Sunday 18th May
Read Psalm 109
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
This is possibly the strongest one of the imprecatory Psalms of David in which he speaks exceedingly strongly against certain enemies or enemy wishing evil to come upon them. “Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy” (v6) he says to God and all down the Psalm we hear him expressing similar words of curse. What can we make of this? Wasn’t David known as “a non-vindictive, long suffering and merciful man” (Boice), so how do these words fit with him?
They are words of prayer to God and are expressing the feeling of a godly man in the face of attacks designed to crush him and hold him down. They must be taken in the spirit of Romans 12:19 – “It is mine to avenge, I will repay” says God. It is not wrong to feel and express before God feelings of detestation of those who seek to do evil against us but in following the commands of Jesus we need to commit all these things to God – “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14)
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Daniel 8:9-14
At verse 9 we see another horn coming from the horns previously mentioned. It starts small but grows in power but here the vision speaks of the host of the heavens which it reaches and throws down some of the host to earth and tramples on them. Interpreting this becomes more difficult. The host of heaven could refer to the stars or to the angels of God either good or bad (fallen). However we decipher this the little horn becomes great, sets itself up as the Commander of the army of the Lord, and did away with the daily sacrifice, the sanctuary being overthrown. The Lord’s people and truth being thrown to the ground.
This figure has been generally identified with Antiochus 1V Epiphanes (Epiphanes means ‘manifest’ or ‘glorious’) he came from the Seleucid partition of the Greek Empire and he became a real horror figure for the Jews because he desecrated the temple and put an image of himself inside – really declaring himself God. In the vision Daniel hears one holy one speaking to another asking how long it would be before the temple would be reconsecrated and he is told it would take 2.300 days. If the foregoing interpretation is right then t
The temple would be reconstituted in the inter-testamental time of the Maccabees when Judas Maccabeus recaptured Jerusalem and reconsecrated the sanctuary. This was in 164BC on the 24th December and it is remembered in the Jewish feast of Hannukah to this day.
However, remember what I said at the beginning about the interpretation and understanding of these visions that there are many variations – and multiple books and digital pages which will weary you if you chase them up. But I don’t want to dissuade you if you are interested – just remember that knowing all the truths about prophetic literature isn’t the gateway to salvation.
While Daniel was trying to understand the vision he heard a man’s voice from the river Ulai and he was calling Gabriel, the Archangel who was given the role of announcing to people God’s will. (As well as here in Daniel we note that Luke tells of him appearing to Zechariah foretelling the birth of John the Baptist and to Mary foretelling the birth of Jesus.). The man’s voice tells Gabriel to tell Daniel the meaning of the vision. In terror Daniel falls face down and, it would appear into a deep sleep (v18), from which he is raised to his feet by Gabriel and is told “understand the vision concerns the time of the end” (v17).
What Gabriel tells is what we noted earlier in the chapter about the ram and the goat being Media Persia and Greece, the four horns being the splitting of the Greek empire. The final horn has been taken to be Antiochus Epiphanes (but perhaps with further views into the future). The “evenings and mornings” of v26 may refer to the 2300 days mentioned in v14. The conclusion of the chapter leaves Daniel exhausted and worn out for several days before he gets up and goes about the Kings business. Do note the final sentence, “I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.”
Darius is mentioned as ruler over the Babylon empire not the Persian Empire which Darius 1 was ruler of so this figure was either before or concurrent with Belshazzar or another name of Belshazzar however, in the first year of his reign, Daniel understood the prophecy of Jeremiah (who died in 570 BC, probably in Egypt) that the “desolation of Jerusalem” would last for 70 years. In Jeremiah 29 we read of a letter sent by Jeremiah to “the exiles in Babylon” telling them that their time in exile would only last 70 years and after that they would be able to return. That letter includes the well known verse “I know the plans I have for you….. etc” that many Christians treasure but it’s original purpose was to encourage the exiled Jews.
Here in Daniel 9 we find Daniel had been reading Jeremiah and realised that the time prophesied was coming close and it led him to a prayer of confession and petition starting at v4.
Thursday Daniel 9:20-27
While Daniel was praying Gabriel came to him about the time of the evening sacrifice and told him that he had come to give Daniel more understanding about the vision. We come now to verses about numbers and there are many who have gone into the calendars of the ancient world to work out dates and times. I won’t be doing that but what the word of Gabriel was saying was that after the restoration of Jerusalem and its temple there would be a long time (490 years is 7X70) and then the Anointed One, the Messiah, would appear (v25).
The Messiah would be put to death and will have nothing (v26) and then the people of the ruler will come and destroy the city and the sanctuary (the next abomination of the temple and city after Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC was the Roman destruction in 70 AD).
Like Forest Gump I would want to say at this point, “and that’s all I have to say about that”. There are many books and articles written on prophetic matters and on days and years both literal and symbolic which you may wish to follow yourself but the main thing from this chapter is that a prophecy about Jesus – the Messiah – is made about his future arrival at Jerusalem and his death.
Chapter 10 begins with a revelation given to Daniel in the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia which concerned a great war and Daniel mourned for three weeks. This time Daniel was standing on the bank of the great Tigris river He saw a figure of a man finely dressed and with a body he spoke of in terms of powerful and precious minerals and a voice like a multitude. Although he was the only one who say, the men with him fled and hid themselves for terror.
We find similar situations in the Bible where there is a powerful figure, a middle person, and a group further away – e.g. Moses at the mountain, then the people further off or Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration with the three some way off.
The man touches Daniel causing him to fall down in a deep sleep but he is told to stand up which he does, trembling and in fear, however the man/figure tells him not to be afraid for he was sent in answer to his prayers. Three weeks late, it appears, because the man (we probably must call him an angel) was sent in answer to his prayers but was delayed because ‘the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted him’(v13).
We need to reflect upon this for a moment. When we pray our prayers may be heard but the answer to them may not be instantaneous. That is what Daniel is hearing. We ought to pay attention to this and not be disconsolate if we find nothing seeming to happen after we pray. The second thig we ought to note is the ‘prince of the Persian kingdom’ for our prayers and life are lived in a spiritual milieu where evil powers are at work.
The angel messenger says that Michael, one of the chief princes (or angelic powers) came to help the sending angel who was detained so that now he was with Daniel to give him the message about the time yet to come. Paul says “we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present time, the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12). To forget this is to miss out on victory in our spiritual lives both as individuals and churches.
As Daniel listens he bows his head and feels speechless however the one who looked like a man touched his lips and in beginning to speak he utters how overcome with anguish and is very weaky. The one who looked like a man touched him again and gave him strength telling him to be strong.
Daniel then tells him to speak now that he has been strengthened. He hears that the man (angel) will soon depart and fight against the prince of Persia but after he goes the prince of Greece will come, however he must tell Daniel something else. He will tell him what is written in the Book of Truth. That awaits further revelation but in the meantime, as a parenthesis, he says that only Michael, the chief of the angels and special guardian of the people of Israel, supported him. He then goes on to tell that in the first year of Darius the Mede, he took his stand to support (presumably) Michael.
In the protestant branches of the Church not much is said of angels or archangels but that is probably the Church’s loss because thinking purely of God and us misses out a large part of creation.
