What do you remember?
Write two things you remember from last lesson in Bible. No peeking: just what's in your head.
- Genesis 2:15: to work it and keep it. Not work is a punishment. First: work, then sin. So: work is good.
- Every tree: yes. One tree: forbidden. Not kept from most things.
- Covenant: an agreement God sets. Command: hands off one tree. Condition: perfect obedience. Consequence: obey and live; disobey and die. Not God owed Adam life.
- Secret things: the LORD's to keep. Revealed things: ours to do. Not keep guessing and worrying.
- Genesis 2:16: the LORD God commanded the man. So: answer from the verse's words. Not a guess or a feeling.
Anything you missed? That's the bit to hold on to today.
Make your first call
Your buddy cuts across a neighbor's field without asking, right past the Keep Out sign. Halfway across he spots a brush fire starting by the barn and calls it in. The fire crew gets there in time and the barn is saved.
The shortcut ended with a saved barn. Did that make ignoring the sign OK?
Saved. You'll come back to this at the end.
If God rules it, is it OK?
In Lesson 21 you learned that God keeps everything going and rules everything that happens: his providence. Today asks the question that comes right after: if God rules it, does that make it right?
You'll read five short passages: Joseph talking to his brothers, Peter speaking in Jerusalem, James on temptation, Paul throwing out a twisted idea, and Moses on what God has told us. Shorter Catechism 11 is back too.
Then five short films, each with something to do and a quick check. One test runs through all of them: God ruling it isn't God approving it. Right and wrong come from what God said, not from how things turned out.
You meant evil · Genesis 50:19–20
What happens before: years after his brothers sold him as a slave, Joseph rules in Egypt and has kept the whole family alive through a famine. Their father has just died, and the brothers are afraid Joseph will pay them back now.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Plan and guilt · Acts 2:23
What happens before: a few weeks after Jesus died and rose, Peter speaks to a big crowd in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was put to death.
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
What it means: “lawless men” are men who broke God's law. Peter says God's plan and their guilt in one sentence.
Whose desire? · James 1:13–14
What happens before: James is writing to Christians going through hard times, and some of them are blaming God when they're tempted to do wrong.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
What it means: “lured and enticed” is pulled in, the way a bass gets pulled to a lure.
Evil that good may come? · Romans 3:8
What happens before: Paul has taught that God shows how good and faithful he is, even next to people's sin. Some people twisted that into something Paul never said.
8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
What it means: “slanderously charge us with saying” means they lied about what Paul taught. “Their condemnation is just” means they deserve to be judged guilty.
Secret and revealed · Deuteronomy 29:29 and Exodus 20:15
What happens before: Israel is about to go into the land God promised, and Moses reminds them of everything God has told them to do.
29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
One of the things God has revealed, from the Ten Commandments:
15 “You shall not steal.
Shorter Catechism 11
Q. 11: What are God's works of providence? A: God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.
It turned out good. Was it good?
Judge it by the ending?
The brothers sold Joseph. Years later, that's how a whole nation was kept alive through the famine. So what was the selling?
Use it right away
What did they mean? In Genesis 50:20, what does Joseph say his brothers meant?
A guy takes his brother's dirt bike without asking and wrecks it. The repair shop owner likes his brother and offers him a summer job. The guy says: “Good thing I wrecked it, then.” In two sentences, using Genesis 50:20, set him straight. Use your own words.
Planned by God, still guilty?
God rules it, still wrong
Each line is about one of two things: God ruling what happens, or the wrong people did in it. Both are true at once. Sort them.
Use it right away
Who did it? In Acts 2:23, who does Peter say killed Jesus?
Peter told the Jerusalem crowd two things in one verse. In two sentences, using Acts 2:23, explain why a man who helped kill Jesus couldn't say: “I was only part of God's plan.” Use your own words.
Swiped lure. Whose fault?
Who's to blame at the lake?
Two guys fishing at dawn. One wants the other's lure. Tap each pin, then find the one that fits.
Find it: Where does the pull to swipe the lure start? Which pin?
Find it: God rules this whole morning. Does that mean he pushed the guy to take it? Tap the pin that answers.
Find it: His next excuse: “It was right there.” Tap the pin that shows why that fails.
Use it right away
True or false? James says temptation comes from God.
Your cousin snaps at his little sister, then shrugs: “God's in charge of everything, so take it up with him.” Answer him in two sentences from James 1:13–14, in your own words.
It won the game. Was the lie OK?
The twisted idea
Paul's answer, then the ref call. Pick the step that makes both links true.
- Paul taught that God shows his goodness even next to people's sin
- so
- ? Which step goes here?✓ Yes. They took God bringing good out of evil and turned it into a reason to do evil.✗ Paul never said that. He says people lied about him to make it sound like he did.✗ Nobody in the verse says that. Some twisted his words, and Paul pushes back hard.
- so
- Paul threw it out: “Their condemnation is just”: people who teach that deserve to be judged guilty
- so
- ? Which step goes here?✓ Yes. Doing wrong to get a good result is still wrong, and a win doesn't change that.✗ That's the exact idea Paul throws out: evil that good may come.✗ Getting found out isn't what makes it wrong. It was a lie the moment he said it.
- so
- he can't point at the scoreboard to make it right
Use it right away
True or false? The pizza party makes the copying OK.
A guy lies about his age at the fair to get the cheaper kids' ticket, and spends the money he saved on a gift for his mom. He says the gift makes the lie worth it. Using Romans 3:8, answer him in two sentences, in your own words.
It happened. So is it right?
It happened. Now what?
After a camp-out, a guy finds his buddy's headlamp in his own pack. He keeps it: “God put it in my pack, so I guess it's mine now.” Build the answer one part at a time.
Use it right away
How do you know? He lied and wasn't caught. How do you know if it was right?
Now make up your own new example: something God ruled over, where the person who did the wrong is still to blame for it. One or two sentences, in your own words.
Your turn, no help
Short answers from today's reading.
One of these comes from earlier lessons, mixed in. For each one, decide which idea it needs before you answer.
- In James 1:13, who does God tempt?
- True or false? Since God meant it for good, what the brothers did wasn't really wrong.
You answered both of these in the practice above. They look alike. For each one, write what you did first, and the word or sign in the question that told you to do that.
Back to your first answer
Go back to the shortcut past the Keep Out sign at the start of the page. Now that you've read Genesis 50:20 and Romans 3:8, has your answer moved? Say how, in your own words.
In five lines
- Genesis 50:20: you meant evil against me. Not it all worked out, so it was fine. One event: two meanings. Bottom line: God meant it for good.
- The plan: it stood. The men: guilty. Not it wasn't their fault.
- Temptation: his own desire. Your wrong choice: still yours. Not Forced into it.
- Evil so good comes: still wrong. Paul says: it deserves judgment. Not it helped, so it was OK.
- The test: what God said. His commands: ours to obey. What happened: never the test.
Test yourself
Answer in your head first, then tap the card.
Who decides what's right?
If whatever happens is right, nobody is ever to blame. Scripture says God rules everything and never approves evil: he brings good out of it, and right and wrong are judged by what he said.
What today showed
- Your work
- Complete the lesson to see your record here.
- Standards
- WSC 11: What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.