Adult Bible Studies Summer 2020 Student: Community

By Robert P Gardner

Beginning with the summer quarter, the focal Bible passages will again appear in print in both the student and teacher books. We will mostly use the Common English Bible (CEB) version of the text, while sometimes including the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) when it will better help students engage and appreciate the biblical texts.

Summer Theme:
Community
This summer, our lessons support the theme of "Community." The writer of the student book lessons is Robert Gardner; the teacher book writer is Martha Myre.

A New Thing
Spiritual Practice - Study
Scripture - Deuteronomy 8:1-10 | 1 Kings 18:20-39 | 2 Kings 22:8-20 | Hosea 1:2-11
If you look at the texts of this unit in the sequence they are laid out over the four lessons, it may not be immediately apparent why the unit theme is "A New Thing.” While Lesson 1 presents God';s charge to ancient Israel to keep the commandments, Lessons 2 and 3 focus on incidents brought about by the people failing to keep the commandments, and Lesson 3 adds the note of divine judgment. It's only when we get to Lesson 4 that the new creation theme emerges. But after the journey the first three lessons takes us through, the need for a fresh start is obvious, and the message of restoration that God announces through Hosea is most welcome.

A New People
Scripture - Jeremiah 23:1-8 | Daniel 1:8-17 | Daniel 3:19-30 |Nehemiah 9:9-17, 32-33
Spiritual Practice - Prayer
While the Lord invites all to be people of God, the Old Testament is essentially the story of God's dealings with a specific group of people, the Israelites. The four lessons of this unit give us an opportunity to look at some key stories related to those dealings: God and the remnant, the community's connection to God, God's care for the people in a time of great stress, and how God's love for the people continued despite their unfaithfulness. All these stories have applications to us today, but we begin to learn about God's ways through biblical stories about God and the Israelites.

A New Way of Life
Scripture - Luke 19:1-10 | John 4:7-30, 39-42 | Luke 10:25-37 | Matthew 15:21-28 | Mark 5:1-20
Spiritual Practice - Hospitality
The Bible passages in the five lessons of this unit are all intended to enlarge our understanding of the word neighbor. Four of the five are incidents that directly involve Jesus, and the fifth is a parable Jesus told expressly to show what it means to be a neighbor, the parable we call the parable of the good Samaritan. All these passages are important, for they elucidate Jesus' summary statement of one of the two most important commandments: "You must love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Matthew 22:39).

Published quarterly, each week's student book lesson features focal Bible passages, reliable and relevant biblical explanation and application, and more. Now, in response to feedback, we are introducing new features and benefits for students including:

• Larger size font making text easy to read.
• A comprehensive Bible study plan with more flexibility in terms of Scripture selection and topics.
• Observation of the church seasons, including Advent and Lent.
• Suggestions for developing spiritual practices (prayer, confession, worship, mindfulness, solitude, community, hospitality, neighboring, service, and celebration).

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Apr 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781501869389

Robert P Gardner

Robert P. (Bob) Gardner is a retired minister of 41 years in the United Methodist Church, serving 34 in the Memphis Annual Conference. Dr. Gardner respectively attended Vanderbilt University and Oral Roberts University School of Theology and Missions. He continues to engage adults in Bible study through teaching an adult Sunday school class at a nearby Methodist church. He and his wife Jackie live in Paris, Tennessee.

Book preview

Daily Bible Study (Unit 1)

