Sabbath School Lesson for February 9-15, 2019
Overview
Themes explored this week in Revelation 8-11 were…
- the prayers of the saints–the meaning of incense in the temple service (Sunday)
- trumpets as a signalling tool in Israel (Monday)
- God’s people in the last days–who is the angel with an open book (Tuesday)
- eating the scroll–when the gospel becomes a bittersweet experience (Wednesday)
- what is special about the two witnesses (Thursday)
Introduction
It seems that the seven churches, the seven seals, and the seven trumpets are all talking about major Christian church periods from John’s time, right up the last days and the Second Coming of Christ. One might wonder why God communicated these prophecies repeatedly to John this way.
These three different perspectives of describing God’s people are needed in order to understand the full plan of salvation they represent.
- The messages to the seven churches (ch. 2-3) speak directly to God’s people on earth, giving them encouragement (pointing out their rewards) and direction (reminding them of the need to reform).
- The opening of the seven seals (ch. 6-7) are spoken directly to the churches involved, and expose the kinds of persecution and trials they will face.
- The sounding of the seven trumpets (ch. 8-11), addresses all the inhabitants of the earth, and is God’s effort to bring the persecutors to repentance. The trumpets outline the difficulties (judgments) they are bringing upon themselves for their apostasy and sins.
Memory Text: “But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” Revelation 10:7 NKJV
God’s intention is to assure us that someday there will be an end to all the suffering and hardship we have endured over so many centuries. The justice we have waited for is on the way. Someday, we will hear once again the words of Jesus that He spoke on the cross: “It is finished.”
Numbering these events, ending each of the three descriptions with the precious, perfect number seven (representing God’s perfection), helps us to bear the most arduous trial and hang on to God’s promise of redemption, so lovingly offered us.
Sunday: The Prayers of the Saints
The beginning of chapter 8 explains the reason for the seven trumpet messages. We are given a clear idea of what the incense represents in this setting. Revelation 5:8 also says “…golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” NKJV
Evidently, the saints have prayed for deliverance from their oppressors down through the ages, and God has received their cries for help. These prayers go up to God, just as the smoke of the incense reached into the Most Holy Place in the sanctuary, and now up to the throne room, where John is taken in vision.
Angels are given the task of delivering warning messages to earth through the use of the symbolic trumpet. God clearly warns those who hurt His church (which happens both from within and without) with loud warnings, describing the judgments they will receive, if they persist in cooperating with God’s enemy, Satan.
How important are the prayers of the saints in the fulfillment of God’s will on earth. These prayers give God permission to end the suffering of those who are loyal to God, once and for all. They are evidence that our God, who answers these prayers, is a God of love and is deserving of our devotion and service.
Discussion Questions:
Read Revelation 8:1, 2 and Habakkuk 2:20. Although this verse is hard to interpret, why do you think there is silence in heaven at this point, as the seventh seal is opened?
Read Revelation 8:3-5 and Ezekiel 10:2. How does this throwing of fire from the altar indicate God’s vengeance against the oppressors of God’s saints?
Read Revelation 22:11, 12 and Psalm 103:9. When does this time when our rewards are determined occur? Why is this time called by some the “close of probation”, and what does it mean, from an earthly standpoint, for one’s probation to be over with? How should it make us feel?
Monday: The Meaning of the Trumpets
Signaling with trumpets in this passage reminds us of the use of trumpets in the Old Testament. They were used by the priests as a call to battle, or a call to worship and prayer. They were, in a sense, an effort to call upon God to remember His people, an appeal for His intervention.
Since this was a covenant-based society, with both sides of the relationship striving to please the other, the trumpets also held a message for His followers. Trumpets provided them with directions for keeping their promises to God, helping them to unite in their efforts to please God.
There is a strong connection between the trumpets sounding and the fifth seal. In the fifth seal, we are told about “souls crying under the altar” and in chapter 8 the prayers of the saints ascend up to God as incense. God is definitely trying to reach us with the assurance that He will provide justice for His people even during their hardest afflictions, and that all things will be made right again in the end.
Here’s how the seven trumpets correlate to the seven church periods from John’s time down to the end…
- The first two trumpets announce judgments upon Jerusalem (who rebelled against their Messiah) and the Roman Empire (who persecuted the early church)–symbolizing both oppression from within and without the church (the Ephesus and Smyrna periods).
- The third and fourth trumpets were heaven’s judgment against the church in the Middle Ages (a highly oppressive church system that came out of Roman rule, Pergamos and Thyatira).
- The fifth and sixth trumpet messages described the late medieval, post-Reformation era (the Sardis and Philadelphia churches).
- And finally, the seventh angel’s trumpet draws attention to the increased Satanic forces that lead to the Battle of Armageddon (Laodicea).
Discussion Questions:
Read Revelation 8:6, Numbers 10:8-10, and Joel 6:2. What was the purpose of trumpet-blowing in the Old Testament? In what way did this demonstrate communication for both the people and for God, and thus represent the covenant relationship they had?
Read Revelation 8:7-12 and 12:4. What is meant by a third of creation being destroyed so often in these judgments? How might this relate to the third of the angels in heaven who thrown out with Satan?
Read Revelation 8:13 and 14:6, 8, and 9. How might you identify the three last trumpets in chapter 8 with the three angels’ messages in Revelation 14? What does this mean about the time in which we now live? Have we received our final warning blast about God’s judgment? Why or why not?
Tuesday: The Angel With an Open Book
Once again, John sees a mighty angel, whose description identifies Him as none other than Jesus Christ. Revelation 10:1 says, He was “clothed with a cloud”, with “a rainbow on his head”. Chapter 4:3 also mentions a rainbow around the throne.
