Sabbath Afternoon May 3

Memory Text: “And they sung a new song,

saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to
open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation;” KJV — Revelation 5:9
The Lamb’s presence before the throne assures
us that “if any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1
John 2:1.
 The Lamb’s seven horns signify completeness
of power and authority, in assurance of which
Christ said: “All power is given unto Me in
heaven and in earth.” Matt. 28:18. His unlimited
power is for our good, and for our use. He
proclaims: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and
nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matt.
17:20.
The Lamb’s seven eyes denote that all things are
open and naked unto Him.
“Whither,” asks the Psalmist “shall I go from
Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven,” he
declares, “Thou art there: if I make my bed in
hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and
Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the
darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from
Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the
darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.” Ps.
139:7-12.
Sunday, May 4 – Futile Sacrifices?
Compare Isaiah 1:2–15 with Isaiah 56:6, 7 and
Psalm 51:17. What important lessons about
sacrifice are taught here?
“The prophet Micah, who bore his testimony
during those troublous times, declared that
sinners in Zion, while claiming to “lean upon the
Lord,” and blasphemously boasting, “Is not the
Lord among us? none evil can come upon us,”
continued to “build up Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity.” Micah 3:11, 10.
Against these evils the prophet Isaiah lifted his
voice in stern rebuke: “Hear the word of the Lord,
ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our
God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is
the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith
the Lord.... When ye come to appear before Me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread My
courts?” Isaiah 1:10-12. PK 322.2
“Inspiration declares, “The sacrifice of the
wicked is abomination: how much more, when
he bringeth it with a wicked mind?” Proverbs
21:27. The God of heaven is “of purer eyes than
to behold evil,” and cannot “look on iniquity.”
Habakkuk 1:13. It is not because He is unwilling
to forgive that He turns from the transgressor; it
is because the sinner refuses to make use of the
abundant provisions of grace, that God is unable
to deliver from sin. “The Lord's hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear
heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid His face from you, that He will
not hear.” Isaiah 59:1, 2.” PK 323.1
“Then let it be understood by all the members of
the household that the work must begin at the
heart. The heart must be subdued and made
contrite through the creating, regenerating power
of the Holy Spirit.” The Review and Herald,
March 14, 1893. CE 231.1
“Man must be emptied of self before he can be,
in the fullest sense, a believer in Jesus. When self
is renounced, then the Lord can make man a new
creature. New bottles can contain the new wine.
The love of Christ will animate the believer with
new life. In him who looks unto the Author and
Finisher of our faith the character of Christ will
be manifest.” DA 280.4
Monday, May 5 – The Blood of Bulls and Boats
Read Hebrews 10:3–10. What does this
passage teach us about the sacrifices God’s
people offered in the Old Testament? If
sinners could not actually be saved by them,
why offer them at all?
“This covenant deed was to be ratified with
Christ’s own blood, which it had been the office
of the old sacrificial offerings to keep before their
minds. This was understood by the apostle Paul
who said, “For the law having a shadow of good
things to come, and not the very image of the
things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers
thereunto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers
once purged should have had no more conscience
of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a
remembrance again made of sins every year. For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins.” 12LtMs, Ms 35,
1897, par. 6
“Nearly two thousand years ago, a voice of
mysterious import was heard in heaven, from the
throne of God, “Lo, I come.” “Sacrifice and
offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou
prepared Me.... Lo, I come (in the volume of the
Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.”
