Inside Story for Friday 27th of June 2025

By Laurie Denski-Snyman

Maria was happy when a homeowner invited her in to look at the books that she was selling in a non-Christian country in Southeast Asia. Maria pulled several health books from her bag, but the man stopped her.

“I see what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re bringing out the lighter, more neutral books first, and after I drop my guard, you’re going to bring out the Christian books that you really want me to see. I know your intentions, so share the Christian books first.”

Maria sent up a silent prayer. “Lord, please help me,” she said. “I don’t know what to say.” Out loud, she said, “I have several books on health and religion. I want to share whatever people want to see. If they have an interest in health, I share those books. If they have an interest in religion, I’m happy to share those books, too.”

The man rubbed his chin. “Let’s make a deal,” he said. “If I can ask questions about your religion and you can answer them, I’ll buy all of your books.”

Maria felt anxious. She took a deep breath and said, “I’m not wise enough to answer anything that you ask. I need help. May I pray first?”

The man agreed. Maria prayed out loud. She asked for wisdom and knowledge, and she ended the prayer in the name of Jesus.

Immediately, the man asked, “We say Jesus was a prophet, but you say He is a God. Why do you say that? How can a mere man become God?”

Without pausing, Maria said, “Many people think that Jesus only started to live when He was on earth as a baby, but He was around years before that. Jesus was part of the Godhead, and God sent Him to this earth in the form of a baby as a regular human being. Then Jesus was called to be a prophet, then He was called to be a sacrifice, and then He was called to be a high priest. So right now, He is interceding for our sins. Jesus is not just a prophet. He was called to be more than a prophet. He is a high priest—not just for me but for all who accept Him.”

The man put his head in his hands. “That is about the nicest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

That was his first and only question. With tears in his eyes, he bought every book that Maria had. As they bid each other goodbye, he said, “You really explained to me what I wanted to know. Now I look forward to reading all your books.”

Pray for Maria and other missionaries seeking to reach unreached people groups in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, where this story took place. Maria is a pseudonym. Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering this Sabbath that will help spread the gospel in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-13-inside-story-lets-make-a-deal/

Daily Lesson for Friday 27th of June 2025

Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Unseen Watcher,” Pages 535–538, in Prophets and Kings.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has been permitted to occupy its place on the earth, that the fact might be determined whether it would fulfill the purposes of the Watcher and the Holy One. Prophecy has traced the rise and progress of the world’s great empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each of these, as with the nations of less power, history has repeated itself. Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory faded, its power departed. While nations have rejected God’s principles, and in this rejection have wrought their own ruin, yet a divine, overruling purpose has manifestly been at work throughout the ages.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 535.

In Jeremiah 18:1-23, Jeremiah observes a potter doing what a potter does: molding and shaping whatever he is working on. It is this imagery, that of a potter molding his clay, that God uses to explain the principle of conditionality in biblical prophecy. And just to make sure we understand, the Lord speaks through Jeremiah, saying: “ ‘The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it’ ” (Jeremiah 18:7-10, NKJV).

Discussion Questions

<–Thursday

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-13-further-thought-images-of-the-end/

Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 13 – Images of the End. It’s the fastest hour of the week!

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/images-of-the-end-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/

Daily Lesson for Thursday 26th of June 2025

When Cyrus sacked the city of Babylon, the years of captivity for God’s people were over, and the Persians permitted the Jews to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple. Under Cyrus, the Persian Empire became the largest in history, with what historian Tom Holland calls “the largest agglomeration of territories that the world had ever seen.”—Dominion (New York: Basic Books, 2019), p. 25.

As was the custom among the Persians, Cyrus was even called “the Great King” or “King of kings.”

Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com

Cyrus foreshadows what will happen when Christ returns for His church: He is the King who comes from the east (compare with Matthew 24:27), waging war against Babylon, and liberating His people finally to escape from Babylon and return to the Land of Promise. (See Revelation 19:11-16.) This is why God refers to Cyrus as “His anointed” (Isaiah 45:1, NKJV); not only did this famous Persian liberate God’s people, but his campaign against Babylon is also a type of Christ’s second coming.

The original order of Old Testament books has been changed in our day to end with Malachi, but originally, this is where the Old Testament ended—with this declaration from Cyrus. The next episode in the canon of Scripture would be Matthew, which begins with the birth of Christ, the antitypical Cyrus. Cyrus would orchestrate the rebuilding of the earthly temple; Jesus would inaugurate His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, leading up to His return and our liberation.

Cyrus, of course, was not a perfect representation of Christ; no type lines up perfectly with antitype, and we must be careful not to read too much into every tiny detail. Nevertheless, he broadly functions as a type of “Savior.”

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-13-cyrus-the-anointed/

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 25th of June 2025

One of Babylon’s strengths was the way that the Euphrates River flowed underneath its walls, providing the city with an unlimited supply of water. It also proved to be its weakness. Nitocris, an ancient Babylonian queen, had created earthen works along the river to develop it as a route to the city. In the process, she had diverted the river into a swamp to allow crews to work comfortably. Cyrus realized that he could do the same thing: dry up the Euphrates enough that he could comfortably march his troops under the wall. Once inside the city walls, he found the defensive walls that followed the river through the city unguarded, and the city fell in a single night. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus tells us that “those who lived in the centre of Babylon had no idea that the suburbs had fallen, for it was a time of festival, and all were dancing, and indulging themselves in pleasures.”—Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Tom Holland (New York: Penguin, 2015), p. 94. Can there be any doubt that this is the same feast as portrayed in Daniel 5:1-31?

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

In explaining how to discern the signs of the times, Jesus warned His disciples, “ ‘Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into’ ” (Matthew 24:42-43, NKJV). Just as in the fall of Babylon, the sudden appearance of Christ will catch modern Babylon by surprise. It does not need to be this way, however; we have been given ample evidence of the soon coming of Jesus in a multitude of detailed prophecies.

The world will not be caught by surprise merely because it is ignorant of what God has predicted; it will be surprised because it has chosen not to believe what God has said would happen.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25b-13-the-drying-of-the-euphrates/