L esson 5 *April 26–May 2
The Nations: Part 2
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 2:9–17; Dan. 2:31–35;
Isa. 17:12, 13; Dan. 7:1–3; Rom. 3:10–19; Rev. 12:15, 16; Rev. 10:1–11.
Memory Text: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted
among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10,
NKJV).
T
hrough the centuries, some people have argued that God wanted
the Fall, that it was His intention for humans to descend into sin
and death and thus lead Him—in the person of Jesus—to the
cross. After all, how else could He have so powerfully and graphically
displayed the depth of His love for humanity than by dying on the cross
for them? In short, the thinking goes, God needed humanity to fall.
That is a horrible and wretched position to take. It was never God’s
intention for either Satan or humanity to fall. The rebellion of Satan,
and then of humanity, was a tragedy of immense consequence, and our
joy in Him would have remained complete had our first parents not
fallen.
This week, we will continue looking at the problems caused by the
Fall and the desire for human government as opposed to God’s gover
nance. These truths are powerfully revealed in the book of Daniel,
which shows that God was right when He warned His people about
what would happen when they turned away from Him and chose earthly
monarchs instead. This is exactly what they got: earthly monarchs and
sinners lording it over sinners—never a good combination.
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 3.
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S unday April 27
The Very First Commandment
The Garden of Eden was a classroom for God’s first people, a place
where their interaction with the creation would endlessly teach them
and their offspring more about the Creator. “The holy pair were not only
children under the fatherly care of God,” Ellen G. White pointed out,
“but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. . . . The
mysteries of the visible universe—‘the wondrous works of Him which is
perfect in knowledge’ (Job 37:16)—afforded them an exhaustless source
of instruction and delight.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 50, 51.
Read Genesis 2:9–17. What was the first command, a prohibition, that
God gave to humanity, and why was it so important?
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The first use of the root verb tswh, “to command,” that God gave to
humans was in Genesis 2:16, 17, the command not to eat from the tree
of knowledge of good and evil. How can some knowledge be forbidden?
Isn’t it always useful to experience and to know more?
Not according to Scripture: God was intent on educating His people
thoroughly while sparing them from the long-term suffering that some
knowledge would cause, such as what would later happen when people
chose to rule themselves rather than to be ruled by the Lord Himself.
Millennia later, when Israel asked for a king, the Lord laid out the conse-
quences (as we discovered last week), and He informed His people that the
decision to step away from His direct rule would last until the end of time.
As the kings of Israel became progressively more wicked, God’s
covenant people became so worldly and so removed from their purpose
that He gave them even more of what they wanted: human government.
Approaching the book of Daniel with this background in mind can
be enlightening. Not only is the march of empires depicted in the
book’s visions an indictment of “the nations”—the Gentiles—it is also
an indictment of Israel’s failures, their refusal to follow His mitswot
(commandments). Centuries of subjection, instead of the freedom first
given in Eden, would become a new classroom in which willing hearts
could witness the striking contrast between the kingdoms of this world
and God’s kingdom.
Think about the kinds of knowledge, even now, that many of us
would be better off not knowing. How does this help us under-
stand what was forbidden in Eden?
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M onday April 28
Daniel 2
It was during the Babylonian captivity, through the prophet Daniel,
that God presented the most compelling descriptions we have of the
relationship between His people and the kingdoms of this world. His
people were no longer autonomous; they would now be reaping the
consequences of their choices. (And, perhaps, learning from them?)
Read Daniel 2:31–35, which gives a sweeping panoramic view of world
history until the end of time. What important truths can we learn
from this amazing prophecy?
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At the end of the nineteenth century, many people were exuding a
new confidence in human progress. The Paris Exposition (1900), for
example, was a remarkable showcase of optimism about the future.
Surely, with all of our technological and scientific advances, many of
humanity’s worst problems would be at an end! As humanity entered
the twentieth century, among many thinkers there was this great opti-
mism that Enlightenment ideals—such as human perfectibility and the
power of reason—would usher in a wonderful new era for humanity.
World War I, however, quickly shattered those dreams, and by the end
of the twentieth century, we had lost more than 200 million people to
warfare. We may have advanced in a technological sense, but certainly
not in a moral one. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we have guided
missiles but misguided men. And that’s a very scary combination.
Many students of prophecy have noticed that the metals in Daniel 2
move from most valuable to least valuable: gold devalues to silver,
silver devalues to brass, and brass to iron, until we end up with only
iron and clay.
Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and other nineteenth-century thinkers
attempted to convince us that humanity is somehow tracking upward—that
we are evolving biologically and socially. And though in some ways human
existence has improved (at least at a physical level), who actually looks
ahead to the future of this world, as it is now ruled and governed, with much
optimism about peace, security, and prosperity?
Jesus warned, “ ‘And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . .
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various
places’ ” (Matt. 24:6, 7, NKJV). Despite these warnings, how can we
draw comfort from knowing that we have been warned beforehand
about them?
