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Read for This Week’s Study: Eph. 6:12, Dan. 10:1-21, Ezra 4:1-5, Josh. 5:13-15, Rev. 1:12-18, Col. 2:15, Rom 8:37-39.

Memory Text: “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!” (Daniel 10:19, NKJV).

Daniel 10 introduces the concluding vision of Daniel, which continues in chapters 11 and 12. We are informed at the outset that this vision concerns a “great conflict” (Dan. 10:1, ESV). While Daniel 11 fleshes out some details of this conflict, Daniel 10 shows its spiritual dimensions and reveals that behind the scenes of earthly battles rages a spiritual conflict of cosmic proportions. As we study this chapter, we shall see that when we pray, we engage in this cosmic conflict in a way that has profound repercussions. But we are not alone in our struggles; Jesus engages the battle against Satan in our behalf. We shall learn that the ultimate fight we are engaged in is not against earthly human powers but the powers of darkness.

As the apostle Paul put it centuries after Daniel: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12, NKJV). Ultimately, our success in the conflict rests on Jesus Christ, who alone defeated Satan at the cross.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 14.

Sunday–>

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Angel in Angola’s Airport

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Do angels live in airports?

A TAAG Angolan Airlines airplane deposited me late one evening in Angola’s capital, Luanda. I had a two-hour layover before catching the next flight to the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe to collect mission stories.

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At the designated time printed on my boarding pass, I joined a long waiting line to the departure area. But when I offered my boarding pass, the airline representative turned me away with a slew of Portuguese words. Seeing my confusion, she summoned a security officer, who explained that I needed to wait 20 minutes.

Twenty minutes later, the airline representative accepted my boarding pass and directed me into a crowded room. I waited 15 minutes.

Then another airline representative called out, “São Tomé!” I joined a crowd waiting to take an escalator down to the departure area on the ground floor. But this airline representative, guarding entry to the escalator, rejected my boarding pass with a fresh slew of Portuguese words. No security officer was present to interpret, and I guessed I would have to wait 20 minutes.

Other passengers streamed down the escalator, and soon only a few people remained in the room. I decided to go. Nobody remained to check my boarding pass. At the bottom of the escalator, I joined a chaotic line of waiting people.

The minutes ticked by, and no bus came to take us to the plane.

Then a young man with brown hair and a tan knapsack slung over his shoulder cut in front of me in line. Idly, I wondered why he hadn’t gone to the back of the line. After a few minutes, he looked at me and said, “My English”.

I had no idea what he meant. I guessed that he only spoke Portuguese.

The man gestured toward the crowd around us.

“This flight is to Portugal”, he said, speaking in slightly accented English. “São Tomé is over there.” He pointed down the hall.

“Thank you!” I exclaimed — and ran. Sure enough, a bus stood waiting down the hall, and its doors closed shortly after I boarded.

Seated on the sparsely filled airplane, I thought back to the stranger in the airport. How did he know that I spoke English? I hadn’t communicated with anyone. How did he know where I was going? My boarding pass had been tucked in my pocket. Why did he cut in front of me in line and single me out of the crowd?

Arriving in São Tomé, I told my story to local church leader Eliseu R. Xavier. He declared that God had sent an angel. If I had missed the flight, he said, I would have been stranded for three days in Luanda. The airline only flies to São Tomé three times a week.

I have no doubt. Airports are home to angels.

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: 

Below is the chart explaining how the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 ties in with and forms the starting point of the 2,300-year prophecy of Daniel 8:14. If you count 2,300 years from 457 B.C. (remembering to delete the nonexistent zero year), you get 1844; or, if you count the remaining 1,810 years from A.D. 34 (2,300 minus the first 490 years), you come to 1844, as well. Thus, the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14 can be shown to start in 1844.

Notice, too, how the 1844 date fits with what we saw in Daniel chapters 7 and 8. That is, the judgment in Daniel chapter 7, which is the same thing as the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel chapter 8 (see the last two weeks’ lessons), occurs after the 1,260-years of persecution (Dan. 7:25) and yet before the Second Coming of Jesus and the establishment of His eternal kingdom.

