Daniel 11:17-20 - He will fall to be seen no more

11:17-19

Having conquered significant areas between the north and the south, the king of the north will make an alliance with the south. He will also seek to subjugate the south by giving the king of the south one of his daughters in marriage. The use of marriage as a diplomatic tool was common in Europe at one time. The goal of the king of the North will be to overthrow the south, but this goal will not be achieved. Having failed in this venture he will turn his attention to various lands on the coast of the Mediterranean, but these too will be thwarted by another “commander” (indicating that another empire will arise). He will finally retreat to his own country, but will eventually fall to be seen no more.

11:20

Kingdoms in decline always encounter severe financial problems. They have overreached themselves and based their plans on an assumption of ever increasing success. Our own governments do the same with their economic policies, and these always come to a sticky end. So the successor of the king will send out tax collectors to try and maintain the kingdom. But this will also end in failure.

Revelation 17:15-18 - They will bring her to ruin

17:15

The angel makes it clear that “the waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages”. The language is reminiscent of Rev 7:9. The prostitute influenced the whole world. We must beware of going down the remnant route of thinking only a few get saved. Abraham was promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand in the desert. Ezekiel saw a vast army come from the valley of dry bones, and Rev 7 speaks of a great multitude. A large number of people will be saved, not just one or two. At the same time we must not go down the opposite extreme, for the Bible is equally clear that many people are not saved. In Matt 7:13 Jesus tells us that wide is the road that leads to destruction, and many are on it. And in Revelation we have vast numbers who worship the beast. So there are big numbers on both sides!

17:16-18

Evil systems hold within themselves the seeds of their own destruction, and the kingdom of the beast or the dragon is no different. The enemy will turn in on himself. So when we see evil seeming to dominate the agenda in society we should be aware that the system will eventually collapse in on itself. This is the way that evil systems go. And God puts thoughts into the mind of the enemy that leads to the enemy making decisions that lead to his destruction. It is God who is ultimately in control.

Daniel 11:14-16 - The invader will do as he pleases

11:14

So far we have just had an outline of historical events. This continues, but in this verse we have mention of the reaction of some of the Jews. With the events described in this chapter to a large extent it seems that Israel is just caught in the middle, they are a victim of events. There will be a general revolt against the South (Egypt). Some violent Jews will rebel “in fulfilment of the vision”. It isn’t clear what this means. It could be that they were seeking to fulfil the promises about Israel through their own strength. This is something that has happened at various points in Israel’s history, and is something that occurs in the church as well. “But without success”. Trying to fulfill God’s promises by our own strength is never a good idea. Abraham and Sarah discovered this back in Genesis 16. 

11:15,16

The North will then have success against the South, building up siege ramps to capture “a fortified city” (possibly Sidon). The South will try to resist this but will be unable to. So here the invader will be successful and seem to be able to do what he wants. This will involve establishing himself in the “beautiful land”, that is Israel.

Why is God telling Daniel all this? Why is He telling us all this? Israel, like most of us, expected and wanted God’s plans to be fulfilled in a nice linear fashion, with minimal suffering for them. This is not the way His plans are fulfilled! The path would be very difficult, but God is showing that He is in control of events, and He knows exactly what is going on, and what He is doing. So in our own circumstances, whether we are talking about very personal things, or the national and international events that go on in our lifetimes, we can be confident that God knows what He is doing!

Revelation 17:12-14 - The Lamb will triumph over them

17:12,13

The beast will give authority to ten kings. They will not have the same power as the seven kings, but will have some power, but only for an hour. Now the number ten may mean actually ten, or could be taken to represent completeness. And the hour could mean they reign for a short time in human terms, or in God’s terms. The key thing is that their reign is strictly limited.  Their purpose is to give power to the beast, so do not expect anything good to come from them! 

17:14

They will wage war against the Lamb. This will almost certainly include attacking the Lamb’s people, it usually does! However, this should be no cause for alarm. “The Lamb will triumph over them”. Why? Because He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. We should not fear when we see evil appear to triumph, evil will ultimately lose. “And with Him will be His called, chosen and faithful followers”. We are on the winning side! We follow the victorious king.

Daniel 11:7-13 - He will advance with a huge army

11:7-10

We get more on the ongoing conflict between the south and the north. It makes it explicit that “south” refers to Egypt. There are times of conflict, then times of relative peace, or at least the absence of war. In v 10 this culminates in a large scale conflict. The various battles and intrigues of this chapter involved the Ptolemies of Egypt (the South) and the Seleucids (the North).

11:11-13

The attempted massive attack from the North will be countered by an attack by the South. The North will try to resist this but will fail. The king of the South will be full of himself at this victory. He will then slaughter many thousands, but will not achieve ultimate victory. The North will muster an even greater army, this will be some several years later. This will be  a huge army, and a well equipped one.

