Sunday 25th May
Read Psalm 110
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 Psalm is frequently quoted in the New Testament as referring prophetically to Jesus, indeed Jesus himself quotes from it when disputing with the Pharisees (Matt 2:42-46). David starts the Psalm by saying “The Lord said to my Lord”. Who does he mean but God the Father speaking to God the Son (Jesus) and telling him “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”. That is quoted by Peter in his Pentecost sermon referring it to Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 2:34,35) and by the writer to the Hebrews (Ch1:13) and by Paul in 1 Corinthians (15:25)
Jesus defeated death in the resurrection, but do you know he defeated death for you and me too? There will be nothing and no-one who is not subservient to Jesus at the last. Hold onto that today and every day.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Daniel 11:1-45
The angel tells Daniel that three more Kings will arise in Persia who are thought to be Cambyses, Pseudo-Smernis, Darius I Hystaspes and the fourth, far richer than the others, being Xerxes l who battled against Alexander of Greece but lost. The mighty King (v3) who will arise is Alexander but after him his empire is broken up into four, the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Seleucid Empire in the east, the Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and the Macedon of Greece.
The rest of the chapter contains details of conflict between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties (the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South) which I won’t go into although the history of these times can be got online. The important thing to the Jews was the culmination of the desecration of the Temple (v31,32) and the setting up of an idolatrous figure in the Holy of Holies.
It’s worth noting that scales of power swing across nations and empires throughout the ages and when we see it happening in our own time we should remember that God knows and is in control of it all.
Tuesday Daniel 12:1-4
When we get to chapter 12 we may well be tripped up by chronology. Haven’t we been looking at the period of the intertestamental time in Israel’s history and the empires that come and go? Yes, that is true though if we note, a particular figure has been writ quite large, the one called Antiochus lV Epiphanes, the Selucid, and his ‘abomination of desolation’ in the Temple. We will find this ‘abomination’ in 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11.
The figure of Antiochus has long been viewed like the Antichrist seen in the New Testament (1 John 2:18-22, 4:3 and 2 John 1:7) and when we come to the end of chapter 11 we are almost seeing him ghosting into other world rulers until we see the “King who exalts himself” over everything (11:36). As we move into Chapter 12 we realise that we are finding ourselves at the end of time. It is almost like being at the end of a film and thinking, “did we miss something?”.
We find Michael, the protecting archangel of the people of God arising at a time of great distress greater than anything that has happened before. The fact that this is the end is seen in the salvation of “those found written in the book”, God’s people, and the resurrection of the dead and the final judgement (12:2). Many down the years have seen things happen that could appear to show situations and states that would seem to be reflections of this, Hitler as a kind of Antichrist, the Holocaust as a time of distress never seen before, the establishment of the State of Israel after 2000 years and much more. Doubtless prophetic interpretation will continue as long as people look for the end – even Jesus disciples wanted to know of an end – but we need to remember Jesus words that only the Father knew and no man knows the time or the day. However we are to watch and be vigilant.
Wednesday Daniel 12:5-13
We come to the end of the book of Daniel with this final vision as he looks to see two, presumably angels (possibly Michael and Gabriel who have already been mentioned), on either bank of the river (Tigris?) and above the river the man clothed in linen who we have seen before in Daniel 10 (4-6). Is this man in fine linen above the waters Jesus? One of the men/angels on either side asked the man clothed in linen how long it would be before these astonishing things would be fulfilled.
Holding two hands toward heaven and swearing by him who lives forever he tells that it would be a time, times and half a time (the interpretation of this can be taken in a number of ways. It is seen also in Dan 7:25 and also in Revelation 12:14 e.g.) and when the power of the holy people has been finally broken (the people of Israel or the Church, Jew and Gentile together?).
Daniel didn’t understand (v8) and he is told that the words (presumably of reply) are sealed until the time of the end. In v11 the 1290 days are three and a half years and the 1335 days are 45 days later and they are mentioned in connection with the daily sacrifice and the abomination that causes desolation. It is the time of Antiochus Epiphanes that is usually linked with this but there again we ought to jump to the New Testament and to Jesus reference of Daniel in Mathew 24 (which read) which can be seen to refer to the Temple destruction under the Romans in 70 AD but also a prophetic trailing of the end of time.
