Every Eye Shall See Him
Rev. {1:4} John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; {1:5} And from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, {1:6} And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be] glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. {1:7} Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. {1:8} I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Grace be unto you and peace.
2 John {1:3} Grace be with you, mercy, [and] peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth
and love.
Grace be with you, mercy and peace.
2 Cor. {12:9} And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Christ's grace is sufficient for us.
Grace and peace from God which is the great I Am. Grace and peace from the seven Spirits- the symbolic number of perfection, seven -- the perfect Spirit. Grace from Jesus Christ- the faithful witness- Jesus was faithful to the end a witness of God's love to us all. The first begotten from the dead- Jesus, the first raised up to new life giving us the promise of new life with Him. The prince of the kings of the earth. Him that loved us, washed us from our sins in his own blood. Jesus who has made us kings and priest unto God, His Father to Him be glory and dominion forever. Behold he comes with clouds-- every eye shall see him.
EVERY EYE shall see him! When Christ returns every eye shall see him. They which pierced him! Think about it, every eye will see Jesus when He returns. The eyes of those who killed Him.
Such amazing love for us, such amazing grace. We are given so much from God, so much. We have to keep these words, we have to keep the knowledge of the love of Christ in us always. The truth is He will return and we can be among those who wail or among those who glory in His return. I want to be among those who glory in the return of my Savior, the Bringer of my peace, the One who gives me His grace, His peace.
May God be with us now and forever, by the grace and mercy of our Lord and our Savior. Help us Lord, help us keep Your words, give us understanding, the understanding we need to be Yours forever.
Amen.
7/3/10
1Th 4:11 '...study to be quiet'
Study-
G5389
f???t?µe´?µa?
philotimeomai
fil-ot-im-eh'-om-ahee
Middle voice from a compound of G5384 and G5092; to be fond of honor, that is, emulous (eager or earnest to do somethng.): - labour, strive, study.
Quiet-
G2270
??s??a´??
he¯suchazo¯
hay-soo-khad'-zo
From the same as G2272; to keep still (intransitively), that is, refrain from labor, meddlesomeness or speech: - cease, hold peace, be quiet, rest.
*******
We don't often hear exhortations like that do we? Study to be quiet.
Looking at the Greek definition of the words 'study' and 'quiet' we could also say… strive to rest, labour to hold peace, study to refrain from being meddlesome, strive not to talk.
Still in all, being told to 'study to be quiet' tells us something doesn't it? We are noisy, restless people who don't often find being quiet very easy. Some of us are chatterboxes and we laugh as we tell others how we love to talk and talk. We make light of it because-well- that's just how we are. How easy is it for us to jump into conversations that others might be having without us but we over hear the talking and have our opinion to share. For some, as soon as the thoughts form in their minds they are spouting them out without taking time to think. Have you ever had your mind going a mile a minute with one thought after another? Have you ever been bursting at the seams to just spill out the thoughts you're thinking? Do you find yourself saying 'excuse me' just so you can jump into a conversation, or maybe you don't even ask to be excuse you just start to interject something because you feel what you have to say is relevant. That's it, isn't it? We like to talk because we believe we have something to say others NEED to hear, or WANT to hear. If you didn't think others needed or wanted to hear what you had to say would you still be talking at them, wasting your breath as their eyes glaze over and you get the non-committal nod of half-listening but mostly not? Or perhaps you've been the victim of the angry growl- 'It's none of your business so stay out of it'.
When we talk do we need to be aware of the value of our words? We all know how easy words can turn a happy time into an awful time. We know that truly the tongue is a fire... 'Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity'. With this knowledge in mind, with this fire brand in our mouths ready to strike out and burn any and all around us we don't fully believe in it as something equated with a 'world of iniquity', if we did wouldn't we make a concerted effort to not 'flame' at others, not to let the wicked, sin-filled tongue in our mouths strike out?
Study to be quiet. Strive to be quiet. Labor to be quiet. This is telling us to WORK at being quiet that being quiet might not come quite so natural to us.
