I saw clips from a video of UNC students with blue dyed hair acting uncontrollably wild in the stands. Nothing really unusual there....nothing I didn't do back in the early 1970s....except for the blue hair. And I watched a video of....I don't even know what it was other than a large room was filled with people....who looked a lot older than college students....watching as a game clock going down....5..4..3..2..1....and this on what was formerly known as the Lord's Day....as if that matters anymore.....and then jumping and screaming with abandon. I thought of the rave concert in Israel....only 3.2 km from the Gaza border....in the early dawn hours....in a nation perpetually on the brink. We haven't a clue folks....not of the present very real existential risk....nor our own culpability in that risk....and certainly not of anything God says about it. The following post is from May 5, 2021....
That Part Of The Book Of Daniel That We May Have Missed
What comes to mind first when you think about the Old Testament book of Daniel....the lion's den.....or Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the furnace.....or Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image with a head of gold and breast and arms of silver and thighs and middle of bronze and legs of iron with the feet part iron and part clay....or his dream of the great tree that was him that was cut down....or maybe the fingers writing on the wall? If you were making a list you might add Daniel's vision of the four great beasts....and the ten horns with the little horn coming up.....or the cryptic prophecies of the king of the south and the king of the north?
What a book this is! The Christian can and should read through this throughout his or her entire life....and that day will come....and we most likely are nearing it....when piece by piece those words become even more clear....but there is one part of Daniel that may be the most important to us today.....of which most of us may not even recall.....and if we do....we certainly do not dwell upon.
In chapter nine Daniel was given knowledge of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy weeks....this as he was nearing the end of his life....but he had first prayed and fasted in sackcloth and ashes....seeking mercy over the desolations that had come upon Jerusalem....and it is his prayer that we in America should contemplate greatly upon as our own country lies desolate. Here is that prayer:
"I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...."
