FOURTH QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #6
NOVEMBER 7, 2026
"THE PROPHETIC WRITINGS".

 

This week we jump into Lesson #6, “The Prophetic Writings” and the “divine calling to communicate the treasures of truth.”  The study discusses how God uses a variety of approaches and styles in how He inspires, teaches and communicates—seemingly like a pattern as to how He structured creation and the various animals, plants and landscapes.

Often we view communication and life in general in linear terms.  Yet God interacts in a multi-dimensional construct.  For example, the Holy Spirit utilizes multiple venues, personalities, and historical backgrounds, as well as the scholarship of many, to reach hearts all with the purpose of “convict(ing) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  In other words, He directs us through these means to Christ and Him crucified.

God could have employed a small volume to concisely convey His directives.  However, He chose to use multiple writers who were flawed and encumbered with weakness, having varied styles and experiences. This is true in both the Old and New Testaments, often with purposed redundancy in revealing who He is, what He plans to do, and how He expects us to respond.

At times the Holy Spirit, to make His point, impressed the use of secular sources.  The lesson calls it, “literary borrowing.”  

The Holy Spirit impresses the Apostle John in his gospel to refer to Christ as the Logos,redefining the expression for eternity (John 1:1).

In Romans 5:7 Paul uses the mythical story of Alcestis and Admetus as a backdrop, not to compare but to contrast human love with the love of God in Christ.

The apostles grab an obscure Greek work for love—agape—and redefine it by applying it to the self-emptying love of the Godhead.  Ultimately this leads John to write “God is agape”  (1 John 4:8).

Jesus told a parable that was more or less a fable when He employed the story of the rich man and Lazarus as a warning to those who refuse to submit to the “prophetic writings.”  See Luke 16:19-31.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that God may choose to use means of communication that may make me uncomfortable.  However, this opens us up to seeing Him moving in the dark corners of society.  Hear His appeal in secular music.  Recognize Him reaching out in the suspect spheres of finance and entertainment.  He no doubt has a “thousand ways” to reach those now in Babylon “...that we know nothing about.” —Ellen G White, The Signs of the Times, Jan 7, 1886.

In my early 20’s I was introduced to the Advent Message.  I would occasionally show up on Sabbath morning, usually after a late outing on Friday night.  I am sure I was quite a sight, but I was drawn by the depth and simplicity of God’s Word with an inward interest that my outward appearance veiled.  Eventually I was baptized, however my subjective experience with God was primarily a transaction.  My goal was to arrange my life in a way to gain God’s acceptance and blessing.

A year or so later, a righteousness by faith “seminar” was held at a nearby church outside Chicago.  I listened intently and wrote down every scripture mentioned, in the sequence given, over the 4-5 presentations.  The experience had completely elevated my thinking.  Later that week I got out my little list of scriptural references scribbled on small notepad and sat down with a blanket (it was a cold day February) and my “Seminars Unlimited” KJV Bible.  As I went through each text, I relived the presentations and the “prophetic writings” were alive!  They were breathing, they had a heartbeat, as I was reading them.  I had no idea what was happening.  I didn’t know such a thing could happen.  I experienced “Jesus Christ… clearly portrayed… as crucified” (Galatians 3:1) and my heart was redeemed from perceiving God only at the level of a transaction.  My heart appreciation continues to be a work in progress.

The “prophetic writings,” empowered by the Holy Spirit are a labor of artistic splendor and wonder. They are beautifully arranged to reveal the circumstances and workings of God in the Great Controversy setting, exposing the deceit of the enemy and God’s plan, with our consent, to win our hearts back to Him.  To accomplish this goal these writings are intrinsically designed to point us to Christ as the center.

“The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,—the Son of God uplifted on the cross. This is to be the foundation of every discourse given by our ministers.” —Ellen G White, Gospel Workers, p. 15.

Presenting the “great, grand monument” will cause those who believe and appreciate it to, “according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in [their] inner man, that Christ may dwell in [their] hearts through faith; that [they], being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”  (Ephesians 3:16-21).

Perhaps Ephesians 3, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4, and many other such texts are all “prophetic writings” looking toward “the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly wait(ing) for the revealing of the sons of God”  (Romans 8:19).

“He who beholds the Saviour’s matchless love will be elevated in thought, purified in heart, transformed in character. He will go forth to be a light to the world, to reflect in some degree this mysterious love. The more we contemplate the cross of Christ, the more fully shall we adopt the language of the apostle when he said, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’  Galatians 6:14.” —Ellen G White, Gospel Workers (1915 Ed), p. 29.

“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

 

—Mike Clendenning