I've heard people say they follow of ten second rule, meaning that before they respond to ANYTHING even remotely controversial they'll silently count to ten while thinking about the consequences of the response they might make. That's a good rule, but maybe ten seconds isn't long enough in every situation. At other times as a red-faced, fuming, antagonizing person stands there waiting for a response- ten seconds might seem like five minutes. Giving instantaneous retorts is expected, you might even hear the words - 'Are you going to let them get away with saying that?', if not from others you might hear that from the little sneaky voice inside your head. How often do we respond to stuff harshly because we feel as if our pride has been wounded? We've been hurt by the fiery tongue of another so we feel justified in lashing right back to save our dignity, to preserve our honor, to uphold our selfish idea of the type of person we are and how we deserve to be treated.
Study to be quiet.
You've all heard the saying- 'Think before you speak.' If we 'think' before we speak we are taking time to contemplate the affect our words will have on the situation at hand.
If we are to 'study' to be quiet, we need to truly make an effort to be quiet, don't we?
I read this--
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
Jas 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Every beast, bird, serpent, things of the sea are tamed… true? We wouldn't agree by our definition of tamed but if you think about it NO other creatures have tongues that speak, none! They are tamed by the definition they don't speak and cannot reason as mankind. Our tongues are untamed- no man can tame the tongue- at best we can 'study to be quiet', right?
Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Meekness of wisdom. Again, we equate being meek as being somehow inferior to being bold and outspoken and in our day and age we prize those who aren't afraid to stand up for themselves, we award those who debate successfully, we extol the virtues of not being meek but rather being bold. The meek get walked on, the meek are dominated, and yet… 'blessed are the meek'.
Our world is twisted and has raised up likewise twisted people. Ungodly, calling the virtues not truly acceptable by God, acceptable. Telling people to empower themselves- this world is so caught up in the devil's snares they think they are following God, if they would only bow down before our Creator, our Redeemer, and beg for forgiveness seeking to have their hearts and minds opened by the Holy Spirit to understand what God desires not what they desire, they would have hope. You can twist the truth until it fits like a square peg in a round hole by wearing down the sides of the square and forcing it to fit, but it won't ever be the peg that was supposed to fit into that hole, it will be a counterfeit that many will be deceived into believing is the true.
May God help us to 'study to be quiet', to be as He would have us be and not as we think we should be, or as the world tells us is acceptable to be. We need to be acceptable to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, through the righteousness of our Savior. We need to live in Him as He would have us live, not as we would naturally desire to live. We need to take up our crosses, we need to strive against sin, we need to cling to Christ and place all our hope, all our faith in Him fully.
By the grace and through the love of our Savior now and forever!
Amen.
7/3/11
Dan 9:20 And whiles 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
Dan 9:21 Yea, whiles 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.
Gabriel touched
Daniel as he prayed right about the time of the evening oblation.
Gabriel was familiar to Daniel, it was Gabriel who came to him at the
beginning. It was Gabriel who had been told to give Daniel understanding before,
and stopped short of giving a full understanding because time needed to pass to
suit the Lord's design.
How much time
passed between the vision and Gabriel RETURNING to bring more understanding?
Various
historians have come up with different answers to this over the many, many years
since that time. Some believing
that it was a quick succession from Belshazzar and Darius-
Dan 8:1 In the third year of the reign of king
Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which
appeared unto me at the first.
Dan 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of
Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the
Chaldeans
But the truth is
Cyrus took over directly after Belshazzar/Nabonious.
This is history here and we MUST look at history.
History cannot be rewritten. History cannot be altered to suit OUR
purposes. History is what it is and God's design is perfect in His prophecies
and their fulfillments.
Factually from
all I could discern in my own studying using the vast internet resources
available this is what I found--
550 BC - 3rd yr
Belshazzar
521 BC - 1st yr
Darius
Between those two
happenstances were 29 years.
Now like I said,
others have come up with 11 years and still others no time at all, just 3rd
year of Belshazzar and then immediately 1st year of Darius.
When we read the Biblical account and then history it's not readily
discerned how they go hand in hand, but we need to remember that for the sake of
prophecy here what comes to pass DOES come to pass.