Revelation 17:9-11 - This calls for a mind with wisdom

17:9

The mention of seven hills strongly implies that Rome is seen as a type of the things John is describing, for Rome was built on seven hills. However, this does not mean that Rome is the complete embodiment of all that John sees. Human society without God inevitably descends into chaos and evil. We see this happening with Western societies as they abandon their Christian roots.

17:10,11

We are now also told of seven kings. There are two main routes of interpretation. One sees them as various Roman emperors. The other sees them as seven kingdoms, the first five being Old Babylon, Assyrian, New Babylon, Medo-Persian and Graeco-Macedonian. Rome is the sixth, and the last points to all future kingdoms. I tend to favour the latter explanation. Whatever the case, the key point is that evil has existed in the past, does today, and continues until the end. The beast is an eighth king. He follows on in the line of the previous kingdoms. The most important point is that he “is going to his destruction”. Evil has continued for a long time, but there is an end to it all.

Daniel 11:3-6 - His empire will be broken up

11:3,4

After this a mighty king will arise. This king is not named here, but is taken to be Alexander the Great. He conquered a vast area of territory. So he did “rule with great power” and he did as he pleased. He was very powerful, and very proud. One of the recurring lessons of Daniel is that “pride comes before a fall” (Prov 16:18), and this happened to Alexander the Great. Instead of his kingdom passing on to his descendants, it was “parcelled out to the four winds”. And the parcelled out kingdom did not have anything like the power of the former kingdom.

11:5,6

We now get more details of what will happen after the “parcelling out”. The terms North and South here should be understood within the context of the time. So the South refers to Egypt, the southernmost limits of the Persian, Greek and Roman empires. There is intrigue between the north and the south, with various rulers and commanders vying for supremacy. Why are we being told all this? It is because Israel would be caught in the crossfire. She would be affected by conflict between other nations.

Revelation 17:5-8 - Babylon the Great

17:5,6

There are times in the Bible when Israel and Judah are referred to as prostitutes and adulterers, Ezekiel 16 and 23 are the prime examples of this. But here we see the world system, Babylon called the great mother of prostitutes. And she was drunk on the blood of God’s people. At the time that Revelation was written Nero and Domitian had carried out acts of great violence against Christians. Jesus said if the world hated Him it would hate us (John 15:18). The world hates those who love Jesus. Who bear testimony to Him.

17:7,8

John is astonished at what he sees. We might think “is there really such evil in the world?”. The angel answers him, and the answer would seem to apply to both before and after the millennium. The seven heads and ten horns show that the beast has many tentacles. Some people think Islam is the greatest enemy, others may think it is atheism or secularism, or communism, or fascism, or capitalism. There are many facets to her evil. She once was, which I take as the time of the great tribulation. “Now is not” could be the time of the millennium, and “yet will come out of the Abyss” is the time of the final battle after the millennium. When the beast reappears those who are not saved will be amazed.

Daniel 11:1,2 - He will stir up everyone

11:1

This verse follows on from the end of chapter 10 and refers to the year when the captives were given orders to return to Jerusalem. The decision was made by the earthly ruler, Darius or Cyrus (see earlier discussion), but angelic forces also played their part. What goes on in the spiritual and physical realms are linked. It is not all spiritual, and it is not all earthly. Both matter.

What follows is quite unique in the detail of the prophecies. This is quite unlike most of the material we find in the other prophets. It is also very different from Revelation. While Revelation and Daniel bear a number of important similarities, and are dealing with similar matters in part, Revelation does not give specific details in the way that Daniel does. This should be borne in mind when interpreting Revelation, and would indicate that trying to be too specific in Revelation is a mistake.

11:2

After Cyrus, the Medo-Persian kings were Cambyses (530-522 BC), Smerdis (522 BC), Darius I (521-486 BC) and Xerxes (known as Ahasuerus in Esther, 485-465 BC). Xerxes was the one who was far richer than the previous ones, and he waged war against Greece.

Revelation 17:3,4 - Covered with blasphemous names

17:3

The whore puts on a great display of being impressive and beautiful. In much the same way great nations put on a display of splendour. This can be in terms of military strength, or great financial wealth, scientific advancement or engineering achievements. But this outward display can hide an inner corruption. John is taken by the Spirit into the desert to see what is really going on with Babylon. There he sees her sat upon a scarlet beast covered with blasphemous names. The world’s strength and power comes from the devil. Now I think we should make a caveat here, and about comments I made above about America and Britain. This does not mean everything about a nation is bad! Rather it is the dominant or driving power behind the nation or power.

