Abraham

The Man Who Dared to give Counsel to God

Pray

Pray together for the group meeting, and any pressing needs within the group.

Review

Each week you’ll spend some time reviewing the previous week’s lesson. Did anything happen last week that brought the lesson to mind, and what did you learn from it?

Watch

Watch the following discussion-starter video. It’ll set the topic of discussion for the group.

Read: Genesis 18:1-5, 16-33

1. One person will first read the scripture selection in the King James Version.
2. Next, another person will read the same passages in a modern language or amplified version for more clarity such as the New Living Translation (NLT), Message Bible (MSG), New English Translation (NET), Amplified Bible (AMP), etc. We recommend using the YouVersion Bible app.

Retell

1. One person will begin retelling the scripture passage in their own words (a new person to start each week is great!) Then…
2. As a group, work together to fill in gaps and build the story. This will help us internalize and own it. Be sure everyone participates.

Discuss

Together, share around the group how the topic and scripture setting applies to your life personally. Here are some thoughts to consider for discussion… don’t let the discussion stop here, though… what questions can you ask that will help uncover God’s message?

Knowledge

• How did Abraham greet God?
• Was it normal to give a meal to someone you just ran into in the desert
• Why would this kind of hospitality be important?
• Why did God say he was going to share with Abraham his plans?
• What reasons would God have to share with Abraham?
• What was God planning on doing?
• What do you think Abraham felt when he heard God’s plans?
• What were Abraham’s questions to God?
• Why would Abraham start high and work down instead of low and work up?
• What kind of statements did Abraham make about God?
• Were these Abrahams ideas or Gods?
• Was Abraham Humble?

Understanding

• Did Abraham respond to God’s plans with how you think he might have felt?
• Why did Abraham start at 50 instead of at 10?
• How did starting at 50 build agreement, when starting at a lower number could have failed?
• If you were Abraham how would you have felt talking with God and giving God wisdom?
• If God did not need Abrahams wisdom, why did He have the conversation?
• How do we benefit from the conversation that Abraham had with God?
• In what ways do you need wisdom spoken into your life?
• Did Abraham succeed? Was the city spared?
• How do you feel if things don’t get done the way you think they should go?
• How do you think Abraham might have felt when the cities were not spared?
• If the cities were not spared – did Abraham succeed?
• Why would God have allowed Abraham to question him and give wisdom?
• When someone tries to give you some advice, do you give them space to speak?
• Based on Abraham’s approach do you think Abraham knew what was important to God?
• What is the benefit to us today to have this conversation recorded?

Wisdom

• Did Abraham speak from the perspective of his feelings, wants or needs or did he speak about the things that were important to God?
• How would Abraham’s conversation have been different if he had not taken time to get to know God first?
• How important was it that Abraham spent time with God before their conversation?
• Can you really speak wisdom effectively to someone if you don’t know their paradigm? (framework or what is important to them)
• How did Abraham influence God if God’s plan did not change?
• Does the person giving wisdom need to be correct in all their assumptions for real Godly Wisdom to flourish? Or If Abraham did not succeed in getting the cities spared- did Wisdom succeed?
• What is the advantage of speaking with deliberately naive questions instead statements when giving wisdom?
• Did Abraham give wisdom to God, or did God give wisdom to Abraham be allowing him to minister wisdom to God?
• Looking at how God allowed Abraham to speak to him: How should we treat someone who dares to speak wisdom to us when (we think) we don’t needed it?
• What is the benefit of allowing someone to practice speaking wisdom to us? (it helps them practice, we practice humility, we might discover that we needed it)
• How hard is it to speak with deliberately naive questions instead of just making (accusations) statements? Is this something we can learn by practice?
• How hard is it to let someone practice speaking wisdom to us?
• Does wisdom have to be right to succeed?
• Is real wisdom speaking truth to someone or allowing them to practice speaking wisdom?

Next Week…

Joseph: Wisdom in Seeing Past The Circumstances – Genesis 37:1-8 and Genesis 41:25-36