Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 1:9, Isaiah 40:26, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 1:17, Revelation 4:11, John 19:16-30.

Memory Text: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NKJV).

It’s easy to take things for granted, particularly things that we have always known or experienced. How easy, for instance, for young children to take their parents for granted, whom they have known all their short lives? How easy for us, too, to take for granted the sun, the sky, the air, or the ground beneath our feet.

However, have you ever stopped to think how much we take existence itself for granted? That is, how often do we stop and ask the famous philosophical question, Why is there something instead of nothing?

Why does our universe itself, and all the majesty and grandeur and astonishing things in it, exist to begin with? What great logical contradiction would occur were our universe, and we in it, not here? According to the latest scientific theory (they tend to change), our universe once did not exist. In other words, ours is a contingent existence, and it’s a miracle that we are here at all. And despite all sorts of myths about the universe arising from absolutely nothing, or from some kind of mathematical equation, our universe exists because God, the Creator, has made it and everything in it.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 13.

Sunday–>

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Ukrainian Miracle

By Andrew McChesney

Ten-year-old Anas struggled in his classes amid an ongoing torrent of bullying in public school in Odessa, Ukraine. His skin was darker than the other children’s, and his classmates made fun of him. He lived with his Ukrainian grandmother after being left at her home by his mother, a former Seventh-day Adventist. His father wasn’t a Christian and lived far away in Iran.

Image © Pacific Press

Grandmother didn’t like the way that Anas was being treated at school. Upset over the bullying, she finally transferred the boy to the local Seventh-day Adventist school.

At first, Anas was withdrawn and spoke little. But he loved the Bible classes so much that he tried to remember the teacher’s words by whispering them as he heard them in the classroom. As the days and weeks passed, he began to open up and make jokes. The other children enjoyed his wit, and he soon became the class clown. He received his very own Bible.

His mother was furious when she learned that Anas was attending the Adventist school, and she took him away from Grandmother to live with her. She refused to speak with Grandmother, and she taught Anas at home.

Grandmother prayed for God to intervene. She prayed every day for a year. After some time, Mother began speaking with her again. They became friends again.

One day, Mother agreed to Grandmother’s suggestion to meet with an Adventist pastor. Anas listened in on their conversation, and he learned to his surprise that three of his friends from the Adventist school were going to be baptized. “I also want to be baptized!” he exclaimed.

Mother was surprised. The pastor was surprised. They asked Anas some questions. It turned out that he had been studying his Bible on his own during the year that he had been living with Mother. More than anything, he wanted to be baptized. His fervent desire to give his life to Jesus touched Mother’s heart, She gave her consent. Two weeks later, Mother and Grandmother watched as the 11-year-old boy was baptized with his three friends from the Adventist school.

It was a miracle facilitated by God and Adventist education, said Ivan Riapolov (pictured), education director for the Euro-Asia Division, whose territory includes Ukraine.

“There was not only a reconciliation of the family, but also a reconciliation with God,” he said.

Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that support Seventh-day Adventist education around the world.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Further Thought:

 Here’s a quick and easy way to look at the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

First, the 70 weeks (Daniel 9:24).

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

 

Next, the seven weeks and 62 weeks, or 69 weeks (Daniel 9:25) of the 70 weeks.

There’s the last week, the seventieth (Daniel 9:27).

And, finally, that last week is divided — “in the middle of the week” (Daniel 9:27) — into two three-and-a-half-year sections.

That’s it. Seventy weeks, which are composed of sixty-nine weeks and one week. And that one week is divided in half. Just plug in the date, 457. B.C, at the beginning, and with simple math — yes, we come to 1844 on the time line.

Also, in talking about the 2,300 days, Daniel 8:1-27 never said when the 2,300 days began. “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” (Daniel 8:14). Unto two thousand and three hundred days — from when? Why not from when Daniel had the vision itself, the “third year of the reign of King Belshazzar” (Daniel 8:1)?

That doesn’t work. The vision in Daniel 8:1-27 didn’t include Babylon. It started with events after it, i.e., Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, up to “the end.” Why date an event, the cleansing of the sanctuary, which is in the vision, from an event, Babylon, which is not? The starting date for the climax of the vision should come from within the vision itself, which started with Media Persia and extends to “the end.” That’s a lot of years.

Which one began it? We are not told in Daniel 8:1-27. We are told in Daniel 9:1-27.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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