Satan's Opposite...

We are just about thru Daniel...today the first thing I was reading in Daniel 12, and in the commentary I am using was that the archangel Micheal was in spiritual battle with satan...and satan is Michael's opposite.  Now I know I didn't capitalize the name of satan, however I do not wish to give him that recognition, to me he doesn't deserve it.

Okay so Michael is looking to be in spiritual battle.  And again I do not beleive that the Bible is speaking of Daniels time I do believe that the discussion is pertaining to the end times....if you read verses Ia thru 3 you will see that the wording is very similar to  those found in Revelations 13: 8, 17: 8, and 20: 15, 20.  So in reading this I do believe that Daniel's revelation/prophecy has to do with times that are yet to be seen.

The one thing we must all realize is satan hates, and this is putting it mildly, the Jewish people.  These are Gods chosen people, we are told this in the Bible, and since we are all descendants from Adam and Eve, we are all of Hebrew descent,  I know I have a habit of simplifying things down to the nitty gritty. So what is wrong with that.  We are all Hebrews, I wonder if our President is aware of this?  

Daniel continues in verse 4, Michael is instructing Daniel that he is to shut up the words for a time when they will be needed and to seal up the book until end times.  At which point the Book of Life will be opened and the names of the saints will be read.  Is your name in the Lambs Book?

We have only gotten thru to Daniel 12 verse 4 and as in some of the previous chapters I am finding things to be getting quite deep...a lot of reading back and forth to get a handle on what is being said to me.  Please remember my son is the Bible scholar not his mother.  So it is time for me to end for today and we will make an attempt to finish this book of Daniel tomorrow morning, so go and be a blessing!

The conclusion of Daniel 11, from verse 11 on.....

Good day to you all....I know it is 8:16. AM. I am on sort of little vacation so I slept in for just a little bit...my husband said I would sleep till eight but I only slept till 7:30...so here I am, enjoying this wonderful daysittng in my rocking chair facing the wonderful warmth of the sun that is streaming in the windows as I write to the precious few of you who read this blog. 

Do you see all the wonderful sunlight on my face.  God is so good to His children.  My husband Tim is also enjoying this day with me and he will be going out to the back pasture to cut firewood.  Even though the wind is blowing quite strongly and it is a brisk 22 degrees right now....brrrrrr.... that's chilly.  It probably feels more like 10 degrees with the wind chill.  Okay we have established it is sunny and cold here...now let us proceed to Daniel....

The Holy Land goes back and forth again.  The southern king attacked the northern king and the south prevailed.  
Let us identify the north and the south.  The north is Greece and the south is Egypt.  So then Greece attacks Egypt and this time the Jewish people help the Greeks, and the Greeks do prevail, but they want to be in control of the Holy Land not the Jewish people.  So Antichous III used his dominance over the Jewish people as well, which I am sure wasn't pleasant for Gods chosen people..."11: 16 b He shall stand in the Glorious Land with destruction in his power (hand)."

Well Antichous wanted to firm up his relationship with Ptolemy V, so he gave his daughter, Cleopatra (this is an ancestor of famous Cleopatra's) to Ptolemy V.  However this did work well because Cleopatra wasn't faithful to her new husband.  

To make a long story short Antichous wasn't really happy with his daughter and he turned to enlarging his territory with coastline, he battled his away to a point were he was low on money and decided to pillage a temple in Babylon and he was killed by the people there in the community that were quite upset by his behavior. Daniel 11: 19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.

Do you know when I first started on Daniel 11 I had no idea how deep this chapter was and is.....Seleucus III becomes king for a short period of time with high taxes, I suppose he wanted to refill the cookie jar. He didn't last very long he was assassinated, perhaps by his brother Antichous IV, who was next for the throne, and is described as "a vile person."

He went to war with the Egyptians again and did nothing, except he got angry; he turned his anger on the Holy Land and ended up killing approximately 80,000 Jews, he took approximately 40,000 prisoners, and sold approximately another 40,000 into slavery, he then robbed the temple of approximately one billion dollars. After doing this evil in what we call Israel he then returns to his own country of Greece....this takes us up to verse 29...and from verse 29 on to the end of this chapter, it seems to me that the end times is the topic of conversation.  And this gets quite deep.  I would really suggest that you read this and come to your own conclusions. I would also strongly suggest that you read this along with a commentary of good standing.

Well since this is my day off and I have a bunch of other things to accomplish.  I had better get to them, don't forget to be a blessing to someone today, perhaps even a stranger.

