I’d like to:

• read the New Testament in a year
• take more time over each chapter
• use weekends as catch-up points
• involve friends who have never read the bible
• Use facebook to discuss and post thoughts

Therefore, I’m going to give this bible-reading plan a try. It’s called Project 345, has a number of different ways to customise how you get the text (email/phone/rss feed etc/time of day etc…). The blurb follows:

Project 3:45 is a simple, effective way to read the entire New Testament in one year. The plan involves reading one chapter per day five days a week and uses the weekends to catch up if you missed any days. The plan was named for the average of the three minutes and forty five seconds that it takes to read one New Testament chapter (obviously this time will vary due to individual reading rates, chapter lengths, and etc., but you get the point). It’s never too late, start today!

The above plan will be suited to busy people, especially if you use a smartphone or email a lot during the day. It doesn’t come with notes, so I’d still recommend using A study bible like the excellent ESV study bible which I’ve been banging on about for the last two years, or a commentary or other daily notes.

If you’re interested in joining me in this read-through, please send me an email to bible@beatcave.co.uk, or, if you are already connected to me on facebook, message me via my facebook page (www.facebook.com/gregdeblieck) I’ll be posting up my thoughts as a way to encourage a bit of friendly and honest discussion. It will be hopefully more informal than the blog format.

My main aim is to encourage as many people as possible to read as much scripture as possible, so please do give it some thought for yourself in the next day or two.

Other things I’m thinking about too:

PRAYER
I’d also like to have a little extra time to develop my praying, because this is something I’ve felt I really struggle with. I bought a fantastic book called The Valley Of Vision which contains a lot of really rich puritan prayers, I’m going to try to work through that on a daily basis.
MEMORY VERSES
A few years ago I tried to learn 52 different “memory verses”, and got about 2/3 of the way through. It was hugely valuable to focus my restless attention on some of the deepest truths of scripture, and I’d like to start that process once again (same verses, but I hope to finish it this time!) It involves reading the verses out loud 10 times, then trying to repeat them 10 times until you can do it without a prompt. Hopefully the shorter daily readings will allow me enough time to accomplish this too.

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to the B2Y blog over the last 2 years, and I pray that 2012 will provide many fresh opportunities for you to discover the glories of God in scripture. Along with Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, I pray…

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

If you did manage to keep up, even with a few sections missing, congratulations to you! I am very pleased for you. The reward is in the reading, of course, and in building up a surer knowledge of the glorious character of God, that we can strengthen our faith and resolve. Milestones are useful though, to reflect on the nature of our trajectory as Christians, and our ultimate goal. How are we different now from two years ago? How has God changed us?

For me, the milestone is an opportunity to reflect on the value I have got from the reading: a regular daily tool in anchoring my thoughts and actions in the word of God. At the same time, I realise that I’ve got even more out of the read-through than the first time I did it, and it has inspired in me a renewed respect for the awesome depths of the scriptures. The more I read the bible, the more I see its supernatural unity. It is no work of mere human imagination, and realising this strengthens my reverence and trust in its words.

But I remember too that my reverence for it is still far less than it ought to be, and what I claim in principle (that these are the very words of God) I am slow to demonstrate in practice. There is far less unity between what I profess and what my actions show that I actually believe. “I believe, help my unbelief“. I am reminded of my own lack of discipline, knowledge and wisdom, and my tendency to wander headlong towards many kinds of sin, pride, laziness and ignorance… All this is held in check and transformed only by the grace of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

If reading the bible does not cause us to lose faith in ourselves and place it on God, then we have not understood its purpose. The inevitable (self?) satisfaction we have at reaching the end point should hopefully be balanced with an awareness of the nature and distance of the spiritual journey stretching out in front of us…

In all these things, I am satisfied, though, when I remember that my success doesn’t depend on my own achievements or abilities, but on Christ, who has done so much for all of us. Christ, who he is, what he has done, is doing, and will do:  this is the gospel. The critical, important news of Jesus Christ, affecting everyone, and offering a unique and unparalleled hope to all who respond to it.

