Leader Guide Session 3 24 25 Need More Commentary? Use Code XTJKDF at Mywsb.Com for Access to More Bible Commentary on Isaiah
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CENTRAL truth Our God is sovereign. He is in control of all things, therefore we can trust His promises. EXPLORE options 1. Controller Quiz Print out pictures or create a slideshow of various video game controllers from over the years of video game history. As you show the picture of each, ask students to guess which video game system the controller belongs to. Try to mix up the pictures with common controllers and more obscure ones like (Neo Geo or Virtual Boy, and so session 3 on). Consider offering a small prize to the student who gets the most correct answers. Point out that the purpose of each of these devices was to make players feel like they are in control, like they have agency and can accurately 03GOD’S PROMISES move and control their characters in the games they play. We like to think that we are in control, but oftentimes we learn the hard way that there are a lot of things outside our control. In this session we will see Ahaz learn one such lesson and as we do so, we will be reminded that our God is sovereign and in control of all things. This is good EXPLORE scripture ISAIAH 7:7-17 news because it tells us that we can trust His promises. ISAIAH 7:7-9 2. In Control Set up a simple video game system in your meeting space—something with simple controls like the original 7 This is what the Lord God says: It will not a people), 9 the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria, Super Mario Bros. One at a time ask two students to come up and attempt to complete level one. The trick is that happen; it will not occur. 8 The chief city of Aram and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If one student will control one side of the controller with their left hand and the other student will control the other is Damascus, the chief of Damascus is Rezin (within you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will side of the controller with their right hand. In other words, one student will move Mario and the other will make sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be not stand at all. him jump etc. Another option would be to play a game on a tablet but blindfold the student playing while having the other student give verbal directions. After letting a few students try, point out how it’s frustrating to feel like ISAIAH 7:10-13 you are not in control. We all want to be in control of our lives but the truth is that there is only one person who is 10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for fully and completely in control at all times—God. Today by looking at how God used Isaiah to confront Ahaz, we a sign from the Lord your God—it can be as deep you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the will be reminded that our God is sovereign. He is control of all things and will keep all His promises. as Sheol or as high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz replied, patience of my God? “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” 13 Isaiah LET’S talk THIS WEEK’S focus ISAIAH 7:14-17 Share about a game, We’ve all felt the sting of working really hard at something and 14 good, the land of the two kings you dread will be Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a event, or performance you preparing thoroughly only to have the event go poorly. This is abandoned. 17 The Lord will bring on you, your sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and prepared or practiced a lot because we live in a broken world full of broken people and 15 people, and your father’s house such a time as has name him Immanuel. By the time he learns to for. How did it go? systems, things just don’t go the way we hope sometimes. You reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: can practice for days and days for a choir concert only to lose 16 He will bring the king of Assyria.” be eating curds and honey. For before the boy Have you ever worked your voice the day of the show. You can practice relentlessly for a soccer tournament only to get injured and have to sit out. While knows to reject what is bad and choose what is really hard and prepared oftentimes such things don’t happen, none of us possess the a great deal only to have power to ensure that they don’t. This is a reminder that we are things go poorly anyway? not in control of everything that happens in our lives. Thankfully, Why does this happen however, our God is. Today by looking at Isaiah’s prophecy to sometimes? Ahaz we will see that our God is in control of all things and will keep all His promises. leader guide session 3 24 25 Need more commentary? Use code XTJKDF at mywsb.com for access to more Bible commentary on Isaiah. CONVERSATION SCRIPTURE questions commentary KEY QUESTION ISAIAH 7:7-9 7:1-7. The political situation was tense in READ ISAIAH 7:7-9 How did Isaiah respond to Ahaz (see v. 4; vv. 7-9)? .03 Jerusalem. In the early 730s BC the aggressive 7 This is what the Lord God says: It will not too shattered to be a people), 9 the chief city of What can we learn from Isaiah’s response? Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III was busy on happen; it will not occur. 8 The chief city of Ephraim is Samaria, and the chief of Samaria is his northern frontier. During this time, Rezin, Aram is Damascus, the chief of Damascus is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in the king of Aram with its capital in Damascus, Rezin (within sixty-five years Ephraim will be your faith, then you will not stand at all. and Pekah, the king of Israel (also known as Isaiah was not intimidated by King Ahaz in any way. He boldly told Ephraim), joined forces to withstand the almost the king to “calm down and be quiet” (v. 4). He described the kings certain Assyrian attack that would follow plotting against Judah “smoldering sticks” (v. 4) and assured Ahaz .01 Look back at Isaiah 7:1-2. How are Ahaz and the people of Judah described? How Tiglath-pileser’s victory in the north. Rezin and did that relate to the prophecy Isaiah delivered to Ahaz? that their plot against Judah would not succeed (v. 8). He went on Pekah wanted Judah to support them, but Ahaz to tell him that if he couldn’t stand firm in his faith then he would wanted nothing to do with the alliance. By this not be able to stand at all (v. 9). Your students first reaction to this time he might already have paid (or at least was .02 Why did God allow His people, the people of Judah, to be threatened by the story might be to look down on Ahaz for his lack of faith, we must contemplating paying) the Assyrians to rescue kingdoms of Aram and Israel? remember, however, that Scripture is full of people who needed him from these kings (2 Ki. 16:6-9). He probably to be encouraged to stand strong (see Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:6-7; feared Tiglath-pileser, but he apparently 1 Chron. 28:20; 2 Tim. 1:6-8). Challenge your students to consider realized the Syro-Ephraimite coalition was a more immediate threat. Isaiah confronted the HISTORY | What was significant about Ephriam teaming up with Syria? Why was this various ways their faith might need strengthening so that they king with a question: What was the source of such a big deal? might face the pressures of teenage life with confidence in God and his trust: Yahweh or the Assyrians? Rezin and hope for a bright future with Him. Pekah wanted to remove Ahaz from the throne It is important to remember that the Israelites were divided into two nations at this juncture: the and they intended to install a puppet king who northern tribe of Israel and the southern tribe of Judah which contained Jerusalem. Ephriam was a would be more easily manipulated. key tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel. So when we read that Ephriam and Syria were plotting together against Judah, what is really happening is that one part of the people of God were allying 7:8. The reference to 65 years is puzzling. If this with a foreign nation to plot against another part of the people of God. When Ephriam declared oracle is dated to 735 BC or thereabouts, then independence from Jerusalem two centuries prior, it cut itself off from David’s household and from it would point to approximately 670 BC, but the temple which would be built in Jerusalem. In other words, Ephriam’s focus was on their own the northern kingdom was soundly defeated welfare and relevance, not on their God and His purposes. by Assyria in 722 BC. Of course, that is “within 65 years,” but perhaps the reference is to some God allowed His people to be threatened by these two kings for the same reason He sometimes allows us to unknown event among the survivors of the face difficulty today.