Month: September 2018

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Day 258 — Daniel 7 – 9

End time prophecy is not of particular interest to me because I don’t believe we can imagine what God has in store, any more than the Old Testament students of prophecy could imagine what Messiah would be like from the prophecies revealed about Him. I am happy to appreciate the general message of prophecy and not get side-tracked by the details that I’m not going to comprehend anyway. It’s not copping out on prophecy, because the general message is so profound, so rewarding, so sustaining – really everything I need to know. That message is this: in the end GOD WINS! That means that good wins. Justice. Peace. Right. Righteousness. Our family is dealing with the death of a beloved pet right now, and the truth that God wins is unspeakably precious, a true comfort. Do you need to relish that hope right now? The enemy wants you to gloss over it and miss its impact, so don’t give him any satisfaction by missing this opportunity to find real encouragement and hope and to grow in your devotion to God by deeply appreciating this truth. Roll around in its luxury: God wins. Defeat whatever work the enemy wants to try to use to defeat you: God wins.

The part of the prophecies that were fulfilled in ancient history, though, now those interest me. I know that most of my readers don’t appreciate this history enough to recall it, so I will review it here so that we can marvel at how accurate the prophecies were. Daniel saw his vision during the reign of Darius the Mede, who ruled Babylon for Cyrus the Persian while Cyrus was abroad doing one of the big things that Greats did to earn the name Great: he was conquering his empire. The Medes and Persians, two people groups who had waxed and waned at various times in history, had united to team up against the Babylonians and now team-ruled their empire, which would come to be known as the Persian Empire. So that’s the starting point of the vision. Then the Greeks would wrest the empire from the hands of the Persians. At the time of Daniel’s vision, that was a joke, because the Greeks were nothing on the world scene, and Greece would have been seen as a backwater. Whatever good might have been budding there was unknown and unimportant to this much more happening part of the world. The Greeks weren’t even as threatening as a gnat hovering in the vicinity. But history records the staggeringly swift rise of Alexander the Great who did indeed conquer Persia in an amazingly short period of time. When Alexander died suddenly in his prime, his empire was divided into four kingdoms: Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Asia. Then the vision turns to the future, to our future. Another great example of how time flows like an air current in Biblical prophecy. The future is where it loses me. But I’m still clinging to the message: as bad as things will get, GOD WINS!

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Day 257 — Daniel 4 – 6

More easy and enjoyable stories in today’s reading.

I find it interesting that Daniel reported a world-shaking event in two obscure verses at the end of chapter 5, as if it weren’t important. That event was the end of the Babylonian empire as the capital city was invaded in a swift assault overnight, and the conquering Medes and Persians assumed control of the empire. History records that it literally happened that quickly, due to two Babylonians’ treasonous revelation to the Persians of a way past the city’s famously impenetrable defenses. Ancient historians describe it this way: “Cyrus diverted the Euphrates into a new channel, and guided by two deserters, marched by the dry bed into the city while the Babylonians were carousing at a feast of their gods,” the very event Daniel described in chapter 5.

We have already read in other prophets’ writings that this would be an earth-shattering event, like Joel’s description of the Day of the Lord; its occurrence was unbelievable to a large part of the world. And yet it was a simple matter for God. Why do you think He gave Nebuchadnezzar twelve months to acknowledge His sovereignty, but imposed judgment on Belshazzar immediately?

Critics had long pointed out that there was no Babylonian king named Belshazzar in recorded history, leading to the conclusion that the Bible thus is unreliable, until archaeologists uncovered evidence of his existence in 1853. That is a lesson to us not to allow man’s wisdom to undermine our faith in the truth of Scripture – all of Scripture. Man’s wisdom is limited and incomplete, as shown by the claim proven false when the dirt of years was removed to reveal facts that mankind had long forgotten.

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Day 256 — Daniel 1 – 3

These are much-loved chapters and don’t require much explanation from me, so I don’t want to waste your time with unnecessary words from me. I do want to point out the historical context of the book. Recall from the reading for Jeremiah 23 – 25 on day 224 (August 12) that Judah was carried into exile by the Babylonians in three waves. Daniel and his friends were deported in the first wave, indicating that they were from the most important families of the nation, the nobles. They would have been impressive young men, but understand that their choices in the events described here were what made them the outstanding characters that they were. It wasn’t the outstanding characters that enabled them to make the choices they did; rather, those characters were made by the choices. This is important because it teaches us that we can’t excuse ourselves from making the tough choices with the claim that we’re not Daniels. We can be like Daniels only if we’ll make the tough choices and do the hard things.

The statue in Daniel 2 depicts major empires in the world’s history. As Daniel explained, Babylon was the gold head. As the successor to the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire is the kingdom represented by the silver chest and arms. The bronze belly and thighs represent the Greek empire established by Alexander the Great. The fourth kingdom of iron represents the Roman Empire. These are clear to us because they are history to us. The feet of clay mixed with iron is debatable, but I believe that it is a kingdom yet to come. Since there is no clear reference for such a kingdom in history, I believe we haven’t seen that empire yet. The kingdom that will never be destroyed is of course the Church. Why do you suppose God wanted us to know about this vision?

