Lesson 10 (Feb 27-Mar 5, 2021), Doing the Unthinkable

 Isaiah's Testing Truth

1. Why would having hairs from your beard plucked be shameful comparable to being spat upon? 
2. Why is honour and shame a life and death matter?
3. Why do people mock at those in distress?

The Suffering Servant Poem

1. What appeal does the Messiah have by being portrayed as a Servant rather than as a king?
2. In what way was Jesus disfigured physically beyond recognition as predicted by Isaiah?
3. How does Jesus bear our infirmities and carry our sorrows?

Who Has Believed

1. Why do the innocent have to suffer for the guilty?
2. Whose loss was greater Jesus' or Job's?
3. Why do we identify more easily with the innocent that with the guilty?

The Unreachable is Us

1. Why is Jesus pictured as a tender shoot rather than a strong tree?
2. Is all suffering because of sin?
3. In what way did our sins kill Jesus?

A Transforming Reparation Offering

1. What is the difference between "guilt" and "sin?"
2. How is the servant poems good news?
3. Why are lambs the ideal animals to represent the Messiah?
4. In what way is the sacrifice of a lamb not a fit representation of the Messiah's sacrifice of himself?

Lesson 9 (Feb 20-26, 2021), To Serve and to Save

 Servant Nation

1. Though any one can be God's Servant, who is specifically called to be God's Servant?
2. How well did Israel fulfill the task that God had assigned to the nation? What aspects of the task if any were accomplished? What aspects, if any, were not accomplished?
3. With so much evidence of God's help to Israel in the past why did so many kings not place their trust in him?

Unnamed Individual Servant

1. Why does God not identify his servant by name to make identification easier?
2. Is the term "servant" a positive term or a derogatory term In what ways was the Messiah God's Servant?
3. Is there a better term to describe the role of the Messiah in fulfilling God's task of saving humans?

Persian Messiah

1. How could Isaiah make a prediction of a Persian king by name two hundred years before he was born?
2. How much freedom of choice do we have if God knew everything we would be and do even before we were born?
3. Why do many people doubt that Isaiah could have made the prophecy so far ahead of time?

Hope in Advance

1. What would be the problem, if any, if there were really two Isaiah's like many people believe, one living an writing after the event?
2. Why would God promise comfort even before the distress came upon the nation of Israel?
3. Why is loyalty to one's nation so strong?

A Feeling and Suffering Servant

1. How successful was Jesus as God's servant? Was he a failure in any way because so many will not be saved?
2. How well is our church fulfilling the role of God's Servant?
3. What can local churches do to serve the community?

Lesson 8 (Feb 13-19, 2021), Comfort My People

Comfort for the Future

1. Does God himself punish his people or does he just withdraw his protection and allow Satan to afflict them?
2. Was Hezekiah really to blame for showing his wealth to his visitors? What was wrong about displaying God's blessings?
3. What could Hezekiah have shown his visitors that might have been better?

Presence, Word, and Roadwork

1. Why are roads repaired when a head of state visits?
2. How is the way actually to be prepared for the messiah? 
3. How successful was John the Baptist in preparing the world for Jesus?

The Birth of Evangelism

1. What do we mean by "shout it from the mountain tops?" Of what value is that?
2. What advantages might women have over men in the work of evangelism? 
3. Why were the majority of Adventist pioneer missionaries to India women?

 Merciful Creator

1. How is a display of the power of God a comfort to his people? Why weren't the Israelites at Sinai comforted by the display of God's power?
2. What did God accomplish by making Job feel so humble by showing his power in nature? 
3. What comfort is there in the fact that God is creator?

The Problem With Idolatry

1. Why do certain religions encourage images for worship?
2. Why did God prohibit Israel from making an image to represent him? 
3. What are the similarities in idolatry and adultery?
4. How easy or difficult is it to talk to someone you cannot see? 

Lesson 7 (Feb 6-12, 2021), Defeat of the Assyrians

 Strings Attached

1. How do bad kings like Ahaz have good sons like Hezekiah to succeed them?
2. Why do people prefer to trust human beings rather than God?
3. While trusting God how much human effort and planning should be done to counter threat?

Propaganda

1. What are the advantages of getting your enemy to surrender without a fight? What are the disadvantages, if any?
2. At what point does it become better to surrender to the enemy rather than fight and be destroyed?
3. How much can one trust the enemy to surrender, hoping to be spared?

Shaken, but Not Forsaken

1. How sure can one be that God has heard one's prayer and will answer it positively?
2. Why are some prophets like Isaiah believed and trusted by kings and others like Jeremiah doubted?
3. How concerned is God about his reputation?