What was said to have come to pass, came to pass.
There is only one
pinpoint here of concern about the time passing and it's not really a concern
so much as an interesting point to look at.
The 2300 day
prophecy in Daniel 8 that Daniel was unable to comprehend and left sick after
not understanding is something that we need to discuss.
Is that 2300
days literal- 2300 days?
When we read
about the vision in the case of the 2300 days it means-
evening and mornings NOT evening to evening.
Evening and morning is a half day not a full day.
So are 2300 days really 1150 full days which equals 3.194 years?
Or are they 2300 literal days which equals 6.38 years? OR…
are they 2300 prophetic days- a day for a year being 2300 years?
Looking back at
history with the passing of years between Daniel's vision and Gabriel returning
to give understanding 3.194 years
AND 6.38 years passed and that vision of 2300 days was NOT fulfilled. Daniel was
still captive in Babylon, Jerusalem was still desolate, the sanctuary was still
not rebuilt to even be cleansed. Daniel was looking at Jeremiah's prophecies
and knew that it wasn't time for the 70 years to be up yet. Daniel knew that
and he wanted understanding about that 2300 days, and you know I don't blame
him. It troubled so that it made him sick for a bit. Then there were several
years between the angel Gabriel's visits. Remember the angel Gabriel was the
angel that herald Jesus' birth! This was an important angel, and this was a VERY
important prophecy. So many things
point to its importance and we have to pray earnestly for understanding, just as
Daniel prayed. Let's continue on
now and read what Gabriel came to reveal to Daniel about the prophecy.
Dan 9:22 And he informed me, and talked with me,
and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
Dan 9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications
the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly
beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that
from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto
the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured
upon the desolate.
Did you read all
that? If not please go back and
read it, it's soooooo important!
Just for the sake
of doing so jump now to verse 26 and read that again --
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
'SHALL THE
MESSIAH BE CUT OFF'
The MESSIAH! We know who the Messiah is, we know
that He was 'cut off and not for himself'. Gabriel was revealing this to Daniel in
the year 521 BC!!! The very
angel who would in the future herald the Messiah's birth was prophesying of His
death!
There is so much
incredible information here! So much and we can understanding it by the grace
of God.
What year was
Jesus 'cut off'?
Date of the
Crucifixion- let's look at some scriptures.
Joh 2:13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem
Joh 5:1 After this there was a feast of the
Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews,
was nigh.
Joh 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
unto the end.
Going up to
Jerusalem for the Passover feast was something very important for the Jews.
There is mention in the book of John of four Passover feasts.
At the last Passover, our Savior was crucified.
Jesus began His
ministry in 27 AD then there was--
1
Passover John 2:13
2
Passovers John 5:1
3
Passovers John 6:4,
4
Passovers John 13:1.
27 AD- Ministry
began
1st 28 AD
2nd 29 AD
3rd 30 AD
4th 31 AD
Christ
was crucified in 31AD
Now because there
is so incredibly much for us to comprehend here we are going to take this in
baby steps.
For now we've
seen that this prophecy of Daniel's is super important. The angel Gabriel the
same angel who was there to announce the Savior's birth was the angel bringing
the understanding to Daniel. The message Gabriel was bringing contains a lot of
time references and one of those reference was the Messiah being cut off- the
Savior's death. We need to find
some time references to figure this all out and that is one of them.
Tomorrow when we
continue our study we will delve deeper into this VERY important prophecy, all
by the grace of God.
It's the love of
God that matters above all and God would have us know His love, know His will.
People think that life is just a fluke, that things that happen do so willy
nilly without any rhyme or reason.
God has a purpose for us all and I know, I know that people will start
citing occurrence after occurrence of things that make absolutely no sense to
them, no reason they can fathom for them happening and so because they don't
know the reasons they believe there can't be a reason. God knows. God has all
the reasons and because we don't means nothing at all whatsoever.
What God allows us to know is very important and if we choose to ignore
it we do so at a risk to ourselves.
Please Lord help
us! Help us to understand your will in all things! We need your love, your
forgiveness, your mercy, your grace! Please Lord, please.