Daniel 11 verse 6 on...

Yesterday I said that there would be a wedding coming up...well verse 6 speaks of some years going by and that the king of the north had gotten quite powerful and that a daughter of the king of the south went to the king of the north and they had an arrangement of sort between the families....I have to do some reading in the commentaries.....the number of years that went by was 130 years.  In our time frame, that is quite a few years.  But I do feel better, I was thinking a brother and a sister getting married, but that was NOT the case.  

Okay so there  has been this marriage to bring the north and the south together, but this didn't last.  Once the father of the bride passed away, his name was Ptolemy II,  things fell apart!  The king of the north, named Antiochus, decide he would rather be with his first wife named Laodice, and he put his wife #2, Bernice, away.  Now he may have been happy for a short period of time but Laodice didn't trust her husband....that's not good.  Really not good, this lady was vicious, she had her husband poisoned. And then she went to work on Bernice and her entourage, and Bernice's infant son.  They were all murdered.  
"She shall be given up, with those that brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times." This is from the Bible, Daniel 11: 6b.
Bernice's brother, Ptolemy III, did avenge his sister's death and the bible says ,"But from a branch of her (Bernice's) roots one shall arise (Bernice's brother), in his place, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king (Seclecus II) of the north, and deal with them and prevail.". Well there was quiet in the kingdoms for a time, until Ptolemy III died, and he lived for four more years then did Seclecus II. 

This must have been a terribly sad time to be alive.  There was so much killing.  And to think that this was all prophecy, given to Daniel by God.  Now granted Daniel did need a little help in understanding this, and isn't it awesome that God sent someone to help Daniel with his understanding of all this information. 

Tomorrow I am going to finish up Daniel 11, even though we have only gotten thru verse 11. We will finish 11 tomorrow.  So today you really need to bless someone, even, if it is just sitting quietly at your desk, for a few moments and praying for a co-worker.  They do not need to know you are praying for them.  But God will hear you, and listen to your concerns for them.  That's what really counts anyway!

Daniel 11 verse four thru....

God is really good...and sometimes if I just sit quietly I can just bask in His wonderful glory, and feel Him sitting there with me.  Have you ever noticed that when you are with someone you love it is not always necessary to be speaking.  You can just be together and feel the love that the two of you have for each other, Psalm 46: 10. Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in all the earth. I want to exalt God in everything that I do, if you are reading this then you probably do as well!

On to Daniel 11: verse 4 on...well it looks like there will be wedding in the coming verses...we shall see.  In verse 4 Daniels prophecy speaks of the mighty king who is ruling and that when he stands up, he will fall. The he is Alexander the Great...who went to a party when he was about 32 years old...he drank a wee bit to much; went home and developed a fever and died.  He probably thought of himself as invisible and he was probably having, what he thought was, the time of his life...wonder how much history would have changed if Alexander had walked with God...not likely, but anything is possible.

Anyway I have reiterated a bit and the kingdom was divided up amongst four heirs, and their guides, since some were quite young...the heirs were murdered and the generals took over. I suppose that the generals were then thought of and referred to as kings.  Well (remember the kingdom had been divided up, as it were, to the four winds, north, south, east, and west.) the king of the north and the king of the south we're warring, why is it that so many can not be simply happy with what they have. Why do so many think that more is better, it isn't always better.  Okay so the king of the south was Ptolemy I and he became quite strong and controlled power over the Holy Lands.  Ptolemy must have had a son, because he is referred to as a prince, named Seleucus and at this point I am getting confused because the Bible is not totally clear to me about how Seleucus is the king of the north and now Ptolemy is the king of the south.  Reading....reading.....reading....Okay I just had a light bulb moment.  The Prince Seleucus most have gotten pretty powerful and he took the power away from the previous ruler of the north, and that is how he came to be in power over the northern area.  But just to be on the safe side I will check this all out with my son, who is a brilliant person and he is able to read Greek...so I think since he did quite well in his Greek course at LBC, he's probably qualified to verify that what I have written here is accurate.  So for the moment this not written in stone.  And it will be confirmed or told that it is a wrong understanding.

So for the time being....go and find someone who really needs a blessing!

Daniel Chapter 11 (or at least the first few verses.)

The fasting is over for the moment, however I am so enjoying the food that I have been partaking that I will be continuing on with the same foods...however Timmy wants his other favorites...not me though!  I am really enjoying the fact that I am losing a bit of weight and since I am enjoying the food, I may as well stay with it.

Let us proceed to Daniel Chapter 11.