17:4

The woman is described as being dressed in purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold and precious stones. Like a prostitute she made a show of appearing alluring. But the cup she held, the things she would give to her clients, were filthy and full of abominations. We need to be careful that we do not sup with the devil.

Daniel 10:18-21 - The Book of Truth

10:18,19

The man touches Daniel again, and this gave him strength. He is then told not to be afraid, and told yet again that he is highly esteemed. He was told to be at peace and to be strong. Daniel was strengthened and then asked the messenger to speak to him. The proper state for man is to be in the presence of God, to hear from God and to do God’s work. Now sin put an end to all this, and resulted in our being in the state that we find ourselves in, and that Daniel found himself in. But the work of Christ is to restore us to the state we are meant to be in, which is living in fellowship with God.

10:20,21

The man (angel) let’s Daniel know why he has come to Daniel. In the next two chapters we will get the message itself. He would fight first against Persia, then against Greece. At the time Persia had power over God’s people, later Greece would hold that power. This messenger would be helped by Michael, “your prince”. There are angels who fight on our behalf. We should also note that all this is happening in response to Daniel’s prayer, and the key element of that prayer was repentance from sin. We need to be aware of the spiritual nature of the conflict we are in, and that sin is our biggest problem.

Revelation 17:1,2 - I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute

17:1

We have just had the final seven bowls, the completion of God’s wrath. Now we get a close-up of the effect on “the great prostitute”. There are some who see Babylon as being Jerusalem, this is part of “replacement theology”. This is complete nonsense, and unbiblical nonsense. God is not afraid to call out the sins of Israel, He is not afraid to judge Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, for her sins, but the end goal is always the redemption of Israel. The church is not a replacement for Israel, rather Israel and the church will be united in Christ. At the same time it is important to note that Israel will be saved through faith in Christ in the same way that you and I are saved through faith in Christ.  Rome is a type of Babylon. I.e. Babylon represents the embodiment of evil in the world system, with Rome being an example of this, but not the full embodiment. The Roman Empire was the dominant power at the time. Today you can see elements of Babylon in America (this is not to say the US is totally evil!). America is the dominant power in the world, though currently its power may be on the wane, possibly to be overtaken by China (that could equally be seen as having elements of Babylon). So it is the general principles that are the most important.  Her sitting by many waters indicates her influence on many nations.

17:2

The kings of the earth committed adultery with her. I,e they went along with Rome for political and/or economic gain, as do many nations with America and China. They were intoxicated by her adulteries. America was founded on broadly Christian values, as was Great Britain. Both countries are now rapidly rejecting Christian values as fast as they can, and seek to export ungodliness to other nations. Abortion and LGBTQ stuff are perhaps the clearest examples of this.

Daniel 10:15-17 - My strength is gone

10:15-17

In many ways this chapter is about the travail that was involved in Daniel receiving this message. The message was going to be so awesome and terrible, that the people reading the prophecy needed to know something of the background, and that Daniel was not just giving a random message, or something that he had made up and didn’t really care about. Daniel was on the ground again and unable to speak. The man touched him and Daniel then began to speak. He was without strength and breathless. 

Now this raises an interesting question. If someone goes into great detail about what they have seen and heard, before giving the message, then I become suspicious of the message! And such a view is not without Biblical support (Col 2:18,19). Yet here we have a whole chapter essentially devoted to Daniel’s feelings and experiences, and this is part of the word of God. Perhaps it is just a warning not to automatically write off anyone who does describe “spiritual experiences”.

Revelation 16:19-21 - The plague was so terrible

16:19

The great city split in three, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Babylon received the cup of wrath that she deserved. There is no need to see this as involving an actual city of Babylon (though that cannot be ruled out), rather it is sufficient to see the destruction of the cities as being representative of the collapse of man’s kingdoms on the earth.

16:20,21

The description of the wrath continues. The islands fled and mountains could not be found. Massive hailstorms fell from the sky, falling on people. I do not think that we need to be overly concerned about the details of how all this can happen, and the precise form it will take. This is a vision, it is symbolic of what will happen, and it is what it is symbolic of that really counts. All man’s power, all Satan’s power ( and the two are intrinsically linked), will come to nothing. Man’s response was to curse God, not to realise that he is far weaker than he actually is, not to recognise his complete dependence upon God.

Daniel 10:13,14 - The prince of Persia resisted me

10:13,14

These two verses are rather strange, giving a picture of conflict in the “spiritual realms” (see Ephesians). They can lead to rather suspect teaching on “territorial spirits” or the like. Now what are we to learn from this? One thing is that there are things going on in the spiritual realms that we are not aware of. Another thing is that it is Daniel’s “normal” prayers that were effective. He was not praying against any territorial spirit or power, rather he was confessing his own sins and the sins of the nation. So what are we to make of Eph 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”? We are to pray like Daniel, and we do so knowing that we are part of a spiritual conflict. Ephesians tells us how to fight this battle with the full armour of God. The “territorial spirits” stuff can lead to very bad teaching, and distract us from the battle that we are meant to be fighting. We are indeed part of a spiritual conflict, but we are to play our part in the way that God has instructed.