The Rest of the Story

1. Why do kings and leaders not admit failures?
2. Can the account of the Bible which credits the death of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers to the Angel of the Lord, be harmonized with the historian Herodotus who blames the death on the bubonic plague?
3. Why does God rescue Jerusalem while allowing the others cities of Judah such as Lachish and Azekah to be defeated?

In Sickness and in Wealth

1. Was Hezekiah's illness a result of Satan's work? Why would Satan wish him to die?
2. Why did King Ahaz not want a sign from God, and why did Hezekiah ask for a sign?
3. How can the shadow on a sundial go backwards without throwing the solar system off course?

Lesson 6 (Jan 30-Feb 5, 2020), Playing God

 Doom on the Nations

1. Why was Babylon one of the worst enemies of God and Judah?
2. Are there any faithful people in Babylon?
3. Can the remnant church every become Babylon? How could that happen?

The Late Great City of Babylon

1. Does God cause nations to rise and fall, or does he merely allow it?
2. Could Babylon ever be rebuilt? Would that prove Bible prophecy which says it will not be inhabited again, wrong?
3. What do we mean by the term "Babylon is Fallen?"

Fall of the Mountain King

1. Why do some people deify kings? Do such kings believe actually that they are God?
2. What are things that feed a leader's ego?
3. What made Satan imagine that he could be like God? Why didn't he realize that such an attempt was foolish and doomed?

Heaven's Gate

1. Why is Babylon a fitting symbol for Satan?
2. Why would God use a mythical creature which has no real existence (like a dragon) to symbolize anything? Would it contribute to the idea that Satan might not really exist, or not?
3. Was Jacob's ladder leading to heaven, a dream or a vision?

Final Triumph of Zion

1. How many times will Babylon fall?
2. When is the "Day of the Lord?" Is there more than one?
3. Why does God burn the wicked in hellfire? Why not destroy them painlessly?

Lesson 5 (Jan 23-29, 2020), Noble Prince of Peace

 End of Gloom for Galilee

1. Why do so many people consult spirit mediums? How accurate are they? Is consulting weekly horoscopes evil?
2. How much difference does it make as to which place Jesus began his ministry? Why was it in the Galilee area? Was it by chance or by design?
3. How do people get possessed by the devil?

A Child for Us

1. Is the child of Isa 9:6, 7 the same one as Immanuel or a different one?
2. What are the indications that this one upon whose shoulders is placed the government, is not a human king?
3. Can this prophecy have more than one fulfillment, and if so what are the options? If not, why not?

The Rod of God's Anger

1. Why did God persist with Israel for so long, enduring their repeated failures and punishing them again and again?
2. What were the most serious sins of Israel?
3. Does God punish people today for sin? Is suffering an indication of sin in a person's life?

Root and Branch in One

1. Why do we use the term "Family Tree?"
2. What is the difference, if any between "shoot," and "branch?"
3. How is David as the "root of Jesse" also the ancestor of Jesus?
4. Why does Isaiah combine elements of the first advent with that of the second and third advents?

You Comforted Me

1. How truly was the Lord "our Salvation" before Jesus's incarnation?
2. When is "that day" which is mentioned several times Isaiah 12 when the Lord becomes our salvation?
3. What is the meaning of the term "Holy One of Israel?"

Lesson 4 (Jan 16-22, 2020), The Hard Way

 Prophecy Fulfilled

1. Why do you think didn't Isaiah say plainly that the two kings would die within two years instead of mentioning a child being old enough to choose between right and wrong?
2. What kind of diet is curd and honey? What does it say of the conditions?
3. Is the prophecy of the end of Israel, the northern kingdom, merely predicting the future or is it showing punishment from God?

Foreseen Consequences

1. Why is it more difficult to trust God than a political power?
2. Is it always wrong to ally with another nation?
3. What makes a king trust false gods more than the living God, to the point where he could sacrifice his own son in the fire?

What's in a Name

1. How important is the meaning of a name when choosing one for a newborn baby?
2. Why are some children given two names?
3. Would the prophet really give his sons weird names or were they just for illustration?

Nothing to Fear When We Fear God Himself

1. What if any any useful purpose does fear have? What happens to be people who have no fear?
2. What is the difference between "Fear of the Lord," and being afraid of God like Adam in the Garden of Eden?
3. In what sense does love cast out fear?

Gloom of the Ungrateful Living Dead

1. How important is it what happens to our dead body, whether buried, or cremated, and where it might be carried out?
2. Why does the devil usually bring those who surrender to him, to a tragic end? Wouldn't it be better for him to attract people by giving them a happy life and peaceful death?
3. What are ways in which one can be careless in giving the devil power to take over our lives?