Hebrews 10:5-7. In these words is announced the
fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden
from eternal ages. Christ was about to visit our
world, and to become incarnate. He says, “A
body hast Thou prepared Me.” Had He appeared
with the glory that was His with the Father before
the world was, we could not have endured the
light of His presence. That we might behold it
and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His
glory was shrouded. His divinity was veiled with
humanity,—the invisible glory in the visible
human form.” DA 23.1
“A solemn statement was made to ancient Israel
that the man who should remain unclean and
refuse to purify himself should be cut off from
among the congregation. This has a special
meaning for us. If it was necessary in ancient
times for the unclean to be purified by the blood
of sprinkling, how essential for those living in the
perils of the last days, and exposed to the
temptations of Satan, to have the blood of Christ
applied to their hearts daily.” 4T 123.1
Tuesday, May 6 – The Passover Lamb
Read Exodus 12:1–11; Isaiah 53:7, 8; 1
Corinthians 5:7; and Revelation 5:6. What do
these verses teach us about Jesus as the
Passover sacrifice? What does that mean for
each of us?
“After condemning Jesus, the council of the
Sanhedrin had come to Pilate to have the
sentence confirmed and executed. But these
Jewish officials would not enter the Roman
judgment hall. According to their ceremonial law
they would be defiled thereby, and thus
prevented from taking part in the feast of the
Passover. In their blindness they did not see that
murderous hatred had defiled their hearts. They
did not see that Christ was the real Passover
lamb, and that, since they had rejected Him, the
great feast had for them lost its significance.” DA
723.2
“Pilate was as unwilling as they for the body of
Jesus to remain upon the cross. His consent
having been obtained, the legs of the two thieves
were broken to hasten their death; but Jesus was
found to be already dead. The rude soldiers had
been softened by what they had heard and seen
of Christ, and they were restrained from breaking
His limbs. Thus in the offering of the Lamb of
God was fulfilled the law of the Passover, ‘They
shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break
any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of
the Passover they shall keep it.’” Numbers 9:12
DA 771.3
“It was the purpose of Jesus to draw attention to
the crowning sacrifice that was to end his mission
to a fallen world. They were assembling at
Jerusalem to celebrate the passover, while he, the
antitypical Lamb, by a voluntary act set himself
apart as an oblation. Jesus understood that it was
needful in all future ages that the church should
make his death for the sins of the world a subject
of deep thought and study. Every fact connected
with it should be verified beyond a doubt. It was
necessary, then, that the eyes of all people should
be directed to him, that the demonstrations which
preceded his great sacrifice should be such as to
call the attention of all to the sacrifice itself. After
such an exhibition as that attending his entry into
Jerusalem, all eyes would follow his rapid
progress to the final end.” 2SP 386.1
Wednesday, May 7 – Jesus at the Temple
Read Haggai 2:7–9. As the second temple was
being constructed, the prophet Haggai made
an astonishing promise: the new temple would
be more glorious than the previous one. What
was meant by that prophecy?
“After the destruction of the temple by
Nebuchadnezzar it was rebuilt about five
hundred years before the birth of Christ by a
people who from a lifelong captivity had returned
to a wasted and almost deserted country. There
were then among them aged men who had seen
the glory of Solomon's temple, and who wept at
the foundation of the new building, that it must
be so inferior to the former. The feeling that
prevailed is forcibly described by the prophet:
“Who is left among you that saw this house in her
first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in
your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?”
Haggai 2:3; Ezra 3:12. Then was given the
promise that the glory of this latter house should
be greater than that of the former. GC 23.3
“But the second temple had not equaled the first
in magnificence; nor was it hallowed by those
visible tokens of the divine presence which
pertained to the first temple. There was no
manifestation of supernatural power to mark its
dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill the
newly erected sanctuary. No fire from heaven
descended to consume the sacrifice upon its altar.
The Shekinah no longer abode between the
cherubim in the most holy place; the ark, the
mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony were
not to be found therein. No voice sounded from
heaven to make known to the inquiring priest the
will of Jehovah. GC 24.1
“For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to
show wherein the promise of God given by
Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief
blinded their minds to the true meaning of the
prophet's words. The second temple was not
honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but
with the living presence of One in whom dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead bodily—who was
God Himself manifest in the flesh. The “Desire
of all nations” had indeed come to His temple
when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in
the sacred courts. In the presence of Christ, and
in this only, did the second temple exceed the
first in glory.” GC 24.2
Thursday, May 8 – For You Created all Things!
