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READ FOR THIS WEEK’S STUDY: Genesis 16:1–19:38.

MEMORY VERSE: “Is anything too hard for me [God]? I [God] will return toyou [Abram] at the appointed [right] time next year. Sarah will have a son”(Genesis 18:14, NIrV).

THIS WEEK WE STILL FOLLOW ABRAM AND SARAI (SOON TO BE ABRA-HAM AND SARAH). They are on a geographical and spiritual journey (trip). Asthey travel, we see their faith and their weaknesses against a world that had lostknowledge of God. The world was deep in sin and spiritual ignorance. Sodomand Gomorrah were a good example of being lost in sin.

A famous French writer once wrote: “Your main weaknesses are pride, whichcuts you off from God, and love of flesh, which ties you to the earth” (adapted).People today are still full of pride. We have God’s grace. He loves even the proudand pleasure-lovers. His love will come through most clearly as we follow Abramand the sad and foolish story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In these cities, Godshows His love and willingness to forgive. But pride and love of pleasure destroythese cities.

The Bible says, God is “not willing that any should perish [die]” (2 Peter 3:9).But some will perish. This is very sad. No one needs to die because Christ diedfor us. This week, we will study a sad example of people who did not acceptChrist’s death for them.

Easy Reading Edition November 18-248

SABBATH—NOVEMBER 18

Faith and Weakness

Lesson 8 Faith and Weakness

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HAGAR AND ISHMAEL(Genesis 16)

Read again the promises that Godhad made to Abram: Genesis 12:1-3, 7;Genesis 13:15, 16; Genesis 15:4-6, 13.God tells Abram, again and again, thathe will be a father of a great nation.Another promise is that out of “ ‘yourown body’ ” (Genesis 15:4, NIV) hischild will come. But something is miss-ing from those promises. None of thepromises mentions Sarai, Abram’swife. The promise is that Abram willfather the nation. But it says nothingabout who the mother would be. Saraiwas Abram’s wife. So, we would guessthat Sarai would have the child. But allthe promises say nothing about whothe mother would be.

Read Genesis 16. Why was iteasy for Abram to have taken thecourse of action he did? Why wasthat course of action still wrong?

Ten years had passed since Abramhad entered Canaan. Still there wasno sign of a child. In normal humanfrustration, Abram wondered how hecould have a child. Certainly not fromold and barren Sarai. Nothing wassaid that Sarai would be the mother.So it is not hard to understand whyAbram and Sarai acted the way theydid. It was common for a man to havemore than one wife during Abram’s

time. But still, this did not make it rightto have more than one wife. As fol-lowers of the true God, both Abramand his wife should have known thiswas wrong. How often do we do thewrong thing because everyone else isdoing it? And we know better, too!

When you read Genesis 16, youcan see one important principle1: Ifwe break God’s law things will hap-pen. What can we learn fromGenesis 16 when we are temptedto break God’s law for a good rea-son? (After all, Abram and Saraiwere only trying to “help” God ful-fill a promise He made.)

THE COVENANT2 REPEATED(Genesis 17)

Thirteen years had passed afterIshmael’s birth. God appeared toAbram again and repeated thecovenant He had first made withAbram.

Contrast3 the earlier promisesGod had made to Abram (Genesis12:1-3, 7; Genesis 13:15, 16; Genesis15:4-6, 13) with what God said toAbram in Genesis 17:1-16. Whatpoints does God add in Genesis17:1-16?

God tells Abram to be “perfect”before Him. This is a reminder that

MONDAY—NOVEMBER 20

SUNDAY—NOVEMBER 19

1principle—a basic rule of life upon which other rules and laws are based.2covenant—a promise or agreement between God and His people.3contrast—show how things are different.

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Lesson 8 Faith and Weakness

God’s mercy4 and grace do not cancelthe call to faithful obedience (Romans5:20–6:2). God then gives Abrameven more details of the same prom-ise first made to him almost twenty-five years before. This included theneed to circumcise5 all male babies.