Amen.
Grace be unto you and peace.
2 John {1:3} Grace be with you, mercy, [and] peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth
and love.
Grace be with you, mercy and peace.
2 Cor. {12:9} And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Christ's grace is sufficient for us.
Grace and peace from God which is the great I Am. Grace and peace from the seven Spirits- the symbolic number of perfection, seven -- the perfect Spirit. Grace from Jesus Christ- the faithful witness- Jesus was faithful to the end a witness of God's love to us all. The first begotten from the dead- Jesus, the first raised up to new life giving us the promise of new life with Him. The prince of the kings of the earth. Him that loved us, washed us from our sins in his own blood. Jesus who has made us kings and priest unto God, His Father to Him be glory and dominion forever. Behold he comes with clouds-- every eye shall see him.
EVERY EYE shall see him! When Christ returns every eye shall see him. They which pierced him! Think about it, every eye will see Jesus when He returns. The eyes of those who killed Him.
Such amazing love for us, such amazing grace. We are given so much from God, so much. We have to keep these words, we have to keep the knowledge of the love of Christ in us always. The truth is He will return and we can be among those who wail or among those who glory in His return. I want to be among those who glory in the return of my Savior, the Bringer of my peace, the One who gives me His grace, His peace.
May God be with us now and forever, by the grace and mercy of our Lord and our Savior. Help us Lord, help us keep Your words, give us understanding, the understanding we need to be Yours forever.
Amen.
7/3/10
1Th 4:11 '...study to be quiet'
Study-
G5389
f???t?µe´?µa?
philotimeomai
fil-ot-im-eh'-om-ahee
Middle voice from a compound of G5384 and G5092; to be fond of honor, that is, emulous (eager or earnest to do somethng.): - labour, strive, study.
Quiet-
G2270
??s??a´??
he¯suchazo¯
hay-soo-khad'-zo
From the same as G2272; to keep still (intransitively), that is, refrain from labor, meddlesomeness or speech: - cease, hold peace, be quiet, rest.
*******
We don't often hear exhortations like that do we? Study to be quiet.
Looking at the Greek definition of the words 'study' and 'quiet' we could also say… strive to rest, labour to hold peace, study to refrain from being meddlesome, strive not to talk.
Still in all, being told to 'study to be quiet' tells us something doesn't it? We are noisy, restless people who don't often find being quiet very easy. Some of us are chatterboxes and we laugh as we tell others how we love to talk and talk. We make light of it because-well- that's just how we are. How easy is it for us to jump into conversations that others might be having without us but we over hear the talking and have our opinion to share. For some, as soon as the thoughts form in their minds they are spouting them out without taking time to think. Have you ever had your mind going a mile a minute with one thought after another? Have you ever been bursting at the seams to just spill out the thoughts you're thinking? Do you find yourself saying 'excuse me' just so you can jump into a conversation, or maybe you don't even ask to be excuse you just start to interject something because you feel what you have to say is relevant. That's it, isn't it? We like to talk because we believe we have something to say others NEED to hear, or WANT to hear. If you didn't think others needed or wanted to hear what you had to say would you still be talking at them, wasting your breath as their eyes glaze over and you get the non-committal nod of half-listening but mostly not? Or perhaps you've been the victim of the angry growl- 'It's none of your business so stay out of it'.
When we talk do we need to be aware of the value of our words? We all know how easy words can turn a happy time into an awful time. We know that truly the tongue is a fire... 'Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity'. With this knowledge in mind, with this fire brand in our mouths ready to strike out and burn any and all around us we don't fully believe in it as something equated with a 'world of iniquity', if we did wouldn't we make a concerted effort to not 'flame' at others, not to let the wicked, sin-filled tongue in our mouths strike out?
Study to be quiet. Strive to be quiet. Labor to be quiet. This is telling us to WORK at being quiet that being quiet might not come quite so natural to us.
