by Pastor Cecil | Apr 6, 2009 | Daniel
Daniel 9:25-26a
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.”
I must confess that I am not a mathematician. I have often wished I could return to my early grades and grasp the fundamentals in order to be able to comprehend the beauty of mathematics. I can’t do that, so I will allow others to ply their skill.
In 1895, Sir Robert Anderson, a gifted biblical scholar and mathematician, was head of Scotland Yard. He wrote an article in which he calculated the amount of days necessary to fulfill this prophecy in Daniel 9. It came to 173,880 days.
It has always been interesting to me personally, when God’s clock concerning this prophecy started. In was March 14, 445 B.C. My birthday is March 14th, but contrary to what some may think, it does not go back to 445 B.C.
Here is where we need to fasten our spiritual seatbelts and observe the fantastic beauty of God’s intricate timing. Starting with 3/14/445 B.C. and going 173,880 days we come to April 6, 32 A.D. Do you know what day that was? The first “Palm Sunday” when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praises of His followers.
Throughout this week I would like to examine the deeper meaning of what this week of weeks, means to the true believer of Jesus Christ. Let us begin by meditating on the fantastic fulfillment of prophecy given to Daniel over ninety years before the decree was issued on March 14, 445 B.C. WOW!!!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 6, 2008 | Daniel
Daniel 6:10
“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”
I have a question for us: “What do we require before we give thanks to the Lord?” Let me clarify that question. Do we need something good or pleasant to happen before we give thanks to the Lord?
Daniel was a very wise man and an old man. He was no doubt in his eighties or beyond when we read today’s Scripture. His wisdom and judgment caused the king to elevate him to a position of authority along with two others. Now the king planned to set him over the entire kingdom.
Jealousy arose in the other leaders who plotted how they could get rid of Daniel. They knew that he was so blameless and upright that they could only discredit him by something to do with his worship of his God, Yahweh.
They convinced King Darius to issue a decree that could not be altered; that no one could worship any god or man for 30 days except Darius. He must have thought Daniel was in agreement and signed the decree. By doing so, he unknowingly condemned Daniel to the lion’s den. You know that story, or you may want to read all of Daniel 6 to refresh your memory.
Here is the point I would like to make. With a visit to the lion’s den in the balance, Daniel prayed as was his usual practice. And what was his usual practice? Daniel prayed three times a day; on his knees; giving thanks to Yahweh and asking Him for help.
I want to stop right there. I could go into more detail but as you know I am having trouble with my computer and I am under a time constraint. But I want to challenge each of us with this passage:
Do you have a consistent prayer life?
How would you pray if you knew that to pray would possibly mean that your life was on the line?
Would your enemies know that the only fault they could find in you was in the way you worshiped the Lord?
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today and be a blessing!
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 16, 2008 | Daniel, Job
Job 2:3
“Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited Me against him to ruin him without reason.”
Daniel 6:4-5
” – – the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, ‘We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.'”
Here are two godly men who demonstrated character and integrity in spite of trial and suffering. We are living in a day when it seems that integrity is so seldom demonstrated that we do not even know the meaning. My major professor in graduate school was a stickler on the meaning of words. In memory of Dr. Maloof, I checked in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary and found three descriptive words to describe integrity: Incorruptibility, Soundness, and Completeness. It also gave the word “honesty” as a synonym.
Job is thought to be the oldest book in the Bible. Job himself was a man who was the priest of his family and dedicated to the Lord God. Jesus especially spoke of the heart as being the important element in worship. The external customs and duties were of no value if the heart was not right with God. We might say here, that we can fool people fairly easily, but we can never fool God. When we read that God spoke words of praise to Satan concerning Job’s integrity, He knew what was in Job’s heart.
What would God say to Satan about you or me? Would He delight in reminding Satan of our heart being blameless and upright? Would He say that we have a reverential fear of Him that pleases him? Would He say that we shun the evil that is so prevalent all around us? What would God say about your integrity? When no one is watching – when we are away from the prying eyes of family and friends, what is the level of our integrity?
Daniel was taken into captivity as a young man. He demonstrated integrity by not wanting to eat and drink that which Nebuchadnezzar’s stewards served. He was never known to compromise his beliefs, even when it may have seemed easier to go with the flow. He was answerable to the God of the universe, and that was far more important than any earthly monarch.
In the passage from Daniel 6, these administrators and satraps (governors), tried everything they could to find a lack of integrity which they could use to discredit him. They could find nothing that could be the basis of accusation against him. Hey! There were over 100 of these snoops trying to find any fault in his personal life or in his official work for the king, and they could find none. They finally concluded that the only way they would find any charges against him was in connection with the law of his God.
That just leaves me breathless! If we had a pack of investigators going through every scrap of paper in our wastebasket, our computer memory, the words that we spoke, actions that we took or the people we saw, would they find incriminating evidence against us?
Is our life a life of integrity? Do we live in a way that is pleasing to God and without violating moral absolutes as presented in the Word of God? The word is integrity!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and become a real blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