Many people have been guessingover many hundreds of years aboutwhy circumcision would be the sign ofthe covenant. Circumcision was con-nected with the promise made toAbram about his children (Genesis12:7; Genesis 13:15, 16; Genesis 15:3,13, 18; Genesis 17:7-10). Circumcisionwas to symbolize the relationship thatGod wanted to have with His covenantpeople. This was a relationship to bekept and continued by faith (Romans4:11, 12). It was through this nation thatGod’s truth was to be spread to theworld. Through them the Messiah(Jesus) also would come. Physical cir-cumcision also symbolized the circum-cision of the heart (Deuteronomy 30:6;Romans 2:29). With Jesus’ comingand the spreading of the gospel to theGentiles (non-Jews), circumcision wasno longer required (Galatians 5:6).

If it was not clear before, it was now—old Sarai was to give birth to thepromised seed (child) (Genesis 17:15-19). If Abram needed faith before,he surely needed faith now!

Compare6 Genesis 17:15-19, andAbram’s reaction to the promise ofchildren through Sarai withRomans 4:16-25. What can we

learn from these verses about themeaning of righteousness (holi-ness) by faith? What hope can weget from these verses about God’sfaithfulness even when our ownfaith is not always strong?

THE LORD ON EARTH(Genesis 18)

In Genesis 18, God again promisesAbram a child. This time God madethe promise to Sarai (Genesis 18:10).It was a promise that seemed impos-sible to fulfill (Genesis 18:11). ButGod shows us the answer, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis18:14). This is an answer that shouldstand today against all unbelief anddoubt, even among those who haveclaimed to worship God.

What difference do we see inGenesis 18:16-21? How do we seein these verses what is really thebasic division of all people? Alsoread Matthew 25:32, 33; Romans11:26; 2 Peter 2:6; Revelation 22:14,15.

Perhaps one of the most interestingparts of this story centers on who wasspeaking to Abram. The word trans-lated “Lord” in some of the verses(Genesis 18:1, 13, 17, 22, 26) is thefamous word translated as “Jehovah”

TUESDAY—NOVEMBER 21

4mercy—kindness we do not deserve.5circumcise—cutting the foreskin off a male’s sex organ.6compare—show how things are the same.

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(YHVH). This is the sacred (holy)name for God the Father. It is the sameword used in Genesis 4:1, 4; Genesis6:5; Exodus 20:11; 1 Kings 9:1; Psalm32:2 and thousands of other versesthat talk about God.

Many hundreds of years beforeJesus first came to earth in humanform, God appeared on earth in ahuman form (see Genesis 18:1-8). Wecan see how even a long time ago, theCreator-God was close to His fallenpeople.Think about the size of the uni-verse. No matter how big and compli-cated creation is, we have anotherexample of the wonderful love Godhas for us. It is wonderful that Hewould show Himself in human formand talk to Abram, a sinful human.Thisis only an example of what would hap-pen hundreds of years later in Jesus’life and ministry (work). Jesus becamehuman and died for the sins of this fall-en world. God is closer to people thanmost of us can begin to understand.

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How have you personally experi-enced God’s closeness? In whatpersonal ways has He touchedyour life? What might you need todo to experience His presenceeven more?

ON THE EVE OF DOOM(Genesis 19:1-14)

What kind of picture does Genesis19 give about the moral7 condition ofSodom? What does it mean thatmen came from “every quarter [cor-ner]” of the city? What does thatremind us of? Genesis 6:5.

Even today’s standards8 are prettylow. But the Sodomites standardswere terrible. How could they havebecome so morally low?

How does Ezekiel 16:49, 50 helpus understand what happened inSodom? Why would these thingslead to Sodom’s low moral condi-tion? What lessons can we learnfrom this?

WEDNESDAY—NOVEMBER 22

God appeared to Abram in human form.

7moral—knowing the difference between right and wrong; leading a righteous (holy) life.8standards—rules for living.

Lot was kind to the strangers who werereally angels.

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According to 2 Peter 2:7, 8, Lot wasa righteous (holy) man. He was hurt bythe sin in Sodom.But he probably couldnot avoid being influenced by thesesins. (John the Baptist had to live in thewilderness to escape the sins aroundhim.) Perhaps that helps explain whyLot was willing to give his daughters tothe mob so he could protect his guests(Genesis 19:8). It might be hard for usto understand Lot’s action. But it doesshow us how seriously he accepted themob’s threat. Lot clearly knew whatthese people could do. As Genesis19:9-14 show, the two angels had to actto save Lot from the mob.