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T uesday April 29
Daniel 7
The dream of Daniel 2 was first presented to a Babylonian king. The
vision of Daniel 7, in contrast, was presented to a Hebrew prophet, a
member of God’s covenant people.
Daniel is shown the same subject as was Nebuchadnezzar but from a dif-
ferent perspective. Instead of a statue, he sees a series of nations rising up
out of the sea, the result of wind churning up the water. These nations were
in a continual state of strife, causing a perpetual shift in power among them.
Such passages as Psalm 65:5–8; Isaiah 17:12, 13; and Jeremiah 46:7, 8 use
the analogy of floods and waves to depict the tumult among the nations.
In contrast, the Promised Land existed, at least for a period of time,
as an island of peace and safety amid a sea of Gentile kingdoms—a
sacred nation established on the solid foundation of God’s government,
as opposed to the unruly nations around it.
Read Daniel 7:1–3. There is a lot of movement in this scene. What les-
sons can we draw from this imagery, such as the beast first arising
from the sea?
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Daniel watches the chaos of Gentile warfare from the shore, when
suddenly the beasts start coming up on the land—into his territory!
Gentile problems had now become his people’s problems. They had
chosen to live like Gentiles, so now they would live with (and under)
Gentiles. Starting with Babylonian domination, God’s covenant people
never again enjoyed complete or long-lasting autonomy.
This loss of autonomy for God’s people today will persist until the
close of time, when Christ is finally restored to His rightful place as our
King. In the New Testament, God’s people continued to suffer under
the thumb of the Roman Empire and then under the persecutions of the
little horn, pagan Rome’s successor.
Though, historically, some nations have been better than others, and
some eras have been more peaceful than others, the vast majority of the
history of nations, peoples, and empires has simply been going from
one tragedy to another, from one oppressor to another. And often this is
all done under rulers claiming only the best of intentions for their own
people. What a contrast to the rule that God had wanted for His people,
if only they would have chosen it.
How does Romans 3:10–19 help explain so much of our world?
How does verse 19 especially show why we so desperately need
the gospel in our lives?
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W ednesday April 30
Between Land and Sea
The land and sea imagery in the Bible, especially for prophecy, can
be very instructive. Consider the case of the symbols of land and sea
in Bible prophecy, which are contrasted sharply.
“Symbolically, when earth and sea are juxtaposed, earth often repre-
sents the ordered world, or even the land of Israel, while sea refers to the
Gentile nations that menace it as the sea menaces the land.”—Beatrice S.
Neall, “Sealed Saints and the Tribulation,” in Symposium on Revelation,
book 1, ed. Frank B. Holbrook (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research
Institute, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1992), p. 260.
In this thinking, land is a place of stability, established on the govern-
ment of God; sea represents the unstable turmoil of nations established
on human pride.
With the idea expressed above as the background, read Revelation
12:15, 16 and Revelation 13:1, 11. Notice the juxtaposition between
water and earth. How are they used, and what can they teach us
about how to understand prophecy?
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Notice that the dragon uses water to persecute the woman (the
church). As we have seen, in prophecy water often symbolizes worldly
governments and the turmoil and chaos that often attends them. Hence,
we can see how Satan was able to use the masses, prodded by their
leaders, to persecute God’s people through much of church history.
Also, Seventh-day Adventists have understood Revelation 12:16 to
refer to the migration of persecuted believers to the New World. If our
understanding of land and sea is correct, what does this say about the
founding of the American republic?
Could we consider it to be “the earth” in the same way that the
“Promised Land” was—a place set aside for God’s people? Could this
be why the land beast first appears to be lamblike? Though America has
never been the “New Israel” as some of its early founders liked to see
it, for a long time it has been a land of religious freedom for millions
of the world’s religiously oppressed.
Unfortunately, this lamblike beast will one day speak “like a dragon”
(Rev. 13:11, NKJV). The United States, so long a beacon of religious
freedom for the persecuted, will become the dominant religious perse-
cutor! This is another example of what happened when humanity chose
to rule itself instead of being ruled by God.
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T hursday May 1
Prophesy Again
The remnant church was born in the New World, precisely where
those seeking religious liberty had fled during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Given the long-standing religious and political
obstacles that existed elsewhere, it is doubtful that the launch of this
movement would have been as swift or powerful in some other location
as it was in the new land that became the United States.
Read Revelation 10:1–11, which describes the birth of the move-
ment. Look for some of the elements we have studied, such as “the
nations,” the land, and the sea. Applying appropriate caution so
that you do not read too much into the passage, what potential
insights can you find in this account?
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The angel cries with a loud voice, much as the three angels of
Revelation 14 and the angel of Revelation 18 do. This is an urgent
moment in history when the work of the remnant church is established
for the sake of “ ‘many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings’ ” (Rev.
10:11, NKJV).
The angel holds a “little book”—likely the book of Daniel (see Dan.