June 1

Deuteronomy

26:16-19

June 2

Deuteronomy

8:1-10

June 3

Deuteronomy

8:11-20

June 4

Joshua 1:1-9

June 5

Malachi

4:1-4

June 6

Romans

16:25-27

June 7

1 Corinthians

7:17-19

June 8

Judges

10:6-16

June 9

James

5:15-20

June 10

1 Kings

18:1-16

June 11

1 Kings

18:17-21

June 12

1 Kings

18:22-29

June 13

1 Kings

18:30-39

June 14

1 Kings

18:40-46

June 15

Deuteronomy

30:8-14

June 16

2 Chronicles

34:1-7

June 17

2 Kings

22:3-7

June 18

2 Kings

22:8-13

June 19

2 Kings

22:14-20

June 20

2 Kings

23:1-3

June 21

2 Kings

23:21-25

June 22

Hosea

1:1-11

June 23

Hosea

2:1-13

June 24

Hosea

2:14-23

June 25

Hosea

3:1-5

June 26

Hosea

4:1-12

June 27

Hosea

11:1-12

June 28

Hosea

14:4-9

Unit 1

A New Thing

A study of Israel and the ancient Israelites is also a study of ourselves. It is a look at how God is about to do a new thing in the lives of the people and how, through divine acts, the people would come to know God in a greater and more profound way.

In our first lesson, we travel with the Israelites on their way to a new land filled with hope, expectancy, and God’s promises. Some of the experiences along the way were challenging, but the hope of a new day overshadowed the agony of the present moment. Ancient Israel also marked a time of social and spiritual controversy. As one of God’s anointed prophets, Elijah had a purpose and a mission to remind Israel who and whose they were as the people of God (Lesson 2).

Lesson 3 recalls how the discovery of the scroll brought about Josiah’s renewed passion and love for God and ultimately led to Judah’s social and spiritual transformation. Lesson 4 brings us full circle with a look at the nature and love of God toward us. Whatever we do or fail to do, God never ceases to extend unlimited, unending love toward us.

Israel’s on-and-off pattern of sin and rebellion is woven throughout the Old Testament. Unfortunately, we are still caught up in this cycle. It is not God’s predestined path for us, nor are we hopelessly locked into this rebellious cycle. However, it is a predictably part of human nature that shows human weakness in the light of God’s unconditional love. God always gives us a choice to obey or not obey, and our decisions always have consequences.

So let’s begin our journey in this series of lessons on God’s extravagant and redemptive love. It is a new creation, a new day dawning, a fresh start, and a second chance freely offered to Israel and to us. It is restoration at its best. Claim the full assurance and confidence that the best is yet to come!

Focal Passage: Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Background Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Purpose Statement: To remember how God created us as God’s people

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

¹You must carefully perform all of the commandment that I am commanding you right now so you can live and multiply and enter and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors. ²Remember the long road on which the LORD your God led you during these forty years in the desert so he could humble you, testing you to find out what was in your heart: whether you would keep his commandments or not. ³He humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you the manna that neither you nor your ancestors had ever experienced, so he could teach you that people don’t live on bread alone. No, they live based on whatever the LORD says. ⁴During these forty years, your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t swell up. ⁵Know then in your heart that the LORD your God has been disciplining you just as a father disciplines his children. ⁶Keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him, ⁷because the LORD your God is bringing you to a wonderful land, a land with streams of water, springs, and wells that gush up in the valleys and on the hills; ⁸a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹a land where you will eat food without any shortage—you won’t lack a thing there—a land where stone is hard as iron and where you will mine copper from the hills. ¹⁰You will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless the LORD your God in the wonderful land that he’s given you.

Key Verses: Keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him, because the LORD your God is bringing you to a wonderful land, a land with streams of water, springs, and wells that gush up in the valleys and on the hills (Deuteronomy 8:6-7).

Forty-one years in pastoral ministry have taught me that there will always be times of trial and depression. Everything will not always go our way. One of the more depressing times during my career was when I was moved from a full-time appointment to a part-time appointment. (Technically, it was one fourth of the time.)

I didn’t feel that the bishop and the cabinet had it in for me; my district superintendent said that there simply were no other appointments available for me in the conference. It was a drastic financial decrease on the home front and a blow to my ego.

My choice at that time was to go on the attack, call the bishop, and explain that I can’t accept this; or I could take what was offered, pray, and hope for the best. It was definitely a trying time. A friend sympathized with my plight, saying that if this had happened to him, he may have seriously considered leaving the church. In short, it came down to me getting an appointment that I thought I didn’t deserve or feeling that I deserved something better. The conclusion: I stayed.

