Sabbath: The Foundation of God’s Government
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 25th of May 2024
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study
Revelation 14:6-12; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Proverbs 28:9; Daniel 7:25.
Memory Text:
“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17, NKJV).
Through intensive Bible study, Adventists came to understand the significance of the law in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. Looking into the heart of God’s law, they also discovered the significance of the Sabbath, the fourth commandment. In fact, this commandment more than any other clearly identifies God as our Creator, the foundation of all true worship—a theme that will be especially relevant in the final days of earth’s history (see Revelation 14:6-12).
Satan’s aim from the beginning has been to thwart the worship of God through undermining the law of God. He knows that to offend “in one point” means to be “guilty of all” (James 2:10); so, he encourages people to transgress God’s law. Satan hates the Sabbath because it reminds people of the Creator and how He is to be worshiped. But it also is enshrined in God’s law in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. Because the law is what defines sin, as long as people seek to be faithful to God, then His law must continue to be valid, including the Sabbath commandment.
The aim of this lesson is to show the link between the sanctuary, God’s law, the Sabbath, and the coming crisis over the mark of the beast. We also will explore the relevance of the Sabbath to an end-time generation.
*Study this week’s lesson, based on chapters 25–27 of The Great Controversy, to prepare for Sabbath, June 1.
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One of the the ideas that I would like to think about this week as we study the Sanctuary, the law, the Sabbath and so on, is how we grow our understanding of these issues. All too often our Sabbath School Lesson study is a reiteration of what we have always believed. I am not saying that we were wrong. Still, if we do not reexamine our beliefs and practices dynamically and practically, we run the danger of letting our beliefs become dogma, defined by others and followed because we think there is merit in doing so.
If you studied geometry and paid attention in class, you would have come up against Pythagoras's Theorem. In classes where maths was deemed a set of rules that you learned, you would have been taught that in a right-angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. But, in my maths teacher's class, he told us we were going one better than that. We were going to prove Pythagoras's Theorem. And, together we worked through the whole problem using geometric constructs, similar and congruent triangles until we had proved it; QED (that is what you said when you finished a proof). Is there a difference between just accepting the answer, and doing the work to prove the answer? You bet there is. In real-life maths, there is no answer book. You have to prove your answers yourself.
In our spiritual lives we grow, not by simply reciting the answer from a doctrinal vow, or a YouTube speaker but by combining study with experience and developing and maturing our relationship with Jesus.
I have made my point in what may seem like academic terms mainly because we are participating in this forum to study and understand. However, I am not suggesting that salvation is only for those who study. There are other ways to grow your relationship in Jesus. I have friends who have never opened a book after they left high school and they can still teach me some really important ideas about practical Christianity.
[QED - Quod Erat Demonstrandum - Latin for "Which has been proved!"]
Maurice I second your comments above. I’m in a men’s devotional study group with a catholic, church of christ, southern baptist, and an unknown. As you can tell my beliefs are different than most of theirs. One guy in particular asks questions related to why I believe what I believe. This has forced me to study why I believe what I believe. It has also given me a more solid foundation to stand on. As Bible, 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
Powerful, I cherish ur comments, gives me another glance of an open mind
Brother Maurice, I appreciate the point you made.
Thank you Brother Maurice for the points..Be blessed.
We see 2 governments:
God’s government respects the right of each individual to choose for themselves what they believe and what they practice . Even those who rebel against their conscience and choose against God’s moral laws are given plenty of opportunity to see God’s mercy and character and change allegiances before their probation closes. In God’s final judgment, all will bow before Him and freely acknowledge His justice (Phil. 2:10-11; Rom. 14:10-11).
Satan’s government is about forcing so-called moral behavior through threats of punishment. It’s about mixing truth with self-aggrandizing error… Like the truth that humans and all planet Earth need a weekly rest day, mixed with the error that we can pick whichever day best suits us and disregard God sovereignty over us.
God’s government is the purity, peace, free choice and harmony of heaven. Satan’s government is the lies, wars, manipulation and cruel enforcement on Earth.
Wow! Marvelled
The lesson writer states: “Satan’s aim from the beginning has been to thwart the worship of God through undermining the law of God. “This statement seems to imply that God is fighting Satan over the ‘worship’ aspect of the relationship with humanity.
I see it a bit more nuanced, more focused on His Love for mankind which is His creation - He does not want anyone to perish because He loves us! Satan’s aim is to, yes, draw man away from worshipping the true and only God. But, if worship is based on love from both parties, then it is ultimately the war over the right of man to inherit Eternal Life because our God loves us.
Loving God with all one’s heart is what Satan wants to prevent or at least distort - cause to become ineffective. His effort is aimed at making the relationship with our heavenly Father like running the gauntlet between 'reward and punishment' by distorting God’s Truth.
He causes man to focus on 'doing the right thing', preventing man to accept that his heavenly Father loves us - wants to give the gift of Eternal life to us! God gives His Love and man freely receives faith through His Love and loves Him in return.
Very well said, Brigitte. Thank you.
Mrs. Brigitte, God is omnipotent, Omnipresente and Omnisciente, since his love for humanity is so big, Why on his nature of life he introduced the tree of life, on what is wrong or right, yet knowing that our nature is made for curiosity, then comes that whole story that for his love that is too much….. he gave us the freedom of choice etc….. plz assist me on respondi-me my quês. Thank you
Our Creator designed the smallest test possibke to give our first parents a choice: He allowed the fallen angel access to the garden at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then He warned them not to go there.
What more could He have done to keep them safe while still giving them a choice?
The author of the lesson writes in this week's topic that, as it is in the earthly Sanctuary, there is (10 commandments) law in Heaven? Isn't it that the 10 commandments, the tables of stone that God penned with His finger and is put in the most Holy place, only in earth? Does the author wants us to understand that there is a set of (Holy) stone in Heaven similar to that in earth?
H'mm ... Dyun, I just checked, and don't see what you see in today's lesson. But I read that
The author writes that God's law is enshrined in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. He did not write that the 10 Commandments and certainly not the two tables of stone are enshrined in the heavenly sanctuary.
I challenge you to expand your understanding of God's Law, the foundation of God's government and a reflection of His character by reading "God’s Law: The One, the Two, the Ten and the Many."
If you have any more questions after that, ask away.
In America we are going to hear a lot about law in the coming months. Questions are going to be raised about jurisprudence, (the theory and philosophy of law), and jurisdiction, (the scope of the ability of the court to decide a case)
As we study the "Foundation of God's Government" let us never forget that it functions as any other civilized society here on earth, that the Kingdom of God is ruled by a generous set of principles encapsulated within the ten commandments.
They very nature of law is that there are consequences for a violations of its stipulations. (If there were no consequences for disobedience, then it could effectively be argued that it isn't even a law, practically speaking.) Laws ignored and disobeyed without repurcussions are merely "suggestions"
And as we look at the sad state of affairs in our respective countries, the world seems to have unanimously agreed that this is the case with the Divine Law of God.