Lisa and I taught Sunday School this morning. I was the lead so I'm going to post my notes for you and the handout I made. The first part of the lesson was about Abraham and Sarah been blessed with Isaac at such an old age. Then it was about Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's nephew, Lot and his wife and family fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah. Then the last part of the lesson was about Abraham being asked to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac.
Lisa found some fruit roll ups by the foot which we incorporated into the handout. I will post at the end of the lesson.
So my notes are a little disjointed – and I added a lot of my own thoughts, as did Lisa. But you'll get the idea.
Sunday school lesson Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham and Isaac Genesis
18-23
Genesis 17:4, 15-22
4 As
for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Abrahamic
covenant: God promises –power, ordinances, priesthood, exaltation. We promise – baptism, keep the commandments, follow
covenant path, share the gospel, become a disciple of Christ.
15 ¶ And God said unto Abraham, As
for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
16 And
I will bless her, and give thee a son
also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of
nations; kings of people shall be of her.
What was Abraham’s reaction?
17 Then Abraham fell upon his
face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto
him that is an hundred years old? and shall
Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And
Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live
before thee!
What was God’s response?
19 And
God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou
shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with
him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
20 And
as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and
will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a
great nation.
21 But
my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah
shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next
year.
22 And
he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
What was Sarah’s reaction?
Genesis 18:11-12
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old
and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of
women.
12 Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old
also?
What was the Lord’s response?
Genesis 18:14
14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time
appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
What do you find in these verses that builds your faith? What
other experiences—in your life or someone else’s—have strengthened your faith
that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you in His own time and way?
Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his wife
and family
Genesis 18
20 And the Lord said, Because the acry of Sodom
and Gomorrah is great, and because their bsin is very
grievous;
50 righteous? 45, 40, 30, 20, 10 righteous? Lord will spare Sodom and Gomorrah if 10
righteous can be found. 10 righteous are
not found and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed with fire and brimstone.
The Lord commands Lot and his family
to leave, lest they be destroyed.
Genesis 19:12-17
12 ¶ And the men said unto
Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters,
and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:
13 For we will destroy this place, because
the cry of them is waxen great before the face of
the Lord;
and the Lord hath
sent us to destroy it.
14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his
sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place;
for the Lord will
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his
sons in law.
15 ¶ And when the morning arose, then
the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take
thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the
iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered, the men laid
hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two
daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set
him without the city.
17 ¶ And it came to pass, when they had
brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the
plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Ezekiel 16:49–50
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy
sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread,
and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty, and
committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Jude 1:7–8
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha,
and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set
forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh,
despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
The Lord commands us to flee
wickedness.
What lessons do you learn
about fleeing wickedness as you read about Lot and his family? For example,
what impresses you about what the angels said and did to help Lot and his
family escape destruction? (see Genesis 19:12–17). How
does the Lord help you and your family flee or find protection from evil
influences in the world?
Genesis
19:26
26 ¶ But his
wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
What did Lot’s wife do wrong?
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught:
“Apparently,
what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just looking back;
in her heart she wanted to go back.
It would appear that even before she was past the city limits, she was already
missing what Sodom and Gomorrah had offered her. … She did not have faith. She
doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already
had. …
“To
all [people] of every generation, I call out, ‘Remember Lot’s wife’ [Luke 17:32]. (second shortest
Scripture after “Jesus wept”)
Boyd K
Packer, “defend the faith”, March 2004, J Reuben Clark law school at BYU
"These
are days of great spiritual danger for this people."
"Nothing
happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds the wickedness and depravity which
surrounds us now.
"Satan
uses every intrigue to disrupt the family. The sacred relationship between man
and woman, husband and wife, through which mortal bodies are conceived and life
is passed from one generation to the next generation, is being showered with
filth.
"Profanity,
vulgarity, blasphemy, and pornography are broadcast into the homes and minds of
the innocent. Unspeakable wickedness, perversion, and abuse — not even
exempting little children — once hidden in dark places, now seeks protection
from courts and judges."
"The
sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were localized. They are now spread across the
world, wherever the Church is. The first line of defense — the home — is
crumbling. Surely you can see what the adversary is about."
"We may
one day stand alone, but we will not change or lower our standards or change
our course."
2 Timothy
3:1-5
1 This know also,
that in the alast days perilous btimes shall
come.
2 For men shall be
lovers of their own selves, acovetous,
boasters, bproud,
blasphemers, cdisobedient to
parents, dunthankful, unholy,
3 Without anatural baffection, ctrucebreakers, dfalse accusers, eincontinent, fierce,
despisers of those that are good,
4 aTraitors, bheady, chighminded, lovers
of dpleasures more
than lovers of God;
5 Having a aform of
godliness, but bdenying the
power thereof: from such turn away.
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac is a
similitude of God and His Son.
We
don’t know all the reasons God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice;
we do know it was a test of his faith in God (see Genesis 22:12–19). As you
read Genesis 22:1–19, what do you learn
from Abraham’s experience?
Abraham’s
willingness to sacrifice his son was “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten
Son” (Jacob 4:5). As you ponder
the similarities between Abraham’s test and God the Father’s offering of His
Son as a sacrifice for us, what do you feel for your Heavenly Father?
There are also similarities between Isaac and the Savior.
Genesis 22
1-19
1 And it came to pass after
these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and
said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
*Tempt
means test or try.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him
there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 ¶ And Abraham rose up early in the
morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac
his son, and clave the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up
his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said unto his young men,
Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering, and laid it upon Isaac
his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of
them together.
*Isaac
was old enough to carry the word upon his back.
Isaac was most likely a teenager or young adult.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his
father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the
wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they
went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God
had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and
laid him on the altar upon the wood.
*Isaac
willingly laid on the altar to be sacrificed.
He could have easily overpowered is 100+-year-old father.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand,
and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him
out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any
thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
*God wanted to test Abraham to see if he was
willing to sacrifice his beloved son.
This is in similitude of God offering his beloved son as a sacrifice for
us.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and
looked, and behold behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
15 ¶ And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham
out of heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and
in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess
the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice.
19 So Abraham returned unto his young men,
and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at
Beer-sheba.
Because
Abraham was willing to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, he was blessed. Abrahamic covenant. 3P’s– priesthood, posterity, prosperity
(property).