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Day 255 — Joel

We are reading Joel out of historical context. It was written during the reign of Judah’s King Uzziah, and should have been read with II Chronicles 26 and about the same time as Hosea and Amos. In it God used a plague of locusts as a metaphor to describe the destruction that will happen on The Day of the Lord. That day is both a reference to destruction suffered in ancient history when Judah and other nations experienced God’s judgment, and also to a day in the future when God judges mankind with destruction at the end time. So the time referenced is fluid. But we shouldn’t get hung up on the time issue with Joel, for if we do we will miss the point of the book, which is about God’s judgment and His promise of hope beyond the judgment.

If ancient Hebrew poetry is difficult for us to understand, which it is, it won’t move us. Laura Ingalls Wilder did a wonderful job of describing a locust plague in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek. When my daughters and I read Joel for home school assignments, we also read those chapters in that book because they offer a moving description of a locust swarm. If you have a copy, I encourage you to read those chapters as well. If you don’t, here is a link to an article that describes that swarm in ways that speak to us more immediately than the ancient poetry does. It’s worth reading for the understanding that it gives us of how horrible God’s judgment is. Until it happens to them, mankind has the luxury of thinking it’s not so bad. But make no mistake: God will judge, and He knows how to make judgment miserable.

So in our home school, I taught my girls to associate Joel with a locust plague, which leads us to recall the Day of the Lord, which is a day of judgment. But recall that judgment is not God’s final word for His people; hope is. In contrast to the tumult and terror of judgment, God offers His people full satisfaction, abundance, righteousness, refreshment, plenty, fullness, praise to God – all in service to their knowing God. Do you want to know God – intimately know Him? Or are you content to take your chance with judgment? The choice confronting us in today’s reading is one or the other.

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Day 254 — Ezekiel 46 – 48

Ezekiel ends on a hopeful note for the exiles in Babylon: God intends to remain in their midst when they return to their land. He wants them back, He wants them back in their Promised Land, and He wants to continue the covenant with them that He had made with their forefathers, to bless all nations on earth through them. Although Israel was lost among the nations, God obviously intended for a remnant from each tribe to return and claim their tribe’s inheritance. And He made provision for anyone who wanted to settle in the midst of God’s people to be welcomed. The hopeful note on which the book ends is not just for God’s Old Testament people, but for everyone who seeks to know God: all are welcome to share in relationship with Him. He offers abundant life to all who desire it enough to come to Him.

This ends the three longest of the Major Prophets. All that is left of prophecy are a few Minor Prophets and Daniel, which most people don’t dread reading. We’re going to make it through prophecy! I hope that you have found it a lot more interesting reading than you anticipated. It isn’t all gloom and doom at all, is it? Man’s sinful state in this sin-cursed world demands that the gloom and doom be presented. But God doesn’t intend for that to be the end of the story, or even the fundamental point of the story; rather, He intends that the story be primarily one of hope. I trust that this is what you have carried away from your read through the prophets.

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Days 251 – 253 — Ezekiel 40 – 45

Temple measurements again?! And this one wasn’t even real! These chapters are boring with a capital B to us, but would have been a great source of hope to their first readers. Those people were demoralized from their total defeat and destruction of their homeland, but the destruction of the Temple was devastating to them. Remember, that Temple had been a source of hope for them, because they believed that God wouldn’t allow its destruction. Even the exiles had hope as long as the Temple stood; once it was gone they had none, and hope is critical. With all the detail given of this temple, they couldn’t miss that God was sincere in His intention to return them to their Promised Land and relationship with Him. They probably would have thrilled to the details that are so dull to us. So appreciate the dull reading for that reason.

Along with the description of the Temple came requirements for them to observe, and almost all are reiterations of the Law given by Moses, with some minor changes. Thankfully, the level of detail is not nearly as great as the Mosaic Law was. Again, the details that are there would have been reassuring to God’s people. From where they were, they feared that God was done with them, would want nothing to do with them. Instead, He gave them another chance. How they would have treasured those requirements because of the restored relationship they represented!

Some people think that the temple described by Ezekiel is something that awaits God’s people in the future; that is, it is still future relative to us. However, the references to animal sacrifices make it clear that it is not. Don’t be confused by God’s talking about dwelling in that place in Israel’s midst forever, for this temple with its provision for animal sacrifices, is not for the Church’s worship of God.

God’s talk of forever meant that He was giving them another chance, a do-over. The second chance wasn’t a lesser version of the first one that they had blown; no, it was the same forever opportunity that the first one was. It also corresponded with the same requirements as the first. They were expected to observe all the laws associated with the temple worship. With the privilege of relationship with God comes responsibility.

The teaching for God’s Old Testament people in these chapters should not be missed by God’s New Testament people: God truly is a God of second chances for those who are ashamed of their sin and are willing to conform to God’s way. If you are one who has needed a second chance, realize that God is not only willing to give a second chance, but in that second chance He doesn’t want you to seek less than His first best for you.

