Month: December 2021

Be the Right Person

At the Right Time in the Right Place

Daniel 11, 12

     Have you ever been the right person at the right time in the right place?  My wife and I were driving home one evening after dark.  We came upon a slow- moving vehicle that was being driven rather erratically.  It swerved from side to side.  It would speed up for a moment and then slow way down.  We even witnessed this vehicle cross the center line several times.  Oncoming vehicles sometimes were forced off the road to avoid this driver. We thought that we were about to see a terrible accident. Of course, this driver was impaired in some way.  I am sensitive toward the subject of drunk drivers.  I was badly injured and my best friend killed by one many years ago.  Of course, we called 911.  However, while my wife was talking to the 911 operator, we noticed that a police cruiser was sitting in a parking lot next to the road.  We pulled alongside and described the situation.  To their credit, the officers quickly sped off in pursuit and had the vehicle pulled over in less than a minute.  The driver, a middle aged woman, was clearly inebriated.  We hope that we helped to save some family from a devastating tragedy that evening.  Perhaps, our decision to get involved may have even saved that drunk driver from a life of guilt, prison, or from death itself.   However, we did nothing more than what many people would do.  If you found yourself in a similar situation, I know that you would act.  The right person is often given the right place and the right time to act, to get involved.

     The book of Daniel often describes events that are earth shattering and world changing.  People often get caught up in forces that are beyond their control and they feel helpless.  However, the book of Daniel also gives examples of those individuals who rise to the occasion by standing for their faith.  These individual acts of faith actually change the course of events: Daniel refused to eat the king’s food, Meschach, Shadrach and Abed-nego refused to bow to the image, and Daniel broke the law and risked the lion’s den to pray to the LORD. 

Daniel 11 and 12 describe the incredible times and events that will occur at the end of this age.  Forces will be at work that will be beyond our control.  Yet, it is still a moment for individuals to make a stand.  According to Daniel and the book of Revelation, the time of the end will be characterized by great deception.  Many people, even believers, will be fooled and tricked by the antichrist.   Daniel 11:32 reads, “By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant…..”  However, some make a stand.  Daniel 11:32 continues, “….but the people who know their God will display strength and take action…”  They will be the right people at the right time in the right place.

 Daniel 11:33 adds, “Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many….”  Yet there will be a price for this courage.  Daniel 11:33 continues, “…yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days.”  However, Daniel 12:3 makes this promise: “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” 

We live in a time of great confusion.  We have become strangers to God while we worship the idols that we have created.   Many people fear the future and wonder how it is all going to end.  For all our worldliness, our country is confused about sexuality and gender.  People have forgotten what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what is false.  This world needs a voice of reason.  It needs truth.  It needs people of courage and faith.  The answers are “hidden in plain sight.”  They are right here in the Bible.  Insight will be found by those who are looking for it and by those who thirst for it.  Those who have insight will shine like the stars.  Be the right person so that you can act when the right time and the right place comes to you.

-Scott Deane

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading plan passages at BibleGateway.com here – Daniel 11 & 12 and 1 John 1

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The 70th Week

Daniel 9

It is more than just numbers.  However, the numbers help tell the story.   Daniel chapter 9 is also known as the “70 Weeks Prophecy.”  It was a message given to the prophet Daniel.  Daniel had sought to know the purpose and plan of God.  He called upon God to save him and his people.  For his piety, God revealed to Daniel His mighty works.  In particular, God revealed to Daniel the events that would happen at the end of this age.  Even though this is called the “70 Weeks Prophecy,” the spotlight falls to the 70th week or the last week.  Each week is really “week of years.”  Since each regular week has seven days, each week of years has seven years.  The 70th week, then, is really the last seven years of this age.  It is the seven years prior to the return of Jesus Christ in glory. 

As the prophecy unfolds for us in Daniel 9:26-27, a person who is called “the prince who is to come” makes a covenant or a treaty with Israel at the beginning of the seven years.  Perhaps, unknown to most people, this “prince who is to come” is the same as the “little horn” of Daniel chapter 7.  He is the same as the “small horn” of Daniel chapter 8 and as the ‘king of the North” and the “despicable person” in Daniel chapter 11.  He is also the same as the “beast” in Revelation chapter 13 and the ‘lawless one” in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.”  He is known widely as the antichrist.  

In the middle of the week or after 3 ½ years, the “prince who is to come” dramatically breaks the covenant with a horrible abomination.  This is the very prophetic sign that Jesus warns us about in Matthew 24:15: “…when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place….”  What is this abomination of desolation?  In Thessalonian 2:2, Paul says of the “lawless one, “…he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God….” 

More importantly, this horrible and unmistakable event initiates the “Great Tribulation” according to Matthew 24:21.  The antichrist will make war upon the saints during that time.  Again the numbers help to tell the story.  The tribulation begins in the middle of the week.  Of course, this is the 3 ½ year point.  So, the Great Tribulation endures for 3 ½ years.  This length of time turns up in other places too.  In Daniel 7:25 he reports that the length of the little horn’s rampage is “time, times, and half a time.”  Time being one.  Times being two and a half being a half for a total of 3 ½.  The period of  time, times and half a time is repeated in Daniel 12:7 and even in Revelation 12:14.  Revelation 12:6 mentions a period of 1260 days (A 360 day calendar was used in Bible times.  When 360 days is multiplied by 3 ½, it equals 1260 days!).  Revelation 13:5 notes that the beast’s authority lasts for 42 months.  42 months, of course, is 3 ½ years.  However, as dramatic as the beast appears so his end will be at the return of Christ.  Daniel 9:27 reads, “…even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

-Scott Deane

Read or listen to today’s Bible reading plan passages at BibleGateway.com here – Daniel 9 & 10 and Psalm 148-150

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