Do we know what God is up to? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 16:23,

"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."

Jesus spoke these words to Peter. It just follows the account of when Peter acknowledged Jesus as being the Messiah, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:16. With this acknowledgement Jesus told Peter he was blessed, and told him he would give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, three short verses later, Jesus rebukes Peter.

Why was it that Jesus rebuked Peter? It was Peter's response to Jesus when Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he would be put to death, (and then raised to life.) Peter responded with "Never, Lord!"

It is apparent that Peter did not want to see Jesus suffer and die. I'm sure he wanted the best for Jesus, and responded in a way that reflected his lack of understanding all Jesus came to do. He was limited in his understanding of the things of God, the agenda of God and the intentions of God.

I have to ask myself today, do I understand the things of God? Do I understand his agenda and his intentions? If I don't, I may find myself doing a disservice to the advancement of the kingdom of God, the very thing Jesus came to engage in when he first came to planet Earth, the very thing Peter began to oppose, unknowingly I suspect.

How many people today really understand what God is doing in the world today? How many understand God's intentions and his agenda? Based on what we see coming out of a lot of churches these days, I suspect very few.

May we all study our Bibles and become knowledgeable of the things of God, of his agenda, of what he is doing today in the world - we don't want to find ourselves working against those things as Peter found himself doing in Matthew' account.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Lord versus religious leaders - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 12:13-14,

"Then he [Jesus] said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus."

Here is a shocking scenario holding a comparison that could not be more black and white, or should I say black versus white? Jesus is busy healing the infirm, but the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, are busy trying to find a way to kill him - because he healed a man when they thought he shouldn't. The Son of God healing, the religious leaders killing.

Leave it up to religious leaders to assume the position and the notion that they are the authoritative ones that should be consulted... on just about anything.

God is seeking to heal, to restore. The religious often seek to destroy. Why is that? Religious leaders have always enjoyed a standing in the community. They have usually assumed respectability and power, and have often profited financially from the perch they assume. Nothing could be more of a threat than to have someone come along and challenge all that - even when it might be the Son of God.

Today we have "religious leaders" who covet the success of other churches in drawing in the community. Monstrous edifices (stadiums, etc.) have been procured or built to establish the kind of one-up-man-ship that brings a supposed mark of success "in ministry". Woe to the young believer in a congregation who might suggest hearts are not in the right place as many are exploited and used to maintain the status and influence these religious leaders might seek to retain - their trophies of massive congregations, massive programs, massive facilities, doing massive things "for the Lord."

It was the very same thing back in Jesus' day. The religious leaders felt threatened by his displays of love, mercy and kindness. They felt threatened by his authoritative teaching that conflicted with their own personal lives and jeopardized their positions in the community. Jesus' acts and his teaching made them look small. It placed them in a position where their sinful natures began to betray them as they felt threatened.

How wonderful God invites us to his family, not through religious leaders, but through none other than his one and only Son, Jesus Christ. I have little use of religious leaders (not that there are not many wonderful ones, because I do feel there are many), but I do have a whole lot of use for Jesus Christ. He is the One I want. He is the One I need. He is the One that died for me. He is the One who has made a way for me into God's family. He is the One I worship and I love.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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Only a few make it into heaven? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 7:13-14,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Here is an astonishing reality: most people will find themselves in hell for an eternity. Only just a few will enter into blissful eternal life! Why is that?

It is not because God does not love everyone and wants everyone to join his family, "he [the Lord] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9b. Also, "This [prayer] is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3.

Why is it only a few will make it into God's family? It is not because Jesus did not die on the cross to pay for their sins, "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:2. Jesus has made a way for everyone and anyone to be welcomed into God's family.

Why then only a few? Perhaps the best answer to that is the one Jesus provided to Nicodemus in their nocturnal meeting, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." John 3:19-21.

After declaring to Nicodemus that "God so loved the world" and the he "gave his one and only Son" and that we enter into his family by simply placing our faith in him, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.", he told Nicodemus that many simply choose to cling to their sin rather than turn to God through Jesus Christ.

Most love their sin and prefer to cling to it. Only a few are willing to turn from their sin to embrace Jesus Christ in faith. It is a choice each and every one of us must make for ourselves. 

Eternity hangs in the balance!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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Throwing myself at the feet of God's mercy - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 5:48,

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Here is a command from Jesus to his disciples as he taught them in his "sermon on the mount." 

"Be perfect. therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Where does that leave me?

I am not now perfect, I have never known myself to be perfect for more than a period of a few minutes, and I honestly don't see perfection in the near term for me here in this life. It is not that I don't want to be perfect, but I have a sinful nature within me that still abides, and, as a result, I can't claim perfection.

I look forward to a time when I will hopefully reach a degree of perfection in the resurrection of life, where my old sin nature will have been left behind. Until then I am a man who struggles at times. Because of this, I am wholly and entirely dependent upon the mercy of God. I need the salvation God provides because I simply cannot achieve that state of perfection on my own. Instead of receiving acknowledgment and reward for being a perfect person, I can only look to God for his forgiveness, his mercy, his kindness and his love, a love that I do not deserve.

I am convinced the reason Jesus told his followers to be as perfect as God in heaven, was to help them recognize their shortcomings, their need of God's mercy, their need of God's provision for their sins in his courtroom. After all, why would a person reach out for a savior if they have no felt sense of need for being saved? We need to know we have need of God's forgiveness of our sins through the gospel before we seek that forgiveness. When we realize our sinful condition we can but only cry out to God for his forgiveness, his mercy.

When it comes to God's commands, I am reminded of what Paul had to say, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." Romans 3:20. 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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Amazing prophecies of the coming Messiah - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 2:4-5,

"When he [King Herod] had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written...'"

A great number of prophecies were fulfilled when the Son of God appeared two millenia ago. A great number of prophecies, likewise, await their fulfillment as we look to the future event of his second coming to establish his kingdom, his family, here on earth.

Here in Matthew 2:4-5, we are introduced to Micah's prophecy of the location where the Son of God was to come from, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." 

The Son of God was born to Joseph and Mary as Jesus the Christ, exactly as foretold in Micah's prophecy - as well as in many other prophecies God had given about him in earlier times.

Other prophecies in this second chapter of Matthew's gospel include Hosea 11:1, in reference to the flight to Egypt to escape King Herod that Joseph made with Mary and Jesus. Also, Jeremiah 31:15, regarding the slaughter of male boys by Herod in his insane effort to eliminate the baby Jesus as a threat to his throne. Another reference is made to "the prophets" that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. 

These are all prophecies that were announced hundreds of years before Mary gave birth to Jesus. Where some find faith hard to come by, it is astonishing to me the failure of so many to heed the clues God has left us embedded within the writings of his prophets.

In the desperate effort of many who prefer to cling to their sin rather than embrace Jesus Christ in faith, prophetic references and the fulfillment of them have been under assault for years. So called scholars, professors, teachers and preachers have plied their academic skills to discredit these prophecies. Yet, nevertheless, here they stand as the Word of God, and will continue to stand long after these "experts" have all fallen.

How wonderful to have God's authenticating prophecies! How wonderful to be on the winning team!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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Our "interactive" God - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Jonah 3:10,

"When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them [the Ninevites] the destruction he had threatened."

God had decided to have Nineveh overthrown. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." 3:4. We read in Jonah 1:2 that the city had become consumed with wickedness and now God had decided to destroy it. He first sent his prophet, Jonah, to tell them. However, the people of Nineveh embrace the word of the Lord in faith, "The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." Jonah 3:5. Thus, the Lord changed his mind and did not destroy the city, "he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened."

I am reminded of another passage in Jeremiah 18:7-10, "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." Surely, Nineveh is a parade-ground real-life example of this very thing.

God is interactive. He responds to the things we think, do and say, both on a national level as well as on a personal level. Our whole concept of praying, interceding with God, asking him for the various things we do, asking for his forgiveness, is all predicated upon the reality that what we think, do and say can prompt the Lord to do what he might otherwise not.

Fascinating that our Creator God reacts and responds to us, isn't it?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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Never beyond his reach - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Jonah 2:2,

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry."

Jonah had run from the Lord. The Lord had given him an assignment, as a prophet, to go and preach to the Gentile city of Nineveh. Instead of going, he ran from the Lord. He boarded a ship and en route to Tarshish he was thrown overboard by the sailors when a storm hit the boat. While in the sea, a huge fish swallowed him up and there he was stuck for three days.

I can't think of a way to feel further from the Lord. Rejecting the Lord and running from him, thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and stuck for three days! That is finding yourself about as far removed from the Lord in this life as it can possibly feel.

And yet from this dark removed place Jonah prayed. Jonah acknowledged his prayer would rise to the Lord in his holy temple, 2:7. We are told the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto the dry ground, which it did.

I am reminded that we can never find ourselves beyond the reach of the Lord. No matter where it is we go, or what we have done, we are never in a place we cannot call out to God.

Along with David, any of us can call out to the Lord, "This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles." Psalm 34:6. 

How wonderful is that?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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The book of life - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 12:1b-2,

"At that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the
book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth
will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting
contempt."

In his vision, Daniel is told of a coming day when the angel, Michael,
"will arise." When he does, it will be a time of distress, "such has
not happened from the beginning of nations until then." Verse 1. It
will be a terrible time. This day, of course, has not yet happened. We
look for it in the future from our vantage point today as we await the
next things God has for mankind.

Daniel is told that those who have died will be raised back to life:
some to "everlasting life" and some to "shame and everlasting
contempt." Those who achieve everlasting life will be those who have
accrued God's own righteousness to themselves by choosing to embrace
him in faith. This is according to the gospel we are provided in the
Scriptures.

I am reminded of what Paul said in Romans 3:22-24, "This righteousness
is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

However, all others, those who have rejected Jesus Christ are
mentioned in Revelation 20:12, "Anyone whose name was not found
written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

May we all find our names in the Lamb's Book of Life!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send
me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are
receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just
respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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"I tell you the truth..." - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 11:2,

"Now then, I tell you the truth..."

The angel speaks to Daniel by telling him "what is written in the Book of Truth", Daniel 10:21.
 
The book of Daniel was probably completed by about 530 BC. The accounts provided in chapter eleven are astounding in accuracy and astonishing in detail of many events that took place during the following centuries, (during the inter-testamental period), with pointers to the end of this age.

Those with an appreciation for history will find Darius the Mede, Xerxes I, Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I Soter, Seleucus I Nicator, Berenice (daughter of Ptolemy II Philadelphus), Ptolemy III Euergetes, Seleucus II Callinicus, Cleopatra I, Antiochus IV Epiphanes and many others. Together with the personages noted are details of international intrigue and power, the stuff of history.

Because these events were already recorded in a book centuries prior to their taking place (in the book of Daniel) and also recorded in a book (the Book of Truth) most likely prior to the beginning of time, some thoughts come to mind.

Heaven knows all that will happen on planet earth before it ever transpires. That is not to say that the peoples of earth do not have the ability to exercise their will to make events happen, just that what will happen and what they will do is already known and recorded ("what is written in the Book of Truth"). God is not surprised by anything.

This points to the reality that God and the environs of heaven exist outside the dimensions of time and space. Hard for me to wrap my mind around that, but nevertheless, it does. Therefore, all things can be documented accurately, both historically and in the future relative to whatever age we live in.

Since God's existence transcends time and space, and since he will never be surprised by anything - that there will never be anything he is unaware of from eternity to eternity, I can take great confidence in the things we face as we all look forward. Not only does God love us, have our very best interests in his heart, he is fully knowledgeable and equipped to handle whatever comes our way.

Daniel... what an astonishing book! So many lessons to learn from its pages!
 
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
 
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
 
Trevor Fisk
 

Terror while encountering the heavenly - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 10:7-8, 15-17,

"I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless...While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, 'I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.'"

I can't help but notice Daniel's great fear and anguish this vision caused him. Daniel was a man who was "highly esteemed" in the court of God, verse 19. He was not unacquainted with visions and dreams the Lord had given him, and conversations with angels. Yet, as in other circumstances, when confronted with a heavenly visit, it caused him this fear, and had caused his companions to flee in an overwhelming terror.

Why this reaction? From the pages of Scripture we learn that this is not at all uncommon. I recall Isaiah's reaction when he was confronted with a vision from heaven, "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" Isaiah 6:5.

On the mount of transfiguration, upon hearing the voice from heaven, the disciples who attended Jesus had a similar reaction, "When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified." Matthew 17:6.

When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to receive the tablets containing the ten commands, we are told, "When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.'" Exodus 20:18-19.

When a man, any man, has contact with the pristine righteousness and holiness that marks God's presence, his sinful state recoils in an inexpressible fear and terror. We are told God, "alone is immortal and ... lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see." 1 Timothy 6:16. I am reminded of what God told Moses, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." Exodus 33:20.

No wonder visits from heaven elicit such terror, fear and trembling! 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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A man of Scripture, a man of prayer - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 9:1-3,

"In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes."

Daniel had given himself to the studying of, the reading of, the meditating in, the ruminating in the Scriptures. While a member of the Jewish community in captivity in Babylon, he read in Jeremiah's prophecy, Jeremiah 25:11-12, that the period of the captivity he was caught in was coming to a close. This prompted him to pray in fasting, sackcloth and ashes for the nation of Israel, and during his prayer, while in the midst of it, Gabriel was dispatched to bring a message to Daniel.

Daniel's prayer is remarkable in how he identified himself with the sinful rebellion of the Israelites as he pleaded with God for his forgiveness for the nation. "We have sinned and done wrong", "We have been wicked and have rebelled", "we have turned away from your commands and laws." "We have not listened to your prophets..." Daniel 9:5-6. Daniel is one of the individuals in Scripture where no record of any wrong-doing is recorded, unlike Abraham, unlike Jacob, unlike David, etc. While we can be assured he was a sinful man as all mankind is, he is not presented to us in his sinful condition. And, yet, here he is, identifying with all the guilt, all the sinful rebellion, all of the wickedness of the nation in his appeal to God on behalf of the nation. A man of true humility, a man whose interests were not preoccupied with the self-absorption so many prayers today are filled with. As the NIV Study Bible points out, a prayer filled with humility, worship, confession, as well as petition (request).

Gabriel reveals to Daniel there will be a series of weeks of years relating to the rebuilding of the temple, the coming of Jesus Christ, and events to transpire at the end of this age (heralding the coming of the Son of God for the second time to set up his rule from Jerusalem.)

I can't help but note it was Daniel's devotion to the Scriptures, taking them a face value, studying them diligently, and then through heartfelt and honest prayer of faith that he had his visit with Gabriel, learned about his current state of affairs (when the captivity would be over), and the timing of future events. While I don't assume any of us will ever have a similar experience as Daniel, I do believer there is much for us to learn from this man, Daniel, from his devotion to the Lord and his people, his devotion to Scripture and his prayer of faith.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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A conversation between an angel and a man - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 8:15-16, 26-27,

"While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. And I heard a man's voice from the Ulai calling, 'Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.' ... 'seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.' I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king's business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding."

Daniel had a vision (prior to the account in chapter five, about the hand writing on the wall), that concluded with someone calling the angel Gabriel to explain it to him. The vision included details of things to come, beginning with the kings of Media and Persia, and on to Alexander the Great, his four successor generals, and Antiochus Epiphanes.

It is no wonder the book of Daniel has had such opposition from unbelievers (so called "scholars"). Here we have a conversation that takes place between an angel and a man, Gabriel and Daniel! Think about that for a minute... where the things of heaven are cloaked from those of us "living under the sun" (using a description from Ecclesiastes), heaven and earth meet between these two.
A nexus, a bridge, that, if accepted, requires one to embrace the realities of heaven, our Creator God, angels, the Son of God come to earth, the foretelling of events on earth in sacred literature, the gospel message itself.

The rejection of the book of Daniel is an absolute requirement for those who pretend God does not exist! On the other hand, the book of Daniel is yet another of many reasons why those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are vindicated.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, coming on the clouds in the book of Daniel - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Daniel 7:13-14,

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

Daniel had a dream, prior to the incident in chapter five (with the hand writing on the wall) filled with visions. In the dream was another sweeping look at the four world powers already seen in this book, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greek and Roman, represented by the beasts: lion, bear, leopard, and the terrifying fourth beast with iron teeth.

What draws my attention in Daniel's account of his dream is his remarkable vision of the second coming of Jesus Christ, "one like a son of man" coming in the clouds. Here is the first appearance in Scripture of Jesus being referred to as "one like a son of man."

In Revelation 1:13-16 we read, in John's description of Jesus Christ, "among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance." John uses the same name for Jesus as Daniel did, "one like the son of man."

Mark uses Daniel's name for Jesus (and Jesus' own name for himself), "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again." Mark 8:31.

At his trial, when asked by the high priest if we was the Messiah, Jesus said he was and went on to say, "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." The very name Daniel used in 7:13, with the description of "coming on the clouds."

I await to behold that in a delighted and agonizing anticipation!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com