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Readings in the Book of
Daniel
We finished up recently with Daniel being very sick from the news he had received, and completely at a loss to understand what the timing was all about. But, while he was praying earnestly to get an answer to his problem, the angel Gabriel came to his aid.
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Daniel 9:
20 And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; 21 yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation [the time of the 3pm incense and burnt offerings]. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding”.
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Why did Daniel get such a swift response when most of us have to wait, or worse still, don’t even get an answer? Why did God choose that time of day?
Prayer is the opening of our heart to God as to a friend, telling Him how we are feeling, about our needs, and asking about His. The eye of faith will discern the Son of God very near, and we may obtain precious evidence of the divine love and care for us. But why is it that so many prayers are never answered? Says David: “I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard [cherish] iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not [be able to] hear me”. Psalm 66:17-18. By another prophet the LORD gives us the promise: “You shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart”. Jeremiah 29:13. Again, He speaks of some who “have not cried to Me with their heart”. Hosea 7:14. These latter petitions are obviously prayers of form, of lip service only, which the LORD cannot accept or acknowledge, for in uttering them we are really worshipping another god.
The prayer which Nathanael offered while he was under the fig tree came from a sincere heart, and it was heard and answered by the Master. Christ said of him: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile [craftiness]!” John 1:47. The LORD reads our hearts and understands our motives and purposes. “The prayer of the upright is His delight”. Proverbs 15:8. He will not be slow to hear us when we open our hearts to Him, not exalting self, but sincerely feeling our great weakness and unworthiness.
The timing of the response is significant. Although the sanctuary was in ruins in Jerusalem, those who were true-hearted followers of the Son of God kept the rituals, in spirit and in truth, on the days and hours they would normally have occurred. At that particular time Daniel and his companions would have been again mentally offering their lives and possessions to God (the first and second of the offerings), along with the thanks for His mercies of that day (the third offering, Leviticus 1-3.). These, combined with the incense offering, formed a complete prayer. Although they lived in a dispensation in which animal sacrifices were the norm, they all knew that the real offering that God wanted was a heart of love and obedience moistened with Christ’s righteousness. See Deuteronomy 10:16-19.
The “morning and evening” sacrifices of each day (Exodus 29:38-43) were opportunities to reflect on the wonderful picture of the Son of God dedicating His life to cleansing them. See Leviticus chapters 4-7. That’s why Gabriel then directed Daniel to cast his mind back to the vision of chapter eight regarding the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” of desolation, which is how the Son of God saw them while the sanctuary and the host were being “trodden under foot”, for not many would be presenting themselves for cleansing during this period because they were mostly willing believers in a false gospel.
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Daniel 9:
23 “At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved [not a favourite because God has none – but loved because, like his God, he greatly desired to help the helpless, and wanted to do something for them – a man after God’s own heart].
Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 24 “Seventy weeks [of prophetic time] are determined [cut off from the 2,300] upon your people and upon your holy city,
[1] to finish the transgression,
and [2] to make an end of sins,
and [3] to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and [4] to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and [5] to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and [6] to anoint the Most Holy”.
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What Gabriel did was advise Daniel that a period of 70 prophetic “weeks”, which equals 490 prophetic “days”, meaning 490 literal years out of the 2,300 years, were reserved for the Jewish people. (70 x 7 = 490.) That’s why when Peter asked, “LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven”. Matthew 18:21-22.
In that time period the people of God had the opportunity to do six special things, which can be grouped into three sections. Let’s look at them one by one in their sections and see if they did them.
(1). First, the Son of God was saying through His angel messenger that His earthly representatives could finish the great controversy between Satan and Himself during that period!
How could they do that? While speaking of the events which will take place at the end of the world, the apostle Peter asked a question of his listeners. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation [conduct] and godliness, looking for and hasting to [hastening] the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells [only] righteousness”. 2 Peter 3:11-13.
Here we have the answer: we can hasten, or delay, the end of the agony of the Son of God and bring about the end of the world, by our conduct, for the controversy is now over whether a Christian can be perfectly obedient. When He came to the earth and began His ministry, the Son of man alluded to this 490 year episode and said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent you, and believe the gospel”. Mark 1:15. Thus the gospel message, as given by the Saviour Himself, was based on this prophecy. With the announcement He coupled the call to repentance, for the two go hand-in-hand.
(2). How could they have made an end of sins?
By making use of the connection they had with Him and handing over all their actions of sin to be cleansed and forgiven. Thus it is written, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us”. 1 John 1:9-10. Although they normally had a sanctuary service which utilised the killing of animals as a physical picture, in actual fact they approached the Son of God in the same way we do – in faith that He hears us and actions our requests. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report”. Hebrews 11:1-2.
Lateral thought:
In Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 we are shown a principle. If you read from 3:7 to 4:11 you will get the picture. There we are told that there is a “day of opportunity” to make an end of sins in every generation, and a major chance every tenth generation of approximately 500 years, probably 490! Why 490? The average age was three-score and ten (70), even 80 (Psalm 90:10). A male could start some responsibilities at 20 (Exodus 30:4), and others at 30 (Numbers 4:3). So, 49 + 20 = 69; 49 + 30 = 79. (The ancients used a principle that one less from a number was safe (consider the thirty-nine stripes in place of forty, Deuteronomy 25:3; 2 Corinthians 11:24), therefore these are near enough.)
The people who had left Egypt had been offered “the day” but had rejected it (Hebrews 3:17-19), so in Joshua’s time (he is called Jesus in 4:8) it was their children’s turn. But we know that the children reacted even worse than their fathers and turned God down flat, for people like to sin and follow other gods. He tells us, “But I said to their children [which they had] in the wilderness, Walk you not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. Notwithstanding [My plea] the children rebelled against Me: they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments [daily advices] to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My Sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew My hand, and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth”. Ezekiel 20:18-22. Although they kept the seventh-day Sabbath outwardly the majority missed its spiritual meaning entirely. They never did “rest” from their works and accept Christ’s perfect righteousness as shown by the seventh-day Sabbath rest, thus ending the transgression.
