"A Candle in the Dark"
Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
The prophecies of Isaiah come from a troubled time in Jewish history. Yet the same One whom Isaiah prophesied would bring deliverance from sin, fear, and discouragement for the Israelites is the same One who will accomplish that for us today.
Isaiah 11, Isaiah 29, and Isaiah 40
Royalty in Ruin (Prophets and Kings)
Chapter 58 - Darkness Precedes the Dawn
NOTE: Before leading this lesson, we suggest reading chapter 58 from Prophets and Kings and this week’s Cornerstone Connections.
Through the long centuries of the Hebrew nation, as the people endured slavery, wilderness, war, captivity, and oppression, the promise of a Messiah gave them hope. Prophets spoke of Him. Musicians sang about Him. Scholars and everyday people debated who He would be and how He would bring justice and peace, setting right what had gone wrong.
The true meaning of Messiah—“the anointed one”—remained hard to describe. Even after three years of walking, eating, laughing, sweating, and learning with Jesus, hanging on His every word, the disciples were still shell-shocked at Jesus’ death. As they staggered back to their places of lodging that night, they struggled to equate Jesus’ sudden death with the teacher and miracle worker who’d turned their lives upside down.
When Jesus, resurrected, met with His followers again over the next several weeks, He pointed them to the scriptures which foretold the ultimate meaning of His mission. Their perspective transformed by the cross, the disciples at last understood what all the sacrifices and symbols embedded in the Hebrew scriptures had been pointing to all along.
Needed: Marker/pen, paper or erasable white board
This week’s opening activity involves—and for some students, perhaps introduces—the classic game of Pictionary. If you are meeting remotely, you may want to prearrange your “artists” so they’re prepared to draw. You can divide your class into two teams, or just see how long it takes your students to guess what the artist is trying to illustrate.
Here’s how it’s played. One person is given a word or phrase to illustrate, while the rest of the group or their team tries to guess the word or phrase in a given timeframe, such as thirty seconds. If played in teams, the team gets one point for each correct guess. The artist is not permitted to write out any words or numerals, but can affirm the group or their teammates if they guess part of the answer.
Here are some words and phrases you might use for this game of Pictionary:
This week’s chapters in Isaiah are not straightforward descriptions of events. They use symbolic language, with lines like “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” and “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” These chapters contain some of the Bible’s most incredible promises, yet they require discernment and wisdom to understand and apply to our lives. Their words evoke the Exodus, the wisdom of Solomon, and a future time of global harmony that even extends to wildlife. They promise comfort and deliverance, and point to God as our ruler and redeemer.
In the book of Isaiah, God promises to redeem all of creation—our sin-ravaged bodies, our relationships with other people, even nature’s relationships between predator and prey. Isaiah uses imagery both familiar—the royal line of David; and hopeful—“he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.”
The promised ruler in these verses is one who will rule with discernment and wisdom and set right every injustice. He favors the poor over the proud, and strikes down all who oppress the vulnerable. He is the hope of not just the children of Israel, but all nations, “a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). This is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, that through His family line “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Though the prophecy is rooted in Israel’s greatest human king, it reflects far more than just Israel’s wish for security and self-determination, but promises that the Messiah will unite Jews and Gentiles into one family under God.
Read Isaiah 11:1-5.
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
Now read Isaiah 11:6-9.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Read Isaiah 11:10-16.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will subdue Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
15 The Lord will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
so that anyone can cross over in sandals.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt.
Read Isaiah 40:1-5.
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God’s people broke their covenant with Him, and reaped the consequences of destruction and oppression. They even lost control of the land God had promised and given them, finding themselves in occupied territory, controlled by one nation after another. But God through His prophets assured them that He still controlled history. In the fullness of time, at God’s chosen hour, the Messiah would come. To understand the Messiah’s mission, however, they would have to look back to the first promises of a redeemer, in the curse on the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The Israelites looked to the Messiah to restore their political independence. God promises to redeem not just our present-day circumstances, but everything in this broken world. He promises to undo the curse of sin that’s warped every aspect of our environment and lives.
Today’s world is ravaged by division and greed, self-centeredness and tribalism. As you go through the week ahead, consider how the world around you would change if it were redeemed from sin. How would redemption transform:
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
For the past several weeks we have followed Israel’s journey into captivity and the remnant’s journey out of captivity and back to their land. Even as they returned and rebuilt their city and lives, they faced many challenges. Some had still not learned to obey and listen to God’s commands, but nonetheless, God continued to send prophets to help guide them. The people were spiritually starved, but yearned to know more. The more they leaned the more they understood the error of their ways and the more they wanted to know.
Last week, the people gathered together to worship and listen to the Law of God. While they had repaired the walls and gates of Jerusalem, a lot of the city still lay in ruins and their work was not finished. Neither with the city or in their hearts. The work Nehemiah had done on the city served as a reminder that just like the city was being rebuilt and restored, their hearts should be as well.
This week, we begin our study of the prophet Isaiah and the many wise words and prophecies that God spoke through him. Isaiah speaks of the might and power of our God as well as the kindness and mercy we are shown. Along with promises, this book is filled with prophecies of the Messiah that was promised to the people. This week we will specifically look at the judgement that will come upon this world, the might and power of God, and His promise of strength in Him.
Who is the strongest person you know?
Read Isaiah 11The Branch From Jesse
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him,
and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.
12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will subdue Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
15 The Lord will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
so that anyone can cross over in sandals.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt.
Read Isaiah 29.
Woe to David’s City
1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David settled!
Add year to year
and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel;
she will mourn and lament,
she will be to me like an altar hearth.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides;
I will encircle you with towers
and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
out of the dust your speech will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6 the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
with a vision in the night—
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be stunned and amazed,
blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
stagger, but not from beer.
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).
11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”13 The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
“You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
“You know nothing”?
17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
who ensnare the defender in court
and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:
“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
no longer will their faces grow pale.
23 When they see among them their children,
the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
those who complain will accept instruction.”
Read Isaiah 40.
Comfort for God’s People
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
God holds the ultimate power throughout the entire universe. Isaiah assures us of His absolute power. Even though He holds the power to do anything, He considers us His children and cares for us as the perfect Father. He promises us that He will give us the strength and power we need to conquer anything as long as we are part of the remnant. The earth will be judged, but as the remnant we can hold in faith that we will be taken to heaven with Him to live forever. Whenever you need strength read Isaiah 40:28-31.
Take some time with your parents or a mentor and discuss the power of your nation’s government versus the power of God. Since God is ultimately in charge, what are some ways that He could be working through world, state, and specifically church leaders to bring ultimate glory to Him?
Isaiah speaks of how the Spirit of the Lord will rest on one of the Branches of Jesse; one of his descendants. Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, was part of Jesus’ genealogy. Ruth was not Jewish; she was a Moabite. This shows how Jesus can use unexpected people in His plan. With a parent or adult family member, take a look at some of your ancestors and think about how they were used to bring glory to God. Maybe you are a first- or second-generation Adventist. If that is the case, look at some possible plans that God may have for you.
Isaiah tells us that just like grass, we will wither and fall. As humans we do die, but God has promised us things that will last forever. What are some of the things that will last forever?
Give thanks this week for the ones that mean the most to you.
