Sabbath: The Nations: Part 1
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 19th of April 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 10:1-12, Genesis 12:1-9, 1 Samuel 8:4-18, Matthew 20:25-28, Revelation 18:1-4.
Memory Text:
“ ‘Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed’ ” (Daniel 7:14, NKJV).
The book of Revelation shows us God’s solutions for our fallen world. In the final chapters, access to the tree of life is restored, the curse is lifted, and we are readmitted into the presence of God. Revelation, in some ways, is the book of Genesis in reverse, which is why Genesis remains an important key to understanding how the world’s problems developed in the first place.
One of the key issues in both Daniel and Revelation is worldly government, a succession of human attempts to control a planet that rightfully belongs to God, who will—once this horrible episode of sin and rebellion is forever ended—ultimately rule in righteousness.
It is a very long process that leads to this moment, covering thousands of years of human experiments in self-government. They have never worked; even those expressing the highest ideals have always fallen short, often terribly short, of those ideals. So much of the sad history of humanity through the millennia is nothing but accounts of the tragedy that these failed systems have brought upon us. And it only will get worse until God’s “everlasting kingdom” (Daniel 7:27) finally is established.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 26.
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One great assurance that prophecy provides is that one day, in some future date, God will establish His everlasting kingdom here on earth. The universe, which has been corrupted by sin over thousands of years, will be created anew. This will be a kingdom ruled by God’s righteousness, love, and justice. This shall be a kingdom of nations (Zechariah 14:16). There will be global unity of all nations, peoples, languages, and tribes. God’s eternal joy will be experienced for eternity (Revelation 21:4). God is inviting each one of us to be a citizen of that kingdom now.
“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” - Isaiah 46:9-10, NIV