So that time of opportunity passed and the people under the judges were not even close to entering God’s “rest” until David became king nearly 500 years later (Judges 17:6; Hebrews 4:6-7). However, they then concentrated on becoming like all the nations around them, and their “day” slipped away too. There was a flutter of interest about 500 years after that in Ezra and Nehemiah’s time but the priests soon put an end to that!
Then Paul wrote that there was a chance of entering into God’s “rest” while they were preaching the gospel after Christ’s return to heaven (Hebrews 4:9-10). But it too, was neglected, and it didn’t return for about another 500 years when many of the professed Christians turned from it and allowed the bishop of Rome to follow his inclination and set up an earthly system of the worship of works/force in place of the heavenly system of rest. The next “day of opportunity” was very carelessly thrown away and hardly shows up in the history books as one. Another 500 years brings us to the times of the reformation (about 1517), but the reformers all opted to remodel their churches on the Roman Catholic system, with only minor differences. So few in fact, that their clergy are very keen to reunite with Rome today! (If we unite with them, where would we be heading?)
So here we are “today”. It is now our turn, while it is still called “Today” (Hebrews 4:1-5). If we don’t . . .
Let’s get back to the thought of the Jews ceasing to sin.
What the Son of God had been doing since the foundation of the world was not just taking their old lives into Himself, and giving them a portion of His life in exchange, when they first came to Him for salvation. (This was signified by the Passover service. See Exodus chapter 12.) He had also been receiving the guilt and penalty of the actions of sin which they had committed since their conversions (when they repented and confessed them), which was typified by their offering of animals as their substitutes.
For example:
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Leviticus 4:
27 And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he [or she] does somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty;
28 Or if his [her] sin, which he has sinned, come to his knowledge:
then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the GOATS, a FEMALE without blemish [for we are the bride of Christ], for his sin which he has sinned. 29 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering [making his confession], and slay the sin offering in the [same] place of the burnt offering.
30 And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger [the evidence of “death”], and put it upon the horns of the [brass] altar of burnt offering [in the courtyard, where Christ’s daily offering was burning], and shall pour out all [the rest of] the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar [in the courtyard].
[Thus they joined the Son of God in His daily self-denial. “Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” as a “living sacrifice”. Romans 6:3-5; 12:1.]
31 And he [the offerer] shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings [for the animal was to be eaten by the priests and fat is dangerous to eat]; and the priest shall burn it [the fat] upon the altar for a sweet savour to the LORD; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.
[There was an alternative choice, but the first suggestion was a goat.]
32 And if he bring a LAMB for a sin offering, he shall bring it a FEMALE without blemish. 33 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering [and then the other rituals as for the goat were performed].
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However, while the representative people of God kept on sinning and confessing continually, He could not stop accepting the result of their sins, the “deaths” they should have suffered, for He had promised to bare them for them. Therefore He requested of them that they “make an end of sins” so He could get on with the next step in His programme.
Contrary to what is often taught today by professed Christian teachers, we do not have to, nor are we expected to, sin for ever! There is a time when we should stop, for we are not “sinners” but “Christians” having “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. 2 Peter 1:4. God says, “My little children, these things write I to you, that you sin not”. 1 John 2:1. And Paul wrote: “Brothers [and sisters], I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect [mature], be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you”. Philippians 3:13-15.
It is significant that while the priests suggested that the offerers should come back often because the offerings were their food and wealth, the prophets sometimes stood at the door of the temple and cried for the people to stop repeating their sins. See Jeremiah 7:1-15.
We’ll need to continue this next week.
Bye for now,
Ron
P. S.
Jesus said, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice”. John 18:37. Christ affirmed that His word was in itself a key which would unlock the mystery to those who were prepared to receive it. It has a self-commending power, and this is the secret of the spread of His kingdom of truth.
Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library. No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly. All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own.
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Deuteronomy 10:
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked [proud and independent]. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and LORD of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible [awesome One], which regards not [the positions of] persons, nor takes reward [bribes]: 18 He executes the judgment of [He looks after] the fatherless and widow [the helpless], and loves the stranger [the slave to sin], in giving him [spiritual] food and raiment [the clothing of righteousness]. 19 Love you therefore the stranger [the unregenerate]: for you [also] were strangers in the land of Egypt [slaves in the world of sin]”. [Put simply, this means love God and your fellow-man. See Luke 10:27.] Back
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Jeremiah 7:
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust you not in lying words, saying, “The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these”. [The church and its rituals are the thing.]
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 Behold, you trust in lying words [from whom?], that cannot profit [or help you].
9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal [make prayers to the god of force], and walk after other gods whom you know not [not discerning their nature]; 10 and [then] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations? [It’s my nature! I can’t help it!]”
11 Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? [They had made it a place of sinning and confessing, thereby robbing Christ of His glory as a Saviour from sin.] Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD. 12 But go you now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. [See Psalm 78:55-62.]
13 And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not; 14 therefore will I do to this house, which is called by My name, wherein you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers [and sisters], even the whole seed of Ephraim. Back
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When they entered the Promised Land:
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Psalm 78:
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line [gave them areas to live in], and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not His testimonies: 57 but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow [which fires arrows on an angle]. 58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places [of worship], and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: 60 so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men;
61 and delivered His strength [the ark of the covenant] into captivity [1 Samuel 4:1-22], and His glory into the enemy's hand [they actually took it into battle themselves,
1 Samuel 4:3-4]. 62 He gave His people over also to the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance. Back
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