365 Reflections

Is it possible that 70 years of exile were decreed for Israel because God knew the nation would take that long to truly repent? If so, it would reveal something incredible about our relationship to God as He promises to discipline those He loves (Hebrews 12). He even plans what that discipline should be and for how long. I get this idea from the intercessory prayer Daniel makes in chapter 9.  Daniel 9:13–14 (ESV) As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. Sometimes it takes a while before we learn to return to God. Israel was a prime example. Daniel stipulates that the lack of seeking God's favor had prolonged the exile, yet God had known beforehand and an...

Daniel 9:1–2 (ESV)  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. In Daniel 9, we find the prophetic backstory of the fall of Babylon and Daniel's insight into the rise and fall of empires, as Israel lay in exile. He, unlike many in Israel, listened to God's true prophet, Jeremiah, who foretold 70 years of exile, rather than the 2 that Hananiah and other false prophets were declaring.  Daniel knows that just because the Babylonian empire had fallen, it did not mean that Israel was now to be sent back prematurely to their land. God would accomplish His purpose through multiple regimes to prove His Word, and not the declarations of emperors or wise men would prove true.  ...

Daniel 8 begins the Hebrew portion of this book. The reason it shifts from Aramaic (the language of chapters 2-7) to Hebrew is that God has a special message for His people, the Jews. They truly should have understood the times to usher in the arrival of our Lord.  Daniel 8:1 (ESV) In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. Daniel 8 begins with the prophet being transported to Susa, which will become the capital of the kingdom about to conquer Babylon. Daniel 8:3–4 (ESV) I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. 4 I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. After Daniel sees the ram with two horns, he sees a ...

The object of our faith amid global disturbance must be a clear vision of the Father through the Son, who holds all things together through the Word of His power. The troubling imagery of Daniel 7, in which the empires of this world are portrayed as beasts bent on rule, conquest, and bloodshed for the sake of power, surrounds one of the most explicit pictures of God in all of scripture.  Daniel 7:9–10 (ESV) “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. Right after the verse detailing a little horn making great boasts as he wipes out competing factions of nations, Daniel sees where true authority lies. It is not found in the boast...

Daniel 7:1 (ESV) In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and summarized the matter. The first verse of the second half of Daniel shows us this book is not chronological from chapter 1 to the end. These visions Daniel receives here are before the events of chapter 5 in the kingdom of Babylon. The vision Daniel receives is a different perspective on the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream from Daniel 2. Where Nebuchadnezzar saw succeeding empires as part of a massive statue, Daniel is given a vision of beasts rising from the sea.  Daniel 7:3–7 (ESV) And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear....

Daniel 6:1–3 (ESV)  It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; 2 and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. 3 Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Daniel is at the top of his game no matter who is in charge. Here we have a clue as to why. The text repeats a line from Belshazzar's time: "an excellent spirit was in him".  Notice the effect of that excellent spirit: Daniel 6:3 (ESV) this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. It doesn't say "Daniel distinguished himself. It says he became distinguished. We live in a "distinguish yourself" culture. We are inundated with messages suggesting tha...

No empire is too big to fall. The Babylonians found that out harder than most. Daniel 5:1 (ESV) King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Think the setting in this brief description. Wherein Nebuchadnezzar was into self-adulation, his son Belshazzar was more into the creature comforts of world domination. His goal is simple: good times with fine wine. And the tipping point for the empire's collapse was when he decided to desecrate the sacred objects of Israel's temple for the glorification of his empire in front of his special friends.  Daniel 5:2 (ESV)  Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. It wasn't enough to desecrate these sacred objects with the unholy wine of Babylon that Daniel refused, the gave...

Daniel chapter 4 is a salvation testimony from an unlikely vessel.  Daniel 4:1–3 (ESV) King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. 3 How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. The conversion of Nebuchadnezzar is not something you'd expect to happen at all in scripture. He may top the list of people you'd never expect to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he does. He's brought low and sent into the wild by the hand of God. In the end, he found out who he wasn't (God) and who he was accountable to (also God).  It started with pride.  Daniel 4:4 (ESV) I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. He has a dream again, this time he tells the magicians and enchanters ...