Revelation 10:1 says, in addition, that “his face was like the sun” and “his feet were like pillars of fire”. We read previously in Revelation 1:15, 16 this same picture of a being thought to be the Son of God.
Instead of viewing a scroll that was sealed, in this case John sees a book that is open. This perhaps tells us these visions might represent different times for God’s people. The context tells us the latter one must be very close to the end of time.
Discussion Questions:
Read Revelation 10:1 4:3, Matthew 24:30, 31, and Acts 1:7. Describe the symbolic meanings of the rainbow and the clouds. How does the fact that rainbows are usually seen with clouds relate to our close covenant relationship with God?
Read Revelation 10:2 and Matthew 28:18. How does this angel’s description of where he is standing indicate the authority he’s been given?
Read Revelation 10:3, 4, Daniel 8:26, 12:1-4, 9. What were the reasons given to Daniel for the sealing of the book he saw in vision?
Wednesday: Eating the Scroll
Revelation 10:8-11 tells how John was told to eat the book, and how it would taste sweet in his mouth, but become bitter in his stomach. The Bible is related to “eating” and “food”. We call it the Bread of Life, calling on us to digest it every day, in order to sustain life and grow spiritually. The Word does that for us, when we accept the gospel through its pages.
John must have been startled then that the book he was told to eat became so distasteful and bitter when swallowed. Many have seen this to be the disappointing experience in 1844, when those who believed William Miller’s preaching about the Second Coming didn’t see their precious Lord come when they expected Him.
This assumption seems to fit well with the next verses in Revelation 11:1, 2, where John is told to measure the temple of God. The early Adventists in the 1800’s were extremely disappointed when Christ didn’t come in the expected year. Most were so bitter about it that they left the faith.
But there were a few who rfused to give up on their Lord and decided to study the sanctuary more closely, since the verse Miller used for his calculations talked about the sanctuary being cleansed after 2,300 days, or years (Daniel 8:14),. Perhaps the sanctuary wasn’t referring Christ’s Second Coming in 1844, as they had assumed.
Discussion Questions:
Read Revelation 10:8, 9, Jeremiah 15:16, and Ezekiel 3:1. How do these verses support each other in determining the meaning of this strange thing John is told by the angel to do?
Read Revelation 11:1 and Psalm 77:13. What does the sanctuary teach us about God?
Read Revelation 11:2, 12:6, Ezekiel 4:6, and Numbers 14:34. How do these descriptions tell us that God’s people do not fare well during this time period of 1,260 days or 42 months? When does God seem to use this day for a year time reckoning?
Thursday: The Two Witnesses
Just before the seventh trumpet message is proclaimed, chapter 11 of Revelation talks about two witnesses. We can identify the events unfolding before John as pertaining to Judgment, certainly the judgment of the unrighteous, but also the determination of God’s guilt or innocence as well.
This scene sounds very much like our familiar, earthly court justice systems, and therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that witnesses are mentioned at this point. And not surprisingly, two witnesses allude to the Jewish judicial system, which always called for at least two witnesses to verify an accusation against someone.
Some Bible scholars have thought that the two witnesses might represent the Old and New Testaments, where the plan of salvation has been communicated to fallen mankind for thousands of years now.
In the last days, the testimony of the Bible is of extreme importance. Only through our study of the gospel, laid out for us in the Bible, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can we be safeguarded against Satan’s powerful deceptions.
Even Jesus called this gospel message a “witness” that will precede the Second Coming and the end of the world.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a WITNESS to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14 NKJV
There are many interpretations of Revelation 11:7-13. Some see it all as happening in the future, but since the time period 1,260 days is mentioned, which is the same as the forty-two-month period, we might conclude that it is talking about the Middle Ages.
This time period occurred approximately from 538 A.D. (when the Roman emperor elevated the pope’s authority) to 1798 A.D. (when the pope was taken captive during by one of Napoleon’s generals). It comes out to exactly 1,260 years.
The resurrection of the two witnesses in this passage might then allude to the resurgence of religious fervor and revival of the 1800s, following the French Revolution with its attempt to abolish religion.
Discussion Questions:
Read Revelation 11:3, 4, Zechariah 4:2, 3, 11-14, and 1 Kings 6:23, 27. Why would the two witnesses (if they be the Old and New Testaments) be described as two olive trees and two lampstands?
Read Revelation 11:5, 6. What are some other examples in the Bible where God, notice it’s through His Word, has shown His power over the forces of nature? What gives Him this power? Why is He careful about how and when He shows it to His created beings?
Read Revelation 11:7-13 and 18:1-4. How do these verses together indicate one final global warning to the world at large? Why would God deliver this final message?
And, finally…
The seventh trumpet message is revealed in Revelation 11:15-18. It provides the signal that earth’s history is finally over. We anxiously await the time when we will join the ranks of the faithful angels and take our place as worshipers in the heavenly Kingdom above.
Our next verse to memorize in Psalm 91 is verse 8…“Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.”
These seven trumpets have announced the judgments that are predetermined for God’s oppressors. We have only to sit back and know that God’s justice will prevail. His protecting hand will guard us from the seven last plagues we hear about later in John’s book. We’ve been sealed and will be shielded from the awful consequences of sin that fall upon the earth in the last days.
[Let’s make our study of God’s word as spiritually uplifting as we can this quarter…for ALL who join us on the journey. Just click on this link for a helpful article Ground Rules of Sabbath School Discussions.]
Next Week’s Lesson: Satan, a Defeated Enemy
To read the Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly or see more resources for its study, go to https://www.absg.adventist.org/
Other Outlook blogposts by Teresa Thompson, are at http://outlookmag.org/author/teresathompson/
