I. The Hidden

A. Read Genesis 3:1-3. Where was the forbidden tree located? (“In the midst of the garden.”)

B. Read Genesis 2:9. Where was the Tree of Life located? (“In the midst of the garden.”)

1. Whose idea was it to put the tree that humans had to eat from to live (see Genesis 3:22) next to the tree that would kill them if they ate it?

2. Since God is much smarter than we are, and none of us would think this was a good idea, what does that tell you about the origin of this idea? (I think this was an arranged contest between God and Satan to see if humans would be faithful to God. Satan was not allowed to constantly tempt the new humans. This is the agreed-upon test.)

C. Read Genesis 3:4-6. In three verses we are able to see how humans were plunged into sin and eternal death. Read Genesis 3:7-8. Why would Adam and Eve hide from God? When Cain sinned, he wanted to be able to see God’s face!

D. Read Genesis 3:9-11. Do you believe Adam when he says that his reason for hiding from God was that he was naked? (In fact, verse 7 informs us that he was not naked. I think Adam was ashamed and afraid.)

1. Obviously, God knew where Adam and Eve were located and what they had done. Why was God calling for them? (God wanted to speak with them.)

E. We are not going to review the punishment meted out to Adam and Eve or their silly excuses for sinning. Read Genesis 3:22-24. Why are they driven out of the Garden of Eden, their home? (So that they would not be able to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever.)

F. Read Genesis 4:9-10. In these verses we read that God is having a face-to-face discussion with Cain. Read Exodus 33:11 and Exodus 33:20-23. How do you explain that God tells Moses he will die if he sees God’s face?

1. After the sin of his parents, and after murdering his brother, Cain has what reads like a face-to-face conversation with God. We discussed in the introduction that Cain could not bear to be hidden from God’s face. Yet Moses is said to have face-to-face conversations with God when God says that Moses cannot see his face and live. What is going on? (Let’s add Genesis 18:1-2 to this problem. It seems that God shields His glory so that humans can live, but at the same time has intimate conversations with humans.)

2. Why do you think that humans will die if they see God’s face?

G. Read 1 Timothy 6:15-16. What does this suggest is the reason we cannot see God face-to-face? (He dwells in “unapproachable light.” That is a reference to God’s glory. We are sinful humans, and He is our sinless God. A mortal human is not constituted to endure God’s glory in its fullness. When the Bible refers to what appear to be face-to-face conversations with God, we must conclude that God has mediated His presence in some way. He has made His presence survivable.)

1. This lesson is not about the glory of God, it is about communicating with God. What do the texts we have just studied tell us about the motivations of God and humans to communicate with each other? (Often when humans are angry or disappointed with another, they refuse to talk. God had reason to be outraged that humans turned against Him and sinned. Yet God pursued a conversation with Adam and Eve. Cain reveals how important it was to him, the first murderer, to converse with God. We need and want to be able to communicate with God.)

II. God’s Agents

A. Read Hebrews 1:1-2. Let’s spend some time on these verses. When the writer of Hebrews says that God spoke to us “in many ways” through the prophets, what ways can you recall? (One way that God spoke to the people was through the books of the Old Testament. We recall that he sometimes sent the prophets visions, dreams and symbolic actions.)

1. Before we get into a discussion of Jesus’ role, let me ask you why God would speak through prophets? Why not speak to all of us individually, through a mediated presence? Why not speak to us individually through angels? (If you have read the Old Testament, you will know that God spoke through those who had a special relationship with Him. Once the number of humans exceeded just a few, God speaks through designated people.)

B. Look again at Hebrews 1:2. In the last days, God spoke to us through Jesus. Is this an answer to my prior question about why God did not speak to us individually, even through a mediated presence? (Jesus is clearly a “mediated presence.” In the incarnation, God made Himself known to us in a form humans could see and hear. Reading the accounts of His life, give us a much better insight into the nature and will of God.)

C. Read Hebrews 1:3. What about Jesus makes Him a superior communicator of God’s will over the prophets?

D. Read Numbers 12:6-8. What does this add to the question of why God uses prophets as opposed to speaking to all? (The strong suggestion here is that most are not worthy to be prophets, and being spoken to directly by God is very rare.)

III. The Holy Spirit

A. Read John 16:7. When we looked at Hebrews 1, the message was that God spoke through prophets, and then He upgraded His means of communication by sending Jesus. This text seems to say that a new advantage in God’s way of communication is coming. Is that how you understand this text? Who do you understand is this next messenger? (Jesus is saying that when He leaves, the Holy Spirit will come – and that gives us an advantage.)

B. Read John 16:8-13. What role does the Holy Spirit play in communicating God’s will? (Verse 12 tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach things that Jesus could not because the timing was not right.)

C. Jesus’ prediction of the Holy Spirit coming in power was fulfilled in Acts 2. Have we now arrived at what seems to be the ideal method of communication – that God speaks directly to each of us? (It is like we have come full circle.)

1. We have seen in these verses the vector of God’s communication with humans. First, it was face-to-face. Then it was through prophets. Then it was through Jesus. Now it is through the Holy Spirit. Has the coming of the Holy Spirit negated the reason for God to communicate through prophets? (One caveat here is that the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament. Acts 2 brought a whole new level of Spirit involvement.)

a. If you answer, “no,” to the question of whether the Holy Spirit negates the continued reason for prophets, tell me why you reach that conclusion?

D. Read Joel 2:28-31. What does this teach us about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and prophets before the end? (The question of prophets versus the Holy Spirit is not an either or question. The Holy Spirit powers the work of the prophets.)

E. Look again at Joel 2:28-30. Does this sound like God is using those rare people in the Old Testament to communicate to humans? (The sense of this is that all sorts of people, from all sectors of life, are prophesying. Young men and women, male and female servants, are not the classic group through whom God spoke in the Old Testament.)

1. Why do you think God makes this alteration? (It is more consistent with each of us having access to the Holy Spirit.)

2. How should we respond to messages that come from this “all flesh” group who is now prophesying? Should we test them against what God told the prophets of the Old Testament? Should we test them against what the Holy Spirit tells us? (Read 1 John 4:1. It says that we should test. The Bible gives us an objective standard for testing.)

3. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. Are we supposed to reject modern claims of prophecy simply because they are claims of prophecy? Are we supposed to accept them simply because someone says the Holy Spirit gave the message? (“No” to both. Paul tells us not to despise prophecies, but also tells us to “test everything.”)

F. Friend, these last questions launch us into an exploration of God’s communications with those of us who are living in the last days. God has shown a deep desire to communicate with us. Will you open your heart to His messages to you?

IV. Next week: The Call of a Prophet.

Copr. 2026, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within parentheses. If you normally receive this lesson by e-mail, but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you study.

Sabbath School teaching tip: Try to avoid setting up a Sabbath School space like a lecture hall with the leader in front and the group facing the leader. Find a way to put your chairs in a circle. It will have a dramatic effect on participation.

1.  Why do you think it didn’t “last” when God just gave his human children a perfect world from the get-go? Why do you think He did it anyway, knowing it would not last?

2.  How would you describe the “givens” or the “ground rules” of our current situation in comparison to the Garden of Eden? Address issues such as our communication with God, the purpose of our life here and now, and what we can or can’t control.

3.  Why do you think God has chosen NOT to simply start over with a rebooted Garden of Eden after the Fall, but rather to send us a Redeemer to draw us to Him within this fallen world?

4. A theological principle explains how we can understand “God’s will” as having multiple levels. By human analogy, a parent wants their teen to do their homework (“their will” is completed homework), but that same parent decides not to stand over the teen and force them to do it, because they want the teen to learn the connection between their actions and the consequences, and to freely choose it.  In this sense, the incomplete homework is also the parent’s will, at another level, because their decision to hold back has enabled the homework to go unfinished. How does this apply to God’s will? What does it tell us about what God most values? What does it tell us about how we should present the gospel to those entrusted to our care?

5. Adam and Eve were the first family of “blamers.” Give an example you have seen of how over-focusing on blaming others for your circumstances (even if that blame has some truth) always holds back spiritual growth. Why do you think that we see an increase in such a “blame others” mentality in society, across all political and demographic lines, today? What did Jesus say about focusing on the sins of others more than our own?

6. Do you think most people want to see God face to face at this point in their life? Why or why not? How about you?

7. Ellen White’s testimony powerfully illustrates the difference between our “God-concept” (knowing about God, an intellectual description) and our “God-image” (knowing God, an emotionally powerful relationship). As a young person, she could recite that “God is love” but didn’t believe it deeply until she experienced God loving her. Can you relate to the difference between knowing about God, and knowing God in your spiritual walk?

8. A Methodist minister named Levi Stockman was used by God to help young Ellen experience knowing God. What people or experiences have helped you to know God personally? 

Photograph by William Earnhardt

Key Text:  “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2, NKJV).

Read in Class:  Genesis 1:27-28; Genesis 2:15-17; and Genesis 3:9.

Study: How did God communicate with humans before sin?

Apply: See Genesis 3:1-9. Why did Adam and Eve’s disobedience make them try to hide from God? What has been your own experience with shame and seeking to hide from God after you have sinned? 

Share: A child asks you why we cannot see God’s face or hear His audible voice today. What do you tell this child? 

Read in Class: Genesis 3:9-10 and Luke 15:11-24. 

Study: How do these passages parallel each other? 

Apply: Read Isaiah 59:1-2, Romans 5:8 and 2 Corinthians 5:19. How does sin destroy our relationships with God and with others? How does commandment keeping help restore relationships? How interested is God is restoring our relationship with Him even though we have sinned? 

Share: Share how have you felt after doing something that was not right. Guilt? Shame? Self-loathing? What were the consequences? How did your faith in God, and the promise of the gospel, keep you from giving up on faith entirely?

Read in Class: Genesis 4:26 and Exodus 19:16-22.

Study: How did sin change how mankind communicates with God?

Apply: Even while battling with sin in an evil world, how do you see God and hear His voice? 

Share: Your friend says he is a deist, he believes God created us and set the laws of nature in order, but because of sin He just left us on our own. What do you tell your friend? 

Read in Class: Hebrews 1:1-2, 2 John 20:31, and 2 Timothy 3:15-16

Study: How does God speak to us today? 

Apply: What particular passages of Scripture comfort and assure you that God the Father is actively restoring His relationship with you?

Share: Your friend asks you how you know the Bible is really inspired by God and not just made up by man. What do you tell your friend? 

Mission: Can you share the Bible  Study, The Scriptures in Light of the Cross, with someone this week, and strengthen their faith in God’s love letter? 

Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr Adenilton Tavares de Aguiar, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson.

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.