Sharing Scripture for January 5 – 11

This is a tool for you to use if you lead a Sabbath School (SS) class or small group. It is keyed to the Bible texts used in the current week’s Adult SS Lesson and includes a brief story from current news you can use to introduce the discussion and then a series of discussion questions in a relational pattern designed to build fellowship and spiritual reflection.

For use: Jan. 5 – 11

Texts: 2 Kings 21:10-16; Daniel 1; Galatians 2:19, 20; Matthew 16:24-26; 2 Corinthians 4:17; James 1:5

Emily Takatak and her family were forcibly removed from her ancestral home on Baffin Island in Canada’s eastern Arctic. She had no idea why Canada’s government instigated the move, or even if she’d ever return to her home. Officials did not allow her to take any of her possessions, so she couldn’t adequately feed or clothe herself and her children. She later discovered that the government burned all of her belongings. The ill-conceived relocation program beginning in 1950 that uprooted Emily and the rest of her Inuit community led to decades of hunger and disease for the Inuit nation.

Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, recently issued an apology on behalf of the Canadian government. She met with 40 tribal elders to begin the process of resettlement. “We will reconcile past wrongs,” Bennett said, “by celebrating your communities, honouring your culture, respecting your language, and recognizing the ongoing contribution of Inuit to Canada.” The government is providing $20 million to help the Inuit reestablish their nation and culture. [1]

Just as with the relocation of native peoples across the Americas by foreign conquerors, God’s people have faced similar trials.

Nebuchadnezzar forcibly relocated Daniel and his friends—through no fault of their own—from their ancestral home in Judah to Babylon. The idolatrous practices of Judah’s national leaders led God to send Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army to destroy the nation and relocate its people. Now in Babylon, the Hebrew teens had to adjust to their new life in a foreign culture.

We can only imagine the grief they experienced because of this upheaval. They lost their homes and their neighborhoods. They probably lost some loved ones in the fight for national survival. We don’t know the fates of their families and other friends. Their daily routines, including their worship practices, were shattered. Everything familiar to them disappeared. Their conquerors even changed their names—an evidence that Babylon now owned them. They only had each other, and God.

To top it all off, they were immediately challenged to violate their consciences when their new masters directed them to eat meals that included unclean flesh and food offered to Babylonian idols. Their response to this gives us a clue about their early upbringing. We can reasonably assume that their parents, teachers, community elders and others instilled in them a sense of faithfulness to God and the scriptural teachings of their Jewish culture. More than that, however, this episode assures us that when the pressure to violate our faith ramps us, God’s power helps us hold tight to our values against all challengers.

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