Introduction:

As the nineteenth century disappeared into the twentieth, a sense of optimism pervaded the West. Through science and technology, humanity was advancing toward a golden age, a future of wonderful possibilities when war, pestilence, poverty, and hunger would finally be ended. That was the hope, anyway.

Of course, the twentieth century proved this hope not only wrong but foolish and naïve.

Image © Pacific Press

This helps explain why, when we entered the twenty-first century, it was with no great sense of optimism about a better future.

From a worldly perspective, the world still seems in pretty dismal shape and, worse, holds little prospect of improvement. Humans seem just as inclined toward greed, oppression, violence, conquest, exploitation, and self-destruction now as our ancestors were in ages past. Meanwhile, many of our great technological advances, though sometimes serving humanity well, have aided us in our greed, oppression, violence, conquest, exploitation, and self-destruction.

None of this should be surprising, of course, not with texts like “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9, NKJV) or “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matt. 24:7, NKJV).

And yet, amid all this despair and calamity, we have the book of Daniel, our study for this quarter, a book that’s especially relevant for us who are living in the ayt qatz, “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9). And that’s because in the sacred pages of Daniel we have powerful, rational, faith-affirming evidence not only for our belief in God but in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, as well as the promise of His return and all that His return entails.

Think about it. All through Daniel (chapters 2, 7, 8, 11), we have been given, from various angles, the following sequence of empires: Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome, and God’s eternal kingdom after the Second Coming. From our perspective today, living when we do, we can see that all the worldly kingdoms have come and gone as predicted. Or, in the case of Rome, it came and remains, at least for now, just as Daniel wrote. It is depicted in the feet and toes of Daniel 2:33, Daniel 2:41, and is manifested in the still-divided nations of Europe as well as the Roman church itself. Thus, we have an affirmation of biblical prophecy as broad and as solid as the history of the world that someone living in the time of Babylon, or Greece, or even in the earlier days of Rome, could not have had.

Living where we are on the prophetic time scale, we also can see that Daniel was correct about all these kingdoms; thus, we have even more reasons to trust him regarding the only one yet to come: God’s eternal kingdom, after the Second Coming.

Yes, the book of Daniel remains a powerful, faith-affirming document, especially for Seventh-day Adventists, who find within its pages texts seminal to our church, especially Daniel 8:14: “And he said to me, ‘For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed’” (NKJV). This text is parallel to Daniel 7:22, Daniel 7:26-27, which shows that after the great heavenly judgment, given “in favor of the saints of the Most High”, God’s eternal kingdom will be established. In contrast to the fleeting, earthly empires, it will last forever.

And yet, alongside the “big-picture”, we see just how close Christ can be to us, individually. From King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to Daniel’s deliverance from the lions’ den, the book shows us God’s immanence, or His nearness to us; as Daniel told wicked King Belshazzar, He is the God “who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways” (Dan. 5:23, NKJV).

In short, the book of Daniel, our study for this quarter, remains what it was when penned thousands of years ago: a powerful revelation of the love and character of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Elias Brasil de Souza serves as director of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists World Headquarters. He holds a PhD in Old Testament exegesis and theology from Andrews University.

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It’s funny – the memories that stay lodged in my mind. The impromptu summer afternoon trip to the ice cream shop with grandma ranks right up there with Thanksgiving dinner. The meaningful 30-minute conversation with my friend on the west coast who accidentally pocket dialed me at 2 AM my time was more fun than the call I got on my birthday.  Sometimes it’s a simple compliment from the heart of a stranger whom you never see again but never forget, just because of the way they made you feel that one time you met. I’ve heard it said, and I’m sure you have too, that what we remember most about people is how they made us feel. I believe this is especially true about our leaders. 

Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com

Studying this week’s Sabbath School lesson about leaders, I found myself reminiscing not only about leaders in the church, but also leaders in the secular work place. And why not? After all, while we discuss the theory of the gospel in Sabbath School class, the workplace is where we exercise the gospel. While I have been a full-time Bible Worker most of my career, there have been times I also had to pick up a secular side job to support myself and my ministry. I believe my example in the workplace is so crucial that, when I arrived at my secular job I prayed the same prayer I pray before taking the pulpit to preach Sabbath morning. I would say it’s even more crucial because behind the pulpit I am just talking for maybe 30 minutes, but at work I am demonstrating the gospel for several hours. 

One job I had several years ago, when I was a Bible Worker and lay pastor in Texas, was being a part-time supervisor at UPS. And it’s there that I had three simple encounters with my own supervisors that years later I have not forgotten, and this week’s lesson brought them to mind once again. 

I supervised the people loading the brown delivery trucks. When a worker could not show up and I could not find a replacement, I sometimes had to load a few trucks myself. When this would happen, I would always go to the break room to get my favorite cold drink and some chips, set them in the back of the truck so I could  enjoy them as I was going in and out of the trucks. Early one morning the packages were already stacking up in an area before I realized the worker was not there. I had no time to find someone or even alert my own supervisor as to what was going on, much less go to the break room for my ritual. I had to jump in there  right away and get to work. About thirty minutes later, my own supervisor came by with my favorite drink and chips and placed them in the back of the truck for me. A very simple gesture, but it meant a lot because it showed she knew me, and even though it was not necessary for my work, she wanted me to be happy. 

Drinks and chips are not the only things I had in the back of the trucks. I often placed my cell phone in the back of the trucks. One morning after the trucks had all left to run all over town, I realized my phone was still in the back of one of them. I told the daytime supervisor who called the driver to see where I could meet him to retrieve my phone, which I did. Later in the day my cell phone rang. It was the daytime supervisor making sure I got my phone okay. Wow! I thought. Those daytime supervisors are so busy that I wondered how did he even remember me? And why would he remember? My phone wasn’t his problem or responsibility. It meant a lot to me that in such as busy time-crunched place like UPS, a full-time supervisor for another shift, with plenty of responsibilities and problems of his own, took the time to make sure I found my phone. 

Before I became a part-time supervisor in the loading area, I was a sorter. One morning while sorting away I turned to the belt behind me and my eye caught the zip code of a package right as it went by. I instantly realized that zip code did not belong on that belt. Another sorter miss-sorted it. I quickly grabbed it and placed it on the correct belt as I kept up sorting my own packages. My supervisor walked by and patted me on the back telling me he saw what I just did. He commended my eagle eye. A couple years later, I became a part-time supervisor in the loading area. At the end of one of my shifts I failed to realize that a next-day air package was still left on the belt. The next day the manager over the entire building was very upset with me. I probably would have been in hot water had it not been for my former supervisor years ago when I was a sorter. He took it upon himself to go to the building manager and tell him how he thought I was one of the best workers he ever had. When the building manager later talked to me, he told me my old supervisor told him about the package I caught on the wrong belt and how I corrected it, even though in my position I was not expected to. The building manager told me I was not going to be in any trouble. 

Again UPS is a hard-nosed job and it amazed me that a former supervisor took the time and effort to stand up for me even though he had nothing to gain one way or the other if anything happened to me or not.  In these stories I recall each leader showed true character even though they were outside of church and in a place where it is a struggle for even the best of church members to show good character. Each experience may have been small within itself, but I will never forget them. I also try to be what I admire in each of these leaders. 

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Seeing the Big Picture

By Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

A family of five came nearly every day to the Seventh-day Adventist compound in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to ask for food.

Peter Fenoy
Image © Pacific Press

Peter Fenoy, a missionary physician running the small Munuki Seventh-day Adventist Clinic on the compound, found the family’s actions puzzling.

“What is going on with these people?” he asked himself. “Why are they coming every day for food? Can’t they do anything for themselves?”

One day, Peter decided to look for answers, and he went to the family’s nearby home. What he saw shocked him. The father, mother, two daughters, and son were taking turns eating. The father and son would eat one day, and the mother and daughters would eat the next day.

