The description of judgment found in Daniel 7 gives us a glimpse behind the veil—to an awe-inspiring opportunity to see how God is resolving the problem of sin while still redeeming those who wish to live in a covenant relationship with Him. Read the description of the investigative judgment provided in Daniel 7:9, 10, 13, 14, 22, 26, and 27 . What is the primary focus in the judgment? What is the verdict rendered at the end of the process? What does this tell us about the plan of salvation? The...
Jun 05, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2417
Just prior to the destruction of Sodom, there is a curious story that takes place on the plains of Mamre. God, accompanied by two angels, appears to Abraham. When Abraham sees them, he invites the heavenly visitors to a meal, and it is at this point that God promises that Abraham and Sarah will have a son who would lead to the Messiah. Jesus, indeed, came from the line of Abraham (compare with Gal. 3:16 ). Then the story suddenly turns to the matter of the wicked cities of the plain. Read Genesi...
Jun 04, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2416
There is another key Old Testament story to which Peter makes direct reference when describing last-day events: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The cities of the plain were legendary for their wickedness and became the first example of population centers destroyed by fire from heaven. Read 2 Peter 2:4–11, Jude 5–8, and Ezekiel 16:46–50 —and note all of the details. What were the moral conditions that led to the destruction of these cities, and what parallels exist today? The warning offer...
Jun 03, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2415
Peter reminds us that many will be unprepared for Christ’s return because they “willfully forget” ( 2 Pet. 3:5, NKJV ) what happened at the Flood. Today, even though the world has a collective memory of a great deluge (an astonishing number of global cultures tell the story of a devastating flood, from the ancient Greeks to the Mayans), the story of Noah is today perhaps one of the most ridiculed of the Bible’s accounts. As predicted, the world is willfully setting the story aside as a myth, no ...
Jun 02, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2414
Read Revelation 6:12–17 . Consider the details of these people’s response to seeing last-day events suddenly play out. What do you notice about their response? It is interesting to note that the lost are not crying out, “What is this?” or “Who is behind this?” They appear to know what is happening. They refer to Jesus as the Lamb, which would require knowing something of the story of Christ. They also seem aware that “the great day of His wrath has come,” and that they are caught in a hopeless p...
Jun 01, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2412
Read for This Week’s Study Rev. 6:12–17; Matt. 24:36–44; Gen. 6:1–8; 2 Pet. 2:4–11; Gen. 18:17–32; Dan. 7:9, 10 . Memory Text: The Bible is filled with accounts of God’s people that point to future events and that hold keys to helping us understand present truth. In fact, some of those accounts foreshadow last-day events with surprising detail, providing us a broader foundation for understanding the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation clearly. Without violating an individual’s freedom of conscie...
May 31, 2025•8 min•Season 7Ep. 2412
Read Psalm 133, Acts 1:4–9, and Revelation 5:4–7 . “During the patriarchal age the influence of the Holy Spirit had often been revealed in a marked manner, but never in its fullness. Now, in obedience to the word of the Saviour, the disciples offered their supplications for this gift, and in heaven Christ added His intercession. He claimed the gift of the Spirit, that He might pour it upon His people.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 37. The disciples were instructed to bear witness...
May 30, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2411
Read Psalm 67 . How does this hymn of praise inform your understanding of the role of God’s people in Revelation 14:6–12 ? Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a new black coating that renders objects painted with it nearly invisible. Created from nanotubes, it is many times darker than any black material previously created. This new material can absorb 99.995 percent of all visible light. Even the brightest light fails to make objects covered in this coating visib...
May 29, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2410
Read Psalm 75 . Read also Matthew 26:26–29 and Revelation 14:9–12 . What does this psalm reveal about some of the issues at stake in the judgment, and how do these other texts help us understand these issues? There is some thought that this psalm would have been sung upon the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib’s army ( 2 Chronicles 32, 2 Kings 19 )—a story that appears to point forward to the final destruction of the wicked in Revelation 20 . The people of God are inside the Holy City with th...
May 28, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2409
Read Psalm 47:1–4 . What does it say about our place, ultimately, in Christ’s kingdom? Long term, the future is bright. Until then, humanity ceded dominion over the planet to Lucifer, and by the time Satan appeared at the heavenly council in Job, he boasted that this earth belonged to him. “ ‘From where do you come?’ ” God asked. “ ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it,’ ” he replied ( Job 1:7, NKJV ). Satan was declaring ownership; the foot was used in antiq...
May 27, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2408
Much of the language in the book of Psalms is symbolic, but when it comes to the language that points forward to the ultimate resetting of our planet, we have little reason to believe that it is merely symbolic. Psalm 46 reminds us that the physical earth will be deeply affected by Christ’s return. But it is not merely the rocks and ocean that will be affected; the grand climax of earth’s history will mean the breakdown of worldly kingdoms—the miserable systems of human government that have caus...