For 2012, may our focus be on the glorious gospel of Christ: the gospel is the hope, anchor, power and joy of His church.  Let us joyfully continue to strive together, in God’s power, and not our own, to facilitate the glorious transformation that God is already working in us.

Merry Christmas!
Greg

P.S.In the next few days I hope to post up plans for what begins in January 2012…stay tuned!

Haggai’s two short chapters are part narrative, part prophecy and are eloquent testimony to the urgency with which he pursued his mission. It is the year 520, the death of the Persian king Cambyses has produced widespread revolt in the empire and Haggai seizes this opportunity to urge the people to recognise that a series of bad harvests are a mark of God’s displeasure that they have not pursued the rebuilding work and the current unrest is a sign to God’s people to ready themselves for a decisive intervention in history (c 2 vv 7-8).  It is not too much to claim that, without Haggai and Zechariah, the Temple might not have been rebuilt and the future of the Jewish people themselves would have been in doubt. Thank God that he raises up people of commitment and energy like Haggai and Zechariah at critical moments in human history!

Zechariah, whose fourteen chapters rival Hosea in length, was a younger contemporary of Haggai and chiefly concerned, like him, to see the Temple rebuilt. His prophecies, however, consist of visions, eight in number in the first six chapters, and in style and content we are reminded of Ezekiel. Furthermore, angels are now the intermediaries between God and humans, explaining to the recipient of the vision how it is to be understood. The dominant note of Zechariah’s prophecies is the restoration of prosperity and peace to Israel. Crucial for Christians is the promise of the Messiah, who will ensure the establishment of the Kingdom of God, which will embrace all nations. Chapter 9, verse 9, prefigures the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is this emphasis on the ultimate triumph of God’s goodness that makes Zechariah’s prophecies so relevant.

Malachi (the name means “my messenger”) is the last of the Twelve and his four chapters close the Old Testament. Though Hebrew Bible places The Writings after the Prophets, which means that I and II Chronicles conclude the Jewish Scriptures, Malachi is regarded as the last of the prophets and Jewish tradition declares that with him the Holy Spirit departed from Israel. The situation that called forth his prophecies is as follows. The Temple has been rebuilt, the generation of Haggai and Zechariah has passed away, but so also has their commitment and enthusiasm for the correct worship of the Living God. The priests were lax in their duties and the people careless in the payment of their dues. Belief wavered: “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge?”(c 3 v 14). Families were intermarrying with foreigners and losing their sense of religious identity. The book of Ezra is eloquent on this crisis. But though Malachi’s message is to recall the chosen people to their obligations towards Israel’s God, his concern is wider. He denounces vigorously the moral laxity of the time and pronounces a swift judgment on “sorcerers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not Me” (c 3 v 5). Most strikingly, c 1 v 11 proclaims that even offerings made by the nations to their gods are in reality made to the only true God, since idols have no existence. This incipient universalism leads on to the promise of the Messiah (c 3 v 1), identified with Elijah (c 4 v 5-6), who will “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers”. And so the last of the Twelve gathers up the key messages of all his predecessors, as he proclaims the sovereign holiness of the God Who rules all nations and Who will in His good time execute judgment, rescue the oppressed, cleanse the people and “restore all things”, for “I have loved you, saith the Lord” (c1 v 2).

Malcolm Green

Of Nahum we know nothing more than is contained in his three chapters, which are entirely focused on the certain destruction which Nineveh and the whole Assyrian empire will suffer because of their cruelty, rapacity and wickedness. Whereas other prophets had stressed Israel’s comparable sins or even regarded Assyria’s oppression as God instrument of punishment, there is nothing of that here. We may presume that he spoke these words of comfort (this is the root meaning of his name) to his fellow-countrymen when Assyria was trampling over everyone and seemed invincible. The message we can take from his graphic celebration of Assyria’s downfall is the assurance that God will ultimately put an end to injustice and oppression, though His timescale will often stretch human patience.

