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The Days In Which We Live – Week 23 / June 3rd
“Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed
up and sealed till the time of the end.”
Daniel 12:1-9
There is no doubt about the fact that the biblical idea about positive and good endings and hope is always in the context of very challenging times. (Habakkuk 3:17-19) This is because God is in control of our world and not the Devil and its plunge toward chaos and evil is all part of God’s plan of achieving His redemptive goals. Generally then, the Bible warns against heeding prophets who declare that good, wonderful and peaceful days are ahead. They are for the child of God but in the context of challenge, conflict and even chaos! (Ezekiel 13:10)
Daniel’s Eleventh and twelfth chapters are the “bedrock’ upon which Jesus builds His Olivet Discourse and upon which much of John’s Revelation is built. We would do well to heed it. It teaches us that Israel’s restoration is a ‘trigger” or catalyst for great upheaval. So, we are living in a time:
1. Of intense spiritual conflict (V1)
This conflict is initiated partly by the prayers of God’s people. (Daniel 10:12-14) We have weapons for the “right and left hand” but too often they lie unused and abandoned. (2Corinthians 6:7; 10:4)) At some point we have to get free from ourselves to more fully serve the interests of God’s Kingdom. (2Corinthians 5:15)
2. Of great upheaval on the earth (V1)
Jesus quoted this passage and applied it to the days just prior to His coming. (Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19-20) Paul warned that “fierce times’ were coming (1Timothy 3:1) and yet he was always joyful! (Philippians 4:4)
3. Of intense trouble for Israel (V1)
Israel’s journey of restoration requires difficulty and conflict. The purpose of God is to save or redeem Israel. The difficulties through which she will pass in the days to come will bring her to this place of redemption. God is determined to break her resistance to Him by the deep valley of troubles that she will go through. (Daniel 12:7)(Hosea 5:15-6:1-3) Sadly the wickedness of the Christian Church has contributed to her unbelief and blindness. What judgment awaits the visible Church?
4. Of deliverance and salvation (V1)
Israel will be delivered and saved! She will come out of “Jacob’s trouble” but God will make a full end of the nations. (Jeremiah 30:7; 10-11) The Church will live and rejoice by her faith!
5. Of resurrection and reward. (V2-3)
The Church is the ‘offspring’ of Israel (Revelation 12:17) and is the “Israel of God’ (Galatians 6:16) not in a replacement sense but in an enlargement sense. The spiritual Olive Tree of Israel is now bigger because believing gentiles have been grafted into it. (Romans 11:17-23) A day is soon coming when Israel will be grafted back into her own spiritual tree and we all will be resurrected and rewarded. (Romans 11:15) We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ! (Romans 14:10-12) This should make us all think more carefully about the way in which we are living our lives. (1Corinthians3:10-17)
6. Of the end (V4)
We know that it is the time of the end because Israel has been regathered to Jerusalem (Luke 21:24) and there has been an explosion of knowledge and travel. This is unprecedented and means that we must be consecrated, as pertaining to our hearts, dedicated, as pertaining to our work and focused, as pertaining to our love and worship of Jesus and joy in Him. Our best and most fruitful days are ahead!
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
and to present you faultless before the presence of
His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior Who
alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and
power now and forever. Amen.”
Jude 24-25
Malcolm Hedding
©Malcolm Hedding Ministries
2012Devotional Blog