Sunday: Revelation’s Final Conflict

Daily Lesson for Sunday 9th of June 2024

The message of Revelation is much more than cryptic symbols, strange beasts, and odd images. It speaks of eternal truths given by a loving God to an end-time generation. The conflict between Christ and Satan began in heaven over worship. It will come to its final climax over worship.

Compare Revelation 14:7,9 with Revelation 4:11. What is the overarching theme of Revelation in this conflict between good and evil?

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Throughout Revelation, worship and creation are indissolubly linked. Revelation 14:7 calls us to worship the Lord of all creation. Against the backdrop of evolution, which has taken the world by storm during the past two centuries, the Sabbath is an eternal reminder of our identity. It constantly reinforces that we are created beings and our Creator is worthy of our allegiance and worship. This is one reason the devil hates the Sabbath so much.

Read Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 14:12. How does worshiping the Creator find its final expression?

Worshiping the Creator through keeping the commandments of God stands in direct opposition to worshiping the beast. God will have an end-time people who are loyal to Him despite the greatest opposition and fiercest persecution in history.

“While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 605.

Revelation 14:12 states that these committed followers of the Savior will have “the faith of Jesus.” The faith of Jesus is a faith so deep that it trusts when it cannot see. It perseveres when it cannot understand. It is a gift from Jesus that we receive by faith and will carry us through the impending conflict.

The seventh-day Sabbath is so foundational a symbol of God as Creator that it goes back to Eden itself. Thus, to seek to usurp it, as Rome did (see Daniel 7:25), is to seek to usurp the authority of God at the most foundational level possible, God as Creator. How does this truth help us see why it will be such a controverted point in the last days?