SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON ~ January 30th

Right Not to Remain Silent


LESSON PASSAGES OUTLINE
1. Realize God Is Always at Work (2 Kings 7:3-7)
2. Tell Others About It (2 Kings 7:8-9)
3. Urge Others to Check It Out (2 Kings 7:12-13)
4. Share in the Joy (2 Kings 7:15-16a)

BIBLICAL TRUTH - God’s people have good news to tell of what God has done for them.

Bible Commentary - by John C. Crutchfield, Director of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia International University (CIU) in Columbia, SC. Dr. Crutchfield and his family worship and serve the Lord at First Baptist Church, Columbia, where he teaches an adult Sunday School class.

The 1992 movie Medicine Mantells the story of a scientist working in the Amazon rainforest to research effective medicines. A second scientist who was sent to check on the doctor is shocked to find that he has found a cure for cancer. Unfortunately, the doctor has been unable to recreate the formula. The rest of the movie follows the two scientists’ frantic search for a missing chemical they believe is produced by an exotic flower but turns out to be secreted by a particular ant species.
For the sake of our lesson, let’s put a different twist on this movie’s plot. Imagine that the doctor had found the cure for cancer but decided to keep the discovery a secret, using it only to cure his own cancer. We would recoil at such an idea, even in the context of a fictional movie! Any scientist who would do such a thing would be ostracized by his or her peers and loathed by the public. Everyone recognizes that if someone has the capacity to do great good in alleviating the suffering of others but refuses to use that capacity for selfish reasons, that person has committed a moral outrage.

What would you identify as a positive, life-changing discovery made in your lifetime? If you recall, what was your first reaction when you learned about the discovery?

The historical context of the Bible passage for this lesson was one of war, famine, starvation, disease, and death. Hope for the Israelites in Samaria seemed as elusive as a missing chemical in the cure for cancer. Yet the prophet of God counseled the people to have faith, and four outcast men became the unlikely discoverers of life-changing good news.Would they tell others about their discovery? If they did, would others believe the good news? That’s what this lesson is about.