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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2025: Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy?

Is Ellen White a Prophet or Plagiarist?

01 Some Principles of Prophecy

02 The Genesis Foundation

03 Images from Marriage

04 The Nations Part 1


I'm delighted you've joined us for another Sabbath School lesson. We're studying this quarter, allusions, images, symbols, or how to understand Bible prophecy. We're looking at some of the principles behind an interpretation of prophecy. When I looked at lesson number 4, called the nations, it wasn't very descriptive title. And I said, the nations, are we talking about wicked nations?

We talking about nations that brought glory and honor to God. We talking about nations that were in war, nations in peace, nations. It's quite a broad title. But then as I studied the lesson, 2 things jumped out at me from this lesson. First, that the lesson reveals that the kingdoms of this world or the nations of this world will ultimately fall and God will set up his eternal everlasting kingdom.

Secondly, that God through his people desires to reach the nations of the world. So with that background, let's pray and jump right into our study. Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for the opportunity to study your word. As we study this week, speak to us, help us learn eternal lessons from this Sabbath school lesson today. May these lessons impact our lives personally, deeply, in Christ's name.

Amen. If you look at the memory verse for this week, it is from Daniel 7, verse 14. Then to him was given dominion and glory, a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the 1 which shall not be destroyed." This is the theme of our lesson, kingdoms rise and fall. Political leaders come on the scene, live for a while, rule for a while, then die.

The nations of this world may be dominant for a short period of time, but God has a kingdom, a kingdom that will last forever and ever and ever. And that's what our lesson is all about. When God established this world, he placed within it the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It was his desire that his people never experience sickness, suffering, heartache, or death. The Tree of Life symbolized the very life of God.

It was a real tree, of course, but it had much more significance than simply bark and leaves and fruit. The tree of life represented the very life of God flowing to his people. When Adam and Eve sinned, they left that garden. God created a garden. Man made the cities.

That's what Sunday's lesson is all about, Nimrod in Nineveh. Now you remember in Genesis chapter 10, starting with verse 9, talking about Nimrod. We'll go back to verse 8 as well. Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty 1 on the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord." Now, mighty not in a positive way, mighty not that he was a mighty man of God, but a mighty hunter, bloodthirsty, killer of animals, eater of flesh. He's a mighty, mighty hunter before God. And this mighty hunter built the first city. Verse 10, beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Echad and Kalnath in the land of Shinar.

From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh. God made a garden, man made a city. Now when you look at Babel, you continue to go over into Genesis 11 and you read about the Tower of Babel, where after the flood, the Babel builders built that great tower to be protected from another flood, totally in defiance, totally in rebellion against God. And as they built that tower, God confused the languages and on the site of Babel became Babylon. So, you know, the first 4 letters in Babylon are B-A-B-Y, baby, Why do you call baby a baby?

You call baby a baby because the speech is confused. And Babylon is a symbol of man's way rather than God's way. It's a symbol of man's defiance of God's commands. It's a symbol of rebellion against God. So you take this symbol in Genesis chapter 10 and 11, and you apply it to spiritual Babylon in Revelation chapters 14, chapter 18.

And there in the book of Revelation, by this time Babylon has been destroyed. Literal Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent kings of Babylon ruled from 605 BC to about Babylon ruled and then after Babylon in 539 BC the Medo-Persians ruled. So what you have is Babylon by the time of the book of Revelation, the first century, the city of Babylon is destroyed. So spiritual Babylon in the book of Revelation is certainly not talking about the ancient city of Babylon. It is now Babylon as an ideology, Babylon as a principle.

So what does Babylon represent in the book of Revelation? It represents the traditions of man rather than the commandments of God. It represents rebelling against God's word rather than faithfulness to God's word. It represents a way of life. The ancient Babylonians believed in the spirit world rather than the truth that God gave to Israel about the living know that they should die, but the dead know not anything.

So they believed in spirits that could reincarnate through their vegetation life, et cetera. They also believed that Babylonians were sun worshippers. So you can begin to see why God chooses Babylon to represent spiritual apostasy in Revelation. The nation of Babylon fell. Once again, we find God's kingdom triumphant.

So keep in mind that man builds the cities, cities at times rebel against God. I thank God that we have a mission to the cities though, right? To reach people in those cities. That leads us to Monday's lesson, Abraham's call. God calls Abraham out of the land that he was in to represent his love, his grace, his goodness to the world around him.

So God's plan is that his people reach the nations of the world, his people reach the cities of the world. Genesis chapter 12 verse 1 to 9. God never calls us out of something without calling us to something. He calls us out of rebellion to faithfulness. He calls us out of disobedience to obedience.

He calls us out of complacency and self-comfort to witness and to ministry. Genesis chapter 12, look at God's plan for Abraham, verse 1 and onward. "'Now the Lord had said to Abraham, "'to Abram, get out of your country from your kindred "'and from your father's house to a land that I'll show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great.

