Daniel 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: CRISIS OF DELAY

Yet “[Jesus] stayed where he was for the next two days” (John 11:6 NLT). The crisis of health was exacerbated by the crisis of delay. Days came and went. No Jesus. Lazarus began to fade. No Jesus. Lazarus died. No Jesus. Israel’s rabbinic faith taught that for three days a soul lingered about a body, but on the fourth day it left permanently. Jesus was a day late, or so it seemed. Verses 21-22: “Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.’”

Maybe you, like Martha, are disappointed. You told Jesus about the sickness. You waited at the hospital bed. Now death has come. Would you be willing to imitate the faith of Martha? Would you say, Even now, I believe in God? Remember, my friend, you are never alone.

Daniel 10

A Vision of a Big War

In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, a message was made plain to Daniel, whose Babylonian name was Belteshazzar. The message was true. It dealt with a big war. He understood the message, the understanding coming by revelation:

2-3 “During those days, I, Daniel, went into mourning over Jerusalem for three weeks. I ate only plain and simple food, no seasoning or meat or wine. I neither bathed nor shaved until the three weeks were up.

4-6 “On the twenty-fourth day of the first month I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris. I looked up and to my surprise saw a man dressed in linen with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body was hard and glistening, as if sculpted from a precious stone, his face radiant, his eyes bright and penetrating like torches, his arms and feet glistening like polished bronze, and his voice, deep and resonant, sounded like a huge choir of voices.

7-8 “I, Daniel, was the only one to see this. The men who were with me, although they didn’t see it, were overcome with fear and ran off and hid, fearing the worst. Left alone after the appearance, abandoned by my friends, I went weak in the knees, the blood drained from my face.

9-10 “I heard his voice. At the sound of it I fainted, fell flat on the ground, face in the dirt. A hand touched me and pulled me to my hands and knees.

11 “‘Daniel,’ he said, ‘man of quality, listen carefully to my message. And get up on your feet. Stand at attention. I’ve been sent to bring you news.’

“When he had said this, I stood up, but I was still shaking.

12-14 “‘Relax, Daniel,’ he continued, ‘don’t be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid by the angel-prince of the kingdom of Persia and was delayed for a good three weeks. But then Michael, one of the chief angel-princes, intervened to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And now I’m here to help you understand what will eventually happen to your people. The vision has to do with what’s ahead.’

15-17 “While he was saying all this, I looked at the ground and said nothing. Then I was surprised by something like a human hand that touched my lips. I opened my mouth and started talking to the messenger: ‘When I saw you, master, I was terror-stricken. My knees turned to water. I couldn’t move. How can I, a lowly servant, speak to you, my master? I’m paralyzed. I can hardly breathe!’

18-19 “Then this humanlike figure touched me again and gave me strength. He said, ‘Don’t be afraid, friend. Peace. Everything is going to be all right. Take courage. Be strong.’

“Even as he spoke, courage surged up within me. I said, ‘Go ahead, let my master speak. You’ve given me courage.’

20-21 “He said, ‘Do you know why I’ve come here to you? I now have to go back to fight against the angel-prince of Persia, and when I get him out of the way, the angel-prince of Greece will arrive. But first let me tell you what’s written in The True Book. No one helps me in my fight against these beings except Michael, your angel-prince.’”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, November 05, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 2:13–25
Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[a]

18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.[b] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

Footnotes
John 2:17 Psalm 69:9
John 2:23 Or in him

Insight
The magnificent temple built by Solomon for God (1 Kings 6) was plundered and destroyed in 586 bc. When exiles of Israel returned after the Babylonian captivity (538 bc), the temple was rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel (c. 516 bc). Over the years, however, this rebuilt temple also was ravished and destroyed. In 19 bc Herod the Great initiated the refurbishing of the structure, and it came to be known as Herod’s Temple. Though functional in Jesus’ day (see John 2:13–22), it wasn’t completely finished until ad 64, only to be destroyed again in ad 70 by the Romans.

Destroy This House
Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. John 2:19

In Pontiac, Michigan, a demolition company bulldozed the wrong building. Investigators believe that the owner of a house scheduled to be demolished nailed the numbers of his own address to a neighbor’s house to avoid demolition.

