35. Daniel living in 'extraordinary times'

Daniel's days were marked with 'extraordinary' times witnessing many 'great historical events'.  

• He experienced the great spiritual revival years when the Book of the Law was discovered in the Temple in Josiah's reign in 622 BC.

• He was nurtured under the preaching of Jeremiah.

• As a lad, he saw the collapse of Nineveh, the mighty and capital city of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC.  

• Daniel's life encompassed the entire era of the Babylonian kingdom.  He was born possibly around 620 BC - 625 BC, the time when the Babylonian nation was born.  He lived all the way to the reign of Cyrus, who destroyed the  Babylonian kingdom forever and brought in the Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. 

• Daniel served Nebuchadnezzar during the golden kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar that lasted for 43 years.

• Daniel being a foreigner served in the highest official capacity in the governments of two successive world empires - from Babylon to Media-Persia.

God raises up his man in times of crisis.

Today we are also living in a time of crisis.  Sometimes we give excuse to ourselves that we live in difficult turbulent times, therefore it is difficult for us to stand up and live out our faith.  Look at Daniel.  He was a man of tremendous courage.  He was a man with fearless spiritual commitment to Yahweh God.  He could never be bought with money and power as Belshazzar attempted on him.  He was a man that was not corrupted by power and authority.  He was a man of prayer who knew how to pray and get through to God. He was a man who loved God and beloved by God.  He was a man of crisis and lived through the difficult times in history, and his life 'shone forth' like the stars in the sky.

Daniel 12:3 "But those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above."

Let us not make excuses for ourselves anymore.

Will you also become wise in this generation?
Will you make that choice for God today?

God help us to have many Daniels in these last days.

:)

18. The 70 Years

Let's continue with our panoramic view of how God acts out His salvation plan in His time.

Daniel 9:2 "I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years.

Jeremiah prophesied that Judah's captivity in Babylon would last 70 years.

Jeremiah 29 contains the transcript of a letter which Jeremiah wrote to the captives in Babylon.  This letter was written possibly after the second captivity in 597 BC . It is probably from this letter that Daniel learned of the 70 year prophecy.

Jeremiah 29:10 

This is what Yahweh says: "When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place."

Many people have wondered just exactly how those 70 years were to be counted.

There are many ways to count that "70 years".  For our present study, one of the "70 years" is to count from the time of the 1st Babylonian Exile 605 BC to 536 BC, Cyrus decree to return to Jerusalem. God worked in Cyrus' heart to fulfill His covenant promise to His people.  God is faithful to His covenant.  The question is whether God's people are faithful?  Will God's people respond to Yahweh God?  Will Yahweh's people respond faithfully to God?  Will they obey & return to Jerusalem?

Homework:

Take out your Timeline Graph and put in "70 years".