SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2013
7:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Insight: Learning God’s Plan PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel 9:1-2
Message of the
verses: In the first year of Darius
the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of
the Chaldeans- 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the
books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to
Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem,
namely, seventy years.”
The God of the
Word: This is our second sub-point
under the first main point in our outline that comes from Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on the book of Daniel.
I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating,
and that is that when you see the word “LORD” in all capital letters it is the
covenant name of God in the Scriptures and we know it as Jehovah. This is the first time it is used in the book
of Daniel and it is not used too many times in this book, and only in this
chapter (verses 2-3, 10, 13-14, 20). Dr.
Wiersbe points out “But we must remember that, at that time, the Lord was
calling the nation of Israel ‘Lo-Ruhama—not loved’ and ‘Lo-Ammi—not my people’
(Hosea 1) because Israel had broken His holy covenant. When you are outside the covenant, you can’t
sincerely use His covenant name and expect to receive covenant blessings.”
What was the change in this chapter that Daniel could use
this covenant name for God? As we go
through this first section of this chapter which covers verses 1-19 we will see
the great prayer of Daniel confessing his sins and the sins of his people
Israel, and this is the kind of prayer that our God wants to hear from all of
His children. It is a model intercessory
prayer, as we will see when we work our way through it. Let us look at a promise from the Word of God
in the covenant that God gave to Israel about forgiveness, something Daniel is
going to pray about: “40 ’If they confess their iniquity
and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they
committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me-
41 I also was acting with hostility
against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies-or if their
uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their
iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with
Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with
Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.” This is exactly what Daniel did in this
prayer and so once again we can see that Daniel was certainly a student of God’s
Word, and also a man who faithfully prayed to the Lord. Daniel would have also had in mind the prayer
that Solomon gave at the dedication of the first temple built for the Lord in
Jerusalem where he prayed “33 "When
Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned
against You, if they turn to You again and confess Your name and pray and make
supplication to You in this house, 34
then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and
bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers. 35 "When the heavens are shut up and there
is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this
place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,
36 then hear in heaven and forgive the
sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way
in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land, which You have given
Your people for an inheritance.” We
learned that in Daniel chapter six that Daniel was praying with his window open
towards Jerusalem which is what Solomon spoke of in this prayer.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: In the book of
Romans Paul uses the term “may it never be,” a number of times and this term is
the strongest Greek negative meaning that there is no way it is going to
happen. He says that to those would say
on one occasion that because we are believers in Jesus Christ that we can
continue to sin so that grace may abound.
This is not true, for even though God’s grace is more than sufficient to
cover our sins because of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross we do
not have a license to sin. Daniel was
praying to God in Daniel chapter nine because his heart was broken over his
sins and the sins of his people Israel.
Daniel felt awful about his sins and the sins of his people and that is
why he was seeking forgiveness from the Lord.
When a person is born again, or born from above (John 3) they receive a
new spirit, a spirit that always wants to do right, however we still have the
old nature, the nature we were born with that came from Adam, and this nature
wants to do wrong and so there is a conflict in our being. On the one hand we always want to do right
and on the other hand we are being pulled down by our old nature. Paul speaks of this very thing in the seventh
chapter of the book of Romans. Paul went
through this same kind of conflict that all believes go through. As believers we have to feed the new nature,
the nature God gave us at our conversion, and we feed it with the Word of God,
and we yield to it when times of temptations come our way so that we can
overcome the temptations that are being given to us. Look at Matthew chapter four to see this in
action as Jesus defeated the temptations that Satan gave Him at one of His
weakest moments after a forty day fast.
Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy three times to defeat these
temptations. Now we know that it is
impossible for Him to sin, but what He did was give us a great example on how
to overcome temptations. We have learned
as we study the book of Daniel that he was a man of prayer and a man who
studied the Word of God and they go together.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to read and study and memorize the
Word of God and to pray.
Memory verses for the
week: 1 John 5:13a, and Titus 3:5a
These things I have written…so
that you may know that you have eternal life.
(NASB)
Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. (KJV)
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Faith” (Ephesians 6:16).
Today’s Bible Question: “What was the only sign Jesus would give to
those seeking a sign?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/18/2013 8:38 AM
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