I've heard people say they follow of ten second rule, meaning that before they respond to ANYTHING even remotely controversial they'll silently count to ten while thinking about the consequences of the response they might make. That's a good rule, but maybe ten seconds isn't long enough in every situation. At other times as a red-faced, fuming, antagonizing person stands there waiting for a response- ten seconds might seem like five minutes. Giving instantaneous retorts is expected, you might even hear the words - 'Are you going to let them get away with saying that?', if not from others you might hear that from the little sneaky voice inside your head. How often do we respond to stuff harshly because we feel as if our pride has been wounded? We've been hurt by the fiery tongue of another so we feel justified in lashing right back to save our dignity, to preserve our honor, to uphold our selfish idea of the type of person we are and how we deserve to be treated.
Study to be quiet.
You've all heard the saying- 'Think before you speak.' If we 'think' before we speak we are taking time to contemplate the affect our words will have on the situation at hand.
If we are to 'study' to be quiet, we need to truly make an effort to be quiet, don't we?
I read this--
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
Jas 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Every beast, bird, serpent, things of the sea are tamed… true? We wouldn't agree by our definition of tamed but if you think about it NO other creatures have tongues that speak, none! They are tamed by the definition they don't speak and cannot reason as mankind. Our tongues are untamed- no man can tame the tongue- at best we can 'study to be quiet', right?
Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Meekness of wisdom. Again, we equate being meek as being somehow inferior to being bold and outspoken and in our day and age we prize those who aren't afraid to stand up for themselves, we award those who debate successfully, we extol the virtues of not being meek but rather being bold. The meek get walked on, the meek are dominated, and yet… 'blessed are the meek'.
Our world is twisted and has raised up likewise twisted people. Ungodly, calling the virtues not truly acceptable by God, acceptable. Telling people to empower themselves- this world is so caught up in the devil's snares they think they are following God, if they would only bow down before our Creator, our Redeemer, and beg for forgiveness seeking to have their hearts and minds opened by the Holy Spirit to understand what God desires not what they desire, they would have hope. You can twist the truth until it fits like a square peg in a round hole by wearing down the sides of the square and forcing it to fit, but it won't ever be the peg that was supposed to fit into that hole, it will be a counterfeit that many will be deceived into believing is the true.
May God help us to 'study to be quiet', to be as He would have us be and not as we think we should be, or as the world tells us is acceptable to be. We need to be acceptable to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, through the righteousness of our Savior. We need to live in Him as He would have us live, not as we would naturally desire to live. We need to take up our crosses, we need to strive against sin, we need to cling to Christ and place all our hope, all our faith in Him fully.
By the grace and through the love of our Savior now and forever!
Amen.
7/3/11
Dan 9:20 And whiles 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
Dan 9:21 Yea, whiles 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.
Gabriel touched
Daniel as he prayed right about the time of the evening oblation.
Gabriel was familiar to Daniel, it was Gabriel who came to him at the
beginning. It was Gabriel who had been told to give Daniel understanding before,
and stopped short of giving a full understanding because time needed to pass to
suit the Lord's design.
How much time
passed between the vision and Gabriel RETURNING to bring more understanding?
Various
historians have come up with different answers to this over the many, many years
since that time. Some believing
that it was a quick succession from Belshazzar and Darius-
Dan 8:1 In the third year of the reign of king
Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which
appeared unto me at the first.
Dan 9:1 In the first year of Darius the son of
Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the
Chaldeans
But the truth is
Cyrus took over directly after Belshazzar/Nabonious.
This is history here and we MUST look at history.
History cannot be rewritten. History cannot be altered to suit OUR
purposes. History is what it is and God's design is perfect in His prophecies
and their fulfillments.
Factually from
all I could discern in my own studying using the vast internet resources
available this is what I found--
550 BC - 3rd yr
Belshazzar
521 BC - 1st yr
Darius
Between those two
happenstances were 29 years.
Now like I said,
others have come up with 11 years and still others no time at all, just 3rd
year of Belshazzar and then immediately 1st year of Darius.
When we read the Biblical account and then history it's not readily
discerned how they go hand in hand, but we need to remember that for the sake of
prophecy here what comes to pass DOES come to pass.
What was said to have come to pass, came to pass.