Revelation 16:17,18 - It is done!

16:17

In the movies the “battle of Armageddon” is usually portrayed as some great epic battle. Here in the Bible it is a very one-sided affair! The seventh angel poured out his bowl, and then from the throne came the cry “It is done”. The bowl was thrown into the air, which was believed to be the abode of demons, in Ephesians 2:2 Satan is referred to as the ruler of the kingdom of the air. What we see in the subsequent verses, and chapters is the total collapse of Satan’s kingdom, and of the kingdoms of the world. When we look at what is going on we may be inclined to think it means that Satan is getting his way, that his purposes are advancing. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the kingdom of Satan that is collapsing, and God’s Kingdom that is advancing.

16:18

Then there are dramatic signs: flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and an earthquake unlike anything ever experienced on earth before. This final bowl of wrath is bringing about the final destruction of the power of ungodliness on the earth. Some might wonder why God is doing such a terrible thing. We should remember that God has stayed His hand for thousands of years. He has given us every chance to repent.

Daniel 10:7-12 - You are highly esteemed

10:7-9

Daniel seems to have been with some other people. The others were aware that something was going on and were overwhelmed with terror, but Daniel was the only one who saw the vision. Indeed, the others were so overwhelmed that they fled. Daniel himself was drained of all strength, and his face turned deadly pale. The messenger spoke, and this sent Daniel into a deep sleep. This was quite some experience for Daniel.

10:10-12

Here we see Daniel being strengthened by God. The prophets were never mere messengers, rather they were chosen by God and involved in a personal relationship with Him. Jeremiah is an excellent example of this. Once again we are told that Daniel is “highly esteemed” (NIV) or “greatly loved” (ESV). NIV actually catches the sense better here. Daniel is told to stand up. The servant of God is to deliver the message with confidence. Not with pride, but with confidence in the Lord from whom the message comes. Daniel is told to not be afraid. Daniel’s words, his prayers, were heard in heaven. Why? He humbled himself and set his mind to gain understanding. Our attitudes and actions matter. 

Revelation 16:15,16 - Armageddon

16:15

The “like a thief” is a common motif in the New Testament: Matt 24:43; Luke 12:39; 1 Thess 5:2,4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3. The message is that the Lord will come at a surprising time when no one is expecting Him. It can seem that things will always carry on as they were, that nothing will change. We should not be taken in by this. Instead, like the wise virgins we should always be ready, so that whenever He does appear we will be ready. This, of course, does apply to the actual return of Christ, but also has a wider application. Things can and will change, and we should ensure that we are constantly faithful.

16:16

The battle of Armageddon is well known in general parlance, though the pictures we have of it bear limited resemblance to the Biblical use. No one actually knows there Armageddon is! There are various guesses, and ones related to Megiddo are the most convincing. However, the geographic location is of limited importance. It is the gathering of the rulers of the world against God that matters. As we will see, the nature of the battle is rather different than the popular portrayals.

Daniel 10:1-6 - I mourned for three weeka

10:1

Chapters 10-12 are all of a piece and this chapter introduces the vision without giving any of the content. “In the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia”. This was 537 BC and the first group of exiles had returned to Jerusalem. This vision is linked back to the introduction of the book with the mention of Daniel being called Belteshazzar. Daniel would be an old man by this time, having lived many years in exile. We are assured that the message Daniel receives is true. NIV has “it concerned a great war”, ESV has “it was a great conflict”. So it isn’t clear whether it is saying Daniel found the message very hard to take, or that the message is about a great conflict. Both are true, so it doesn’t matter that much, and both NIV and ESV give the alternative reading as a footnote. Daniel was given understanding of the message through a vision.

10:2,3

That the message caused Daniel great trouble is shown by the fact that he was in mourning for three weeks. Daniel also reverted to the “Daniel fast” of chapter 1, not allowing any delicacies or wine etc to pass his lips. This does imply that he did not keep to the “Daniel fast” for the whole of his time in Babylon. This fasting lasted for three weeks.

10:4-6

The twenty-fourth day of the first month may have had some significance, but if it did we do not know what it was. The Euphrates and the Tigris were great rivers. Daniel saw “a man”, literally this is “a certain man”. Throughout the vision it is made clear that the messenger is a man. Priests wore linen garments, and these were usually white. He was wearing a belt of fine gold. The description here, especially in v6, bears some resemblance to Rev 1:12-16.