May 26, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2407
Read Psalm 46. What message of hope can we take from this amid the turmoil of life now and what we know is going to come upon the earth in the last days as the great controversy plays out here? Psalm 46 appears to touch on a theme that we find in the book of Hebrews: that of something better. Jesus is better than the earthly high priest, His sacrifice is better than all the animal sacrifices, and the heavenly sanctuary is better than the types that existed on earth. This psalm takes a different ...
May 25, 2025•12 min•Season 7Ep. 2406
Read for This Week’s Study Psalm 46, Jer. 4:23–26, Ps. 47:1–4, 1 Thess. 4:13–17, Psalm 75, Rev. 14:6–12 . Memory Text: When thinking of final events, we tend to focus on the beasts and the powers of Revelation. And, of course, they have a big role—an important one, too. Otherwise, God would not have put them in the Bible for us to understand them (see Rev. 1:3 ). Prophecy, however, also deals with key issues associated with sin and suffering, judgment, the battle between good and evil, the natur...
May 24, 2025•5 min•Season 7Ep. 2405
“The psalms of David pass through the whole range of experience, from the depths of conscious guilt and self-condemnation to the loftiest faith and the most exalted communing with God. His life record declares that sin can bring only shame and woe, but that God’s love and mercy can reach to the deepest depths, that faith will lift up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. Of all the assurances which His word contains, it is one of the strongest testimonies to the faithfulne...
May 23, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2404
After the Lord had appeared to Isaiah in the throne room scene of Isaiah 6:1–8 , and after Isaiah had been told that his “iniquity is taken away” and his “sin purged,” he then answered God’s call by saying, “ ‘Here am I! Send me’ ” ( Isa. 6:8, NKJV ). That is, once he knew that he was right with God, and despite knowing his faults, he was ready to work for the Lord. Is it not the same with us? How can we proclaim salvation to others if we don’t have it ourselves? And we can have it, by faith in ...
May 22, 2025•8 min•Season 7Ep. 2403
Read Psalm 5 . In this work, David draws sharp contrasts between those who are lost and those who have been redeemed. Compare this psalm with the language of Revelation 14:1–12 . What similarities do you find, and how does this inform your understanding of what it means to be a part of God’s last-day remnant movement? It is instructive to note that David insists that evil “may not dwell” with God ( Ps. 5:4, ESV ). The point of the tabernacle was that God might dwell among His people, and the sam...
May 21, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2402
The remnant gathered on Zion have a name engraved on their foreheads: the name of the Father and the Lamb. (Whether this is two different names is doubtful; Jesus is the very image of the Father!) A “name” in the Scriptures signifies more than a label by which people address each other; it stands for character. To this day, many cultures still say that someone has a “good name” when people think highly of their character. Read Exodus 33:18–23, Exodus 34:1–7, and Psalm 119:55 . When Moses asked t...
May 20, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2402
In Revelation 14 , we find God’s people standing on Mount Zion. The original Mount Zion was located just west of the old city of Jerusalem today and was thought of as the seat of God’s throne, or presence, among His people. In time, the temple mount, located on Mount Moriah, came to be identified with Mount Zion, as well. In other words, this important depiction of God’s last-day remnant is presented in sanctuary language, as with most of the key scenes in the book of Revelation. Thanks to the L...
May 19, 2025•14 min•Season 7Ep. 2401
When Moses oversaw the construction of the tabernacle, he was not permitted to use just any design he wished. God gave him a blueprint to follow. “ ‘See to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain’ ” ( Exod. 25:40, NKJV ). We discover in the book of Hebrews that the pattern used was that of a higher reality, the heavenly sanctuary. Read Hebrews 9:11–15 , about Christ as our High Priest in heaven’s sanctuary. What does this teach about what He is doing fo...
May 18, 2025•13 min•Season 7Ep. 2400
Read for This Week’s Study Heb. 9:11–15, Psalm 122, Psalm 15, Psalm 24, Exod. 33:18–23, Psalm 5, Ps. 51:7–15 . Memory Text: As Seventh-day Adventists, we are used to searching for the symbols of Revelation in the stories of the Old Testament to help us understand those symbols. These narratives, though far from the only good source, are found all through the Old Testament. One particularly rich source of information is the book of Psalms, a collection of sacred poetry that explores many human ex...
