Read for This Week’s Study
Heb. 9:11–15, Psalm 122, Psalm 15, Psalm 24, Exod. 33:18–23, Psalm 5, Ps. 51:7–15.
Memory Text:
“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1, NKJV).
As Seventh-day Adventists, we are used to searching for the symbols of Revelation in the stories of the Old Testament to help us understand those symbols. These narratives, though far from the only good source, are found all through the Old Testament.
One particularly rich source of information is the book of Psalms, a collection of sacred poetry that explores many human experiences and possible interactions with God—ranging from despondency over sin and suffering to unbridled joy in His presence and His repeated promises for forgiveness and salvation.
A careful reading of the Psalms yields details that make the book of Revelation come alive, especially Revelation 14, which describes the final work of God’s remnant church on earth. God’s last-day people have been given the same assignment as Israel of old: we are to be a light to the nations, a final merciful call to all people to worship and obey their Maker.
Some details provided in God’s songbook can give us new ways to understand and appreciate our role in the final moments of earth’s history.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 24.
Supplemental EGW Notes
The New Testament opens to us the rich importance of the Old Testament history. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. We are to search the Old Testament carefully, for it is a treasure house of knowledge. In the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, the cloudy pillar was over that moving, denominated people as a canopy by day for forty years. At night that cloud was lighted up over them, testifying that Christ, the Light of the world, was to be their courage and their teacher and their leader. . . . [A]nd now we need to put on the whole armor, that whatever may arise we will be prepared, through the imparted power of God, to know how to meet every emergency.
We must keep in mind constantly the words of Christ, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness.” [John 8:12.] We have the Word of both the Old and the New Testament history. Trust in God. Christ is the Truth, the Alpha of the Old Testament history, and all its treasures are made clear and important by the New Testament history.
Some say the Old Testament history is moonlight, the New Testament history is sunlight. As I read the Old Testament history I cannot say this. His going forth is prepared as the morning. Christ is just as much shining as the way, the truth, and the life in the Old Testament history as in the New. His instruction to Israel from Mount Sinai is the same powerful light as was expressed in His teachings when He revealed Himself in person as the Great Teacher, the Son of the Infinite God. All His words are verity and truth.—Manuscript 142, 1904, par. 7–9.
The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden, to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, “They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads,” the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme,—man’s uplifting, the power of God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we behold the Majesty of heaven, as He humbled Himself to become our Substitute and Surety, to cope single-handed with the powers of darkness, and to gain the victory in our behalf. A reverent contemplation of such themes as these can not fail to soften, purify, and ennoble the heart, and, at the same time, to inspire the mind with new strength and vigor.—“Our Great Treasure-House,” Signs of the Times, April 18, 1906, par. 1.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.