Consequences

A professional teacher, for many years Bro. Jim Harper has been a major contributor to the instruction of children and young people in our community. He shared in the creation of the New England Sunday School Program and has published the Joy of Sunday Schooling for the last several years. Lord willing, he will now make regular contributions to the “Tidings.”

Sunday School teachers and youth circle leaders should read Bro. Jim’s material with particular interest as he provides very practical spiritual exercises.

Deserving the Consequences

1. What’s wrong here?

• Mom watches the soaps on TV. She tells the kids not to watch gross TV programs.
• The parents argue constantly. They tell the children that God wants them to be nice to each other.
• You complain about school. You complain about your homework. You complain about the chores your parents ask you to do. You can’t stand people who complain all the time.
• Dad watches X-rated videos when he thinks no one notices. He tells his son to behave himself around girls.
• The TV at home is on all the time. The people on it are swearing and yelling at each other constantly. The parents tell the kids to stop using dirty language.

2. The situations in #1 are examples of living by a double standard. It’s wrong. What are the consequence of doing it?
3. King David took the liberty of living by a double standard once. He stole Uriah’s wife, committed adultery with her, and had Uriah murdered. He paid dearly for it in the behavior of his sons.

• The Amnon disaster.
  II Samuel 13:1 — Who was Amnon? Who was Tamar? What was
  Amnon’s attitude toward Tamar?
  II Sam. 13:10-14 — How did Amnon treat Tamar?
  II Sam. 13:21 — How did David feel about this?
  II Sam. 13:28-33 — What happened to Amnon?

• The Absalom Disaster.
  II Samuel 15:1-6 — What did Absalom do to win the hearts of Israel away from his father David?
  II Sam. 15:10 — What did Absalom attempt to do?
  II Sam. 15:14 — What did David do?
  II Sam. 16:21-22 — How else did Absalom assert power over his father?

4. Look again at the kinds of sins David’s sons committed. How did David’s sins against Uriah undermine his ability to discipline Amnon and Absalom?

Owning the consequences

1. How do you react?

• You are unkind to another young person at a CYC weekend and the chaperons discipline you for it. How do you react?
  A — You feel bitter toward the chaperons and the person you were unkind to.
  B — You get back at the chaperons for disciplining you. After all, they’re not your parents!
  C — You do something else unkind to somebody so you can feel like you’ve gotten even with the world for being punished.
  D — You hate CYC weekends and decide never to attend again.
  E — Something else. What?

• You take some money that doesn’t belong to you. Afterward you wish you hadn’t done it. But you will have a difficult time returning the money without looking bad. The best thing to do is:
  A — Stop worrying about it. Everybody does something wrong at least once in his life. Look at King David!
  B — Share the $$$ with somebody so you can feel better about it.
  C — Spend it quickly so you don’t have it around to worry about (or get caught with!).
  D — Something else. What?

• You say negative things about people behind their backs. After a while you realize that a lot of people don’t want to be friends with you. How do you react to this?
  A — Sulk. People are stupid anyway. They don’t appreciate you.
  B — Don’t have anything to do with the people who don’t like you. De liberately ignore them.
  C — Keep on saying bad things. If people don’t want to be friends with you, they deserve it.
  D — Find somebody who sympathizes with you and have a good time bad mouthing those people.
  E — Something else. What?

2. King David experienced terrible consequences for his sins. His family life deteriorated. His own sons became unmanageable. How did he react to these difficulties?
   II Samuel 12: 7-13 — What did David do about the sins he had committed?
   I Chronicles 22:14 — What did David do about his relationship to God, in spite of the problems?
   I Chron. 28:9 — What advice did David give to his son Solomon?

3. What’s the lesson for us?