Read Ellen G. White, “God’s Love for Man,” pp. 9–15, in Steps to Christ. “The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, ‘Show me Thy glory,’ the Lord answered, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before thee.’ Exodus 33:18, 19 . This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniqu...
Feb 07, 2025•8 min•Season 7Ep. 2299
Scripture consistently teaches that “ ‘the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments’ ” ( Deut. 7:9, NKJV ). His character of goodness and love was supremely demonstrated by Jesus at the cross (see Rom. 3:25, 26; Rom. 5:8 ). According to Psalm 100:5 , “The Lord is good; [H]is steadfast love endures forever, and [H]is faithfulness to all generations” (ESV; compare with Ps. 89:2 ). Thus, God ...
Feb 06, 2025•17 min•Season 7Ep. 2298
Can God “repent”? If so, what would that mean? We have seen that God’s character never changes. However, some biblical texts speak of God as “repenting” or “relenting.” At least for humans, repentance involves recognition that one has done something wrong. How, then, can some biblical passages depict God as “repenting”? Read Exodus 32:14 and compare it with Jeremiah 18:4–10 . What do you make of these descriptions of God’s “relenting”? In these and many other passages, God is depicted as relenti...
Feb 05, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2297
Read Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17 . What do these passages teach about God’s character? In Malachi 3:6 , God declares, “ ‘I am the Lord, I do not change’ ” (NKJV). While some read this part of the verse and take it to mean that God does not change in any way whatsoever, the rest of the verse and its immediate context shows that the changelessness of God affirmed here is God’s moral changelessness. The rest of the verse indicates that God may change relationally, for God says: “ ‘Therefore you are ...
Feb 04, 2025•12 min•Season 7Ep. 2296
God does not simply claim to love justice and call people to love and do justice, but God Himself perfectly and unwaveringly exemplifies these traits. Scripture teaches that God is entirely holy, faithful, righteous, and loving. God only and always does what is loving, righteous, and just. He never does any wrong. Read Deuteronomy 32:4 and Psalm 92:15 . What do these passages teach about the faithfulness and righteousness of God? These and many other passages declare that God is just and loving—...
Feb 03, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2295
Throughout Scripture, love and justice go together. True love requires justice, and true justice can be governed by and meted out only in love. We are not used to thinking of these two concepts together, but that is only because both love and justice have been greatly perverted by humanity. Read Psalm 33:5, Isaiah 61:8, Jeremiah 9:24, Psalm 85:10, and Psalm 89:14 . How do these texts shed light on God’s concern for justice? These texts explicitly declare that God loves justice ( Ps. 33:5, Isa. 6...
Feb 02, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2294
Read for This Week’s Study Ps. 33:5, Ps. 85:10, Deut. 32:4, James 1:17, Titus 1:2, Exod. 32:14, Matt. 5:43–48 . Memory Text: In the ancient Near East, the “gods” of the nations were not only fickle, immoral, and unpredictable, but they also commanded atrocities, such as child sacrifice. And even then, the pagan masses could not count on their favor, and so they dared not cross their tribal “deities.” According to Deuteronomy 32:17 , behind such “gods” were demons (see also 1 Cor. 10:20, 21 ). An...
Feb 01, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2293
Read Ellen G. White, “Idolatry at Sinai,” pp. 315–330, in Patriarchs and Prophets. In the context of the sin of the golden calf, Ellen G. White wrote: “The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey. That the divine government might be maintained justice must be visited upon the traitors. Yet even here God’s mercy was displayed. While He maintained His law, He granted freedom...
Jan 31, 2025•17 min•Season 7Ep. 2292
While divine wrath is a “terrible” thing, it is by no means immoral or unloving. On the contrary, in the Old and New Testaments, God expresses wrath against evil because of His love. Divine wrath is terrible because of the insidious nature of evil in contrast to the pure goodness and splendor of God. In this regard, love is essential to God; wrath is not. Where there is no evil or injustice, there is no wrath. In the end, God’s most loving action of eradicating evil from the universe also effect...
Jan 30, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2291
Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly displays His passion in favor of the downtrodden and the oppressed and His corresponding righteous indignation against the victimizers and oppressors. If there were no evil, God would not be angry. His anger is only and always against that which harms His creation. According to Lamentations 3:32, 33 , God does not afflict willingly (literally, God does not afflict “from His heart”). He does not want to bring judgment against evildoers, but love finally requir...