This impatience is in evidence right at the start of the eighth prophet, Habakkuk: “How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and You will not hear. I cry out to You of violence, and You will not save.” There follows a description of the advancing Babylonians (called Chaldeans) and the terrible destruction they left in their wake. Habakkuk takes his stand on his watchtower in the hope of receiving an answer. But God gives him a vision, which he is told will be fulfilled in God’s own good time. Retribution will indeed come, but not in accordance with our time-scale. “The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him”. This verse introduces Chapter 3, which is a poetic description of the appearance of the Lord God in majesty, reminiscent of Psalm 104. The Lord God will come to punish iniquity (vv 13-14) and deliver His people. The devastation of warfare, even when it results in the overthrow of the enemy, can be hugely damaging, but in two magnificent verses the prophet voices his confidence that God will bring us through. These verses (c 3 vv 17-18) have been taken up into our hymn book in Cowper’s lines: “Though vine nor fig tree neither Their wonted fruit should bear, Though all the fields be withered, Nor flock nor herd be there, Yet, God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice, For, still in God confiding, I cannot but rejoice.”  The Christian’s hope, of course, extends beyond this life, but Habakkuk’s confidence reminds us that we are no less under God’s protection here and now.

A little earlier in date than Nahum and Habakkuk, Zephaniah, like them, proclaims the destruction of all those whose immoral conduct is incompatible with the sovereignty of God’s holiness: “All those who are settled on their lees, that say in their heart: the Lord will not do any good, neither will He do evil” (c 1 v 12). This includes Assyria, Moab, the Philistines, even Ethiopians (c 2), but also Jerusalem, whose princes, judges, prophets and priests have profaned what is holy and done violence to the law (c 2 vv 3-4). But a faithful remnant will return from all the lands to which they have been scattered and they and all nations will acknowledge God’s sovereignty: “I will make you to be a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth” (c 3 v 20).

(Malcolm Green)

It’s easy to lose perspective when reading the prophets one chapter a day, so I strongly recommend using this post to refresh your memory for what you’ve (hopefully) just finished reading…

——-

The Twelve Prophets that conclude our Old Testament scripture are regarded as one book in Jewish tradition. They had come to be regarded as a single volume during the centuries that followed the downfall of the Babylonian empire and the return of leading Jews to rebuild the Temple and re-establish its worship.

These twelve prophets (sometimes called Minor Prophets in Christian tradition, by contrast with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, whose collected prophecies are much longer) span a time-scale of some four hundred years, from the reigns of Jeroboam II in Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and Uzziah in Judah (the Southern kingdom) in the eighth century to the Persian period in the fourth.

The series begins with Hosea, whose fourteen chapters make him the longest of the Twelve. Roughly contemporary with Amos and Micah, he lived at a time when the two Jewish kingdoms were enjoying a period of prosperity, which led to a concentration of ostentatious wealth in the hands of the upper class and a desire to imitate the culture and worship of the elites of the nations round about. Recurring themes in all the prophets are a denunciation of wealth and the oppression which the power of wealth permits and the abandonment of the pure worship of Israel’s God. The oracles of the prophets were repeated orally by their successors, written down and finally collected, though clearly not in chronological order. Indeed, the nature of biblical prophecy is not that it foretells the future in the manner of a fortune-teller but that it points to the underlying inevitability of weal or woe arising from God’s control of history.

Hosea’s prophecies fall into two divisions. The first three chapters are autobiographical, explaining how Hosea’s personal experience convinced him of the need to denounce the unfaithfulness of Israel towards their God. The next ten chapters predict the unavoidable consequences of Israel’s sin, the death and destruction which God will allow the nations to inflict upon her. But God will not allow His wrath to overcome His compassion (c 11 v 8): “ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim……….My heart is turned within Me…………I will not execute the fierceness of My anger.” He will bring good out of evil (c 14 vv 5-10): “I will heal their back-sliding, I will love them freely”. Israel shall once again “blossom as the vine” (c 14 v 8).