Jesus did the opposite. He was on a mission to let his own “house” be torn down for the sake of others. Imagine the scene and how confused everyone must have been, including Jesus’ own disciples. Picture them eyeing one another as He challenged the religious leaders. “Destroy this temple,” Christ said, “and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). The leaders retorted indignantly, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” (v. 20). But Jesus knew He was referring to the temple of His own body (v. 21). They didn’t.

They didn’t understand He’d come to show that the harm we do to ourselves and to one another would ultimately fall on Him. He would atone for it.

God has always known our hearts far better than we do. So He didn’t entrust the fullness of His plans even to those who saw His miracles and believed in Him (vv. 23–25). Then as now He was slowly revealing the love and goodness in Jesus’ words that we couldn’t understand even if He told us. By:  Mart DeHaan

Reflect & Pray
What emotions do you usually associate with Jesus’ “cleansing of the temple”? How can you see something more merciful and compassionate now that you understand what Jesus meant?

Father in heaven, please help me to believe that You're always working in the background doing far more—and much better—than I know or understand.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 05, 2020
Partakers of His Suffering

…but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings… —1 Peter 4:13

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.

The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”

Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them.
The Place of Help

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 34-36; Hebrews 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 05, 2020

Orphan No More - #8824

"China's Lost Girls" - that's what they called the National Geographic special that described China's "one child per family" law that had led, at the time, the abandonment of countless baby girls. But the special went on to describe the growing number of American families who wanted one of those little girls, who otherwise would spend her whole life in an orphanage. That came to life some years ago when some close friends started down that year-long process of bringing together an abandoned little girl with an American family. Finally, that long wait was over, and they were on a plane to China. When they got to their hotel room, there was an empty crib. It wasn't empty the next night. No, they were taken to the adoption center where this precious little girl they were adopting was placed in their arms, and that night she fell asleep in her new father's arms. As the family welcomed them at the airport back home, this girl, who only days before had belonged nowhere, was - and always would be - enveloped in love.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Orphan No More."

I couldn't help but see myself in what has happened with that little orphan. I had two loving parents, so I was blessed not to be an orphan physically. But I have been a spiritual orphan without the love that my soul was made for; without the love of the God the Bible calls our "Heavenly Father." We are, in the Bible's words, "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). But, again in God's words in His book, "Your iniquities (that's every wrong thing you have ever done) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you" (Isaiah 59:2).

Because we're missing the Father we were created for, we really are spiritual orphans. And we've been feeling it all our lives, whether we know the reason or not. Maybe one of these words would describe some of your emotional autobiography: abandoned, rejected, excluded, betrayed, abused, lonely.

Maybe a true sense of belonging has eluded you all these years even though you've done a lot of things in hopes that you would belong. We make a lot of mistakes for love, don't we? And no matter how close our family or friends may be, there's still that unexplainable loneliness deep down inside. It's cosmic loneliness. We're lonely for God. Maybe we're even pretty religious but we're still missing the only love relationship that can satisfy the heart of a spiritual orphan.

My friends went a long way to bring a little girl into their family. God went a long way to bring you into His - all the way from His heaven to hell on a cross. That's where God's Son absorbed all the guilt and all the punishment for every wrong thing you've ever done, so it would never have to keep you from your Heavenly Father again. So, in John 14:18, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus makes this awesome promise: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." And He has today - where you are right now.

Whatever you're in the middle of, Jesus has come to you today to bring you into His family. But He won't force His love on you. You need to choose it, which means actually recognizing you really are in trouble with God because of your sin, and reaching out to Jesus as the only One who can rescue you from that trouble. Because He's the only One who died for your sin, and then He came back three days later to prove He can give you life that never ends.

This could be your day to finally belong to the very God who made you and who made you for a relationship with Him. It starts when you tell Jesus with all your heart, "I'm Yours." You want that? Well, if you'd like to get more information about beginning this relationship with Him, being sure you belong to Him, please visit our website where many other people have. I think you'll find some real help there in being sure you are ready to experience Jesus for yourself. That website is ANewStory.com.

The Father's arms are open. They're waiting for you. He loves you. He wants you. Come to Him. You'll be an orphan no more.