Peter, a native of Argentina, returned to the compound and shared his discovery with his wife, Natasha, who was born in South Ossetia, part of the former Soviet Union.

“We are focusing only on what we are doing – medical work – and forgetting the people around us who need something else”, he told her. “Medical work is a good thing, but the community needs something else: clean water, food, mosquito nets, and containers for carrying water”.

After praying, Peter decided to write a U.S.$150,000 proposal to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s world headquarters in the United States. He had never written a project proposal before, but ADRA embraced it and covered its budget. In a short time, the Munuki Seventh-day Adventist Clinic became known as the ADRA Juba Project. It was 2005, months before a peace agreement ended a festering armed conflict.

The small clinic expanded its services to offer food and nonfood items, water sanitation, and emergency assistance. In a single year, the project’s funding skyrocketed from $150,000 to $2 million.

“I was surprised”, Peter said. “I realized that focusing on people and looking to meet their needs can develop projects that help others”.

Peter’s life changed drastically. ADRA sent him to Andrews University in the U.S. state of Michigan to earn a master’s degree in international development. Then he worked for a number of aid agencies, including ADRA, the Danish Refugee Council, World Vision, and UNICEF, in Jordan, Lebanon, Bolivia, South Ossetia, and Russia’s republic of Chechnya.

But everything started with one small thing – a desire to understand why a family was asking for food every day.

“My whole life focused on heath before that. I didn’t realize that there was something beyond the consulting room”, Peter, 39, said in an interview at River Plate Adventist University, his alma mater that sends missionaries like him around the world.

“Don’t just focus on what you have and what you are supposed to do”, said Peter, left. “Seek to understand what people really need – and then you can offer a better and more Christ-like response”.

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

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “The Privilege of Prayer”, pages 93–104, in Steps to Christ.

“The work of restoration and reform carried on by the returned exiles, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, presents a picture of a work of spiritual restoration that is to be wrought in the closing days of this earth’s history. The remnant of Israel were a feeble people, exposed to the ravages of their enemies; but through them God purposed to preserve in the earth a knowledge of Himself and of His law.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

They were the guardians of the true worship, the keepers of the holy oracles. Varied were the experiences that came to them as they rebuilt the temple and the wall of Jerusalem; strong was the opposition that they had to meet. Heavy were the burdens borne by the leaders in this work; but these men moved forward in unwavering confidence, in humility of spirit, and in firm reliance upon God, believing that He would cause His truth to triumph. Like King Hezekiah, Nehemiah ‘clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments. … And the Lord was with him’. 2 Kings 18:6, 7” – Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 677.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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Read Ezra 8:21-23, Ezra 8:31-32. Would you consider Ezra’s decision not to speak to the king as foolish or brave? How did Ezra and the people show humility?

Sometime later, Nehemiah accepted the king’s entourage for protection.

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But in Ezra’s instance, he believed that God could show Himself best if they did not ask anything of the king. Thus, when they reached Judah without harm, it was attributed to their God. Perhaps in certain situations, we may rely too much on other people and not enough on letting God show Himself. Ezra chose to let God do the work in this situation and proved to the king that indeed God was a powerful God.

However, Ezra didn’t act with presumption. He called the people together, and they fasted and prayed over the situation. They didn’t engage in their journey until they had spent serious time with God. They came before God humbly, requesting that His protection become a sign of His power, and God answered.

Read Nehemiah 5:14-19. How did Nehemiah display humility?

True leaders must be willing to humble themselves and be servants. Competent leaders do not require or need a “title” to gain honor. Nehemiah had his doors open and generously gave to the people. He demonstrated his faith in God, and his incredible dedication to God was an example to the people. He had a strong personality and a no-nonsense temperament, but He didn’t put himself above anyone else as superior. He had the highest position in the Jewish nation at that time, and yet he was unstinting. In this way, He reflected the life and teachings of Jesus, who taught us that the best way to lead is to serve others. Jesus did it, and thus we, regardless of our position, are to do the same.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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