Sabbath School for Adults: Lesson 11: From Battle to Victory

Friday March 13


Further Thought: For three weeks Gabriel wrestled with the powers of darkness, seeking to counteract the influences at work on the mind of Cyrus.

. . . All that heaven could do in behalf of the people of God was done. The victory was finally gained; the forces of the enemy were held in check all the days of Cyrus, and all the days of his son Cambyses.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 572.

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“What great honor is shown to Daniel by the Majesty of heaven! He comforts His trembling servant and assures him that his prayer has been heard in heaven. In answer to that fervent petition the angel Gabriel was sent to affect the heart of the Persian king. The monarch had resisted the impressions of the Spirit of God during the three weeks while Daniel was fasting and praying, but heaven’s Prince, the Archangel, Michael, was sent to turn the heart of the stubborn king to take some decided action to answer the prayer of Daniel.”—Ellen G. White, The Sanctified Life, p. 51.

Discussion Questions:

1.  Though we are not the first people in Christian history to see this truth, as Seventh-day Adventists we are strong proponents of the “great controversy” motif, or the idea that the entire universe is part of an epic struggle between Christ and Satan. And we believe that every human being is, indeed, involved in this controversy. Others, even secular people, have talked about the reality of some kind of battle in which we are all immersed. What has been your own experience in the great controversy? How have you seen it manifested in your own life? What have you learned that could help others struggling, as well?

2. Read Ephesians 6:10-18. Notice the overt military imagery that Paul uses. What “battle instructions” are given here for us in the great controversy?

3.  In Daniel 10:11, for a second time (see Dan. 9:23) Daniel is called hamudot—or “beloved.” What does this tell us about the close link, even an emotional link, between heaven and earth? Think about how radically different this reality is when compared to the common atheistic view of much of the modern world. What hope does this Bible view, as seen in this reference to Daniel, offer us?

Inside Story

Fetus Refused to Die 
By Victor Hulbert

“I’m very sorry,” the doctor told Fusae Suzuki. “Your husband is very young but, unfortunately, he will die tonight or at the most in a few days.”

The news devastated the young Japanese mother. She went to the river to fetch water and, looking into the water, considered throwing herself in. But then two men in black suits appeared.

“Be patient for just a while,” said one.“Yes, be patient,” said the other. After those words, the men disappeared from her sight. The encounter pulled Suzuki back from despair, and she returned home to nurse her husband, Mitsuharu, a farmer stricken with tuberculosis. Soon she was pregnant with her second child. Mitsuharu could not bear the thought of his wife struggling to raise two children on her own. Finally, she agreed to his pleas to terminate the pregnancy. The government supported the decision.

The pharmacist prescribed a strong medicine that, she promised, would work without fail.

Be careful with the medicine, and don’t exceed the prescribed dose,” she cautioned. “Otherwise, your own life will be in danger.”

Suzuki swallowed the first dose, enough to end the pregnancy. Weeping in sorrow, she felt the fetus move. “My baby’s still alive!” she cried out.

"The next day, she repeated the dose, then again on the third day. Yet, the fetus kept moving inside her. In desperation, she drained the medicine bottle, but still, the baby remained alive.

“It’s totally unbelievable!” she told her husband.A healthy baby boy was born. Several months later, she and Mitsuharu attended evangelistic meetings, and they were baptized on Akari's first birthday.“Their baptismal date always reminds me that God intervened in my mother’s womb to save my life,” said Akeri Suzuki, a veteran Japanese pastor who retired after serving as executive secretary of the Adventist Church’s Northern Asia-Pacific Division. “My parents became the first Adventist church members in my village.”

Akeri was 30 before his mother revealed his origins. “When I heard the story of my birth from my mother, I was terribly shocked and felt as if I had been struck by powerful lightning,” he said. “My whole body trembled.”

Overwhelmed by God’s tremendous love, he thought, I am a very precious gift from God.

He rededicated himself to God at that very moment.“God intervened in my mother’s womb to save my life,” he said.

Victor hulbert is communication director for the TransEuropean Division.