May 17, 2025•5 min•Season 7Ep. 2399
Read Ellen G. White, “The Controversy Ended,” pp. 669–671, 676–678, in The Great Controversy. Satan, once a covering cherub, sought to destroy confidence in God’s throne. God has allowed fallen angels to continue in their rebellion to show the universe the depths of wickedness that come from self-exaltation—and while Satan managed to deceive the human race into joining his war against God, Christ utterly defeated him at the cross, securing a place for humanity where fallen angels once stood. Sin...
May 16, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2398
It seems incomprehensible that Lucifer once held the position of covering cherub, occupying an exalted position next to the throne of God. Surely his existence would have helped reveal the glory of God to the universe. Instead, he began to consider his own glory, not the glory of his Creator; or, to be more precise, he started to imagine that he was not being given the deference due to him. Read Ezekiel 28:11–17 and Isaiah 14:12–14 . What led to Lucifer’s downfall? Compare these passages with Re...
May 15, 2025•16 min•Season 7Ep. 2397
the tabernacle, and then the tribes would pitch their camps around it—three tribes on each side. The Presence of God would descend into the Most Holy Place and take up residence in the midst of His people. There was one dominant tribe on each of the four sides of the tabernacle. According to Numbers 2 , who were these four dominant tribes? Num. 2:3 (East): Num. 2:10 (South): Num. 2:18 (West): Num. 2:25 (North): Notice that each dominant tribe flew its own “standard,” or special flag, to designat...
May 14, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2396
Cherubim, either as living beings ( Ezek. 10:8 ) or the gold symbols of them ( Exod. 25:18 ), appear all through the Old Testament. They are often depicted as standing immediately next to God’s throne, radiating His glory to the universe. Cherubim also are embroidered into the curtain before the Holy of Holies ( Exod. 26:1 ). In the book of Psalms, God’s supreme power over creation is poetically pictured as God being borne through the air by cherubim ( Ps. 18:10 ). God commanded that the ark of ...
May 13, 2025•14 min•Season 7Ep. 2395
As soon as our first parents were expelled from the Garden, God offered the hope of Messiah ( Gen. 3:15 ). Then He established a powerful symbol at the gates of Eden: two cherubim with a brilliant flashing light between them. It should not be lost on us that this scene so closely resembles the ark of the covenant, a symbol of God’s throne ( Exod. 25:18 ). Read Genesis 3:21–24 . What job were the cherubim tasked with—and why? While the cherubim were certainly given the responsibility to keep sinn...
May 12, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2394
Years ago, a church decided to renovate an outdated basement to create a new fellowship hall. One of the first things they did was to install new lights, believing that they would make the space seem more beautiful. Once they were installed, however, the space looked even worse, because bright lights have a way of revealing flaws. Isaiah’s stunning vision of God’s throne left him painfully aware of his shortcomings. “ ‘Woe is me,’ ” he lamented, “ ‘for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean ...
May 11, 2025•10 min•Season 7Ep. 2393
Read for This Week’s Study Isa. 6:6–8, Gen. 3:21–24, Ezek. 1:4–14, Rev. 4:1–11, Num. 2:3–25, Isa. 14:12–14 . Memory Text: God's right to rule the universe is founded upon His position as the Creator of all things ( Rev. 4:11 ) and also upon His character. It is in discovering God’s righteous character that we begin to understand how and why sinful human beings fall short of the glory of God ( Rom. 3:23 ). This week, we move further into the vision of the throne room and consider how the human ra...
May 10, 2025•9 min•Season 7Ep. 2392
The Scriptures make it clear that Christ is the only One worthy to secure our salvation. His life was the only sinless human life, the only example of a life that rendered perfect satisfaction to the glory of the Father. He is the spotless Lamb of God, and now He stands at the head of the human race as our eternal security. At the same time, He took our guilt on Himself, satisfying the judgment that is God’s response to wickedness. As John witnesses the incredible scene of heavenly beings gather...
May 09, 2025•6 min•Season 7Ep. 2391
On a handful of occasions, prophets have been brought close enough to God in vision that they were permitted to see God’s throne. Ezekiel saw it above the firmament ( Ezek. 1:26 ); Isaiah visited the temple in heaven to see it ( Isa. 6:1 ); and in one of the most explicit descriptions provided to us, John was escorted there in vision in Revelation 4 and 5 . The Old Testament types in the sanctuary service indicated that there was only one path by which humanity could enter God’s presence: the bl...
May 08, 2025•15 min•Season 7Ep. 2390
There is tension throughout the entire story of salvation. God wishes to restore the communion that we once enjoyed with Him and longs to draw close to us. But bringing sinners into His presence would destroy them. “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,” David writes, “nor shall evil dwell with You” ( Ps. 5:4, NKJV ). At the same time, David also writes, “But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy te...
May 07, 2025•11 min•Season 7Ep. 2389