How do you stand for God when everyone else is falling for lies? That is the most important question we can ask of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. The only three people in the world who stood for God at a time of global confusion. The world ebbs and flows into this sort of state, where at times people are utterly fooled into following nonsense. I consider the COVID-19 lockdown period one such time. I'm sorry if that offends, but it's truer now than ever. We were lied to, and few stood up for the truth because the consequences for doing so were somewhat severe.  It doesn't get more severe than burning to death.  Daniel 3:8–12 (ESV) Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. 9 They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden i...

Resisting pride has to be the most challenging spiritual discipline. I should say humility is the most elusive virtue. On the heels of learning his kingdom would one day end and be surpassed by 3 successive kingdoms after his, Nebuchadnezzar decides to take matters into his own hands. Daniel 3:1–2 (ESV) King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. What do we see here? We see an image made fully of gold, whereas the image of his dream only had a head of gold (representing Babylon). We see his desire for world unity under his reign through a global invitation to the image's dedication.  Daniel 3:3–5 (ESV) ...

The great Bible names are famous for not taking credit. To make that argument, consider first those who sought to make a name for themselves: Samson fought his own battles instead of the Lord's.  Saul won a battle and built himself a monument in his own name.  Simon the magician offered money for the Holy Spirit's power to be important.  The super apostles in Paul's letters used the church for glorification.  And of course, the Babylonian city in Revelation is cast down in her pride.  Daniel is among those men who did great exploits and refused to take credit. When Nebuchadnezzar's dream needed interpreting, Daniel gave all the credit to God.  Daniel 2:26–28 (ESV) The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” 27 Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, 28 b...

Mighty kings in the Bible who thought they were God were troubled by one of the most impotent forces on earth - dreams. Consider that Pharaoh's troubling dream spooked him enough to search out and find Joseph, who could interpret them successfully. Now, in Daniel 2, we have a repetition of that theme in scripture.  Daniel 2:1 (ESV) In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Not only does the king experience troubling dreams, but he cannot sleep. One could harken back to Esther 6 when Xerxes suffered the same affliction and called for the chronicles of his reign to be read to him. The story turned on that simple moment, and here in Daniel, dreams and insomnia do their work to open doors of opportunity for God's chosen ones living in exile.  Nebuchadnezzar calls for the magicians and enchanters to come and solve the problem, but UNLIKE Pharaoh, there will be no telling of the dream. Nebuchadnezz...

It’s a world clamoring for attention. Everyone wants to be seen, followed, admired, liked, loved, connected, networked and heard. To me, it’s getting exhausting. The quest for attention dilutes our competency around what actually IS worth our attention. Click bait ropes us in with false/misleading headlines. I’ve seen something emerge called engagement bait where a post is obviously misconstrued by the author simply to illicit comments from readers. In other words, the poster is asking for people to correct an obvious mistake they purposefully made simply to get attention from others.  Maybe it’s a lack of cohesion in family and community. Our neighborhoods are now HOA drama-fests. Our families are often fractured by politics and opinions. Our churches have dwindled and social clubs like the American Legion and K of C are a thing of the past.  But there’s a far deeper issue. We seem to be a culture of dead fish all swimming down stream and on our way to the dead end, we’re gra...

Daniel begins and it's one of my favorite books in the Bible. Daniel is a book about conviction and clarity regarding one's place in God's sovereign control of history. We find that truth in the first two verses of the English version of this book: Daniel 1:1–2 (ESV) In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. The first verse suggests that Nebuchadnezzar was in charge. He came to Jerusalem and besieged it. But the second verse provides interesting clarity. The Lord gave the king of Jerusalem into his hand.  God rules over history. Even here where the beloved nation suffers the reproach of being conquered in the ancient world, God is in charge.  Wow.  Now we love the sovere...

