May 24 2020: Repent of Injustice Jeremiah 22:1-10 — Sunday School Made Simple

[Music] how are we treating immigrants hi I'm dr. Laverne Talbert welcome to Sunday school made simple the fastest-growing online community of Christian education teachers and students of the word thank you for joining us as we continue to explore the Word of God using the precepts for living commentary which is based on the International Uniform lesson series remember to ring the bell at the bottom of this video to subscribe to our show so that you don't miss out on any new lessons and as a teacher why not be equipped so that your students don't merely download information but actually receive revelation subscribe to precepts for living online.com for complete lesson plans and additional resources and when you subscribe you'll have access to precepts on your tablet phone or laptop socata precepts for living online.com and get your resources today each week we make Sunday school simple with an easy-to-understand format the text for you students of the word and teaching tips for those of you who teach are you ready let's pray father forgive us for our mistreatment of the immigrants we pray for your wisdom in our individual contexts in Jesus name Amen we're continuing the Spring Quarter entitled justice and the prophets focusing on Old Testament prophets and God's justice this final unit of lessons explores ways that people are called to God's work of justice through four biblical prophets the lesson title today is repent of injustice which continues the analysis of Jeremiah's prophecies concerning God's judgment against injustice and called to act justly let's explore the text with our lesson aim by the end of the lesson we will recognize or decide that the Covenant relationship between God and His people requires justice repent for injustice and seek to deliver the oppressed and become active agents of deliverance for the oppressed let's read our first set of verses from Jeremiah chapter 22 verses one through five and I'm reading in the New Living Translation this is what the Lord said to me go over and speak directly to the king of Judah and say to him listen to this message from the Lord you king of Judah sitting on David's throne let your attendance and your people listen to this is what the Lord says be fair-minded and just do what's right help those who have been robbed rescue them from their oppressors quit your evil deeds do not mistreat foreigners orphans and widows stop murdering the innocent if you obey me there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem the king will ride through the palace gates and chariots and on horses with his parade of attendants and subjects but if you refuse to pay attention to this warning I swear by my own name says the Lord that this palace will become a pile of rubble what's important to know there are two key points to know from Jeremiah 22 verses one through five Jeremiah speaks directly to the king and to his court and the Lord wants a just Kingdom government the message that God has the prophets speak to the king of Judah and his royal court is a simple set of commands first the Lord makes it clear he is speaking directly to the king and to those who rule with him he's holding the king accountable for leadership over the nation and also letting the watching witnesses know what he's saying the king will be held accountable by God and those closest to him for his faithfulness to God these instructions are extremely clear rule justly make fair decisions help those who have been robbed care for the vulnerable don't kill the innocent and do what's right it doesn't get any more simple than that these commands spelling out a kingdom of justice our regard once from the government of Judah and the message is addressed to leaders because if they respond to God's directions then the people whom they lead will be affected by their decisions it's important that those with power use their power appropriately and model justice the Lord then gives a clear overview of the consequences for obedience and the consequences for disobedience if the King and rulers obey the Kings descendants they will reign and prosper but if they do not obey the Lord will tear their kingdom down and leave a pile of ruins in its place the next set of verses are from Jeremiah 22 verses 6 through 10 and again I'm reading in the New Living Translation now this is what the Lord says could concerning Judas royal palace I love you as much as fruitful Gilead and the green forest of Lebanon but I will turn you into a desert with no one living within your walls I will call for wreckers who will bring out their tools to dismantle you they will tear out all your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire people from many nations will pass by the ruins of the city and say to one another why did the Lord destroy such a great city and the answer will be because they violated their covenant with the Lord their God by worshipping other gods do not weep for the dead King or mourn his loss instead weep for the captive King being led away for he will never return to see his native land again that is a little frightening isn't it oh my goodness let me get my keys for these points two points two key points to know the Lord will destroy all that's in the king's house and the Exile will be worse than death for the king destroy death you heard that alliteration the Prophet shares an image of Judah being utterly destroyed when people from other places inquire about Judah and they arrive at this point of despair their answer will contain three actions that were committed the people of Judah abandoned the Covenant they worshipped other gods and they served other gods not only was the Covenant violative of how the leaders treated the people in the nation but idolatry had infiltrated the nation as well to put it another way the leaders of Judah were breaking all all ten commandments and the rest of the covenant breaking the Covenant begins with having an improper view of God when the people began to believe that they needed another God they fell into sin and from not putting the true God with the capital G first and he is the Lord the only head of their lives they move from devaluing people in the same way they devalue God that you get that they don't have a good perspective of God therefore they don't have a good perspective of people they believe that they could be in good standing with God and God's covenant while being