Year 2, Week 24, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 24, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Daniel 12; Ezra 1.

Today’s reading concludes in the Book of Daniel. Daniel and many others were among the first wave who were taken into Babylonian captivity. These deportations occurred somewhere around 605 BC. Daniel’s prophetic ministry continued for about seventy years as his last known prophecy was given in about 536 BC. The episodes of Daniel and his friends fill Daniel 1-6. Daniel 7-12 are primarily visions that the LORD granted to Daniel in exile, visions that had both imminent and distant fulfillments. Daniel 12, which completes the prophetical instructions that began back in Daniel 10, explains that the things revealed would ultimately come to pass way into the future: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase…I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4,8-9). Daniel was to move on with his life, for no more revelation would be given to him, and much that had been given to him would come to pass long after his lifetime. Today’s reading also begins the Book of Ezra. The Book of Ezra is set in the first year of Cyrus’ reign, which would have been about 538 BC. Cyrus permits the Jewish people to return from their captivity even as they are allowed to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. Cyrus’ declaration acknowledges that the LORD had moved him to permit the return and the rebuilding: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem ” (Ezra 1:2-3a).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the display of God’s governance over the affairs of the nations. This truth is found in the concluding chapter of Daniel as well as the opening chapter of Ezra. As the Book of Daniel comes to an end, a clear note is the LORD’s sovereignty in how history will end. The end of history is not still undecided, nor is it currently unclear. While, in the meantime, moments may be filled with difficulty and affliction, such as in Daniel’s time, the LORD had determined the end of all things: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:1b-2). The LORD’s ultimate purposes include the final judgment of the wicked and the final resurrection of the righteous. The future of God’s people is bright and glorious: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). No amount of troubles in the meantime will upend these purposes. The promises of God’s final purposes are given to strengthen and sustain His people in the meantime: “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:41-43).

Not only is the end of history determined by the LORD, all the time leading up to the end is also determined by the LORD. The decision of Cyrus was ultimately the outworking of God’s purposes: “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom” (Daniel 1:1). The very fact that Cyrus is the Persian king who had overtaken the Babylonians, is a reality that was set in motion by the LORD: “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste” (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah was given word they they would capture Jerusalem, but that such captivity would last seventy years. Seventy years had now come and gone in Ezra’s time and the first group of returnees were returning. The LORD, through the prophet Isaiah even declared that a Persian king named Cyrus would be raised up to accomplish the work of the Jewish returnees: “I am the LORD, who made all things…who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’; who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid” (Isaiah 44:24b,26b-28). Nothing is left to chance; the LORD plans the workings of the kings who rule nations: “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). The end, as well as the path to the end, is determined by the LORD.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe