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(click on a study, copy and paste it---and it's yours)The Story of the World (and Us) Part 3b: The Restoration Falters
A. Abraham’s descendants break the partnership! —Exodus 32:1-10 (p. 87 NIrV)
1. Which rule did they break?
2. What was God’s response? —Ex. 32:9-10
3. Of what does Moses remind God? —Ex. 32:13
4. Does God give Abraham’s descendants another chance? —Ex. 32:14
B. The history of Abraham’s descendants (Israel) from this point on is the story of their breaking the rules of the partnership and God forgiving them and giving them new chances. But finally, after breaking the rules so many times, the partnership is in
danger of ending for good. But if it did end, how would “all the nations of the earth be blessed?”
God didn’t want it to end, so he sent men called “prophets” to Abraham’s descendants to remind them how they were supposed to live.
Isaiah was one of those prophets. Look at Isaiah 58:1-14 (p. 795 NIrV)
1. How do you know that God really wanted the people to hear what he had to say? —Isaiah 58:1
2. Did the people worship God?
3. What do you think matters most to God, worship or obedience?
4. But what did they do? —Is. 58:3-5
5. How did God want them to live? —Is. 58:6-10
6. How does God see the relationship between the way we live and him blessing us? —Is. 58: 8-9, 10-12, 14—What word is repeated in verses 8, 10 & 14?
C. 2 Kings 17:7-23 (p. 407 NIrV) After 300 years, the northern part of Israel was defeated by a foreign nation. After another 200 years, the southern part of Israel was also defeated by a foreign nation. Why did that happen?
1. What had the LORD done for Abraham’s descendants? —2 K. 17: 7, 8, 11, 13
2. What did Abraham’s descendants do in response? 2 K. 17:8-10, 11-12, 14-17
3. What did the LORD do to his unfaithful partner? —2 K. 17:18-23
D. The hope for a different future: Someone special will come
-Isaiah 11:1-10 (p. 739 NIrV)
1. What is Jesse’s family? —Is. 11:1
2. What will be special about the Branch that grows out of it? —Is. 11:2
3. What type of person will he be because the Spirit of the LORD is upon him? —Is. 11:2-5
4. What will be the results of his rule? —Is. 11:6-9
Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (p. 790 NIrV)
1. How does the LORD identify the person of this passage? —Is.52:13
2. How is he described? —Is. 52:14
3. How does the community describe this person? —Is.53:1-2
4. How was this person received? —Is. 53:3
5. Why did he suffer? —Is. 53:4-6
6. Describe his suffering —Is. 53:7-9
7. Again the LORD speaks —Is. 53:10-12 What does the LORD say about the servant’s future?
Daniel 7:1-14 (p. 954 NIrV)
1. Are the four beasts that Daniel sees friendly to us human beings?
2. Who or what do those beasts represent?
3. Who does Daniel see in verses 9-10?
4. Who does Daniel see in verse 13?
5. What is given to him?
6. Who, in the New Testament, refers to himself as “The Son of Man?”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (p. 849 NIrV)
1. What does the LORD promise he will do in the future? —Jer. 31:31
2. What will God have to do in order that, this time, the covenant will be successful? —Jer. 31:33
3. What will he have to do to make that possible? —Jer. 31:34