in bad standing with vulnerable people and then they neither understood the terms of the Covenant nor the divine party with whom they were in the Covenant they should not expect God to execute the Covenant while they exploit those created in God's image so although the house of the king of Judah is precious to God as prime real estate God will leave it vacant and rundown if they use their privilege for pushing others down rather than helping them up Judah had been just as valuable and more important to the Lord than other nations but God doesn't mind destroying what weakens that are important if our importance is rooted in the marginalization of other people this is a God with whom they did not make a covenant and this is a God who allows the people to mistreat others without consequence and those that God God sort of small G we're talking about the idol gods these Idol gods to whom the house of Judah has now enslaved itself does not care about people the Prophet concludes that it will be a fate worse than death for the Kings to be carried away into exile the slaves who are abandoned by the Lord it would be better to have died in God's care than to live in the care of I dolls and wicked nations who were conquering them the reason was that the Kings who had died especially Josiah they knew the Lord and Josiah served the Lord he was such a good King he'd found a home and peace in God's presence but the kings who had forsaken God and pursued injustice against their people would never see home again well that is a short lesson pretty powerful isn't it and that's what's important to know what's important to feel it's important to feel compassion for those who face bad consequences because of unjust leaders Jeremiah is given a prophecy directly for the king and his royal staff that because of their actions the vulnerable is suffering if they don't change it will not only lead to the destruction of the people but the destruction of those whom they are leading unfortunately when the wicked rule it often creates disproportionate suffering for those who have the least access to power that's what's important to feel what should we do in response to today's lesson we should become active agents to advocate for the oppressed it doesn't get any more simple than that we should feel compassion for them and make sure in our places of privilege where we have a vote for our leaders that we use our vote and our voices to choose just leaders and hold them accountable for caring for those who are most at risk the Old Testament prophets are often misunderstood as only speaking about disasters and endtime prophecies but this unit has helped to remind us that the Old Testament prophets spoke a lot about God's judgment judgment against injustice the Covenant of the Lord is not simply about individual personal piety that's so important we have to begin there but when we love God we also love God's people and when the people are denied justice when they're oppressed taken advantage of robbed innocently killed and harmed this is a direct violation of a covenant with God and it is sin as believers we do not live under the law but we live by the Spirit of Christ Christ did not seek to abolish the law but to fulfill it and we are called to follow Christ as he sought to do justice and advocate justice in our lives and adlets advocate for justice in the lives of others and now let's talk about teaching tips how would we effectively teach this lesson don't forget to pray pray that your students have receptive hearts and minds to be obedient to God's Word and do this throughout the week that you'll be creative have a variety of methods to help your students understand and pray that your students will apply what they learn to their lives and don't forget to pray for you that you'll apply you're the teacher you have to be a leader in this and you apply God's Word to your life now when we hook or open this lesson you know it might be good I know we're not really newspapers that much these days everybody's on their mobile devices but why not bring in a news clip that relates to this lesson it might be something about immigrants or or if those who are kind of the downtrodden about homeless bring in a news clip and talk about that and let that be your hook or open your lesson and then download the InFocus video from precepts for living online.com and answer the following question at the end and that question can help you transition into your discussion now for children let them talk about what's going on in their community talk about the homeless they may not understand what immigrants are but they might because they have children they may have other children in their classes who they know are from other countries and let's talk about why are these other children here what are they afraid of what's going on in their countries that they want to come to the United States of America and let's be sensitive that they may be immigrant children right in our classes there will be if we're doing what the Bible says I'm reaching out to our communities yes all right so that'll be a wonderful wonderful hook and then transition into your book or present the Scriptures invite the volunteers to read the entire portion of scriptures what stood out what resonated from these verses and then read the end of paragraphs which explained the scriptures it's important because we don't want to have a superficial understanding of this lesson we really want to discover it in depth because God is speaking to the leaders and he's speaking to the people so answer the questions in the lesson and there are many questions one of those powerful questions is this in what ways do we and our nation need to return to God that's a great question now you're ready for took or next step for application invite a volunteer to read the liberating lesson and for application for activation we're doing this because we want them to look inwardly and we want them to really have a time of communicating with God through the power of the Holy Spirit what does the Holy Spirit saying that we should do this week so let them reflect quietly and then and the class in prayer remember you started off with your newspaper clip why not come up with a way to say how could we reverse the headlines in this story and then pray to be do it just what you have discovered you need to do all right have a blessed week and now let's talk mailbag and for this week's mailbag minister Alan Reynolds is here again