Daniel 9:1-4
Daniel reads the law and the prophets and begins to truly understand. Daniel gives us a time of when he began to have this understanding, the first year of Darius’ reign. This was later in his life, after decades of living under not one, but two, foreign powers, living a life completely dedicated to the Lord and looking towards the restoration of Israel.
He reads the law and the prophets, more specifically Jeremiah, and God gives him revelation of what Jeremiah was saying. The exile would be for 70 years, then the exiles would return to Jerusalem.
While this seems simple, I believe two main principles are evident here. First, Daniel dedicated himself to the reading of the scriptures and to meditate upon what the prophets were saying, seeking God’s heart on what they meant for his time.
Do we do this? Do we read the scriptures dilligently, seeking to know what God is saying to us? Being involved in open meetings as I have for years, the lack of individual study and meditation in the scriptures becomes evident in some people. Some people don’t have anything to bring to the Body or the meeting because they haven’t been disciplined enough with their own time to hear God teach them through his anointing within them.
But we also have people who never have anything of their own to say. Some people speak in a meeting, but they are only repeating what someone else has said, not what God has specifically told them. Of course repeating someone else’s teaching or heart has its place in the Spirit, but there is a problem if that’s ALL you do … because that means you, conscious or no, see another as your mediator and priest, and therefore a danger exists that you place that other believer on a pedestal they do not belong.
One of the main foundations of the New Covenant includes the ability to personally, individually and collectively, hear the voice of God without another mediator. Yes, some are gifted as teachers and prophets and have those responsibilities and functions within the Body, so they will naturally say more, but that doesn’t negate your responsiblity to hear the voice of God by yourself. In fact, a true teacher or prophet will only be satisfied if they can lead a congregation to the point where they hear God independently from a professional or designated leader or minister.
So much to say about that, but I’ll leave it there.
Second principle here is that, while Daniel was one of only three governors in the most powerful nation at the time, the Persian Empire, his mind was focused on the restoration and position of Israel. At this point, Israel had no king, no borders, no army, no officials; Jerusalem was broken down, burned, looted. But Daniel didn’t allow that to discourage him or dissuade him from setting his heart on Israel and Jerusalem.
And so God gave him revelation on THAT.
And Daniel’s revelation was not just knowledge, but revelation that was timely and specific to his call and what he was about.
Are we more concerned with the future of the Kingdom of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, the spiritual Israel, than with the future of America or other worldly nations? Do we read the scriptures with a heart to know what the Kingdom of God is all about and the promises entailed within? Do we really seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and believe He will add everything else we may need? Is our focus on restoring the Old Jerusalem or do we put our hope in the New Jerusalem being revealed in the earth, the Jerusalem from above?
When that’s your heart, God will give you revelation about it. I guarantee it.
Thoughts?
Peace.
We can also observe that Daniel had this desire for the restoration of Israel as he searched the Scriptures which reflect it as God’s desire. Do we truly search the Scriptures enough to know what His desires are, that they become ours as well?