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Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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The answer to “How does intercessory prayer work?” is often given as, “I don’t know, but it works. When I turn on a light switch I don’t understand how electricity works, but the light still comes on.”  God does not use force, and I have heard that by intercessory prayer we invite God to make radical changes by invitation; so that it is not force. That is a theory but whether it is true or not, I know intercessory prayer works.

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When I was in my early twenties I was a part of a Bible study group. A certain young lady in our group stopped coming to the study and then dropped out of church all together. Our study group started praying for her. I also prayed on my own. Every night I would pray, “Lord please send your Holy Spirit to work on *Tammy’s heart.” I prayed that night after night for I can’t remember how long. Then one night my phone rang. It was Tammy, telling me she was tired of what she referred to as her heathen friends. She said she wanted to come back to church. We decided to meet that evening at a restaurant. At the restaurant Tammy said, “I want to tell you something but you will think it’s crazy.” I assured her I would not think she was crazy. She told me, “I just feel like the Holy Spirit has really been working on my heart!” I was overjoyed! She repeated back to me the very words I had been praying every night. Intercessory prayer works. Now remember that God never uses force. The people we pray for still have free will, but God surely leaves nothing undone that can lead to conversion. Tammy came back to church and our Bible study group. 

In Matthew 9, a group of friends boought their friend to Jesus on the mat he was lying on. He needed physical and spiritual healing. It is interesting that Scripture says, 

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2 NLT 

He did not just see the man’s faith who was sick. I’m not even sure he had faith. But when Jesus saw their faith He worked miracles in the man’s life. Again I may not be able to explain how intercessory prayer works, but I can observe it working. 

The story of Job tells us how important intercessory prayer is. Let’s take a look,

After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.  So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. Job 42:7-8 NLT 

God would not accept Eliphaz’s sacrifice unless Job prayed for him. Interesting. The book of Job also gives an example of how God blesses us when we pray for our friends. 

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! Job 42:10 NLT

When we intercede and pray for others they are blessed and we are blessed too. 

*The name “Tammy” is an alias. 

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At the end of the vision of the 2,300 evenings and mornings, the prophet is astonished because he cannot understand it (Dan. 8:27, NKJV). Ten years later, Gabriel comes to help Daniel “understand” the vision (Dan. 9:23). This latter revelation supplies the missing information and reveals that the work of the Messiah is to be accomplished toward the end of a period of seventy weeks. According to the year-day principle and the course of the events predicted, the seventy weeks must be understood as 490 years. And the starting point for this period is the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25).

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This command is issued by King Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. It allows the Jews under the leadership of Ezra to rebuild Jerusalem (Ezra chapter 7). According to the biblical text, the seventy weeks are “determined” or “cut off”. This indicates that the time period of 490 years has been cut from a larger time period, that is, from the 2,300 years designated in the vision of chapter 8. It follows from this that the 2,300 years and the 490 years must have the same starting point, namely, 457 B.C.

The prophecy of the seventy weeks is divided into three sections: seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and the seventieth week.

The seven weeks (49 years) most likely refer to the time during which Jerusalem will be rebuilt. After these seven weeks, there will be sixty-two weeks (434 years) leading to “Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25). Thus 483 years after Artaxerxes’ decree, that is, in the year A.D. 27, Jesus the Messiah is baptized and anointed by the Holy Spirit for His messianic mission.

During the seventieth week, other crucial events will take place: (1) “Messiah shall be cut off” (Dan. 9:26, NKJV), which refers to the death of Christ. (2) The Messiah “shall confirm a covenant with many for one week” (Dan. 9:27, NKJV). This is the special mission of Jesus and the apostles to the Jewish nation. It is undertaken during the last “week”, from A.D. 27 to 34. (3) “But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering” (Dan. 9:27, NKJV). Three and a half years after His baptism (that is, in the middle of the week), Jesus brings the sacrificial system to an end — in the sense that it no longer has any more prophetic significance — by offering Himself as the final and perfect sacrifice of the New Covenant, thus voiding the need for any more animal sacrifices. The last week of the 70-week prophecy ends in A.D. 34, when Stephen is martyred and the gospel message begins to reach not only the Jews but the Gentiles as well.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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