When the Israelites are in Egypt, they are not only oppressed, they are disparaged. When sin oppresses us and people disparage us, we can trust that God is right there, working for our rescue and good!

After Moses grows up, God appears to him in a burning bush. God first reveals to Moses who He is before He gives something to Moses to do. In order for us to do the right things in our lives, we must first become intimately familiar with who God is so we trust Him to have our best interests at heart.

The story of Moses’ birth is one that is fraught with peril. Yet, God rescues one man so that, through him, God can rescue many men. Likewise, when Christ is born, God rescues Him from the murderous intents of Herod (cf. Matthew 2:13-15) so that through one rescued man, God can rescue many men!

Solomon concludes his book by inviting us, instead of learning the hard way, to trust and obey what God has revealed. Solomon has learned the hard way and does not want us to fall prey to his same mistakes. This book, then, though it can at times seem depressing, is ultimately written in love for those who will read it.

Our culture loves and desires money. Greed, however, will never be satisfied. It will always leave you wanting more. Being content with what you have is key to fulfillment!

Some people center their lives around their careers. They define themselves by what they do. Solomon says such a path is folly. Defining yourself by your work often leads to refusing to trust God for rest. And our work, for the most part, simply does not last. Only God’s work endures, which is why we trust in Him.

Some people can be educated beyond their intelligence! Learning about complex mysteries without understanding the simple arc of life and death only results in foolish, because such learning fails to answer the most fundamental foundations and fears of people’s lives.

Many people think that life consists of chasing your passions, because we believe that our passions can lead to pleasure. Solomon reminds us that chasing our passions, when our passions are not formed by God, will only lead to pain.

Does life actually have a purpose? Is history headed somewhere? It can feel as though we can be caught in a cycle, doing the same things over and over again. These cycles, at the same time they can be cumbersome, can also be blessed.

One of the most basic questions of our existence is this: what is the meaning of life? In Matthew 25, Jesus reminds us that even seemingly menial meaningless tasks take on great significance when we come to understand that by serving and loving others, we are really serving and loving Christ.

The saws say, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” or, “A leopard can’t change his spots.” With Christ, however, real and lasting change is possible. If Christ can take a person from death to life in salvation, He can also help us fight nagging addictions and habits to His glory and to our benefit.

The prophet Jeremiah was known as “the weeping prophet” because his ministry was so difficult. Though, in our culture, we try to avoid pain as much as possible, pain can have a purpose in God’s Kingdom. If God can use the pain of His Son to save the world, He can use our pain to touch the lives of others with His truth.

We can be enslaved by guilt to the sin of our past. Yet, no matter how bad our sin may look to others or feel to us, the promise of the gospel is this: sin has been overcome by Christ! In John 21, Jesus walks Peter through his sin to forgive him of his sin. Jesus can do the same thing with us!

Achan’s lie hurts not only Achan, but the whole Israelite community. To love someone is to tell the truth, even when the truth embarrasses us, or is tough for them to hear.

In Jesus’ parable, a judge gives a woman what she wants because she won’t stop bothering her and it irritates him! Jesus promises that, no matter how many times we “bother” God, He will never become irritated with our pleas!

It is easy to be rude when someone angers you. But rudeness only ruins relationships! When we are tempted to be rude, we should instead forgive someone for whatever it is that is tempting us toward rudeness.

It was envy that got Jesus killed. The religious leaders were jealous that Jesus was smarter than them and had a more devoted following than them. Their envy led to death. Envy always kills – it kills joy, it kills fulfillment, and, many times, it kills achievement, because it’s so busy complaining about what it doesn’t have that it forgets to grow into what it could have.

Saul was not patient in waiting for Samuel to make a burnt offering and give him a word from the Lord. Because of Saul’s lack of patience, Israel’s kingship was lost to his family. Impatience results in loss. This is why God is so patient with us – because He wants to keep us (cf. 2 Peter 3:9)!

It can be scary to witness to the Christian faith! Jesus’ frank witness to who He was got Him crucified. Sometimes, we need to tell the truth, even if it is uncomfortable or frightening. Like Jesus, being brave should never mean being obnoxious. But it can mean telling the truth, even when the truth will cost us.

Jesus knows that sometimes a pointed question can be just the thing needed to open a deeper conversation. When Jesus asks the disabled man by the pool, “Do you want to get well?” He is opening up a conversation about what this man believes. Does he believe, superstitiously, that some magic pool can heal him, or is he looking for healing from the Son of God? What questions can we ask to identify people’s spiritual beliefs and needs.