Key Thought: God is the foundation of every good thing because He is the Creator of all good things. God’s throne is in heaven and He has jurisdiction over the earth and all He created.
May 17, 2025

1. Have a volunteer read Isaiah 6:6-8.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What were the consequences of this meeting and why is it important?
3. Personal Application: Have you submitted to Christ in knowing cleansing and forgiveness enough to allow yourself to want to be used to share the gospel with others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, How can we witness to people without appearing to be aggressive and pushy in our sharing? Some groups are very pushy and it turns a lot of people off. So how can we approach and share in a non-aggressive manner?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Genesis 3:21-24, Ezekiel 1:4-14.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What job were the cherubim tasked with and why?
3. Personal Application: How holy are you in comparison to God? What does this tell us about our need of the gospel? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “I don’t understand the imagery here concerning the vision. Can you explain what this is describing? How does this help us in understanding God or His work?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Numbers 2:3; 2:10; 2:19; 2:25.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What were the four dominant tribes of the tabernacle? What were the standard flag for each one of these tribes?
   (Note – Reuben – Man, Judah – Lion, Ephraim – Ox, Dan – Eagle.)
3. Personal Application: How can we draw closer to the presence of God in our lives? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “How does Elijah come before Christ’s second coming? John the Baptist came before Jesus the first time. If John was a burning and shining lamp, what will God’s people be described as as a forerunner of Christ?” How would you respond to your neighbor?
   (Note – Read Revelation Chapter 14:1-6) Their message? (Revelation 14:6-14)

4. Have a volunteer read Ezekiel 28:11-17, Daniel 14:12-14.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. If Satan and one-third of the angels were kicked out of heaven, what kind of honor would it be for us to take their places in heaven? Does that mean we become angels when we go to heaven?.
3. Personal Application: What role do we have as a church and as individuals in letting people know about what Christ has done for them? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared. ”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/7-foundations-for-prophecy-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Monday 12th of May 2025

As soon as our first parents were expelled from the Garden, God offered the hope of Messiah (Genesis 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 (Exodus 25:18).

Image © Justinen Creative Collection at Goodsalt.com

While the cherubim were certainly given the responsibility to keep sinners from accessing the tree of life (Genesis 3:22), they also were a symbol of hope, of promise, that one day humans would be restored to Paradise. “The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race was long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. . . . But in the final restitution, when there shall be ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 62.

The wording in Genesis 3:24 is also interesting: the Bible indicates that God “placed” the cherubim to the east of Eden, and the original Hebrew word used is shakan, the root word for the sacred “tabernacle” (see Exodus 25:9, Numbers 3:26), where the presence of God dwelt among His people. Though the common term Shekinah, for the presence of God, does not appear in the Bible, it, too, is based on this word often translated “tabernacle.” A literal translation of shakan could read, “God tabernacled cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden.”

In the Bible, cherubim are associated with the presence of God (see 1 Chronicles 13:6, Psalms 80:1, and Isaiah 37:16), in particular with His throne, which is the place where His name is proclaimed. We should not fail to notice that the 24 elders who attend God’s throne in Revelation 4:1-11 and 5 sing His praises and declare His right to rule as the One who created all things (Revelation 4:11). This can help us understand the throne room scene and our role as forgiven sinners in relationship to our Maker.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-07-the-two-cherubim/

Daily Lesson for Sunday 11th of May 2025

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 lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’ ” (Isaiah 6:5, NKJV). We would feel the same if we were suddenly escorted into the presence of the Lord. The light is bright enough to remove all of our excuses. In God’s presence, we sense that we are lost. Isaiah was in for the surprise of a lifetime.

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

Isaiah was purged of his sin when a seraph took a coal from the altar and touched his mouth with it. This was likely the altar of incense, where intercession was made by and for God’s people (see Revelation 8:3-4). His sins were forgiven, and he was now considered fit to stand in God’s presence—but, more than that, he was also commissioned to represent God to the world.

Interestingly enough, the word “seraph” means “the burning one.” Notice Jesus’ description of John the Baptist’s ministry in John 5:35—“ ‘He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light’ ” (NKJV). Though, of course, John himself was a sinner in need of grace and salvation, his ministry pointed to the only One who could bring grace and salvation.

Jesus came as the perfect representation of the Father’s glory—and God sent a prophet, a sinner, who performed a similar task as one of heaven’s seraphim.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-07-here-i-am-send-me/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 10th of May 2025

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Isaiah 6:6-8, Genesis 3:21-24, Ezekiel 1:4-14, Revelation 4:1-11, Numbers 2:3-25, Isaiah 14:12-14.

Memory Text:

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’ ” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV).

God’s right to rule the universe is founded upon His position as the Creator of all things (Revelation 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 (Romans 3:23).

This week, we move further into the vision of the throne room and consider how the human race relates to a holy God and how the sacrifice of Christ restores us and brings us close to the throne. God plans to restore us, not just as individuals but also as a race, so that we once again reveal His glory to the rest of creation. By searching through the rest of the Bible, we can find important clues that help us understand and begin to appreciate the high calling that God has extended to us, a race of forgiven and redeemed sinners.

Human rebellion, ultimately and forever, will be ended. And, more than that, God’s loving character, His self-denying and self-sacrificing character, will shine even brighter than it did in His original design for humanity. Though God never intended for humanity to fall, through the Cross, God’s loving character has been put on display in a remarkable way.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 17.

Sunday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-07-foundations-for-prophecy/

Inside Story for Friday 9th of May 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Diana’s party lifestyle began taking a heavy toll on her by the end of the summer after her high school graduation. One day, alone in a park in Monte Vista, Colorado, Diana looked up into the leaves of the trees and saw sunlight gleaming through. At that moment, she heard a voice say, “If you don’t leave here, you will die here.” Diana knew that the voice was saying that her way of living would lead to an early death and that she needed to get away if she wanted to live.

She spoke with her mother about the future, and her mother asked, “Have you ever thought about the Navy?” Diana was annoyed at what she thought was a silly question, but, three months later, she was enlisted and training in Orlando, Florida. After that, she sailed the world. She saw many things that repulsed her. Every seaport had prostitution, gambling, and worse.

In rapid succession, Diana met and married a sailor, was honorably discharged from the Navy, and gave birth to three sons. They moved to Monte Vista, Colorado, but Diana’s husband wasn’t happy with family life.

Diana became depressed and began idolizing death. At first, she wished to fall ill and die. Then she thought about taking her own life. In desperation, she prayed, “God, I believe You are real, but I don’t know where You are.”

Strangely, over the next week, she had conversations with people from four different faith groups. First, two young missionaries came to her door. When she let them in, one missionary opened a book and read a text that said people with dark skin could not enter the highest heaven because they were cursed. Diana was offended. As a child, she had been the only white student in her class during a period of desegregation in Virginia. She knew God loved everyone and told the missionaries, “You have to leave.” She wondered, “Why did they read that text to me?”

The next day, three women came to her house. During their visit, Diana asked them about the Sabbath. “We worship God every day,” a woman said. Diana thought that made sense, and she agreed to see them again.

Then a tiny old woman knocked on her door on a stormy Friday night. She was collecting funds for a disaster-relief charity. Although the family had very little, Diana gave her the money that she was saving in a tip jar from her job at Pizza Hut. She never saw the woman again.

That same weekend, Diana was invited by a friend to another church. She felt an evil presence upon entering, and she fled after the service.

This mission story offers an inside look at how God miraculously worked in the life of Diana Fish, development director 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.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-06-inside-story-part-2-a-cry-for-help/