Key Thought: The law describes who God is and how He lives and how He has meant for us to live. We are free to live in happiness as we let Him write those laws in our hearts and minds.

[Teaching Plan for “God the Lawgiver” February 8, 2012]

1. Have a volunteer read Exodus 19:18,19.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. Why did the Lord present the law of God to the people with smoke, and fire, and trumpet, and quaking mountain?
C. Personal Application: Does the reading of the law, or even the Spirit of Prophecy, bring you trembling, fear, or conviction? What emotions do you have in response to the law?
D. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “It seems to me that God was trying to scare Israel into obedience with His pyrotechnical presentation of the Ten Commandments.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Job 24:13-19.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What do these passages tell us about God’s standard of right and wrong before Mt. Sinai?
C. Personal Application: Do you think we are born with a natural sense of what is right and what is wrong? Share your thoughts.
D. Case Study: One of your friends states, ”How can God condemn adultery as a sin? Didn’t many of the early patriarchs have multiple wives. Isn’t that adultery? Why didn’t God condemn them?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Exodus 16:23-30.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. What is the significance of the Sabbath being kept before God speaking the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai?
C. Personal Application: How is your Sabbath experience? Do you love it, dread it, sleep through it, or are ambivalent about it? Share your thoughts..
D. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “How are God’s laws similar to the laws of a nation? How are they dissimilar?” How do you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Hebrews 8:10.

A. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
B. How important is God’s law in the New Testament? How does God’s law apply in relation to grace?
C. Personal Application: Can we have love without lawkeeping? Lawkeeping Without love? What does each result in?
D. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Note: “Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.” MH p. 149)

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