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

Mark Finley

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

05 The Nations: Part 2

06 Understanding Sacrifice


Welcome back to another 1 of our Sabbath School lessons. The purpose of our Sabbath School is to lead us deeply into the Word of God and is to give us insights that we may not have had previous to studying the lesson. I know as I studied this lesson, new insights jumped out at me. Lesson number 3 in our series, Illusions, Images, and Symbols, How to Study Bible Prophecy, is entitled Images from Marriage. I'm sure as I've studied the Bible, I have thought about that before, but not as deeply as I did when studying this lesson.

The introduction to the lesson says, the Bible is replete with love stories that powerfully reveal aspects of salvation and of God's love for his people. The most intimate relationships, marriage, proves to be a school in which if we allow ourselves to experience it the way that God has intended, we can discover deep lessons about his love for us, about our relationship to him, and about the lengths to which he has gone to redeem us. So when you think about marriage in Genesis, for example, God brought Adam and Eve together in an intimate, committed, self-sacrificial love. And the devil focused on that to destroy marriage. You know, when you think of the 2 institutions that come over from the Garden of Eden, marriage and the Sabbath, the devil's attacked both of them.

Yet if you look at this in the larger picture, what does marriage represent in the larger context, the larger picture? What does this 1 flesh idea have to do with Bible prophecy? Let's see if we can discover it. We're going to Genesis chapter 2, verse 23 to 25. God introduces Adam and Eve together.

We're going to go back to read verse 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took 1 of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made a woman and brought her to the man." Notice, marriage was God's idea first. God created Adam. Out of Adam's rib, he created Eve.

And God brought the 2 of them together. So marriage is not a human idea, it's a divine institution, where God puts love in the heart of 1 man, puts love in the heart of 1 man puts love in the heart of 1 woman, and that love coming from God in its purest sense unites 2 hearts with the band of love. Verse 23 says, And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Verse 24, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall be 1 flesh.

So notice there is that unity. God created Adam and Eve in this divine oneness of love. And the devil has attacked this to pervert marriage today, to pervert the idea of love, to silly sentimentalism or erotic pleasure. The devil has tried to destroy marriage just as he's tried to destroy the Sabbath. How does this all relate to Bible prophecy though?

How does this all relate to Bible prophecy though? How does this all relate to God and his relationship to us? We get a clue in Ephesians chapter 5. So take your Bible, let's go over to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 29 to 32. We get a clue of how all of this relates to God's love for us in the context of the great controversy in Bible prophecy.

Ephesians 5, verse 28 and 29. So husbands, love your wives as you love your own bodies. And then it says, love your wife as Christ loves the church. And you remember when you go over here to verse 31 and 32, It actually quotes, Paul actually quotes the Old Testament, quotes Genesis 2, verse 31. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother.

We read about that. Be joined to his wife, the 2 shall become 1 flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. The intimate relationship that a husband and wife have in filial love, in divine love, that unites them together as 1, is the relationship that Christ wants to have with his church, a divine relationship of self-sacrificial love where Jesus gives himself totally, completely, absolutely to his people, and his people give themselves totally, absolutely to him. Now, the devil tried to destroy marital love in Adam and Eve, and he tries to destroy love between Christ and his church. He tries to bring in all kinds of divisions.

I want you to think of this this way. The relationship in marriage is not a perfect relationship. Adam and Eve's relationship was not a perfect relationship, particularly after sin and after the fall. So when we come to marriage we bring our own quote unquote baggage. We come to marriage, we bring our own disposition.

We bring our own fallen human nature. We bring our own genetic predispositions. We bring our own background and culture when we come to marriage. Our wife or our husband brings the same kind of baggage, their cultural background, the way they were brought up, their genetic predisposition. So you have 2 imperfect people coming to marriage.

But as you have these 2 imperfect people, God takes them and wells this into love, which requires forgiveness and understanding. Not so in the relationship with Christ and his church though, because you have Christ the perfect 1, the husband of the church, and you have the bride, his people who are imperfect. So it's a little bit of difference, isn't there? But Christ comes with his love, pours it into the heart of his people, and takes this imperfect church. So we should never think that the bride of Christ, Christ's church, is perfect.