12:4)—which is open for the first time in many generations. He has one
foot on the sea and another on the earth. This might be in reference to the
idea that the message covers the globe, both the Old World and the New.
It might also be a reference to the idea that this message is for all nations:
those who live on the land and those who live in the “Gentile” sea.
The world, at long last, will be lighted up with the glory of God, and the
final messages of Revelation 14 are carried to everyone. As with Israel, our
mandate as a church is to preach the gospel “ ‘in all the world as a witness
to all the nations, and then the end will come’ ” (Matt. 24:14, NKJV).
God is pushing human history toward its grand conclusion: the end of
human empires and the permanent enthronement of Christ. Read Daniel
2:34, 35, 44, 45. The Bible makes it perfectly clear, without any ambiguity,
that all these worldly kingdoms will be eradicated, without a trace of them
and their ugly legacies left, and will be replaced by God’s eternal kingdom,
where sin, suffering, sickness, evil, and death will never rise again.
Look at how accurately the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7 pre-
dicted the rise and fall of all these worldly empires. Why should
that accuracy, amazing if you think about when Daniel was writ-
ten, help us trust Him on the promise of God’s final and eternal
kingdom?
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F riday May 2
Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Tower of Babel,” pp.
117–124, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
“ ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away.’ Revelation 21:1. The fire that consumes
the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away.
No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful
consequences of sin.
“One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will ever bear the
marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His side,
His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has
wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory: ‘He had
bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His
power.’ Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the
crimson stream that reconciled man to God—there is the Saviour’s
glory, there ‘the hiding of His power.’ ‘Mighty to save,’ through the sac-
rifice of redemption, He was therefore strong to execute justice upon
them that despised God's mercy. And the tokens of His humiliation are
His highest honor; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will
show forth His praise and declare His power.”—Ellen G. White, The
Great Controversy, p. 674.
Discussion Questions:
Ê In the end, all earthly accomplishments, no matter how grand,
no matter how great, no matter how awe-inspiring and glorious,
will be turned to dust, to ashes, and ultimately vanquished for-
ever. That includes whatever great and glorious earthly things
you might have accomplished or are accomplishing now. Why is
it always important to keep this perspective in mind? How should
this perspective help you keep your priorities straight?
Ë Have a careful look at the sea beast of Revelation 13:1–10. In
what ways is this beast the natural consequence of the mindset
of Babel? It is clearly the sum total of all human “nations,” from
Babylon through to the little horn power. What characteristics
of each empire have you noticed that have persisted through-
out time? In what ways does the world still reflect the values of
Babylon or Rome, for example?
Ì How do we as Adventists strike the right balance between
following the Lord and obeying the laws of whatever nation or
government we live under? What happens when obedience to one
leads to disobedience to the other?
44
i n s i d e
Story
Part 1: A Girl’s Religion
By Andrew McChesney
When she was 12, Diana began drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and
listening to hard rock music. Amid the partying, her thoughts turned to God.
God hadn’t been much of a part of Diana’s early childhood. Her father
spent a lot of time overseas as a sailor in the Navy, and the family, like many
military families, moved every two or three years. A few times, her mother
took her and her sisters to church on Sundays when they were very young
and lived in Florida.
Diana had the chance to attend Vacation Bible School, at the age of 10,
while living in Norfolk, Virginia. A bus came around her neighborhood from
the Baptist church and picked her and her older sister up. She memorized
John 3:16 and the books of the Bible. She learned about missionaries and
respecting the unchangeable Word of God. She chose to be baptized. The
church gave her a spiritual foundation. Outside of church was a different
story. Diana was being molested, and the trauma would impact her for years.
Then the family moved again when she was 12, this time to Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Many of the neighborhood children used alcohol and drugs,
and Diana joined them.
At 14, Diana moved with her family to Monte Vista, Colorado. While
smoking marijuana with her new friends, she sometimes spoke about God.
When she was 16, many of her friends were required to take religious
classes. Wanting a deeper relationship with her friends, Diana attended the
classes with them. During one class, the priest declared that the authority of
their church was above the authority of the Word of God because the church
had changed God’s day of worship from the biblical seventh day, Saturday,
to the first day, Sunday.
Diana was shocked and concerned. She remembered learning that God’s
Word could not be changed. She wondered, “Why do people worship on
the first day when the Bible clearly says to worship on the seventh day?”
Diana decided to finish the religious classes but not to attend the church.
She kept on drinking, using drugs, and listening
to hard rock music. Over time, they became her
identity, her life, her religion.
This mission story offers an inside look at how God miracu-
lously worked in the life of Diana Fish, development direc-
tor of the US-based Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian
School, which received the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in
2021. Thank you for supporting the spread of the gospel
with this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering on June 28.
Read more about Diana next week.
Provided by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission, which uses Sabbath School
mission offerings to spread the gospel worldwide. Read new stories daily at AdventistMission.org. 45