Revelation 16:12-14 - To gather them for battle

16:12

The sixth bowl is rather different, in that it involves the evil forces taking action against God (always a futile exercise!). First we are told that the great River Euphrates will be dried up. There may be reference to Cyrus defeating Babylon hundreds of years ago, for he came across the drained bed of the Euphrates. So “to prepare the way for the kings from the East” is saying that God is preparing the way for the forces that will defeat “Babylon”, the kingdoms of the world. 

16:13,14

Now we get the response from the beast, the dragon and the false prophet. Impure spirits like frogs come out of their mouths’. And they go out to the world, performing miraculous signs, with the purpose of gathering an army to do battle against the Lord. We need to remind ourselves that this is a vision, so it is portraying what will happen, but not necessarily in physical form. I.e. there is no need to expect that we will see actual frogs! The key thing to remember is that this is part of the Lord’s plan, and the battle is described as “the great day of God Almighty”. This is God’s day, not Satan’s day! Ps 2:4-6 are relevant here. This is not about what Satan is doing, rather it is about what God is doing!

Daniel 9:26,27 - Until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator

9:26

NIV has “the Anointed One” shall be put to death, ESV has “an anointed one”. The ESV is a better translation here, with the NIV translation involving a significant amount of interpretation. There is a desire to put concrete interpretations on the prophecy here. Some see Antiochus Ephiphanes fulfilling this. Now he was a nasty piece of work and caused much desolation, but he did not destroy the temple nor the city. Others can see the “Anointed One” as Jesus with the cross being the death referred to, and the destruction of the temple by Rome in AD 70 fulfilling the other parts. This seems to me to be the more likely of the two, with the “war will continue to the end” referring to general conflict and opposition to the gospel. “Desolations have been decreed”. We could take this, along with the war part, as equating to Jesus saying there would be “wars and rumours of wars” (Matt 24:6). That is, there will be a general state of conflict until the very end.

9:27

In this verse we can see close parallels with Revelation. The final evil ruler will be different from those who came before him, and all the  world will bow down to him. There will also be desolation of the temple with sacrifice and offering coming to an end. The commentary by Baldwin sees this as signifying that God’s people will not have to endure intense suffering for the whole period. I must admit I cannot see this in the text. I think it is rather a sign of how intense things will get. 

“Until the end that is decreed is poured out on him”. So, as always, we see a time of intense evil, with evil seeming to reign, but the ultimate outcome is the destruction of the evil one.

Revelation 16:10,11 - They refused to repent

16:10

“The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast”. So the centre of power of the beast is now dealt with. When we see ungodly power and forces arising in society we should take things seriously, for the beast was allowed to do a lot of damage, but we should not fear and we should know that his power centre will be destroyed. We can see this in human terms with the collapse of various empires. The Berlin Wall was meant to keep the people of East Germany in, the wall collapsed. Nazi Germany seemed to be conquering all, but then terrible destruction was wrought upon Germany, and Berlin in particular. 

16:10b,11

Once again the people refused to repent and instead cursed God. The beast was ultimately responsible, but the people were also responsible for going along with the beast. We must beware of thinking that an all powerful (seemingly) force excuses us from personal responsibility. Our first reaction should be “what should I do”, and we must never go along with following the ways of the beast.

Daniel 9:24,25 - To atone for iniquity

9:24

“Seventy sevens” represents 490 years (see Lev 25:8). However, this does not necessarily mean 490 actual years, but could be symbolic of the whole of human history, as seven is the number of completeness. There are six purposes given for this period. The first is “transgression”, allowing the sin of the nation to reach its fullness. There are one or two instances in the Old Testament of the sin of nation reaching fulfillment (Gen 15:16). “To put an end to sin”. Things will not always stay the way they are, things will come to an end. There will be a time when sin is no more. “To atone for wickedness”. Sin cannot be just overlooked, it has to be atoned for in order for it to be done away with properly. “To bring in everlasting righteousness. We are not talking about a temporary reprieve from sin, but a permanent change in the state of affairs. There will be everlasting righteousness. “To seal up vision and prophecy”. This is to bring to fulfillment the words spoken of by the prophets, especially Jeremiah. “To anoint the Most Holy Place”. There is to be a dwelling place for God. The temple was just a shadow, the true dwelling place is the church, the faithful people of God.

9:25

It is difficult to interpret the rest of the chapter.  The starting point for “from the time the word goes out” could be the time when Cyrus gave the order for the temple to be built (539 BC) or the time of Nehemiah when building actually really got going (445 BC). The “Anointed One” does not necessarily mean the Messiah here in the sense that we think of the Messiah as the term was used in a wider sense. The temple would be rebuilt in times of trouble. This happened with the temple of Ezra and Nehemiah’s day. The true temple (i.e. the faithful people of God) will also be “built” in times of trouble, as Revelation tells us.

