Sabbath: Images of the End
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 21st of June 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Matthew 12:38-42; Jonah 3:5-10; Revelation 18:4; Daniel 5:1-31; Revelation 16:12-19; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23.
Memory Text:
“So he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land’ ” (Jonah 1:9, NKJV).
This week will be our final look at accounts that help elucidate our understanding of last-day events. This time we will look at the mission of Jonah to Nineveh; the fall of Babylon; and the rise of Cyrus, the Persian king who liberated God’s people and enabled them to return to the Promised Land.
As with the other stories we’ve examined, these historical accounts have held profound meaning for every generation. But they also have special relevance to the final generations living before Christ returns. That is, we can mine from these historical accounts various elements that can help us better understand what we call “present truth.”
At the same time, we must remember one thing concerning all these stories that appear to foreshadow last-day events: we must be careful to look at broad themes and allusions and not try to parse every detail to the point of creating prophetic absurdities. As in the parables of Jesus, we should look for the major points and principles. We should not milk every detail in hopes of finding some hidden truth. Instead, we should look for the outlines, the principles; and from these we can discover elements relevant for the last days.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 28.
(0)
Even a blind man can see that I am closer to the end of my life than its beginning. I turn eighty this year, my hair is the colour of sea-mist, I have three non-harmonising notes left in my singing voice, I have had one TURP procedure, and last year I was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer (now declared successfully clear except I have to have colonoscopies for the foreseeable future.) My colo-rectal surgeon and I discussed how I should live. He said, "Go and take photographs of birds for as long as you can! Contribute to your community!"
I like his advice, not only for my physical life but as an example of how to live spiritually. There are two things I want to include for us to think about. First a Bible quote from Jesus:
And I would like to add this little story from the events surrounding the Dark Day, 1798:
Question: Do we know where the candles are kept?
The re-establishment of Israel in 1948 serves as a significant sign of the end times, prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures (Isaiah 11:10-12, Ezekiel 37:1-12, Amos 9:13-15, and Zechariah 12:1-3). Jesus also mentioned this sign in Matthew 24, comparing Israel to a fig tree that would rebud before His return. According to Jesus, the generation that sees this sign "will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:34).
The book of Revelation contains technological signs that could only be fulfilled in modern times. For example, the prophecy of massive global death tolls (Revelation 6-9) requires nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems as we are witnessing, nations are indeed competing to stock pile their nuclear arsenal. Another prophecy states that the whole world will gaze upon the dead bodies of God's two witnesses for three and a half days (Revelation 11:9), which is only possible with modern television and satellite transmission.
A prophecy in Revelation also mentions an army of 200 million soldiers marching across Asia toward Israel (Revelation 9:16). This was impossible when the prophecy was written (95 AD), given the earth's population at the time. Dr. David Reagan asserts that with the modern population explosion, particularly in Asia, it's now feasible for a nation like China to send such a massive army to Israel making this prophecy a significant sign of the end times.
Why is it critically important to have a clear understanding about the end-time? Does it matter for the believers to know the signs of the end-time? In fact, Jesus Christ Himself warned believers repeatedly to be vigilant, pray, be ready and not to be taken by surprise. "And Jesus answered and said to them: 'Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4–5, NKJV). In the same chapter, Jesus continued to admonish His follower to be vigilant about the end-time.
“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. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:42–44, NKJV).
Why did Jesus bother to warn His followers about the end-time?
1. Great danger for deception - The end-time will be characterised by dangerous spiritual deception. The Bible says that even God’s people must be extremely vigilant, otherwise they too may be deceived (Mathew 24:24)
2. Jesus warned His followers to be spiritual alert, not passive. Spiritual passiveness is the devil’s cunning strategy.
3. Christ’s second coming will very sudden and unexpected and therefore we have been warned to be completely prepared at all times.
4. The second coming of the Son of God is not a preposition but a reality. The hour of His coming will also be the hour of judgment. Let us equally be warned that the hour to be held accountable is coming.
“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus” – Revelation 14:12, NIV