Read Isaiah 6:1–5 and Revelation 4:7–11.
What elements of these two visions are
similar? Pay attention to the order of events:
What subject is presented first? What comes
next? What truth about God is being stressed
in these visions?
Besides this divine appearance which Ezekiel
saw (Ezek. 1:28), the Bible describes God
enthroned on three other occasions – once as seen
by Isaiah, and twice as seen by John the
Revelator; to wit:
(1) “…I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six
wings; with twain he covered his face, and with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy
holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth
is full of His glory. And the posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried and the
house was filled with smoke.” Isa. 6:1-4.
(2) “And immediately I was in the spirit: and,
behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat
on the throne… And round about the throne were
four and twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw
four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white
raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of
gold … and there were seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne, which are the seven
Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a
sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of
the throne, and round about the throne, were four
beasts full of eyes before and behind.” Rev. 4:2,
4-6.
(3) “And he shewed me a pure river of water of
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb.” Rev. 22:1.
Since the throne seen by Isaiah was
a “train” (retinue), and since as it entered into
the temple, “the posts of the door moved at the
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke” (Isa. 6:1, 4), it therefore is a
traveling throne, whereas both the one of
Revelation 4, having the “sea of glass” before it,
and the one of Revelation 22, having
the “river…of life” before it, are stationary
thrones.
Though the one which Ezekiel saw is similar to
the one which Isaiah was shown, yet they are
distinct and separate thrones, for each of the
“seraphims” of Isaiah’s vision has six wings,
while each of the “cherubims” of Ezekiel’s vision
has but four. In the latter, moreover, the
cherubims stood under the throne, whereas in the
former, they stood above it. On record, therefore,
are four thrones – two stationary, and two
traveling.
In determining the location of the throne of
Revelation 4, and the one of Revelation 22, we
note to begin with that the latter, the one from
which the “river…of life” proceeds, is, says the
Revelator, “the throne of God and of the Lamb”
– that upon which Christ sat at the right hand of
God after His resurrection. The former, the one
having the sea of glass before it, is (also
according to John’s view) in the most holy
apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, for John
saw before it “seven lamps of fire” (Rev. 4:5) – a
sanctuary fixture. “As in vision the apostle John
was granted a view of the temple of God in
heaven, he beheld there ‘seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne.’ “ – The Great
Controversy, p. 414.
Then, concerning the Father and the Son’s
moving from the throne of God and of the Lamb
– the one where the river of life is – to the throne
where the sea of glass is, we read: “I saw
the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming
chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil,
and sit down. Then Jesus rose up from
the throne,… Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels
like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to
where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and
was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat.”
– Early Writings, p. 55.
 Recording the same event as he saw it, Daniel
says: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down
and the Ancient of days did sit, Whose garment
was white as snow, and the hair of His head like
the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery
flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery
stream issued and came forth from before Him:
thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before Him:
the judgment was set, and the books were
opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10.
Friday, May 3 – Further Thought
The week’s lesson deals with sacrifice and uses
the lamb to illustrate this point. It speaks about
the lamb in the context of the sanctuary. It
mentions the sacrifice of the lamb in ancient
Israel for the forgiveness of sins, which points to
Jesus the Lamb of God who died for our sins.
Jesus is also the true paschal lamb. He is seen in
the sanctuary in heaven as the only one worthy to
redeem us and to break the seven seals. The
lesson also talks about futile sacrifices. It points
out that we must come into right relation with
God if our sacrifices, our prayers and works are
to be accepted by Him. The lesson concluded
with the throne of God in the context of the
sanctuary. Four thrones are made mention of.
Two moving and two stationary. The sanctuary
fixtures in heaven show that it is the great
original of which the one that was on earth was a
copy or pattern of.
For further studies, feel free to contact:

(+63)961-954-0737;
contact@[Link]