It's not going to be. But we have a perfect Savior. We have a perfect Redeemer. We have a perfect Lord, Jesus Christ, who reveals to us his great love. Here in our lesson, Sunday's lesson, third paragraph down, it says, "'Lifetime, faithful marriage was the ideal "'established by God at the foundation of the human race.

Fallen humanity unfortunately damaged this fundamental gift from God. Perhaps given the importance that scripture assigns to marriage, it's not a coincidence that the institution has always been under relentless attack along with the Sabbath, it's 1 of the 2 gifts bestowed on us in Eden, and both were intended to demonstrate God's desire for an intimate relationship with his creation. In the Sabbath, we come, and We come and find that palace in time. We come and find that slice of eternity. We come to have that intimate relationship with Jesus.

And in marriage, in the symbolism of marriage, the intimate relationship that a husband has with a wife and the wife has with her husband, symbolizes the relationship that Christ longs to have with his people. Now, 1 thing we find though, in the symbolism of marriage in the Bible, is that God's people have not always been faithful to him. God established a loving relationship between him and Israel, but Israel drifted away from him. But although God's people have not always been faithful, God has always been faithful. Although they've turned their back on him, he has not turned his back on them.

Although they've wandered from him, he's not wandered from them. In Ezekiel 16, verse 4 to 14, you have 1 of the most, I think, amazing stories in all the Bible. Ezekiel talks in Ezekiel 16 about an orphan child. And this orphan child is discarded by the parent and it's out in a field. And it says in Ezekiel 16, verse 4, as for your nativity on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you.

You were not rubbed with salt nor swathed in swaddling clothes. No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you, but you were thrown out into an open field when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born." So imagine a bloody newborn just discarded, thrown out in the field. Then the Lord talks about him coming along, taking this newborn, washing it, bathing it, cutting the cord, just raising that orphan child. And it says, verse 6, "'When I passed by you, I saw you struggling in your blood. I said to you in your blood, live.

Yes, I said to you in your blood, live. And I made you thrive like a plant in the field and you grew and matured and were very beautiful. So this young baby girl grew and matured and was just incredibly beautiful. Then verse 8, I passed by you again and looked upon you. Indeed, your time was the time of love.

So I spread my wing over you. I covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you. I entered into a covenant with you. I washed you with water.

I anointed you with oil. I clothed you. But what happens? Verse 14, your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my splendor which I had bestowed upon you. Look, God himself took Israel as that forsaken child, and God himself cleaned her up, and God himself reached out and loved her, and God himself made her beautiful.

But what did she do? Verse 15, but you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, you poured out your idolatry on every 1 passing by who would have it. Here's the story of Israel. God takes a nation, And as he takes that nation, he cleans it, he nurtures it, he forgives it. He takes that nation and he causes it to thrive.

And its beauty is known in all the earth. But then, through pride and arrogance, it drifts from him. The story of Israel is your story, it's my story. God reaches out to us. God's grace flows into our hearts.

But at times we walk away. At times we turn our back on that love. In the great controversy between good and evil, often we are enticed by another lover. And that leads us to Tuesday's lesson, Hosea, Hosea's harlot wife. I mean, this story in Hosea is really mind boggling.

Hosea chapter 1, when you get what God is saying in Hosea, it really moves your heart. It really changes your whole concept of who God is. In Hosea 1, we read, Hosea 1, verse 2, when the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and the children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. Take your wife, go find a harlot, make her your wife. Chapter 3, verse 1.

Then the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who's loved by a lover and is committing adultery just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel. Here, God tells Hosea, go find Ogedomer. She's committed adultery. She's been unfaithful, but you go find her and love her again. And if she does it again, go love her again.

This is an amazing story. It's a story of relentless love. It's a story of God's love for his church. Over and over and over again in the Old Testament, God's church turned its back on him. Israel disobeyed, Israel rebelled against God, but God reached out in love, in kindness.

In Revelation, we see the symbol of harlotry carried through. You'll find that in Revelation 17 verse 1. Here is again the symbol of harlotry, a people that have drifted from God. Revelation 17 1 talks about a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, a harlot woman sitting on that scarlet-colored beast. She has drifted from her true lover.

