Acknowledging God

Most of us are familiar with the child’s mealtime prayer, “God is great, God is good; let us thank him for our food.” That prayer expresses a truth that is worth remembering and honoring in adulthood as well as childhood: God is indeed great. That greatness is on display in the studies of the upcoming quarter.

Sacred Space

Unit 1 begins with a lesson from Genesis 22, which records Abraham’s willingness to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. When Isaac questioned where the lamb for such an offering was, his father, with the faith that became his trademark, replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). And God did indeed provide a substitute, sparing Isaac.

Certainly worth noting is the fact that the very place where this incident occurred (Mount Moriah) became the site of the magnificent temple built by King Solomon (2 Chronicles 3:1). The events surrounding its dedication are the focus of lessons 2–4. Lesson 2 examines a portion of Solomon’s prayer highlighting the greatness of God: “Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth” (2 Chronicles 6:14). Lesson 3 describes how both Solomon and the people responded to God’s glorious presence in the temple with worship. In lesson 4 the Lord encourages Solomon and the people to honor his greatness with faithful obedience. With this comes the solemn warning that disobedience will bring tragic consequences. God is indeed great, but his greatness is not something to trivialize.

Sovereign Savior

The lessons of unit 2 are all drawn from the New Testament. This unit includes the lesson for Easter Sunday (lesson 5), taken from the Gospel of Luke. In lessons 6 and 7, from John’s Gospel, the risen Lord appears to some of his disciples by the lake and challenges Peter (who had denied Jesus) to a life of service that would include a humiliating death, yet one that would glorify God. John closes this account (and his Gospel) with a ringing testimony to the greatness of Jesus: the world could not contain all the books chronicling his wondrous acts (John 21:25).

Jesus’ greatness is further magnified by John through what he witnesses and records in the book of Revelation, from which lessons 8 and 9 are drawn. The texts (from chapters 4 and 5) describe John’s vision of divine majesty in the throne room of Heaven.

Servant’s Spirit

The final unit draws from both Old and New Testaments to encourage students to respond to God in a manner befitting his greatness. Both of the texts for lesson 10, from Exodus (describing the gifts given for the tabernacle) and 2 Corinthians, highlight the importance of the heart in one’s giving to the Lord’s work. Lessons 11 and 12 are taken from Leviticus and focus on, respectively, the Feast of Firstfruits and the observance of both the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee. The title of lesson 12, “Remembering with Joy,” calls our attention to the fact that Old Testament religious practices were not intended to be times of grudging compliance to God’s commands; they celebrated the gifts of a great and gracious God.

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3).

The final lesson, combining texts from Psalm 34 and Hebrews 2, emphasizes the blessing of a restored relationship with our great God. All followers of the Lord are called to a lifestyle characterized by praise. “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3).

Douglas Redford, “Quarter at a Glance,” in The NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2017–2018, ed. Jim Eichenberger et al., vol. 24 (Colorado Springs, CO: Standard Publishing, 2017), 227.