to join us to answer your questions we have such a powerful question for this plenty of theologian and it has to do with the big topic immigration you know there's so many immigrants coming of wanting to come to our country unfortunately when they come from dark lands not dark lands when they're people of code people of color coming around black brown and black folks from Haiti Africa they get turned away mm-hmm so that's that's one issue I don't know if we're going to talk about that but anyway we have immigrants who are also being helped into the country and are these people really helping them or are they exploiting them are they putting in putting them intentionally in dangerous situations to break the law and then you know it's hot but how do we respond to this multi complex crisis I find myself torn because we welcome the immigrants yes but we also want to welcome those who are coming with darker skin we want to welcome those as well why should they be turned away yeah and so it is a really complex issue first it's important to name that there's not one right way to approach this or one right way to respond and even scripture has multiple ways of thinking about this right we get very clearly here in Jeremiah and today's lesson that the Lord cares about the foreigners he wants them to be treated with justice he wants them to be treated with equity not just equality not everybody the same but those who are coming in who are sick who are wounded who are suffering who are hungry feed them make sure they're cared for that's that's there but then also we have to we can't look over passages like those in some of the later prophets in Malachi and and even in the case of Ezekiel who see also it's important for Israel to make sure that it's okay that it's not trying to bring people in and become like them right that was a great fear that they had and so it's important to name that complexity first of all that being said God is always on the side of doing justice and whatever it is that's most just and so we recognize that a lot of people coming here that people who are risking their lives to come here wouldn't be doing that if they weren't fleeing danger exactly they're really afraid they're truly not only afraid but you think about so many of these parents with children you know children who are still in these camps at the border people who have gone through that kind of situation they would not do that if they weren't fleeing life or death situations right so there was an article published a few months back they're over a hundred people who were deported back to El Salvador got killed when they got there I read that that was so frightening and disheartening that we were sending people back to their death yes and the sad part is that this not new for us as a nation either right the same thing actually happened during World War two and you know whether it was Jewish people fleeing the Holocaust or others fleeing Europe we turned them away and unfortunately we know what the result of that was mercy now so what we would what we would do best to serve is to help those who are in need when they do come to be a country that's like that right whether they try to enter legally or illegally we should create systems where they can enter legally yes safely first of all we have to recognize that within the past few years that's changed that even though we had lots of illegal immigrants the people who are being detained at the borders are trying to enter legally unfortunately the process is broken so that they can't get in they can't get their court dates they can't get their time they can't they're spending years trying to wait to get into the country and is it because those caravans that were organizing or maybe not organized with the best intentions maybe to you know make a headline but at the risk of making this headline people's lives yeah so the caribou caravans are something that's pointed out right but that's a talking point most of the people are coming in small groups there are at the same time people who are on the other side of the border who are benefiting from exploiting from human trafficking from you know taking people who are vulnerable fleeing these desperate situations and trying to use them saying oh I'll get you into the country for this amount of money or this return and and ending up in just as horrible situations right so there's a lot of justice that needs to be done on both sides of the border and and that's what we as believers should advocate for for just legal ways to enter the country for mercy which God gives us when people do enter illegally because they're fleeing some desperate situation but also for justice on the other side of the border to help build up these nations so that you wouldn't have to flee those situations exactly and you know we say oh they're gonna take away work from those who want to work but you know what it doesn't there's enough work for everybody there's enough to be done right economies are rolling it's right oh my goodness yes we are so myopic in our approach to solving the issues of the poor and so God have mercy on us and give us wisdom so that we know how to have the right response and I'm especially thinking too about those nations in Africa who have been shut out from ever coming to the United States it is so unfair yeah I think I'd better stop right there God sees and God is going to he's going to address it well let's end this week's lesson with our keeps in mind first and I think flipping through here I haven't lost it I think this is the correct one for this week let's think about what we could do though in our churches and our communities right our churches can do something yes even if it's just having a reading program to teach people English yeah and teach them how to read absolutely there's so many ways to get involved as we continue to act both spiritually in prayer but also politically in organizing and in just being the church being present for those who are among us and so this is Jeremiah 22 verse 3 and it's the New Living Translation it says this is what the Lord says be fair-minded and just do what is right help those who have been robbed rescue them from their oppressors quit your evil deeds do not mistreat foreigners or orphans and widows stop murdering the innocent be the church god bless you [Music]

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Length: 24min 20sec (1460 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020