A Harlot, a Fish, and the Mercy and Judgment of God Memorial Presbyterian Church Sunday School – Winter 2017

Review: Does God Repent? http://looklex.com/e.o/nineveh.htm#

And it was a great evil to Jonah http://www.dustoffthebible.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/jonah-in-hut.jpg

And God appointed… http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/casoil32-l.jpg

Exodus 32-34 Context (Ex. 32:7-11, 14) – the golden calf 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

1 Kings 19 Context (1 Kings 18) – Elijah and the prophets of Baal 19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Matthew 20 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

“Looking deeply into myself and then around me at the lives of other people, I wonder which does more damage, lust or resentment? There is so much resentment among the “just” and the “righteous.” There is so much judgment, condemnation, and prejudice among the “saints.” There is so much frozen anger among the people who are so concerned about avoiding “sin.” The lostness of the resentful “saint” is so hard to reach precisely because it is so closely wedded to the desire to be good and virtuous.” Nouwen, Henri (2013-11-20). The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (p. 71). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

“As a kingdom of priests, Israel is called to represent the nations before God, to mediate God’s redemptive purpose in the world. A priest stands between God and the people, representing each to the other...Yahweh here summons Israel as an entire nation to act as a priest, a covenantal mediator between him and the rest of the world. In this priestly service, he expects Israel to pray for, love, minister to, and witness to the nations.” Michael D. Williams, Far as the Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R, 2005), 138.