Dan. 9

Essentially, God showed Daniel that Jerusalem was destroyed because of the disobedience of the children of israel.

l the home is the platform to prepare us for life. Obedience and respect are learned there. How can you obey God whom you don’t see if you don’t obey the parents that you do see?

He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves Me. And he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. Jn. ¹4:21

Daniel 7, 8

To Daniel was given visions of future leaders, kingdoms, and events. God will do nothing except He first reveal it to His prophets upon the earth. We may not understand these fore-sights, but eventually they will come to pass and we will then understand them.

In a sense, they also prevent us from being overcome with fear. To know that God is the Omnipotent Custodian of the future is comforting.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Daniel 6

As a young administrator and servant to long Darius, Daniel’s service was exceptional, so much so that his peers became extremely jealous of his advancement Because they could find no fault in his performance, they attacked his spiritual integrity. They knew he prayed to God so they devised a bogus scheme whereby his faith painted him treasonous.

God delivered him from death and turned the tables upon his accusers.

God will protect you when you walk in Christian integrity and remain faithful to your devotion.

Daniel 5

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son, King Belshazzar, made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand, he irreverently used God”s Temple utensils and praised idols. This was too much insult for God to handle. “You are DONE!” was essentially God’s response to his pride and idolatry.

That night his life was snuffed out and Darius, the Mede, stole his kingdom.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8

Daniel 4

An amazing story; God caused Nebuchadnezzar to instantly regress to the mentality of an ox, hobbling on all fours and eating grass like an animal. Also amazing is that his kingdom was restored to him.

God places people in authority and removes them at will. Even in their prominent places of power, they must learn the lessons of His sovereignty or be removed.

Anyone in authority is given that position by Him. He rules over all. This is comforting to know.

Daniel 3

This is a pivotal passage in the Bible. Idolatry is prominent. A Godly resistance to false worship bravely takes a stand. The per-incarnate Christ , the fourth man in the fire, makes an appearance. We are shown God’s keeping power over the fiercest of trials.

The three Hebrew eunuchs (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) boldly refused to bow down to the huge, golden image Nebuchadnezzar had erected. This identifies worship as bowing down. False worship is clarified as bowing down to the wrong thing. We are reassured that God will have our back when we refuse to bow down to anything or anyone apart from Him.

Be careful what you bow down to.

Daniel 2

To Daniel was revealed both the dream and the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling night visitation from God. It contained insight into the future, a future that outlined God’s plan all the way through Christ’s arrival.

In the Bible we are given insights into the future God has planned for us and the inhabitants of the earth. “This is that” is a principle we discover when we see His plan unfolding … once His plan is made clear, we can look back in scripture and see that He had given the essence of His plan to the men who wrote the Bible. [Acts 2:16]

Not only does God have a plan for the unfolding of His Kingdom here on earth, He actually has a custom plan for YOUR LIFE!

The Lord will work out his plans for my life…. [Ps. 138:8 TLB]

 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: [Phil. 1:6 KJV]

Daniel 1

I am impressed with Daniel’s self-control. He did not succumb to temptation to eat the King’s lavish food supplied to him. Rather, he arbitrated a deal with the King’s appointed life-coach who was preparing the cream of the crop young Jewish men for service to Babylon. He was permitted to eat his healthy vegetables. As per his proposed test, his countenance and performance eating HIS food excelled over his peers.

Isn’t that the way it is? Those with self-control usually outperform those who give in to carnal temptation.

Wise parents cultivate self-control within their children early on. To those who lack self-control, it can be supplied by God’s Holy Spirit.

The Spirit however, produces in human life fruits such as these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance and self-control—and no law exists against any of them. Those who belong to Christ have crucified their old nature with all that it loved and lusted for. If our lives are centred in the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit. [Galatians 5:22-25 JBPhillips]

Ezekiel 47, 48

After describing the River which flowed out of the Temple, Ezekiel was given the parameters of the land to be inherited by the 12 tribes of Israel. Careful lines carved out the allotted areas to be inhabited during the millennium.

The inheritance is a vital element in God’s economy. Those who have gone before leave behind substance and provision to help those who follow.

At the end of life, Godly parents endeavor to leave something for their descendants. Through Christ, we are co-inheritors with Him of all we will ever need.

Ezekiel 45, 46

From chapter 40 on, Ezekiel describes activity that can only be explained as happening in the 1000 year reign of Christ, the Millennium. Scripture has much to say about this time period, although it is recognized by deduction … “this can only happen in the Millennium.”

We will be judged by our faithfulness to Christ during our lifetime. We will rewarded for that faithfulness during the Millennium after we will have returned with the Lord upon His Second Coming. (I’ll never forget a church friend who, when gazing at Carmel by the Pacific, declared, “This is where I hope to rule and reign with Christ!”)

Trust and Obey! Living a life of faithfulness to Christ is your best course. Fulfill your destiny. Go ALL OUT for Jesus. You won’t regret it.