You'll be a blessing and I'll bless those who bless you and I'll curse those who curse you." Now notice this, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed." What was God's intent for Abraham? God's intent was to call Abraham out of the country, out of his comfort zone, to a society where he could be a blessing, where he could be a witness, where he could be a light to this world. God has called you not to comfort comfortable convenience, not to lay it to sea in complacency, not simply to come to church every Sabbath and take in the Word of God and go home and live the same kind of life. God has called you to be a light to the world. God has called you to be an ambassador for Christ.

God has called you to be the salt of the earth. God has called you to bless the people around you, just like Abraham was called. Now if Israel was faithful to God, God would have blessed them above all the nations. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 5 to 9, This was God's intent. This was God's plan for Israel.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, faithfulness leads to the blessings of God. And we look there at Deuteronomy 4, verses 5 to 9. Here's God's intent for his people. But you who held fast to the Lord, your God are alive today, every 1 of you, that is those who were obedient to God. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you should go to possess.

Therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." Now notice verse 7, "'For what great nation is there that has God so near it? It, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him.'" So if Israel was faithful to God, they would have become a powerful and a great nation. Israel though wanted to be like the nations around them. And so they asked God for a king. Now God knew that if Israel got a king, it would lead them down a road to rebellion and apostasy.

But God also knew that if he did not recognize their freedom of choice, they would have rebelled further. At times, God gives us what we desire, even if what we desire is not the best for us, to show us the folly of making our wrong choice to lead us closer to him. But even when Israel wanted a king, God set up some guidelines to protect them as much as he possibly could. Now, why do you think that Israel wanted a king? If you look under Tuesday's lesson, it says, why do you suppose the elders found the idea of a king appealing?

In what ways do we fall prey to similar deceptions? They want to be like the people around them. Do we ever want to be like the people around us in the way we dress, in the things that we put on in our appearance? Do we feel uncomfortable if we're not like the people around us and dress? What about in our diets?

Have you ever been invited to a particular party at work, a particular celebration at someone's home? And there are certain principles that you have, but when you look at what was served, you want to be like those around you, you're afraid to stand and embarrass anybody? Are there things that on mass media, whether it's television or the internet, that we're with friends and we want to be like people around us? God calls us to be distinct, to be different. Not different for different sake, not peculiar in the sense of peculiarity where we're odd and strange, But God does call his people to stand out.

And as we stand out for him, he blesses us and he blesses our witness. You cannot reach the world if you are exactly like the world. You cannot reach others by adopting their lifestyle. They are looking for something different. They're looking for something that they don't have.

Now, it's interesting too, that God set up certain guidelines. God gave them what they wanted, but God set up guidelines. Deuteronomy, the 17th chapter. And you know, there are times that God gives us what we want but he protects us so that we don't go over the cliff, so to speak. But look at the guidelines God set up.

Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, we'll read just a few verses. When you come into the land which the Lord God is giving you and possess it and dwell on it, I will set a king over, and you say, I will set a king over me. Now notice God didn't say it, they said it. And you say I'll set a king over me like all the other nations that are around me. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses.

So if they're gonna have a king, God wanted them to have a good king and he would choose it. So that's 1 guideline. Verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses for himself nor cause people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. In other words, the king is not going to ingratiate himself with wealth. He is gonna be a servant, that's God's intent.

Neither shall he multiply wives. He's gonna live a moral life, that was God's intent. Did that always happen? Not at all. But notice God would choose the king, he'd try to choose a righteous king.

The king wouldn't be arrogant or proud, the king wouldn't be immortal. When he shall sit on the throne, he shall write himself a copy of this book, this law in a book, from 1 before the priests, the Levites, and it shall be with him. He shall read it all the days of his life. So what does God say? God says, look, if you have a king, I wanna choose it.

I don't want that king to be arrogant or proud. I don't want that king to multiply wives in immorality. And I want him to be faithful to me by reading his law." That was God's guideline in the mistake that they made. When we make wrong choices, God is there convicting us by his Holy Spirit. God is there wooing us back.

God is there trying to protect us and set a hedge of protection around us exactly like he did there with Israel. And it was God's intent that Israel lived a life of service and that the rulers of the Gentiles wanted to lord it over their subjects, but that was not God's intent. Wednesday, April 23rd, God's dealing with Israel, I'm reading the note, God's dealing with Israel provide rich insights into his dealings with the New Testament church. In fact, in many ways, the nation of Israel served to foreshadow the errors of the church. Far from being able to claim any kind of superiority to ancient Israel, Christians have been and still are very much susceptible to the same temptations.