But look at Revelation 18, 1-4, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, has become the habitation of devils. Look, verse 3, for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have become, have committed fornication with her. The merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard a loud voice from her saying, come out of her my people." Babylon in Revelation 17 is the harlot woman that accepts fables and fiction and tradition and the teachings of men and falsehoods and errors rather than the pure undiluted truth of God. The harlot woman leaves her true lover, Jesus. The harlot woman commits fornication with the world. It is kind of interesting too, really interesting in verse 3 here, it says that the kings of the earth, who are those? The political leaders.

Then it says the merchants of the earth, who are those? They are the wealthy men of the world. The political leaders and the wealthy men and who else? Babylon, the fallen church. So you have church and state and church and the political leaders and the wealthy men of the earth all uniting to oppress the people of God.

But then what does our text say? God says come out of her my people. Where are many of God's people? His relentless love reaches out to the harlot woman. Babylon reaches out to those still in Babylon, reaches out to those that are deceived, those that do not know, those that do not fully understand.

God's love is a relentless love. Wednesday's lesson, you remember the story of Isaac and Rebekah? God says, through Isaac, God says here, opening paragraph, Isaac and Rebekah, when Abraham was old and no doubt thinking about the promises made to him by God about his posterity, he gave his oldest and most trusted servant a solemn task. He says, go find a wife for my son Isaac. Of course, Isaac had to agree, but Isaac, impressed by the Spirit of God, saw in Rebekah godliness.

The servant saw that. The servant brings Rebekah back to Isaac, and Isaac agrees to marry her. Why is this story important? I think it's important for this reason. Abraham recognized that if his son married somebody of the heathen, and if the principles of this world were introduced into the camp of Israel, it could destroy faith in God.

Abraham knew that Isaac was going to be a leader of the people of God in Israel. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons, they become the tribes of Israel. So in that spiritual line, in that spiritual fraternity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Abraham knows that he has to preserve the posterity of the line. Of course Israel didn't come along until after that, but the point is, Abraham wanted to preserve the posterity of the line, the faithfulness of that line.

And so Abraham wants Isaac to be pure. When God's church mingles with the world, the standards of Christ, the truth of Christ are compromised. In the last days of verse history, God is calling his church, his bride, to be faithful to him, to turn their back on the things of this world. Because 1 day, the harlot woman will be judged. 1 day, truth will triumph.

1 day, righteousness will reign. Revelation 19, 1 to 9. Look at Revelation chapter 19. You have 4 hallelujahs in Revelation chapter 19. It's a wonderful, wonderful chapter.

Revelation 19, you have these 4 hallelujahs. Revelation 18, you have the destruction of Babylon. 19, you have God's voice saying, hallelujah, Babylon is fallen hallelujah Wickedness has been judged Hallelujah the Lord our God omnipotent reigns verse 6 let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Hallelujah. The marriage of the lamb.

Again, that marriage symbol, Adam and Eve married, filial love, united, Satan trying to destroy marriage, the church and his people, imperfect as they are, united to Christ, transformed by his grace, empowered by his spirit. Satan trying to destroy it. Satan trying to bring division into the church. And then, last days, marriage supper of the Lamb. Christ is finally united with his people.

They are 1 again and Babylon has fallen. I wanna be at that marriage supper of the Lamb, don't you? I wanna be there with Jesus and live with him forever. Why not recommit your life to him as we pray? Father in heaven, thank you for the wonderful symbolism of marriage.

We want our marriages to be everything heaven wants. We don't want the devil to bring in division, but we want the relationship between Christ and his church to be everything heaven wants. We don't want the devil to bring in division. But we want the relationship between Christ and his church to be everything heaven wants. We don't want the harlotry of this world, the sins of this world, the practices of this world, the standards of this world, the errors of this world, the falsehood, to change the complexion of your church and to distort truth.

And so Lord, help every 1 of us to be faithful to you. Help every 1 of us to be faithful to you. Help every 1 of us to be loyal and committed to you. Because 1 day we long to sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb and rejoice with you forever. In Christ's name, Amen.

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Series

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

03 Images from Marriage

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

05 The Nations: Part 2

29m

06 Understanding Sacrifice

22m

Sound Doctrine