We shall find these themes again and again in the oracles of the Twelve. We can apply them to ourselves, as we meditate on how our sins have distressed God’s heart and how He uses the problems our sin inflicts upon us to bring us to repentance. Of this we can be sure: God’s love never fails and as Lord of history He will never allow evil to have the last word.

We move on to Joel, about whom much less is known, since no dates are given in his oracles. He is best known for the graphic description of the plague of locusts in c 2 and for the prophecy of the outpouring of God’s Spirit on all flesh, quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (Acts c 2).  The locust plague may be a metaphor for foreign invasion, but whether or not this is so, the main point is that true repentance is called fro (“Rend your heart and not your garments”, c 2 v 12) and then the Lord will have pity on His people (c 2 v 18), will pass judgment on their oppressors and “the mountains shall drop down sweet wine and the hill shall flow with milk” and “Judah will be inhabited for ever and Jerusalem from generation to generation” (c 4 vv 18,20).

Amos’ nine chapters are some of the most powerful in the whole of Scripture in their denunciation of the idle rich and their oppression of the poor. They fall naturally into three divisions: the fact that other nations were just as bad as Israel will not be an excuse (cc 1-2); prosperity is no evidence of righteousness or divine favour (cc 3-6); and the visions of disasters to come if the people do not repent (cc 7-9). But confident hope is always present and Amos ends with a magnificent picture of bliss to come: “Behold the days come, says the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt and I will turn the captivity of my people Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them” (c 9 vv 13-14).

Obadiah (his name means “Serving the Lord) gives us the shortest book in the Old Testament. It is a single chapter with a single theme: a prolonged curse against Edom. Why Edom (many other nations had wrought destruction on Israel)? The answer is that as descendants of Esau (Genesis c 36) the Edomites were related to the Jews and yet had assisted the Babylonians during the siege of Jerusalem which culminated in the destruction of the Temple and the end of the Jewish kingdom (vv 11-14). The epilogue, forecasting peace and prosperity for Israel, is couched in terms of their recovery of the land they had lost to Assyria and to Babylon. Edom shall suffer for their ill-fated plunder of the Holy City (v 13) and Jerusalem shall once again he holy (v 17). As we read Obadiah, we should concentrate not so much on the destruction of Edom as the promise that under God’s dispensation, wrongs will be righted and His promises cannot fail.

Jonah is the best known of all the Twelve on account of his adventure with the great fish. His story, for that is what it is, rather than a prophecy, is nowadays generally thought to be a post-exilic composition, loosely attached to the name of a prophet from the eighth century, Jonah son of Amittai (2 Kings, c 14 v 25). Jonah is bidden by God to go and preach repentance to Nineveh, capital of Assyria. He refuses to co-operate and takes a ship to Tarshish at the other end of the Mediterranean world. But God pursues him, raises a storm and prompts the crew to throw Jonah overboard. From the inside of the fish Jonah repeats a devotional psalm, which implies that he is ready now to do what God asks. The fish vomits Jonah on to dry land and he sets off for Nineveh. There his prophecy of destruction has a remarkable effect, the Ninevites repent and God stayed His hand. Jonah, though, was not pleased. He addresses God in indignation: I know You are a compassionate God and wouldn’t destroy Nineveh, wasn’t I right to try to refuse to have any part in it? So he sat and sulked under a tree. But God caused the tree to wither in the night, so that the next day Jonah had no shade. Jonah now realises that destruction can have unpleasant consequences and God has the last word, pointing to the innocence of many of the Ninevites and justifying His compassion towards their city. The themes of repentance and divine mercy we have met before, but Jonah illustrates man’s frequent dislike of God’s compassion (at least, for other people) and the contrast with God’s otherness (see Isaiah c 55 v 8)