In other words, in ancient Israel, the rulers lorded over the people. Today, There's a religious movement out of Rome where the rulers again speak ex-cathedra, where they speak so-called infallibly the Pope of Rome, and where there is this attempt again to dominate. And so here, the rulers of the Gentiles dominate. And we see this too, don't we, in political rulers around, in the nations of the world. So you can have a religious political union where rulers attempt to dominate, take away freedom of choice, where that's going to happen much more in the future when we come to Revelation chapters 13 and 14.

But in the Bible, in Matthew chapter 20, verse 25 to 28, we find a different model for God's people. Matthew 20, verse 25 to 28. Here's a different model for God's people. What is God's model? It is not domination, but it is service.

Matthew 20, verse 25 and onward. It says, and I'm gonna go back and start there with verse 20, just to get the setting. Verse 20, Matthew 20, verse 20 to get the setting. "'Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus, to him, with their sons kneeling down and asking something of him. She said, Jesus said to her, what do you wish?

Verse 21, she said to him, grant that these 2 sons of mine may sit 1 on your right hand and the other on your left. Was the mother of James and John sincere? She sure was very, very sincere. She wanted her sons to be closest to Jesus in the new kingdom. What does Jesus say in verse 25?

But Jesus called them to himself and said, verse 25, Matthew 20, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many. So the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over others.

They demand, they force the conscience. In the future, in the book of Revelation, according to Revelation 13, there'll be a time that no man can buy or sell, there'll be a death decree. Liberty of conscience will be taken by a church-state union. When you look at the nations of the world, particularly the totalitarian governments of the world, this of course was a hallmark of communism in the years past when totalitarian authoritative rulers ruled over. Today you look at many of the world leaders who live in lavish wealth while their subjects live in poverty.

This is true in many of the developed countries of the world as well. But Jesus says that rulership is not dominion over, but it is servitude. Whoever is great among you, let him serve. That can be true also in the church, a pastor, an elder, a deacon, a church leader, whatever that is. God calls us to service.

God calls us to minister. God calls us to unselfish kindness and compassion. If the church is faithful to the word of God, truly obedient to the teachings of Christ, living in harmony with God's last day message for the world, If the church truly takes the attitude of being a servant, loving kindness and compassion to people around, that church will be a light to the world. That is God's plan. That is God's ideal.

That was God's ideal for Israel. Let's look at Numbers chapter 14. What was God's ideal for Israel? Numbers 14 verse 17, and now I pray, let the power of my Lord be great just as you've spoken saying, The Lord is longsuffering, abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. But he by no means clears the guilty, fizzing iniquity on the fathers of the children to the third and fourth generation." Notice, verse 20, then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word, but truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

When God would pardon Israel because they came in confession and repentance. The glory of God would be poured out Israel to all the world. You look at some of those passages in Isaiah. These are really amazing statements. This is God's intent for Israel.

This is God's purpose for his church today. Isaiah 42, verse 6, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. We are to be the light to the world. Notice Isaiah 60, verse 3.

You know, of all the passages in scripture, people often ask me, Pastor Mark, what's your favorite passage? Well, I tease them and I tell them it's the 1 I'm reading at the time. But this passage does stand out to me. Isaiah 60 verse 1 to 3, arise shine your light has come. God is speaking to you my friend.

Arise shine. Let the light of Christ shine through you to your family, to your neighborhood, in your church, in your community, arise, shine, for the light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth. Deep darkness the people, but the Lord will rise over you and his glory will be seen upon you.

The Gentiles, that's the nations of the world, that's the people of the world, that's the unsaved of the world, shall come to you and come to your light in the kings, the brightness of your rising. As we are faithful to God, we become a light of the world. There are 2 takeaways from the lesson this week. Takeaway number 1, the nations of this world will fall and crumble, but Jesus' kingdom will last forever and ever and ever. Jesus put us in a garden originally, man made a city, God gives us a mission to those cities.

And the second takeaway is, that is we're faithful to God, we can be the light of the world. Is that your commitment today? To be an ambassador for Christ, the salt of the earth, a representative of the King of Kings, and let his light shine through you this week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Thank you so much that through Jesus, we can be the light of the world.

Thank you for the calling that you want to work through us to bless others that are around us. Help us never try to dominate our Lord over others. Help us be servants continually. And Lord, we look forward to the day that Eden will be restored, nations of this earth will crumble, and your kingdom will 1 day reign on earth. We're thankful that Jesus is gonna come, that we will be caught up in the sky to meet you forever, but at the end of that thousand year period, the new Jerusalem will descend and earth will be made new with the glory of God.

May each of us be there as my prayer in Christ's name. Amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org.

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Series

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2025: Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy?

04 The Nations Part 1

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Is Ellen White a Prophet or Plagiarist?

28m

01 Some Principles of Prophecy

25m

02 The Genesis Foundation

22m

03 Images from Marriage

20m

04 The Nations Part 1

24m

Sound Doctrine