There is much at the end of Daniel that is mysterious and not easy to understand; it is also a necessary starting place for reading the Book of Revelation. Because they are difficult books they are often bypassed but this is a mistake. Ponder what is written, pray for illumination, but, like Daniel, “go your way till the end” when you will rise to “receive your allotted inheritance”
Back to the New Testament.
Thursday 2 Corinthians 1:1-7
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians was written about a year after his first letter and he appears to have left Ephesus in Asia Minor (or Turkey to us) and is in Macedonia (North of Greece). It was written around 55/56 A.D. and starts off with some words about Paul and his companions’ recent experience in Ephesus.
He praises God as the father of compassion. The word in Greek is oktirmos which was not a quality in the Greco-Roman world that was used much in a positive sense. Their world was much more inclined to value strength, and self-sufficiency but in the Christian and Jewish milieu the tenderness and mercy of God towards people was highly praised as Paul does here. He also mentions the word comfort which he uses a lot about God’s comfort to us in our troubles. The Greek word is parakaleo which comes from para beside and kaleo to call and it gives the idea of someone who is called to be beside someone. In a legal sense it comes to speak of the lawyer or advocate who comes to argue the case of someone, and it also has the sense of someone who comes alongside to give support in any kind of suffering or trouble. The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete in scripture as the one sent to be beside and with us in our lives in Christ. Paul speaks of God’s mercy and help in times of trouble both his own and the Corinthians’ and we should take that as being for us too in whatever difficulties of troubles we may find ourselves in. Our God is the God of all comfort who is right beside us in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
He has spoken about sufferings and comfort because he wants the Corinthian Church to know that they had been under terrible afflictions in Asia. The word he uses is thlipsis which means to press or squeeze and is about being weighed down under troubles. The Romans had a punishment or torture called thlipsis which they used on prisoners to extract information or confessions; it consisted of a number of flat stones which would be placed on the chest of prisoners and increased one by one until the pressure became so great they could not breathe or would eventually be crushed under the pressure. Paul says that the troubles and afflictions they experienced were so great that they thought they were about to die – which they may well have been. He doesn’t say what the troubles were but we know from Acts (Ch 19) of the uproar that resulted in the riot in the theatre. Whether Paul was referring to that or to something else not mentioned by Luke in Acts we don’t know but he says the sufferings (pressure) so weighed them down that they despaired of life itself.
It surely is an encouragement to us to know that the apostle also experienced being so pressed down beyond ability to endure yet found that God delivered them. He says that this happened so that they might not rely on themselves but on God who delivers from death. If you feel you are also under a thilpsis remember God delivers.
Saturday 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11
It appears from the end of the chapter that there were some in Corinth that were saying that Paul wasn’t to be trusted in what he said. They were expecting him to come to Corinth and he hadn’t (so far) and Paul wants to affirm that he had indeed intended to come to Corinth but the fact they hadn’t was not because of some fickleness such that sometimes his word was “yes” and then it was “No” (v17).
The reason he had put off his visit was to spare them another hard visit where he would be firm in judgement and discipline (2:1). It appears Paul had made a visit between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians (at the end of this letter he speaks about his intention of making a third visit – 2 Corinthians 13:1) and it would be that visit that would have been the hard one. It would seem that the hard visit was at least about the sexual immorality that he had challenged them about in 1 Corinthians 5 where there was a man who was sleeping with his step mother and Paul said he needed to be put out of the Church until he learned obedience to the commands of God with regards to sexual propriety. The Jews and early Christians would view Leviticus 18 with all its strictures about sexual life to be formative on family life and thus sexual immorality ought not to be accepted within the Church.
However the sending to Coventry and ejection from Church fellowship which happened seemed to work in the rehabilitation of the man and now Paul says they must not continue in this action but welcome him back into fellowship. They were to forgive and comfort him so that he wouldn’t be “overwhelmed by excessive sorrow” (v7). Firm discipline had to come to an end and they had to reaffirm their love for him (v8).
What wise counsel the apostle gives and one which we must always take. Forgiveness and love is always the final state of good relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs.
