Sabbath: God’s Love of Justice
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 1st of February 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Psalms 33:5, Psalms 85:10, Deuteronomy 32:4, James 1:17, Titus 1:2, Exodus 32:14, Matthew 5:43-48.
Memory Text:
“ ‘But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:24, NKJV).
In the ancient Near East, the “gods” of the nations were not only fickle, immoral, and unpredictable, but they also commanded atrocities, such as child sacrifice. And even then, the pagan masses could not count on their favor, and so they dared not cross their tribal “deities.”
According to Deuteronomy 32:17, behind such “gods” were demons (see also 1 Corinthians 10:20-21). And their forms of worship were ripe for exploitation, leaving the people in great spiritual and moral darkness.
The God of the Bible could not be more different from these demonic forces. Yahweh is perfectly good and His character changeless. And it is only because of God’s constant goodness that we can have any hope, now and for eternity.
In stark contrast to the false gods of the ancient world, and even to the modern “gods” of today, as well, Yahweh is deeply concerned about evil, suffering, injustice, and oppression—all of which He constantly and unequivocally condemns. And, most important, He will one day eradicate them all, as well.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 8.
(0)
When I was studying for my teaching degree I had to do a project on assessment in schools. I had a stack of data I could use - the schools assessment register. This book recorded all the marks in major tests and examinations for every subject and every teacher. It was in the days of programmable calculators - I had one of those - so I went to work calculating the means and standard deviations over a very large sample. I drew quite a few conclusions from this study. The two that are interesting for this illustration are: a) Teachers were remarkably consistent with themselves in their grading. They would have the same mean and standard deviation for just about every assessment. b) Teachers were very inconsistent with one another. Some teachers would have high means and small standard deviations, and others would have low means and wide deviations. Thus a student could get a mark of 70 in say English and be an average student, but a 70 in maths would be near the top of the class. Such inconsistency between teachers was a topic of much debate as you can probably imagine.
It is comforting to know that the justice of God is consistent. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: