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David Pawson - Daniel Part 1

David Pawson - Daniel Part 2

Thoughtful Thoughts by John Dunning 21.2.20 Daniel Part 2 (Website full version ).

The Thought For You Today:- Friday/Saturday devotions…

Introduction.

The latter part is the most difficult section to understand in our walk through the Bible so far.

For that reason I’ve divided this blog into suggested daily devotions covering Daniel 5-12 and involves the reader doing some daily homework. I suggest using a diary as a devotional diary.

Apart from one author in the ‘Old’ Testament and one in the New Testament, God used the Jews to author the Bible under His Divine Editorship. Augustine wrote: “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed”; (ie one interprets the other.) An example of that is Daniel fitting with Revelation.

In part 1 we dealt with what happened to Daniel during King Nebuchadnezzar’s time…

Here in part 2 we move on to what happened to Daniel in the time of King Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus. (Daniel lived a long time.)

Nebuchadnezzar was taught about the God of Israel in a kind of ABC way, leading him out of paganism, resulting in him repenting and giving his testimony, (Daniel 4.) He then passed onto his son, Belshazzar, what he had learned about the God of Israel, but the son didn’t take any notice, and so there was no excuse for what happened in chapter 5. To do this chronologically, though, we will look first at ch.7-8 first.

Belshazzar.

1a). Belshazzar’s early years. Read Daniel Chapter 7-8. After Nebuchadnezzar died, his son Belshazzar took over. The events of chapters 7-8 occurred early on in the reign of Belshazzar with Daniel being given a dream in ch.7 and then a vision in ch. 8. God provides the interpretation immediately following. As the interpretation is right provided, there’s no need for further comment as you can look it up. To assist, chapter 8 and chapter 2 go together, and ch. 2 was dealt with last time.

The Thought For You Today:- Saturday/Sunday devotions…

1b). Belshazzar’s final day, Read Daniel Chapter 5.

Chapter 5 deals with Belshazzar’s final day. Now you can see that the chapters are not quite in chronological order as the author wanted to keep the prophecies together in one place where possible.

This is what happened to Belshazzar... Belshazzar’s father, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’, had put the holy things he had captured from the temple of Jerusalem out of harm’s way and forbidden them to be used. Belshazzar, his son, knew all about them, so when he ordered his servants to go and get them, he had to do so specifically, as the order meant contradicting the order made by his father. So he spelled out his order by adding, “the ones from the Temple in Jerusalem”. Otherwise, the servants would have doubted they had understood the command correctly. They knew Nebuchadnezzar had forbidden their use. So right up to that point, Belshazzar had to make do with his million-dollar gold cups! Now of course he wanted to use the gold cups dedicated to God from the Temple of Jerusalem. As soon as Belshazzar used the cups dedicated to God, God’s judgment was written against him on the wall. He didn’t understand the writing that was written by a finger, but was told that Daniel would be able to translate it, as he had previously interpeted his father’s dream. So Daniel was called to translate the writing. He refused to take any payment from Belshazzar. He told him that as he had done what he knew his father had strictly forbidden, (22), by drinking from cups dedicated to God, he had not honoured God, and so now his kingdom would be given to the Medes and the Persians. That very night he died and Darius the Mede took over the Babylonian empire, creating the Persian Empire, of the Medes and the Persians.

The Thought For You Today:- Sunday/Monday devotions…

2a. Darius’ early months.

Read Chapter 6. Daniel in the lion’s den.

Upon taking over Babylon, the new Persian ruler, Darius, kept the administrators on, to continue running the empire. Darius was so impressed by Daniel that he decided to appoint him over the entire empire, like a king under an emperor. Fellow administrators were so jealous that a Jewish immigrant should leap-frog over them, that they decided to make Darius turn against Daniel in an evil way. The problem was that they could not find any fault in him. So, they came up with an idea to manufacture a problem. They discovered that the only way they could do that would be to do with who Daniel would worship. Now, as he would only pray to the God of heaven, they set a trap. They persuaded Darius to enact a new law stating that all persons could only pray to King Darius for the next 30 days. (The punishment for disobedience was to be thrown to the lions). Daniel continued to only pray to the God of heaven, so the trap worked. They were so excited that they ran off to tell Darius that the law which required that everyone only pray to Darius for the next 30 days was being broken by Daniel. Darius realised too late it he had been entrapped by Daniel’s enemies, and he very reluctantly had Daniel given to the lions, that had been kept hungryfor executions. However, the lions refused to eat Daniel, and Darius was so thrilled that he threw Daniel’s enemies to the lions instead, which devoured them instantly. Darius was so impressed with Daniel’s God, that he gave his testimony, (Daniel 6: 26-27). Darius promoted and prospered Daniel.

The Thought For You Today:- Monday/Tuesday devotions…

2b. Darius’ early years...

Read Chapter 9. Daniel was given understanding of Jeremiah’s prophecies.

You may remember Xerxes from our study in Esther... well he had a son, called Darius. Well, in his first year Daniel was given an understanding of Jeremiah's prophecies;- hence chapter 9.

1. 1-23, Daniel prayed for his people and God responded with more visions of the future.
2. 24-27, He was told that the “Anointed One”, (ie Messiah), would come and another covenant will be created for many more people than just the Jews, which would result in an end to all the sacrificing and offerings. Where the temple now stood, an abomination would come, which God would allow until He says otherwise.

The Thought For You Today:- Tuesday/Wednesday devotions...

3. Cyrus, Year 3

3a). Daniel’s revelation. Read Daniel 10.

In the 3rd year after Cyrus was emperor, Daniel had yet more visions..

Some interesting points for me were, that when we looked at Ezekiel we noticed images which all together were entitled, “The Four Faces of God”. One of those images was of a man that was divine. That image was depicted with linen. Here in Daniel:10:5-6 & 18 we have an image ‘like a man’ again, because it is important.

The Thought For You Today:- Wednesday/Thursday devotions...

3b). Fulfilled prophecies. Read Daniel ch.11:1-35.

The prophecies in this reading came true after Malachi died but before Jesus came.

Daniel learned that Israel would get caught between an army south of them and an army to the north of them going to war. The rest is history as they say.

3c). Unfulfilled end time prophecies. Read Daniel ch.11:36 - 12:12.

These prophecies have not happened yet.

11:36-45 Israel would again get caught between an army south of them and an army to the north of them going to war. That needs no interpreting, as it has happened before.

12:1-12. In v. 7 Someone looking like a man in linen told Daniel that the mystery was for “a time, times and half a time”. The time frame is explained in v. 11. Regarding the man in linen, see point 3a above.

12 After the three and a half years, there is a 45 day gap before the end comes. Those who continue to be faithful right to the end of those days are the ones who will be blessed.

Daniel was NOT given its interpretation and he says so in ch. 12:8. When Daniel mentioned that, the man clothed in linen said that the book must be closed for a future time. It was sealed. It was a secret he was not permitted to know the meaning of. However, Daniel 12:9-10 tells us that the book will result in many people getting right with God and becoming obedient to Him.

Jesus provides a warning straight from Daniel, in Matthew 24:15, (repeated in Mark), so Jesus accepted the credentials of Daniel and the validity of the book. John’s visions in Revelation are also more easily understood by being familiar with Daniel’s visions.

The Thought For You Today:- Thursday/Friday devotions.

Adding and subtracting...

Revelation 22:18-19 tells us what Jesus said about adding to, or subtracting from God’s Word. It may mean Revelation, but then Jesus quotes Daniel too, in Revelation! One thing the Jews were meticulous about was being absolutely accurate with translating the Bible. I have at home “The Complete Jewish Bible” and Daniel ends at what we call Daniel ch.12 v.13. The Jewish Scriptures are the source that shows us what a genuine “Old” Testament looks like...That is how we know that the Catholic Church added their own man made chapters into Daniel called Daniel 13-14. Also added were books and passages and St Jerome refused to have anything to do with it, when he saw what they were doing with the Bible;- adding stuff the church wanted to have in the Bible to justify false teaching. When the Church of England replaced the Catholic church in Britain, it kept the Catholic Apocrypha for a very long time. Below is a link for you to see if your Bible has extra books or chapters added by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, so if it does, buy a real Bible. I use “The Complete Jewish Bible” as a plumbline to check up on gentile Bibles, to see where they go astray.

The church later hid their fake chapters by breaking them up into smaller parts and mixing them in, like a fruit salad, so they didn’t stand out. The Bible Society explains more here at this link... https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/explore-the-bible/bible-book-club/additions-to-daniel/

If you’d like to check which books form the Jewish Bible, so you know what books are the real deal, as far as what we call the “Old Testament” is concerned, this link will show you... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible Any other books you may find in your “Old Testament” are not the Bible and have no right being there. If you want to see what the apocryphal books are, simply “Google” them!

I could go on about the church altering the correct divisions of the Scriptures, but to keep the main thing the main thing, evangelical translators, publishers and printers corrected the Bible by removing the Apocrypha and printing their own Bibles. Then the “British and Foreign Bible Society” was put on the spot by the Scottish Bible Society in 1826, by being told to be more professional, by getting rid of the Apocrypha, (which they had previously been leaving in, to pander to the Vatican). So they got rid of the Aapocrypha, and thank you Scottish Bible Society.

Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church “Bibles” continued on with their apocryphal versions, for most of Church history. During that time, the only Bibles available were the apocryphal ones produced by the church, which it had a vested interest in perpetuating.

I would love to tell of the hereos of the faith, martyred for putting together Bibles which had integrity, but that is a different story for another day. To them, Daniel would encourage them from 12:3; “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars, for ever and ever”.

Bible translator, William Tyndale, martyred for producing a correct translation of the Bible.

Revelation 22:18-19 should be hung on the wall of every Bible publisher...17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. 20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

I’m John Dunning and that’s ‘Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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