Read for This Week’s Study: Judg. 2:1–15; 1 Kings 12:26– 31; 2 Chron. 33:9, 10; Jer. 2:1–28; 5:2, 3.
Memory Text: “ ‘ “Israel was holiness to the Lord, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them,” says the Lord’ ” (Jeremiah 2:3, NKJV).
If we could pick one word to describe the human condition since the Fall, it would be crisis, the extent of which can be best understood by what it took to get us out of the crisis: the death of Jesus on the cross. The crisis must be pretty bad; after all, look at the extreme measures needed to solve it. All through the Bible, many stories took place against the backdrop of one crisis or another.
The situation during the time of Jeremiah and his ministry was no different. God’s people faced many challenges, both from within and from without. Unfortunately, despite the terrible military threat from foreign powers, in many ways the greatest crisis came from within.
“Within” meant not just a corrupt leadership and corrupt priesthood, which were bad enough, but “within” was in the sense of people whose hearts had been so hardened and damaged by sin and apostasy that they refused to heed the warnings that God was sending them, warnings that could have spared them from disaster. Sin is bad enough, but when you refuse to turn away from it—talk about a crisis!
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 10.
Adventist Sabbath School Lesson for Adults
Q4 2015 «Jeremiah»
Lesson 2 – The Crisis (Within and Without)
