The morning Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks.

Studying In the Crucible with Christ in the SSnet.org series Lesson 8, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: "Trauma and anarchy around us but God is close”.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God"

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 102 and for the laymen edition or Standard Edition, on page 68.

The SSnet.org site allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why do you not click on this now? https://absg.adventist.org/pdf.php?file=2022:3Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ322_08.pdf

---The first thing you need to know is that it is easy to think that God is absent when trouble hits. He is not. In Isaiah 42 He said: “I love you”.

---The second thing is that in Isaiah 40, it is not the exiles to Babylon in 605/597/586 that Isaiah is speaking to, it is the exiles of Israel taken by Ashur by Shalmanezer III in 723 BC.

---The main cities where the exiles would have been taken at that time is Ashur, Niniveh and yes, maybe around the subdued Babylon as well.

---Babylon was kind to Hezekiah in Isaiah’s time and Merodach-Baladan send envoys to him after he recovered from his illness in 702 BC. So the relation was very good between Babylon and Judah in Isaiah’s time, not bad. That was during the time of Sennacherib, after Sargon died who killed Shalmanezer III and usurped the throne. Chaos times. Empire in chaos.

---The Empire in Isaiah’s days had a policy of migration. Grab people in other countries and “bus” them to their cities to work as slaves around all sectors of the industry of Assyria. More than three times many countries were invaded to bring the people in, by force.

---Their names were changed in the new country. Israelites had to walk 1000 km to Ashur from Jerusalem. Have you walked 1000 km?

---Chaos because the sons of Sennacherib killed him to usurp the throne. Just like their grandfather did. They found out and they had to flee and the youngest Esarhaddon came to the throne. A weak and health-wise frail person.

---He was very religious and like a monk he lived hidden up in a palace, maybe because of his health.

---Letters came in from officials asking Esarhaddon whether the gods are crazy. The gods in dreams told the soldiers of Assyria through temple priests that Ashur must go to war and that they are going to win it. But they did not!

---The “empire” today says Revelation 13 second half, is the USA. Are there cases of “usurping the seat of government”? Are there migration acceptance? Is politics in anarchy and chaos? Isaiah predicted in Isaiah 24 that for the Last Generation there will be a leadership failure. Is there? Habakkuk 2 says that there will be a Space project after 1798 (time of the end in Habakkuk 2:1-4). Is there? Catholicism is also in chaos and this “spiritual empire” is upheld by the “political empire, namely, the west”. See Revelation 13 second part predicting this. Adventists knew it was going to come for over a century

---Then Esther is used by the Lesson today. The interesting thing about Esther is the name Mordechai. Archaeologists have found at Persepolis clay tablets with names of Mordechai on it. However, the names do not continue after 457 BC. Did he also leave to Jerusalem in 457 BC? For further reading see the article in the Korean Journal of Christian Studies.

--- In the Last Generation, this law to persecute the people of God is going to be found again. Is Jurisprudence in our day crazy since 2007 when Transgender was given status in society, like Jezebel (the ordained woman Highpriestess of Baal) did in the days of Elijah having hundreds of young transvestite gula “priests” eating at her palace every day.

---If you look at the seal of Jezebel that they found, you can see that she was wearing earrings, necklaces, surrounded herself with Eunuchs (Eunuchs [young boys who is unmanned] who would kill her in end, the Bible reads.

---So with Revelation 13:15 cited about our Empire (political and spiritual) giving a law of oppression against “hatespeech” of those truth of Elijah differs with, “are you the trouble-maker of Israel?” Ahab asked Elijah. Then we, if we are in the spirit of Elijah in these days, must expect the same.