Micah of Moresheth, a town near the Philistine border, was a younger contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, prophesying during that period of material prosperity which led to so much social and economic oppression. Particularly noteworthy are the promise of universal peace in Chapter 4 vv 1-4 (“to ploughshares they shall beat their swords and study war no more”); the Messianic prophecy in Chapter 5 (the Son of David is to come from Bethlehem); and what is perhaps the most magnificent of all prophetic utterances, God’s controversy with Israel. This last passage (c 6, vv 1-8) pictures God as Plaintiff and Israel as defendant. How often have we been ungrateful for what God has done for us? Like Israel in this passage, when we come to repentance, we ask “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord” With gifts or costly sacrifices? No, says God, you know what I desire: to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God”. Micah’s prophecies close with a re-affirmation of faith in the pardoning God, who retains not His anger for ever but drowns our sins in the depths of the sea. We need this assurance that our sins are forgiven, gone, never to be seen or talked of again. This is the God we trust, “Who has shown faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as He promised our forefathers in days of old”.

You’re surrounded by evil people who commit great atrocities of war, greed and avarice. God’s fury is coming to them. Are you pleased to hear that news?
Now, your wayward brother, Judah…Those people have wandered away from what God explicitly taught them, just like their fathers. God is going to light a fire amongst them. Are you pleased to hear this?

Now…What about yourself?
You have experienced victories over your enemies recently. You have money and you prosper. But don’t be so quick to equate prosperity with blessing, or with divine approval.
Ask yourselves: how did we come by this wealth? Was it by obeying God’s laws of old? The sword of justice cuts both ways.
Don’t you know what God hates? He hates idolatry. He hates to see people flagrantly abusing the gift of sex. He hates injustice and self-satisfied iniquity. You witnessed God’s judgement on other nations for these things, but He saved you and showed you great patience. You have been a blessed people. But you have thrown that blessing in His face, and he will bring you low. Repent! Do you think He takes pleasure in seeing this happen to you?

You think that because of your name, the tides of invading empires have receded from you? Look farther out, you shortsighted fool, and see the tidal wave that is growing. God have given you ample warning. The tide? It obeys God! And it will sweep in and uproot you. Everything you enjoyed, everything you took pride in will be swept away. Everyone who thought they were secure will find themselves destroyed. Perhaps then you will see God for who he really is, in his holiness, standing beside His altar.

But look Israel, where the flood waters have receded, a verdant land will grow. God is a good God, and has a purpose which will not be upset by your failures.

Israel, be the people God intended you to be. Long for the day when your sins will be behind you, once and for all.

The language is poetic, the text is difficult to date exactly, little is known about the author…It is no surprise that the exact interpretation of this book is the subject of some scholarly debate. For more on the interpretative challenges of Joel, the ESV study bible offers a more thorough overview here.

The prophetic ideas of judgement and salvation are central, and Joel expresses the idea that God will judge, but he will also protect and deliver His people in the midst of devastation and catastrophe.

How does a nation survive if the Holy God is in their midst? Where Holiness is, there is judgement and wrath at sin.  Joel uses powerful pictures to express the gravity and extent of the problems that sin creates for us.

But because God is one who keeps his covenants, He offers grace and hope for the repentant: He will be a “stronghold” and a “refuge” for His people. (3:16-17)

Here is one of my favourite songs, from one of my favourite songwriters, Andrew Peterson.

Well every time I lay in the bed beside you,
Hosea, Hosea,
I hear the sound of the streets of the city.
My belly growls like a hungry wolf
And I let it prowl till my belly’s full.
Hosea, my heart is a stone.

So please believe me when I say I’m sorry,
Hosea, Hosea,
you loveable, gullible man.
I tell you that my love is true
Till it fades away like a morning dew.
Hosea, leave me alone.

Here I am in the Valley of Trouble.
Just look at the bed that I’ve made:
Badlands as far as I can see.
Well there’s no one here but me,
Hosea.

Well I stumbled and fell in the road on the way home,
Hosea, Hosea.
I lay in the brick street like a stray dog.
You came to me like a silver moon
With the saddest smile I ever knew.
Hosea carried me home again.
Home again.