Ezekiel closes with the land as it was meant to be. The measurements of each tribal allotment are much more equal and the outlines drawn are very similar to what Moses described in Numbers 34.  Ezekiel 48:1–2 (ESV) “These are the names of the tribes: Beginning at the northern extreme, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan (which is on the northern border of Damascus over against Hamath), and extending from the east side to the west, Dan, one portion. 2 Adjoining the territory of Dan, from the east side to the west, Asher, one portion. What we see is that not only is the Temple restored, but the land is finally what it was meant to be. Ezekiel ends by teaching us that things only work as they should when God's house is in order and we make room for Him to rule and reign.  In the middle, a holy portion run by the "prince" which most believe is the Priestly system.  Ezekiel 48:21 (ESV) “What remains on both sides of the holy portion and of the prop...

In Ezekiel 47 the prophet is ushered to the outer gate facing east and sees a trickle of water flowing from the south side of the Temple. As he watches, the temple tour guide goes out eastward from the temple measuring the water depth that flowed from that source. Every 1000 cubits the water gets deeper and deeper.  Ezekiel 47:3–6 (ESV) Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. It's an amazing picture that as the water gets further from t...

Ezekiel 46 continues with the vision of the Temple. In this passage, we see the order of worship retired to Israel. God is a God of order. He will not tolerate confusion in His worship. He desires people to know Him in truth and righteousness. Chaos and confusion are the language of satan. Ezekiel 46:1–2 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. We have here a requirement for the "prince" to act in a mediatorial role between the inner temple priestly system and the people. He will take his stand at the gatepost. H...

Ezekiel's tour of the Temple continues in chapter 45 and we come to the new "Holy of Holies".  Ezekiel 45:1–2 (ESV) “When you allot the land as an inheritance, you shall set apart for the LORD a portion of the land as a holy district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent. 2 Of this a square plot of 500 by 500 cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for an open space around it. Every Bible passage about the Temple has a common theme. The Lord's people were to set apart a sacred space in three sections where they met with God. Ezekiel has this understanding reiterated to him here in Chapter 45. There is to be a place for the Lord, a holy district. This district was set apart for worship. Within that space was an even holier place. The priests would occupy the space outside of that holy place to act as an intermediary between the people and the Lord.  Ezekiel 45:3–4 (ESV) And from this measured district y...

In Ezekiel 10, the prophet watched as the Lord departed the temple in Jerusalem through the East gate to join His people in exile in Babylon. The narrative now comes full circle as the prophet sees the Lord enter through the East Gate of the new Temple that he has been touring in a vision.  Ezekiel 44:1–3 (ESV) Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. 2 And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. 3 Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.” That gate which provided exit for the Lord is now shut; it will never be opened again because the Lord will never depart from among His people again. This was promised Ezekiel back in chapter 37.  Ezekiel 37:28 (ESV) Then the nations wil...

Ezekiel sees the Lord as he tours the New Temple.  Ezekiel 43:1–2 (ESV) Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. Having been shown the Temple by guided tour and seeing it in totality, the prophet now experiences the point of all of it. God's glory being made manifest among His people. As the prophet beholds this vision of restoration he is reminded that this God of restoration appears in the same way as He did when He was involved in Israel destruction. Ezekiel 43:3–5 (ESV) And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. 4 As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, 5 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glor...

In Chapter 42, Ezekiel continues his guided tour of the New Temple.  Ezekiel 42:1 (ESV)  Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the separate yard and opposite the building on the north. The order of Ezekiel's tour of this New Temple is the exact opposite of the instructions God gives to Moses in Exodus for designing the tabernacle. In Exodus, the design starts from the inside out, beginning with the Ark, the Holy of Holies, and so on. In Ezekiel, the tour given to the prophet begins on the outside and makes its way in.  The first Tabernacle showed who was kept out. The new Temple is focused on bringing people in. The first Tabernacle brought people fear. The New Temple brings people near.  God is setting the stage for a redemption far larger than just the nation of Israel. Through Christ, all nations will have the opportunity to experience the blessing of knowing the Lord intimately.  In ou...