Revelation 16:8,9 - They refused to repent

16:8

Next came the sun. Man thinks he is independent of God, indeed that there is no God. He takes the presence of the earth, the seas and rivers and the sun for granted. These actions of God demonstrate that man is not independent, rather we are completely dependent upon God for everything, including the sustaining of the universe. The sun does not just shine and provide the right amount of light and heat by chance, it does so because God causes it to. (This does not obviate the laws of physics, for God created the laws of physics.) So God changed the working of the sun so that it scorched people.

16:9

The people were seared by the heat. They should have reacted by repenting, realising that they were not quite as in control as they thought they were. Instead they cursed God, the same God that they thought they didn’t need. In the past year or so we have been afflicted by the covid pandemic, demonstrating to us that we are not in control. Yet no one thinks to turn to God, thinks to admit that we are not the masters that we thought we were. We should turn to God, admitting our limitations, confessing our guilt, and calling on the Lord for help.

Daniel 9:20-23 - You are greatly loved

9:20-23

We now see what is happening in heaven. When we pray we are not just uttering words into the air, they have an effect in heaven. Daniel was confessing his own sins and the sins of the people. He was also making requests to God for Him to restore “His holy hill” (i.e. Jerusalem). Gabriel “the man I had seen in the earlier visions”. There is a continuity between the visions. Angels often have the appearance of a man. He came to give Daniel insight and understanding, and there was a response in heaven to his prayer as soon as Daniel uttered his words. “For you are highly esteemed” (NIV), or “you are greatly loved”. There are some interesting points from all this. The first is that our prayers and what is going on in heaven are closely linked. The second is that some things that happen happen because we pray, and if we do not pray they will not happen. Now this can lead to us asking silly questions, like do our prayers change the mind of God? Is God dependent upon our prayers? These are silly questions, making sense only from a purely human perspective. But we are not dealing with things from a purely human perspective, we are dealing with things from an eternal perspective. God has told us to pray, therefore we should pray, knowing that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective (James 5:16). We should just get on with it!

Another thing to note is that God’s response was partly contingent upon Daniel being “highly esteemed” of “greatly loved”. We rightly say that we are saved by grace and not because of any goodness within us (there isn’t a lot of that to be found!). But this can lead us to the extreme position of thinking what we are like and what we do makes no difference. This is not a Biblical position! The Bible is quite clear that what we do, and our characters matter! Jesus made the same point on several occasions in His own ministry. 

So how do we sort all this stuff out? Again the Bible gives us the answer, this time in Prov 4:5,6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

So often when we raise these questions it is a sign that we are leaning on our own understanding, instead we should trust in the Lord with all our hearts.

Revelation 16:3-7 - True and just are your judgements

16:3

The previous bowl was poured out on the land, this one is poured out on the sea. There is a completeness to the wrath described in this chapter. Also, with the trumpets it was a third that was affected, here there is no limitation. The earth is reaching the culmination of the rebellion against God. So here everything in the sea died.

16:4,5

Now it is the turn of the water on the rivers and springs.They too were turned to blood. How terrible these things are. Why is God doing them, we might ask. Many would even say that God is wrong to do these things, but that is not the case. For we now hear an angel saying “You are just in these judgements, O Holy One”. “You who are and who were”. There is no “who will be”, for these are the final and complete judgements.The earth in its present form will be gone, there will be a new earth.

16:6,7

We now learn why God’s judgements are right and holy. The people of the earth had shed blood, moreover, they had shed the blood of “your holy people and your prophets”, so they have received what they deserved, the consequence of their actions. We can expect the world to turn wholesale against God’s people. The altar gives confirmation that God’s judgements are “true and just”. We need to realise that our modern reaction against the wrath of God is utterly misguided.

Daniel 9:15-19 - O my God, incline your ear and hear

9:15,16

This verse sums up the situation. The Lord had brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. He had made a name for Himself in Israel, and they still saw this as the defining event in their history.  Conversely, the people had sinned and done wrong. “In keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem”. There are (at least) two ways of looking at this. One is that because of the cross God is that if we confess our sins “He is righteous and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Of course, this only makes sense in the light of the cross. The other way is that Daniel is asking God to act in accordance with the way He acted when they were enslaved in Egypt. Currently the people were an object of shame, as was Jerusalem. This was going against God’s plans and purposes. So Daniel is calling on God to save Israel for His namesake. In order for God’s purposes to be fulfilled He has to make His people righteous, and this can only be done through the cross.

9:17-19

Daniel calls upon the Lord to hear his prayer, and for the Lord’s sake to look upon the “desolate sanctuary”. The emphasis here is not on the salvation of the people for their sake, but for God’s sake, so that His Name will no longer be besmirched.

