FRIDAY, JUNE 1
Daniel 9:1-27
Daniel 2:34-36

“… a stone was cut out
without hands …”

THE BOOK OF DANIEL: THE OT BOOK OF REVELATION

The significant part of the vision is the marvelous predictions of the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. “The stone cut out of the mountain without hands,” which represents the Kingdom of Christ, shall smite the composite image of the anti-Christ and destroy it and then increase into a mountain filling the whole earth. This is God’s plan whereby the “kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Rev 11:15).

Another vision of Daniel, the fulfillment of which is still in the future, is that of “the seventy weeks” recorded in chapter 9. One has to read Revelation 11-19 to get a clearer picture of what is recorded in this section of Daniel. These “weeks” are weeks of years or seven years and are divided into three periods: (1) the “seven weeks” or forty-nine years which saw the restoration of Jerusalem recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, (2) the three score and two weeks (62 weeks) or 434 years “Unto the Messiah the Prince,” that is, to the time of Christ, and (3) “one week” or seven years, a period still in the future, which will usher in at the events attending the second coming of Christ.

When this “seventieth week” of Daniel will begin, Christ said, “… knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matt 24:36). But one of the signs of the end time Christ said would be “… the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet ...” (Matt 24:15). Both Daniel and Christ Himself prophesy His “… coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt 24:30; cf. Dan 7:13-14).

The Lord Jesus said of this day, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” So, we are not to set dates for His second coming, but be ready at any time to meet Him at His coming with joy and not with trembling. Meanwhile, Christ said, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). – Noah Quarshie

THOUGHT: “Holding forth the word of life…” (Phil 2:16). Do I?
PRAYER: I thank Thee, Father, for Thy Word which gives me hope.