Jan 29, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2290
God becomes angry at evil because God is love. God is so compassionate and gracious that one biblical prophet even chastised God for being too merciful! Consider the story of Jonah and reflect on Jonah’s reaction to God’s compassionate forgiveness of the Ninevites, in Jonah 4:1–4 . What does this tell us about Jonah, and about God? (See also Matt. 10:8 .) Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy is telling in two primary ways. First, it displays Jonah’s own hardheartedness. He hated the Assyrians so much...
Jan 28, 2025•11 min•Season 5Ep. 2289
God becomes angry at evil because God is love. God is so compassionate and gracious that one biblical prophet even chastised God for being too merciful! Consider the story of Jonah and reflect on Jonah’s reaction to God’s compassionate forgiveness of the Ninevites, in Jonah 4:1–4 . What does this tell us about Jonah, and about God? (See also Matt. 10:8 .) Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy is telling in two primary ways. First, it displays Jonah’s own hardheartedness. He hated the Assyrians so much...
Jan 27, 2025•17 min•Season 7Ep. 2288
The God of the Bible loves justice and hates evil. Sin and evil, therefore, provoke Him to passion, a passion expressed on behalf of those oppressed and abused, and even in cases in which one’s evil affects primarily oneself. God hates evil because evil always hurts His creatures, even if self-inflicted. In the biblical narratives, God is repeatedly provoked to anger by what biblical scholars refer to as the cycle of rebellion. This cycle goes as follows: The people rebel against God and do evil...
Jan 26, 2025•14 min•Season 7Ep. 2287
Read for This Week’s Study Psalm 78; Jonah 4:1–4; Matt. 10:8; Matt. 21:12, 13; Jer. 51:24, 25; Rom. 12:17–21 . Memory Text: Though God’s compassion is often celebrated, many find the idea of His wrath disturbing. If God is love, they think He should never express wrath. That notion, however, is false. His wrath arises directly from His love. Some claim that the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and that the New Testament God is a God of love. But there is only one God, and He is revealed as th...
Jan 25, 2025•6 min•Season 7Ep. 2286
Read Ellen G. White, “The Beatitudes,” pp. 6–44, in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing. “All who have a sense of their deep soul poverty, who feel that they have nothing good in themselves, may find righteousness and strength by looking unto Jesus. He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden.’ Matthew 11:28 . He bids you exchange your poverty for the riches of His grace. We are not worthy of God's love, but Christ, our surety, is worthy, and is abundantly able to save all who ...
Jan 24, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2285
The God of the Bible is compassionate and passionate, and these divine emotions are supremely exemplified in Jesus Christ. God is sympathetic (compare with Isa. 63:9, Heb. 4:15 ), deeply affected by the sorrows of His people ( Judg. 10:16, Luke 19:41 ), and willing to hear, answer, and comfort ( Isa. 49:10, 15; Matt. 9:36; Matt. 14:14 ). Read 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 . In what ways does this passage call us to reflect God’s compassionate and amazing love in our relationships with others? We long to ...
Jan 23, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2284
The God of the Bible is the “compassionate God.” In Hebrew, God is called el raḥum ( Deut. 4:31 ). The term “el” means “God,” and raḥum is a different form of the root for compassion (raḥum). Yet, God is called not only the compassionate God but also the jealous God, el qana’. As Deuteronomy 4:24 puts it, “ ‘The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God [el qana’].’ ” (See Deut. 4:24, Deut. 6:15, Josh. 24:19, Nah. 1:2 .) First Corinthians 13:4 declares that “love is not jealous” (RSV). Ho...
Jan 22, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2283
In the New Testament, the same kind of imagery as in the Old is used to depict God’s compassion. Paul refers to the Father as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” ( 2 Cor. 1:3, NKJV ). Further, Paul explains in Ephesians 2:4 that God is “rich in mercy” and redeems humans “because of His great love with which He loved us” (NKJV). In various parables, Christ Himself repeatedly uses terms of visceral, gut-wrenching emotion to depict the Father’s compassion ( Matt. 18:27, Luke 10:33, Luke ...
Jan 21, 2025•15 min•Season 7Ep. 2282
The incalculable depths of God’s compassionate love for humanity are manifested in Hosea. God had commanded the prophet Hosea, “ ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord’ ” ( Hos. 1:2, NKJV ). Hosea 11 later depicts God’s relationship with His people, but with the metaphor of a loving father for his child. Read Hosea 11:1–9 . How does the imagery in these verses bring to life the way God loves and cares f...