The basis of Daniel’s prayer is not any righteousness of the people, but the mercy of God. “ Listen, forgive, hear and act!”. Note how different the basis and theme of this prayer is different from the approach that we so often take. We have a lot to learn from this prayer!

Revelation 16:1,2 - Pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath

16:1

We now come to the release of the seven bowls of God’s wrath and we need to remember that these are the “seven last plagues”. So we have had a progression from the seals to the trumpets to the bowls, with things being ramped up as we go along. Israel and Judah received many warnings before they fell before Assyria and Babylon, respectively. Likewise, mankind will not be able to say that he was now warned, not given the chance to repent. Just as Judah could have repented at the time of the Babylonian crisis, so even here man had the chance to repent, but refused to do so. Sin is deeply ingrained within man.

16:2

The first bowl affects the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. Thsi bowl produced “ugly, festering sores”. Following the beast does not produce anything good, and does produce many terrible effects. Look at society’s reaction against any call that stable families of a husband and wife are the best environment for bringing up children. All the evidence says that lack of a stable family makes a child’s life chances that much worse, but secular man or woman refuses to listen and reacts against this.

Daniel 9:10-14 - The Lord our God is righteous

9:10,11

The admittance of their guilt continues. They have not obeyed the Lord their God. The Lord had formed the nation from scratch, and had given it laws. These laws were given through the prophets. Moses counts as a prophet. 

“All Israel has transgressed ..”. Leaders were particularly guilty, but all the people were guilty, no one was innocent. The law had warned the nation very clearly of the consequences of disobedience, along with the blessings of obedience (Lev 26; Deut 28). But the people had ignored them, and so they were now reaping the consequences.

9:12-14

Jerusalem had suffered a very severe destruction, with the temple being destroyed as well. All this was carried out at the command of the Lord. The Lord had deigned to dwell in Jerusalem, but even so He had ordained its destruction. As an aside, this should demonstrate that the temple and Jerusalem were but shadows of the true plans of God, and that trust and obedience are the qualities that God most desires in His people. 

What should the reaction of the people have been? It should have been to seek the favour of the Lord. And how do we seek the favour of the Lord? We turn from our sins and give attention to His truth. Note that His laws are not random statements, but are the truth.

“The Lord did not hesitate to bring disaster”. He did this because He is righteous. He would also act righteously if a people repent and turn to Him. 

Revelation 15:7,8 - The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God

15:7

One of the four living creatures gave to the angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God. I’ve said this several times before, but I am going to say it again because the zeitgeist is so against the concept of God’s wrath. The wrath of God is both a passionate hatred of sin, and at the same time is completely rational and just. It is not a dispassionate consequence of sin, but an active judgement upon the part of God. God hates sin because of what it does to us, and what it does to others, and how it is so completely at odds with the truth.  Man’s wrath so easily becomes an uncontrollable anger, and is often totally unreasonable. The wrath of God is quite different. It is completely rational, and is totally just.

15:8

The “temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and His power”. No one could enter the temple until the seven plagues were completed. This whole chapter is emphasising that the plagues emanate from God, are part of His glory and holiness. Too often we seem to think we need to apologise for the wrath of God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Daniel 9:8,9 - To the Lord belong mercy and forgiveness

9:8

“We are covered with shame because  we have sinned against you”. When we sin it brings shame upon us, when a nation rejects God it brings shame upon that nation. The individual or the society will often react to this by seeking to bring shame upon anyone who calls the nation out, just as happened to the prophets who went to Israel. And the same happens in our society today, just witness what happens to anyone who questions the LGBTQ agenda.  The only way to get rid of shame is to acknowledge our sin and to repent.

9:9

Our natural reaction to being told we are sinners (denial, self-justification  or excusing ourselves) is useless. It is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding, and that is that if we are indeed guilty of the sin we are accused of, then God will take that as a reason to condemn us. But Jesus said He did not come into the world to condemn it, John 3:16-21 sums up the situation perfectly. It is often misunderstood by thinking that it means Jesus does not tell us that any of our ways are wrong. That is not what it is saying. Rather it is saying that the result of our admitting our sin will not be condemnation, but forgiveness. “For the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him”. However, if we refuse to admit our sin, then we are “condemned already” (John 3:18).

Revelation 15:5,6 - The temple in heaven was opened

15:5

NIV has “I saw in heaven the temple - that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law”. ESV, and others, have “the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven”. ESV is probably more accurate, but whatever the case it seems to be pointing to the tabernacle in the Exodus. The tabernacle was opened.