There is only one
pinpoint here of concern about the time passing and it's not really a concern
so much as an interesting point to look at.
The 2300 day
prophecy in Daniel 8 that Daniel was unable to comprehend and left sick after
not understanding is something that we need to discuss.
Is that 2300
days literal- 2300 days?
When we read
about the vision in the case of the 2300 days it means-
evening and mornings NOT evening to evening.
Evening and morning is a half day not a full day.
So are 2300 days really 1150 full days which equals 3.194 years?
Or are they 2300 literal days which equals 6.38 years? OR…
are they 2300 prophetic days- a day for a year being 2300 years?
Looking back at
history with the passing of years between Daniel's vision and Gabriel returning
to give understanding 3.194 years
AND 6.38 years passed and that vision of 2300 days was NOT fulfilled. Daniel was
still captive in Babylon, Jerusalem was still desolate, the sanctuary was still
not rebuilt to even be cleansed. Daniel was looking at Jeremiah's prophecies
and knew that it wasn't time for the 70 years to be up yet. Daniel knew that
and he wanted understanding about that 2300 days, and you know I don't blame
him. It troubled so that it made him sick for a bit. Then there were several
years between the angel Gabriel's visits. Remember the angel Gabriel was the
angel that herald Jesus' birth! This was an important angel, and this was a VERY
important prophecy. So many things
point to its importance and we have to pray earnestly for understanding, just as
Daniel prayed. Let's continue on
now and read what Gabriel came to reveal to Daniel about the prophecy.
Dan 9:22 And he informed me, and talked with me,
and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
Dan 9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications
the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly
beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that
from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto
the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and
the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured
upon the desolate.
Did you read all
that? If not please go back and
read it, it's soooooo important!
Just for the sake
of doing so jump now to verse 26 and read that again --
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
'SHALL THE
MESSIAH BE CUT OFF'
The MESSIAH! We know who the Messiah is, we know
that He was 'cut off and not for himself'. Gabriel was revealing this to Daniel in
the year 521 BC!!! The very
angel who would in the future herald the Messiah's birth was prophesying of His
death!
There is so much
incredible information here! So much and we can understanding it by the grace
of God.
What year was
Jesus 'cut off'?
Date of the
Crucifixion- let's look at some scriptures.
Joh 2:13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem
Joh 5:1 After this there was a feast of the
Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews,
was nigh.
Joh 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
unto the end.
Going up to
Jerusalem for the Passover feast was something very important for the Jews.
There is mention in the book of John of four Passover feasts.
At the last Passover, our Savior was crucified.
Jesus began His
ministry in 27 AD then there was--
1
Passover John 2:13
2
Passovers John 5:1
3
Passovers John 6:4,
4
Passovers John 13:1.
27 AD- Ministry
began
1st 28 AD
2nd 29 AD
3rd 30 AD
4th 31 AD
Christ
was crucified in 31AD
Now because there
is so incredibly much for us to comprehend here we are going to take this in
baby steps.
For now we've
seen that this prophecy of Daniel's is super important. The angel Gabriel the
same angel who was there to announce the Savior's birth was the angel bringing
the understanding to Daniel. The message Gabriel was bringing contains a lot of
time references and one of those reference was the Messiah being cut off- the
Savior's death. We need to find
some time references to figure this all out and that is one of them.
Tomorrow when we
continue our study we will delve deeper into this VERY important prophecy, all
by the grace of God.
It's the love of
God that matters above all and God would have us know His love, know His will.
People think that life is just a fluke, that things that happen do so willy
nilly without any rhyme or reason.
God has a purpose for us all and I know, I know that people will start
citing occurrence after occurrence of things that make absolutely no sense to
them, no reason they can fathom for them happening and so because they don't
know the reasons they believe there can't be a reason. God knows. God has all
the reasons and because we don't means nothing at all whatsoever.
What God allows us to know is very important and if we choose to ignore
it we do so at a risk to ourselves.
Please Lord help
us! Help us to understand your will in all things! We need your love, your
forgiveness, your mercy, your grace! Please Lord, please.
Amen.