We are going to do something a little different this week – because what I have to share with you just blew my socks – and my shoes – right off me. We have to go back a week into our reading, back to King Neb’s dream about the statue in Daniel 2. You will remember that the statue had a gold head that represented the Babylonian empire, a silver torso that represented the Medes & Persian empire, a bronze belly & thighs that represented the Greek empire, iron legs that represented the Roman empire, and feet and toes of mixed clay and iron – representing an empire that we are just going to have to wait and see about. Now I want us to skip back to Isaiah 44:28; 45:1; and 45:13 which we read in July. In these passages God talks about raising a gentile leader – Cyrus - who will be powerful in subduing nations and will rebuild Jerusalem and send the captive Israelites back home. Going back to Daniel’s statue – the head of gold were the Babylonians – whose leader was King Neb. He took the Israelites into captivity back to Babylon. In Daniel’s lifetime, the Babylonian empire was defeated by the Medes & Persian empire – the silver torso. The leader of the Medes & Persians was Cyrus the Great. During his reign he had Jerusalem rebuilt and sent the Jewish captives home. He is the Cyrus that these verses in Isaiah refer to. Now – are you ready for the kicker? Isaiah lived one hundred and fifty years BEFORE Daniel.
We finished out Revelation this week. As I read this last chapter, there were a couple of times that I just had to lift my hands in praise as I read my future. The last verse of Revelation is John’s “sincerely yours” – I want to direct your attention to verse 20 right before it. It says “He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” The very first verse in Genesis 1:1 is “In the beginning, God.” All of time, all of history is written between those two verses. In these verses He shows us once again that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. But only of time. The Uncreated One had always been in existence when He began time in Genesis 1:1, He will always be in existence after He returns and ends time. And we will be with Him – how cool is that?
This week’s readings:
Sonday, Sept 24…....Ezra 1; Psalm 84-85; Luke 7
Monday, Sept 25…...Ezra 2-3; Luke 8
Tuesday, Sept 26…..Ezra 4; Psalm 113; 127; Luke 9
Wed. Sept 27…...… Haggai 1-2; Psalm 128; Luke 10
Thurs, Sept 28…..…Zech 1-3; Luke 11
Friday, Sept 29…… Zech 4-6; Luke 12
Sat. Sept 30……...…Zech 7-9, Luke 13