Musings on Daniel...

So I am puzzling over the end of Daniel. I LOVE chapter 11:32b-35!! "but the people who know their God will be strong and take action" I love the promise that all things will come at their appointed times, nothing surprises God ~ "because what has been decreed will be accomplished" (v. 36), and the little glimpse of the future He gives us so that we will not be overwhelmed when the trouble comes.

I LOVE that God calls Daniel treasured; especially after listening to a teaching cd about being a slave of God. For your master to call you treasured ~ that's pretty amazing. Kind of like Mary being called blessed and highly favored.
And what a prayer he prays in chapter 9! WOW!!!!!! I actually wrote that at the end of the prayer because that's all I could think of at the time. WOW!!! =0)

So I have been pondering the abomination of desolation and the end of daily sacrifices, and thinking that those have already ended and the dome of the rock is set up on the most holy site in Israel so maybe that's the abomination; because chpt. 12:11 says, "From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days." which would be the year 1981 (if they are years like the 69 weeks are supposed to be). But then, I was reviewing what God says in chp. 9:26-27, especially 27 that says "he will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing of the temple (also translated ~and the desolator will be on the wing of abominations, or ~and the desolator will come on the wings of monsters[or of horrors])..." so I think then my inkling is wrong. Hmm...prophesy..."it is a puzzlement." =0)

I was also curious about 12:12 ~ "Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches 1335 days." What does that mean???? I have never heard that before, even when I was a kid and my parents were going to a study on Revelation and Daniel (i think that's when I became fasinated with prophecy), I don't think that was ever mentioned. If you add it to 1981 you get 2026. Just around the corner, if it goes from the date of the completion of the Dome of the Rock, which I don't think it is anymore, but could be. What a comfort to know that through all of this "many will be purified, cleansed, and refined...but the wise will understand." LORD, I WANT TO BE WISE!!!! i WANT TO UNDERSTAND. Just had to get that out.

Oh, another curiosity...chp 10:13 and 20. It sounds like this is Jesus speaking (from the description a few verses up), and he leaves his battle against the king of Persia to come tell Daniel the truth of his visions, and then he has to get back to the fight as soon as possible, but that doesn't make sense to me. Why would God feel such an urgency? And what does it mean "then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me after I had been left there with the king of Persia"? IF that's Jesus speaking...i don't get it. Perhaps, after Daniel falls asleep becasue of the vision, the one who wakes him is not Jesus, but an angel? Vat do u tink?

I think it is interesting in chp. 7 that evil will be prevailing against "the holy ones" until...duh dah dah daah...the ANCIENT OF DAYS arrives and pronounces judgment in favor of the holy ones, and they trounce evil and take the kingdom. WOOHOO!!! Always root for the underdog ~ especially when their team captain is the Ancient of Days! Hoorah. =0)

Still wondering what kind of impact Nebuchadnezzer's letter had on the world at that time, especially since God calls him the king of kings. What kind of influence must he have had??? Hmm... And the 21 days Cyrus opposed God, did they correspond to the 21 days Daniel was fasting???

So many questions, so little time...