Study Guide for Refuge An Expanded Version By Melinda Viergever Inman Refuge Study Guide This study guide is designed to help you think about the Biblical truths embedded in Refuge. This is a novel that illustrates how spiritual battles are fought, lost, and won. It reveals Satan’s tactics for attacking human beings. It also shows God’s mercy for even our blatant sins. Each study section has questions and Scriptural passages for you to consider. This guide can be used for group discussion or for your own contemplation. Below are two ideas for your use. How to use this study guide: Work through each meditation and discussion section at your own pace. Two options: 1) When a portion of the story sparks your curiosity or prompts you to seek deeper answers turn to this study guide. Focus on the topics that address your questions. Pick and choose the areas where you want to go deeper. 2) Or work straight through the guide as you march through the story. The guide follows the story, allowing you to pause and reflect before moving on. Look for the obvious as you answer the questions. Each question aims at simple observation. What do you see? The answer is right there in the written text. I hope this guide enriches the story by highlighting God’s desire to restore and forgive. God’s loving purpose is eternal. Satan desires to ensnare human beings in sin. His tactics remain the same, though they adjust to our culture and our time. Yet, God’s love trumps Satan’s efforts. Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 2 Refuge Study Guide Topics Satan’s limitations………………………………………………………………………………3-6 Jesus and Satan……………………………...…………………………………………………..7-8 Why do we need someone to destroy Satan?.......................................,.....................................9-12 Who was the Seed? How did God shape his lineage?..............................................................13-16 The Genesis 3:15 promise fulfilled in Christ............................................................................17-18 Marriage....................................................................................................................................19-23 What does it mean to become “one flesh”?………………..…………………………….............23 Cain’s character………………………………………………………………………………24-26 Cain’s mentions in the Bible…………………………………………………………………24-25 Lilith: the facts...............................................................................................................................27 Lilith: the legends……………………………………………………………….……............28-29 Lilith: Why use a name of myth and legend?.….………………………………...…………..30-31 What do we know about Abel?.....................................................................................................32 Cain’s repentance……...……………………………………………………………………..33-37 What was the mark?.......................................................................................................................38 What was the purpose of the city?.................................................................................................38 List of sources………………………………………...………………………………………….39 Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 3 Discussion Guide and Meditations about Satan: Chapters 2, 5, 10, 12, 16, 25, 35, 40 First step: Reflection The conversation between Satan and God in Chapter Five of Refuge is based on the book of Job, Chapters One and Two. This provides us with a Biblical model of Satan’s limitations. For now, simply think about these questions as you read: • How much power does Satan have? • What actions can he take to impact the lives of people? • How is he limited or constrained? • How do we prepare for Satan’s attacks and respond to them? • What is the undergirding truth about God’s intentions toward us? Read and contemplate the following passages: • Job 1 and 2 • 1 Peter 5:6-11 • Ephesians 6:10-18 • Romans 8:26-39 Pause to think about this. The next step digs deeper. Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 4 Second step: Reflecting on Satan. Digging in. What particularly does Satan do to gather information about specific people? In Chapter Two of Refuge we find Satan on a fact-finding mission, attempting to glean information about Cain. Throughout the story, we then see Satan prowling around again, adjusting his data and tactics. Take your time to work through these questions. They are demonstrated throughout Refuge. Examine the verses to find the Biblical model. What do you think? • From 1 Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:11-12, Job 1:7, and Job 2:2, what does Satan do? Is he everywhere at once (omnipresent)? Or does he travel from place to place? Does he attack everyone? How do we know this from these passages? • In Job 1:8 and 2:3, who draws attention to Job in the conversation between God and Satan? Has Job done anything wrong, according to God? What kind of man does God himself say Job is? • Though we never learn God’s reason for testing Job in this way, the refining uncovered areas where Job needed to grow in humility and trust. God had a good purpose in mind. Read Romans 8:26-39. What is God’s purpose in any trial or test he allows to touch us? Can any type of trial separate us from the love of God? • What do we see about Satan’s desire to tempt us? In contrast to God’s purpose to strengthen us through our trials, what is Satan’s plan? What does Job 1:9-11, Job 2:4-5, Ephesians 6:10-18, and 1 Peter 5:8 tell us about Satan’s aims? Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 5 • In Job 1:9-11 and 2:4-6 had Satan already spied out Job’s weaknesses before God spoke about him? How do you know? What is the evidence? • What type of activity has Satan done in 1 Peter 5:8-11 and Ephesians 6:10-18 to ascertain our weak spots? Does he already know them from previous attempts? • How could Satan attack Job? Whose permission was required, according to Job 1:12 and Job 2:6? Who established the perimeters? How does this mesh with Romans 8:26-39? • During the time period of Refuge, about 120 years after creation, what did Satan know about his limitations? Consider what he knew in Job 1 and 2. What does he know now? • Consider the harm that befell Job and his family. Satan will be held accountable for the sins he committed in harming them, even though it was allowed by God for a good purpose. For harming people, Satan will pay for what he does when he faces judgment (see Revelation 20:10). In Job 1:13-19 and 2:7-10, what tools did Satan use to attack Job? • How did Job respond in Job 1:20-22 and Job 2:10? For a deeper study, read Job’s responses to his so-called friends’ attempts to blame and/or comfort him. • Based on the book of Job and on the 1 Peter 5:6-11 and Ephesians 6:10-18 passages, how should we respond to spiritual attack? Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 6 • How does God protect us in all of these passages? Carefully consider. • Why did Jesus come, according to 1 John 3:8? • Want more? Read Job 38-42 for the end of Job’s conversation with God and the outcome. • Online source: A Collision of Worlds: Evil Spirits Then and Now. C. S. Lewis Institute: http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/A_Collision_of_Worlds_page1 Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 7 Discussion Guide and Meditations: Jesus and Satan Read and contemplate these passages spoken by Jesus. Take your time. • Jesus’s words and interactions about Satan: o Jesus’s temptation: Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13 o Beelzebub: Matthew 12:22-32; Mark 3:20-30; Luke 11:14-28 o The sower: Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15 o The weeds: Matthew 13:24-43 o The sheep and the goats: Matthew 25:31-46 o Jesus predicts his death: Matthew 16:21-23; Mark 8:31-33 o Jesus’s authority and what he allowed Satan to do: John 8:39-47; Luke 10:17-24; John 6:67-71; Luke 22:3-6, 31-34; John 13:1-30 o Jesus heals a woman: Luke 13:10-17 What do you think? • What key teachings contained in more than one of the gospel provide us with most of Jesus’ words about Satan? Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 8 • Since these are eyewitness accounts, written either by the eyewitness himself or by a scribe or researcher working under the direction of eyewitnesses, what principles about Satan do we have straight from Jesus Christ—God in the flesh? • How do Jesus’s words guide our words and actions about Satan? • What do we learn about Satan and how he works? • How do these words help us to gain courage in the lifelong struggle against evil? Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 9 Discussion Guide and Meditations about the Seed: First step: Reflection What do you think? Take time to consider. • In the time period of Refuge, did Adam and Eve’s family know who the serpent was? • Did they know who the Seed—the One who would crush Satan’s head—would be? Consider how Satan still works today. Read and contemplate these passages. Answer the questions. • Genesis 3:1-19. The serpent is the embodiment of Satan. Notice the serpent’s tactics. • Review: Jesus tells us of Satan’s character as a liar in John 8:44. Read it again. • What is said about God’s truthfulness in Hebrews 6:17-20 and Titus 1:1-3? Who can we believe, Satan or God?_________________________________________________ What did Satan try to get Adam and Eve to believe about God? In what ways does he habitually insinuate or imply that God is a liar, when it is he himself who always lies? How does Satan still introduce these lies about God into hearts and minds when he tempts? Refuge Study Guide by Melinda Viergever Inman, copyright 2014 10 How does Satan still tempt us to take matters into our own hands and to gain knowledge in a way that is contrary to what God desires for us? In what ways does Satan still try to get us to ignore our consciences and to determine what is right and what is wrong contrary to our consciences and to God’s words? • Read Genesis 3:8-24.