15:6

Out of the tabernacle came the seven angels with the seven plagues. So these plagues are not just things that happened, they were deliberately delivered to the earth by God. They were a divine act. The angels were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes. These were “good” angels, not demons. Emphasising again the divine nature of the acts, they are a deliberate and righteous part of God’s plan.

Daniel 9:6,7 - We have not listened to your prophets

9:6

Perhaps the defining feature of this prayer is the acknowledgement of sinfulness, and Daniel is praying both on behalf of himself and of the nation as a whole. Today we seem to want to try and get people into the kingdom without mentioning sin until the last moment. God had sent prophet after prophet, they gave the clearest of warnings, but the nation did not listen to them. The prophets spoke both to the leaders and the powerful, and to the ordinary people.

9:7

“Lord, you are righteous, but we are covered with shame”. And this applied to all of God’s people, whether they were in Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, or in one of the countries to which many of them had been exiled. This distinction between the righteousness of God and the shame of the people is crucial. And it goes right against the common perception of people today. Today society considers God to be covered with shame, and mankind to be righteous. We have got it so completely wrong. The Israelites were scattered because of their unfaithfulness.

Revelation 15:3,4 - Great and marvellous are your deeds

15:3

They sang the song of Moses, this stresses the continuity of the Bible. Abraham and Moses are often looked back on in the New Testament, and the tone is almost always that the gospel is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises. The words of this short song are reminiscent of the Old Testament, e.g. Ps 86:10. The Lord’s deeds are great and marvellous, and we should note that this is coming just before various plagues will be poured out. All that God does is just and true, and He is the King of the Nations. Many object to the ways of the Lord, but on the last day all His ways will be shown to have been true.

15:4

Everyone should fear the Lord and give glory to His Name. For He alone is Holy. There is no one like our God. No one else who created the universe and everything in it, no one else who keeps the universe going. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess, for all will see that Christ is Lord. There will come a time when God makes it obvious to the whole world the righteousness of all His acts.

Daniel 9:4,5 - We have sinned and done wrong

9:4

So what was Daniel’s response in prayer? The dominant point is that it is God oriented. “I prayed to the Lord and confessed”. Confession of our sins is vital and central. We tend to downplay this these days, but this is a great mistake. “Repent and believe”, and “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near” are repeated commands in the New Testament. The fundamental element of the fall is a rejection of God and His ways. We think that we can decide what is right and wrong, and that we do not need to worship God. God is a “great and awesome God”. And He keeps His covenant of love. We are creatures who do not keep our promises. And is a covenant of love with those who “love Him and keep His commandments”. We are so prone to blaming God, but it is always we who are to blame, not God.

9:5

“We have sinned and done wrong”. Until we reach the point of admitting this, owning up to it, we will not make any progress. “We have been wicked and rebelled”. We spend an awful lot of time in self-justification and denial. As long as we stay in that state there is no prospect of progress. This is not just a matter of not liking the state we are in, the consequences of our actions. It is admitting that “we have turned away from your commands and laws”. We should have been obeying God’s commands, not going our own way. 

Revelation 15:2 - Those who had been victorious over the beast

15:2

Before the plagues come we have quite a description of what is going on in heaven. The plagues come from heaven, they are God ordained. The wrath is also a vindication of those “who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name”. In the early church the day of a man’s martyrdom was sometimes called the day of his victory. Why victory? Because despite all that was thrown against the man by the enemy, he refused to deny Christ. The enemy had failed, the martyr had won. We should also note that they had been victorious. A terrifying picture is painted of the beast, and we should be aware of how terrible the beast will be, but we should be equally aware that by perseverance and faithfulness we are the ones who will overcome the beast. He will be a defeated enemy.

Daniel 9:1-3 - I turned my face to the Lord

9:1

The bulk of this chapter is a prayer of Daniel, and a prayer that is very instructive. This is followed by more revelations from Gabriel. These events happened in the first year of the Persian Kingdom. There is great debate over the precise identity of Darius son of Xerxes. Part of the problem is that it was not uncommon for kings to be known by two or more names. He was a descendent of a Mede, so had affinities with both the Perisan and Mede kingdoms.

9:2,3

Daniel knew the book of Jeremiah. Note also that he refers to “the Scriptures”, so it is clear that Jeremiah had canonical status at a very early stage. Jer 25:10 and 29:11 state that the desolation would last for seventy years. The Babylonian reign was over and so Daniel concluded that the end of the exile must be in sight. We should not get bogged down in looking for a precise seventy years, rather it signifies the period of God’s judgment upon both the people and the land.

Biblical prophecy does not lead to passivity. The attitude of “God has said this will happen, therefore it will just happen and it doesn’t matter what we do” is not an attitude that finds any support in the Bible. Daniel’s response is to pray to the Lord, and to fast in sackcloth and ashes. God’s word leads to action on our part, God involves us in His plans.