Must Be Important   

God Sends Gabriel 

     We want life on our terms. From grade school on, I looked forward to my eventual release from the prison of classrooms. 

     Today, I want my prayers answered yesterday. Sovereign God rules, and our lifetimes flow along his timetable. 

     Daniel has been in a foreign land, although privileged, for several years. He learns from his contemporary, Jeremiah, that captivity will last 70 years. He is so shocked (?) that he fasts, and puts on sackcloth and ashes - as troubled folks did in those days. 

     Daniel knew better than to approach God with pride or self-importance. In chapter 9:18, he prays, We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 

     While Daniel petitioned God - confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel - the archangel Gabriel "came to" him in some miraculous manner.

     Daniel, I have come to give you insight and understanding. ...for you are highly esteemed. Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression <- this age; future age -> to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. 

     (Not 490 years as we would say it, but 70 units of seven years)

     This was Gabriel's first of several visits to men, all events that would change the course of history to fulfill God's will. He tells Daniel the final seven years will occur separately, at a distant time. 

     Some academics think the first year might have been 457 B.C., when Ezra began rebuilding the city, decades after Daniel's time. 

Tomorrow: Jeremiah and Ezekiel with more insights

 

This coming week:

Gabriel turns the page

on human history

 Wellspring of Evil   

     Before we continue with (Daniel) miracles next week, we need to check in with Ezekiel.  

     Evil has vexed humanity since the serpent deceived Eve, and Adam failed to accept responsibility. It has plagued every nation in history, including ancient Israel, the folks God chose to reveal him to the world. 

     Jewish prophet Ezekiel is a captive in Babylonia, like Daniel. Unlike Daniel, he is occupied with The word of the Lord for all nations, words that repeatedly come to him from above. 

     In chapter 28, A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre, Ezekiel receives a word unlike any other. The king is judged severely; then in similar words...

This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned  you. Your mountings were made of gold on the day you were created.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 

You were blameless in your ways...till wickedness was found in you. Through your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted  your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth;          I made a spectacle of you before kings. 

~

     The Lord through Ezekiel reveals his rebuke of Lucifer, now called Satan. He was the unseen ruler of Tyre, and is the god of this world. Lucifer and a third of the (rebellious) angels were cast to earth. 

     That's a lot of demons, who despise you and me, made in God's image. God informs Lucifer he will come to a "horrible end." Also, see Isaiah chapter 14.

 Monday: Daniel prays; Gabriel answers   

         

 Feeding the Cats  

     Exile Daniel, now under Darius, maybe the fourth king he has served in Babylon, has been promoted. He is one of only three administrators over the entire Medo-Persian empire. Better yet, Darius had planned to set Daniel the Jew over the whole kingdom! 

     This was too much for native elites, who sabotaged the deal. They knew a way to trick the unsuspecting king into executing Daniel, who didn't have a lawyer. 

     Darius fell for it, and against his will had to watch his trusted servant thrown into a den of lions. His last words to Daniel: "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you." 

     God had a miracle in mind, once again to demonstrate to people that he is Most Holy God with power unknown to mankind. 

     The king couldn't enjoy entertainment, or even sleep that night. The next morning, he rushed to the den and called out, "Daniel, servant of the living God..." 

     Daniel replied, "O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions..." 

     Overjoyed, Darius rounded up the conspirators, their wives and children, and ordered them thrown to the lions, whose mouths opened wide. Poor kids. 

     It may seem like Daniel experienced a miracle every other day. But he lived in Babylon for decades, and we assume most of his days were normal. This era in Babylonia was a turning point in biblical history and prophecy.   

     Daniel dreams of four beasts (chapter 7), similar to Nebuchadnezzar's dream of future empires. This vision included truth beyond his time, later seen in Revelation chapters 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 20. 

     He also wrote of seeing visions of the "Ancient of Days" and the antichrist. Continued next week. 

Tomorrow: Ezekiel 28 - before the beginning! 

     

 Writing on the Wall    

     We remember when people discussing an issue might refer to "the writing on the wall." There is a source for that.

     Nebuchadnezzar had died after a reign of 44 years (including seven years living as an animal.) Belshazzar, his son, was one of the sorry kings presiding among 22 years of the declining empire. 

     Remember when Babylonians carried off Jewish temple articles and placed them in their temple, and God didn't react? 

     One night, Belshazzar gave a banquet for a thousand nobles, their wives and concubines. As they drank wine from the goblets (taken from Jerusalem), they praised their various gods. 

     Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the wall. The king's ... face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. Some miracle.  

     He called for his wise men - the fellows who couldn't interpret dreams - and they struck out once more. Ah. The queen. She told her terrified husband, Don't be alarmed! There is a man ... who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. Call for Daniel and he will tell you what the writing means.

     Daniel spoke of the king's father, and how God humbled him for seven years. 

     But you, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. *  Therefore, he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is what these words mean:

     God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. 

     That night, the king was slain, and Darius the Mede (the arms of silver) took over the empire. 

* All our lives and ways are in God's hand, whether we know it or not. 

Tomorrow: Good guy Daniel fed to lions 

     

The King, Full of Himself   

     Even if we see a miracle, we tend to see it on our terms, not through God's eyes. Nebuchadnezzar was no exception.

     He was so thrilled to know the unseen God gave him dominion, power, might and glory, that he ordered an image of gold 90 feet high. He decreed that everyone must worship this idol when the music begins.

     Astrologers saw an opportunity to get rid of privileged Jews, of whom they were jealous. They told the king that Daniel's three friends refused to worship his image, which made the king furious. (Daniel may have been out of town?) 

     He had a furnace so overheated the soldiers who threw the three men into it - themselves died. Hey! The king sees four men walking around in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods. 

     He calls them to come out of the furnace. The fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them. 

     The king still doesn't understand the one true God, yet he threatens to cut into pieces anyone who says anything against the God of these three men. And he promotes them. But his ego remains high.

     Later, the king was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the due of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.

     After seven times (years) his sanity was restored. He wrote, "Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him who lives forever." 

     Do we glorify God as the king finally did?

     We wouldn't mind seeing Vladimir Putin driven away in like manner.  But Nebuchadnezzar has already told the world about the Most High God.

Tomorrow: A hand without a body

Wise Men, no;  God, yes 

     World events, or the absence of normal events, can be amazing. Extraordinary. But natural.

     Only a divine agency - see Genesis 3:5 - can do the supernatural in our natural world. 

     The Lord has performed miracles since the first day: Let there be light. He parted the sea, took Elijah alive into heaven, and made the sun stand still (or paused the earth's rotation?) 

     In the book of Daniel, God gives the king a nightmare. When Nebuchadnezzar awakes, he remembers it in great detail. (Can we do that?) He is so distressed, he's ready to cut his wise men to pieces unless they can interpret. 

     Daniel prays. God reveals the dream. Daniel tells the king, There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. Then he interprets. 

     The sleeping king had seen an enormous statue. The head was gold; its arms, silver; its belly and thighs bronze; its legs iron, and feet were partly iron and partly baked clay. 

     Then a rock struck the statue and everything broke into tiny pieces which a wind swept away. 

     Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. The feet are partly strong, partly brittle. The mixture of people will not be united. 

     The rock is the kingdom of God, which will crush all kingdoms of man  and endure forever. Daniel finishes, The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. 

     Nebuchadnezzar is so overwhelmed, he falls prostrate before Daniel. And he gives him a promotion. 

     [The kingdoms in order: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, which morphed into all successor nations ... the iron and clay. Guess what, friends: We live in the age of feet and toes.] 

Tomorrow: Worship the image, or burn