The pride, the food, the wrathcertainly did not quickly changethe Sodomites into the raging mobin Genesis 19. Change takes time.Look at your own life and at thedirection you are moving in. Areyou moving toward the Holy City(Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2)or toward Sodom? Do you judgethe direction you are going by theBible’s standards or the world’sstandards?

SODOM DESTROYED(Genesis 19)

How do we see in Genesis 19:12-29 even more examples of Godseeking to save people?

Did Lot’s conflicting example weakenthe result of his pleas? Not even theangels’ midnight visit made a dif-ference. Lot’s children “laughed atwhat they called his foolish fears. Hisdaughters were influenced by theirhusbands. They had money. Theywere comfortable. They could see nodanger. Everything looked just thesame. They had property. They couldnot believe it possible that beautifulSodom would be destroyed.”—Adapted from Ellen G. White, Patri-archs and Prophets, p. 160.

What principle is shown inGenesis 19:15 about the destruc-tion of sin? Focus on the wording,“if you don’t [do not] you will beswept away when the city is pun-ished” (NIrV). What message is inthat for us?

Jesus came to destroy sin, not sin-ners (1 John 3:5). Jesus came tosave the world, not to destroy it (John3:17). Jesus came to destroy the deviland his works, not humans (Hebrews2:14; 1 John 3:8).

Salvation depends on the removalof sin, not the removal of people. Inthe story of Sodom, God was trying tosave Lot from the destruction that will

THURSDAY—NOVEMBER 23

It is a sin not to help people in need.

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fall upon all wicked people. The onlyway for us to be saved from thatdestruction is to turn away from sinand to hold on to Jesus our Savior infaith and obedience. We need to claimHis sinlessness and perfection for ourown benefit. At the same time, weneed to put away all sin in our lives(Romans 6:12; 1 Peter 4:1, 2). In theend, sin will be removed, once and forall.The good news of the gospel is thatwe do not have to be removed with it.

Notice the phrase “and Godremembered Abraham” in Genesis19:24-29.Write a paragraph explain-ing how that is a symbol of the sal-vation we have in Jesus. Alsoexplain how only because of Himcan we be saved. Be prepared toshare your paragraph with theclass on Sabbath.

ADDITIONAL STUDY: Read Ellen G.White, “After the Flood,” Patriarchsand Prophets, pp. 137–144, 156–170;The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1,

comments on Genesis 16–19.“Living in that wicked city (Sodom),

Lot’s faith had grown weaker. ThePrince of heaven (Jesus) was by hisside. But Lot pleaded for his own lifeas if God, who had showed such careand love for him, would not still savehim. Lot should have trusted himselffully to God’s Messenger (Jesus). Lotshould have put his will and his lifeinto the Lord’s hands without a doubtor a question.”—Adapted from Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets,p. 161.

“Our Savior warned His disciplesthat just before His Second Coming,the conditions would be almost thesame as the conditions before theFlood. There would be too much eat-ing and drinking, and the world wouldbe given up to pleasure. These condi-tions are happening now. The world islargely given up to the habits of eat-ing, drinking, and having pleasureswhich make slaves of us.These habitswill make us more and more like thedoomed people of Sodom. I havewondered why the people of the earthwere not already destroyed, as thepeople of Sodom and Gomorrahwere. I see reason for plenty of moralwickedness in the world. Blind lustcontrols people’s better judgments.Their noble thoughts are sacrificed to lust.”—Adapted from Ellen G.White and James White, ChristianTemperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 53.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

• Read aloud the paragraphs you

FRIDAY—NOVEMBER 24

Flee from sin. Your life depends on it.

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Lesson 8 Faith and Weakness

wrote for the question at the end ofThursday’s lesson. Discuss youranswers.

• What are some moral questionsfacing your society? How does yourchurch deal with these questions?How can Christians encourage peo-

ple to be more righteous (holy)?

• Is there someone you know strug-gling with a sin that is destroying hisor her life? What can you do as aclass to encourage that person as heor she tries to gain victory?

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