Thankfully, this crisis situation was not only a time of prayer, but also a time of reflection and remembering God’s past acts of provision to me during my ministry. Self-talk encourages the wounded spirit (1 Samuel 30:6, KJV). Bob, I said to myself, this is not your first setback. God has always been with you, and I don’t think God will abandon you now.

I believe the Lord honored this attitude, as this one-fourth-of-the-time appointment became one of the bright lights of my ministry. I would not have wanted to conclude my ministry without having experienced the extravagant and over-the-top love that this small congregation showed toward me.

The Bible passage for this lesson is a call from the Lord to us to remember who we are as God’s people so that we might receive God’s wonderful promises.

Keep Your Eyes Open

My youngest son recently graduated from high school. As with my other five children, my wife and I wanted him to go to college. Furthermore, he wanted to go. My college of choice for him was 30 miles down the road, with a student population of 7,000; his college of choice was 130 miles down the road, with a student population of 25,000. No argument and, quite frankly, my wife and I understood, as his last three siblings had gone to his college of choice.

My parting words to him after we had moved him into his dormitory were, Keep your eyes open. That message of fatherly advice was for him to be aware of his surroundings. His university is huge, and a lot is always going on. I wanted him to do the right thing and remember why he had gone to college. I like to think that these heartfelt words of mine might better prepare him for his new journey in life.

God’s parental words to the wandering Israelites were, You must carefully perform all the commandments . . . so you can live and multiply and enter and take possession of the land (Deuteronomy 8:1). This was preparation for the journey into the Promised Land. It would be a new day in the life of God’s people. They had never traveled this way before. Expectations (and fears) would have been understandably present during such a time. The Lord’s command thus was directed and motivated by love for the people of God so that they might be prosperous and successful.

God’s greatest desire seems to have been a holy yearning for the people to know the Lord. How would they come to know God? One way was to remember the long road on which the LORD [their] God led [them] during [those] forty years (verse 2). Don’t forget your past, Israel!

If they looked back over their years in the wilderness, the people would see the many miracles that God had wrought on their behalf. First and foremost, they would see their deliverance from Egyptian bondage; they would remember the gift of manna, quail, and water from a rock. They would see divine deliverance from hostile armies that came against them. Do you not see, O Israel?

The Lord’s 40 years of blessing upon Israel showed not only divine favor and love for the people, but also served as a test to find out what was in [their hearts] (verse 2). Do you love me, Israel? Hard and difficult times have a way of showing what people believe. Steadfast faith only becomes steadfast after it is tested in the realities of life. Action (and, in Israel’s case, obedience) always speaks louder than words. Jesus affirmed this when he spoke to the disciples, saying, If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15).

Some people have a deep and sincere yearning to be used by God. The idea of teaching, preaching, or being missionaries is particularly appealing to them. They melodiously sing the words to the hymn Here I am, Lord.¹

My experience has been that while many people will commit to ministry tasks, others will wane and eventually quit when they discover the costs and responsibilities that come with doing particular ministries. Israel’s wilderness experience would show their true commitment and dependence on God.

What specific acts or circumstances in your life show God’s love toward you?

Divine Health

God next wanted the people to know eternal and enduring love. This new land was what the LORD swore to [their] ancestors (Deuteronomy 8:1). God had set the wheels in motion long before the present generation that Israel would be blessed and remain the apple of God’s eye. However, the wilderness became a testing ground to measure the people’s faith.

God allowed hunger and some level of deprivation to come upon the Israelites as a prompting tool to show and teach them their need for God. Even though the people had moments of complaining and frustration, the Lord never withdrew love from them.

Verse 4 gives us a closer and more vivid look at God’s abiding and longsuffering love toward Israel. Their 40 years in the wilderness were marked by provision and protection, as well as divine health. During these forty years, your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t swell. Wow!

Understandably, some people today might have trouble with this verse. Forty years of walking in the desert, no one’s clothes were tattered, and no one ever experienced swollen