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Day 250 — Ezekiel 38 – 39

This passage obviously foretells an event that is still future to us. Its greater purpose is to give hope to a chastened nation. Its message tells us that in the end God will have His way with His people: having given them new hearts and His Spirit to live in them, He will have transformed them into people who can enjoy relationship with Him as He created man to share relationship with Him. Then He will show up in a big way to rescue them from their enemies, using the confrontation as an opportunity to show Himself holy, “other,” not only in their sight, but also in the sight of the whole world.

We tend to miss the message because we get preoccupied from the opening sentence of the prophecy, with whom God is talking about. We don’t know who Gog is, or where his land Magog is. We do know that Persia is Iran and Cush is south of Egypt, and Put is also an African neighbor of Egypt. Some of these enemies will come from north of Israel. That’s all we know. If we get stalled trying to figure out more than God gave us, we will miss the message.

The message tells us that God wants to be a hero to His people. He created us for relationship with Him, and He makes relationship appealing, for the more we know of Him, the more we want to know of Him. The more we know of Him, the more appealing we find Him. Don’t we all like a hero? Don’t we all want to be loved enough to be rescued? Spend some time today contemplating what a hero God is to you. Snuggle close and tell Him how wonderful He is, and thank Him for saving you.

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Day 249 — Ezekiel 35 – 37

Today’s reading is full of hope for a hopeless people. Note that God’s plan for His people’s restoration didn’t simply include resettling them in the Promised Land like when He led them out of Egypt. Recall the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ final words to the nation given as they camped on the threshold of the Promised Land at the end of their forty-year sentence in the wilderness. In it God through Moses warned His people not to get so comfortable living in the blessings of the Promised Land that they neglected God, which would lead to forgetting Him. By Ezekiel’s time they had done the very thing that God had warned them not to do, and now were suffering the consequences. Since that plan for God to enjoy relationship with people had failed, He didn’t intend to follow it again. Now His plan included resettling, but it also added giving them  new hearts and putting His Spirit in them so that they would be moved to follow His ways. Following His ways would not be a matter of checking off the boxes, doing the minimal as if it were a chore; rather, following God’s ways would be their hearts’ desire. We all know the delight of doing something that is our heart’s desire. The New Testament teaches that if we belong to Jesus, God’s Spirit lives in us, guiding and speaking comfort to us. Think about the great salvation we have received in light of how He describes His people’s transformations.

Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones has been the subject of so many sermons and devotionals that I don’t need to explain that. My guess would be that familiarity has bred contempt in readers. However, each read is an opportunity to appreciate anew the hope God intended for us to know and grow through this vision. If you are a dry bone, ask God to restore you to a fully fleshed-out living, breathing God-knowing Christ-follower.

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Day 248 — Ezekiel 32 – 34

In His Great Commission to His disciples, Jesus has charged us to be a watchman. God’s warning to Ezekiel should be a sobering reminder to us. Today’s reading is full of messages directly to God’s New Testament people. The righteous man trusting in his righteousness instead of walking by faith is not righteous at all. The one who breaks the covenant won’t possess the land. God is no more pleased today by those who gather to hear His word from a prophet but fail to put it into practice, than He was pleased by such so-called followers in Ezekiel’s day. Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd who lay down His life for the sheep. I pray that we are all taking these words seriously for our own lives.

Notice that once again God is going to do what men have failed to do. His plan for His people was to be led by a shepherd-like servant-leader who would care for them instead of wield power over them. When time after time men failed to fill that role as God intended, He devised a plan whereby He would save His people from their power-corrupted leaders and provide the shepherd they need. This need is where Messiah shows up in the book of Ezekiel. What a great God He is to us, and how blessed we are that He is!

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Day 247 — Ezekiel 28 – 31

Egypt was such an important figure to Israel and Judah throughout their history that its downfall couldn’t help but have a huge impact on them. Although Tyre wasn’t as important to them personally, it was such an important figure on the world scene that its downfall was also important. That is why God’s message to His people included so much about Tyre and Egypt.

If God was interested in what went on then at the national level, He is concerned about world events today as well. Note for what He punished nations then: for their attitudes and actions against His people, for their brutality, for their pride. Do you see nations demonstrating the same today? If their actions arouse fear in you, take comfort that God is still in control. One of the points He is making in foretelling the destruction and lamenting the nations is that just as His astonishing actions then, unbelievable until they were actually accomplished, have demonstrated His power to judge, He continues to possess the power – and use it – to judge nations. As I have stated before, the obscurity of these nations to us makes their destruction seem of little importance. That very obscurity should strengthen the impact of this message to us, that these then-powerful nations have been so reduced or eliminated by God’s judgment that their one-time influence and power are unknown to us. Ezekiel’s readers would have been amazed to see Egypt’s and Tyre’s places in the world today. Hopefully this reminder allows us to rest in faith in Him when world events feel threatening to us.

Admittedly, God’s people suffered judgment along with the nations. The goal was always for their refinement and ultimate restoration. If we must suffer as His Old Testament people did, we can trust God to work the same in us, if we let Him. How much better refinement and relationship with God is, than continuing comfortably in the course that leads to the day we face Jesus and hear, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” Can we choose to trust God enough to say, “Even so, Lord, refine if refining is needed”?