Jan 20, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2281
Perhaps the greatest love common to human experience is the love of a parent for a child. The Bible often uses the imagery of the parent-child relationship to depict God’s amazing compassion for people, emphasizing that God’s compassion is exponentially greater than even the deepest and most beautiful human expression of the same emotion. Read Psalm 103:13, Isaiah 49:15, and Jeremiah 31:20 . What do these depictions convey about the nature and depth of God’s compassion? According to these texts,...
Jan 19, 2025•15 min•Season 7Ep. 2280
Read for This Week’s Study Ps. 103:13, Isa. 49:15, Hos. 11:1–9, Matt. 23:37, 2 Cor. 11:2, 1 Cor. 13:4–8 . Memory Text: Emotions are often viewed as undesirable and to be avoided. For some people, emotions are intrinsically irrational, and thus, the good man or woman would not be described as “emotional.” In some ancient Greek philosophy, the idea of the “rational” man, who is (mostly) either impervious to passions or who rules over his emotions by way of unemotional reason, is prized as the idea...
Jan 18, 2025•7 min•Season 7Ep. 2279
Read Ellen G. White, “ ‘Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,’ ” pp. 662–680, in The Desire of Ages. “The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. T...
Jan 17, 2025•7 min•Season 7Ep. 2278
Under the umbrella of God’s mercy and mediation, God takes pleasure in even the smallest positive response to His love. Through the One who alone is worthy of love and is Himself perfectly righteous, each one of us can be counted righteous and counted among God’s beloved who will live with Him in perfect love for eternity. This is the great hope of the redemption, which involves Christ’s work for us in heaven. But, you might wonder, can this include even me? What if I am not good enough? What if...
Jan 16, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2277
How is it that we, as fallen, sinful beings, can be pleasing to a holy God? Read Romans 8:1 and Romans 5:8 . What do these texts teach about our standing before God? God bestows grace on people prior to any human response. Before anything we say or do, God reaches out to us and gives us the opportunity to accept or reject His love. As Romans 5:8 puts it, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (NKJV; compare with Jer. 31:3 ). And we can ...
Jan 15, 2025•12 min•Season 7Ep. 2276
How could it be that the God of the universe takes delight in mere humans, fleeting blobs of protoplasm on one tiny planet amid what is probably an infinite universe? How could it be possible that humans could matter so much to the Supreme Being, who is all-powerful and who needs nothing? These questions can be parsed into two aspects. First, how could God Himself be delighted? Second, how could humans bring Him delight, particularly given our sinfulness? The first aspect of these questions is t...
Jan 14, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2275
Hard as it is for us to imagine, God considers each person of incalculable value, which is why He rejoices over the salvation of even one soul. Read Zephaniah 3:17 . How does this verse shed light on the parable of the prodigal son? Zephaniah 3:17 emphatically displays the delight of God over His redeemed people. Just about every word for joy and delight in the Hebrew language is packed into this single verse, descriptive of God’s delight over His redeemed people. It’s almost as if no one of the...
Jan 13, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2274
As we saw in an earlier lesson, there is no one—even the worst sinner or worst evildoer—whom God does not love. And because God values people more than we could possibly imagine, He is displeased by sin because He loves us and knows what sin does to us, as well. Read Luke 15:11–32 . What does the parable of the prodigal son reveal about God’s compassion and love? What warning does it provide for those who, like the other son, remained home? In this story that Jesus tells, the man’s son requested...
Jan 12, 2025•12 min•Season 7Ep. 2273
Read for This Week’s Study Luke 15:11–32, Zeph. 3:17, Eph. 5:25–28, Isa. 43:4, Rom. 8:1, Rom. 5:8, Mark 9:17–29 . Memory Text: Imagine the following scenario: a five-year-old child comes to his father with a poorly wrapped gift on Father’s Day. Excitedly, he hands the gift to his father. Imagine that the father says, “Son, I do not care about your gift. After all, there is nothing you could give me that would please me. Anything you could give me, I could get for myself, and anything you give to...
Jan 11, 2025•4 min•Season 7Ep. 2272
Read Ellen G. White, “The Privilege of Prayer,” pp. 93–104, in Steps to Christ. “Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. ‘The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.’ James 5:11 . His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too g...
Jan 10, 2025•6 min
Just as the servant could never repay his debt to his master, we can never repay God. We could never earn or merit God’s love. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” ( Rom. 5:8, NKJV ). What amazing love! As 1 John 3:1 puts it, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (NKJV). However, what we can and should do is to reflect God’s love to others as much as we possibly can. If w...
Jan 09, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2270