You called me out to the Valley of Trouble,
Just to look at the mess that I’ve made,
A barren place where nothing can grow.
One look and my stone heart crumbled–
It was a valley as green as jade.
I swear it was the color of hope.
You turned a stone into a rose,
Hosea, Hosea.

Hosea

Well I sang and I danced like I did as a young girl,
Hosea, Hosea.
I am a slave and a harlot no more.
You washed me clean like a summer rain
And you set me free with that ball and chain.
Hosea, I threw away the key.

I’ll never leave.
Hosea, Hosea.

Daniel

What constitutes a betrayal? The book of Daniel begins as a historical narrative which wrestles with that question, and the issues of God’s judgement, and His saving power. It recounts the experience of the conquest of the Jewish people by the Babylonians – a temporary judgement, and a time of discipline through divine indignation – from the point of view of four princes of Israel. Chastened by the experience of exile, Daniel and his companions drew the line at disobedience. The dietary laws of the Jews were non-negotiable for them because they did not wish to be defiled in God’s sight. To modern eyes, this looks like hair-splitting. After all, their small country was enslaved in exile, and the Jews allowed their most noble sons to be assimilated into Babylonian culture through education. Why not just eat the food their new masters provided? Was it worth causing a fuss to preserve an identity that had already passed? Surely this was the end of Israel? Daniel is the story of why purity prevails. It is a tale of heaven and earth.

The way that God gave Daniel and his schoolboy companions victory in this seemingly small area is the precursor to a greater story: the faithfulness of men faced with death. The most memorable parts of Daniel are its great set-pieces. The account of the fiery furnace is a great example of faith which does not count the cost, as is the similar narrative of how Daniel faced the den of lions. Both incidents point to God’s faithfulness, and remind us of Jesus, who not only faced the prospect of harm, but died so that he could rescue his people from their faithlessness. Jesus features in the prophetic part of the book too, as

“ one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.”

There are many highlights in the parts of the story which take place on earth. Perhaps the most dramatic section of the historical part of the book records the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar. The king asks a rhetorical question: who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands? But he receives one of the great answers in all the bible:

“…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

The words “but if not” are truly amazing. Our God is able, but even if he does not save us… These men have grasped the value of God, and have placed it above their own lives. They are in the hands of the Ancient of Days, described by Daniel later in the book:

“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.
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.”

The intervention of God in Nebuchadnezzar’s life, through dreams and interpretation brings the king to this pass:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honoured him who lives forever,
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”

Besides these dramatic vignettes, and strange role reversals, Daniel narrates the fall of empires through his account of the handwriting on the wall, and the accession of Darius and Cyrus. The first section of the book ends with the words “So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” This prosperity is explained with in the context of the experience of his repentance and faith. The cataclysm of history is a metaphor for the deeper reality of faith and faithlessness.

The prophecies which make up the remainder of the book are hard to understand. Indeed they are so hard, that at several points Daniel himself is unaware of their meaning. This, by the way, is a great reason to suppose that they are trustworthy. The first and second visions are explained, but Daniel even says: “And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king’s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.”

Whether or not the prophecies are clear, their thematic drift is intelligible, and the interpretation given within the book is coherent and straightforward. The important thing about them is that they have been given. That is, they explain what they explain.(Who knows what we will one day understand of them?)

The ninth chapter is a prayer of repentance and faith, which is tremendously encouraging, as, in the next chapter, Daniel is called: “man greatly loved” and is told not to be afraid. Why should he be unafraid? The context is visions of God in judgement, and the Son of Man with all authority. Fear is absolutely reasonable: if anyone has offended that great goodness, how can they stand? The reason given is that “from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.” This is a good word, and worth taking note of. God our Savior, desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

If you get into the prophetic section, then like as not, with Daniel you will say “I heard, but I did not understand.” Daniel asked: “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He was told, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” Bits of the affairs of heaven spilled over into the earth.

Edgar de Blieck