There are those that think the prophecies written in this chapter were written after the fact because they are so correct.  But God doesn't like lies so how could that be the case?  It couldn't be.

As we begin our reading for today the Bible speaks of four kings arising out of Persia and the fourth king to arise will be more wealthy and have superior strength and he will encourage and stir up the nation against "the realm of Greece.". And this particular king was King Xerxes.  Now just to clarify, when I said that four kings would arise I didn't mean at once....this occurred over time.  The reason for this importance is because this king of Persia, tried to wipe out the Jews as did the king or emperor of Greece who did go to war with the Persians. 

Let's get back to King Xerxes.  Well things went along for a bit for King Xerxes until Alexander the Great came along (this is from verse three) and defeated him.  And his kingdom would be quite large, but at his demise, his kingdom would be divided up towards the four winds and no one was able to get it all together again.  Alexander had a few heirs, however none where as great as he.  Alexander had a half brother, but he was somewhat mentally deficient, he did have a son that was born ater he had passed and he had an illegitimate son named Hercules.  Well each of the heirs was to rule together with each one having a guardian, if you would.  But they all the heirs ended up being killed.  Then four generals goverend, but none to Alexander the Great's "dominion." and I think this implies to the borders that Alexander had originally conquered too.

Well we have made it thru to verse 4.  And we shall pick this back up tonight or tomorrow morning.  So it is time to go and to be a blessing.

Last Day of 21 day Fast & Daniel Chapter 10 First 1/2

This was the last day of the fast and what am I reading Daniel 10, Daniel is speaking of taking no pleasant food for 21 days. Although he says three full weeks.  I had the same thing for breakfast this morning as I have had for the past week.  It's good and clean and (I think it's tasty)it's nutritious.

I wonder if Daniel had anything like this...no he might have had quinoa instead of oats. 
Okay Daniel was fasting because he was given some news if you would, and the news was disturbing. Or perhaps it was because the people in exile had not all gone with Ezra...there are several reason that Daniel could have been mourning or fasting...But Daniel did feel the need to fast to receive understanding of the news in the dream,  and it was troubling to him.

Daniel found himself standing on the banks of the Tigris River.  And Daniel saw someone, who some commentators believe to be Jesus, because the description that Daniel gives is very similar to the description that is given in Revelations 1: 12-16.  However in my mind this doesn't really matter because we are looking for explanation, not who is giving it. 

Apparently there were a few others with Daniel and they fled, the bible says they were filled with fear and they hid from the vision. And as Daniel saw this man he went to the ground and his face was completely to the ground. He had no strength at all and all his colour left him, yet he could hear the voice of the one coming to him.  And this person introduced himself to Daniel and helped Daniel to stand and to speak with him and he gave Daniel some strength.  And again Daniel is told that he is deeply loved by God.  Wow, can you imagine this.  You know what, I believe I just heard God telling me that I am also.  Be still and know that I am God, Rebecca....I know God sometimes we need to just do this.  God help me to explain this 10th and 11th chapters of Daniel...Okay so this, I believe this was an angel, helped Daniel to understand what was going to be happening to the Hebrew people in many days to come, back in the beginning of this chapter, it says: In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long.  So apparently there would be a span of time, before this whole dream/vision would be fulfilled.  And the whole explanation of this picks up in the next chapter.  So I will be back with you tomorrow morning bright and early.  I had to complete this once I got to work, internet was down at home.
So God Bless You and please be a blessing to someone today.

Food isn't just for Thought...

I just wanted to tell you all how absolutely wonderful the food is that my husband and I have been enjoying, while participating in the Daniel Fast.

First off we start our days with oatmeal...now let me tell you at first the thought of oatmeal without brown sugar and nice cool whole milk was not exactly appealing.  But this is now how I prepare it.

And I set Tim's up the night before, he's a big boy so he can handle completeing the preperation.

For Tim                                                                 For Kirsten

1/2 cup of old fashioned oats                                  1/3 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon of apple pie spice or cinnamon            same as Tim
1 cup of water                                                               2/3 cup of water

Put all this into a deep enough bowl, so you won't have a mess in your micro wave.  I cook on high or regular power for three minutes.

Then...and here comes the really tasty stuff, I scoop about a tablespoon of coconut oil, which in our house is solid, sitting on the counter.  mix that into the hot oatmeal until it is melted.  then i take the bag of frozen blueberries out of the freezer and add about 3/4 to one cup of blueberries...mix these around and if you don't relish biting into frozen berries, let this sit for just a minute or two and enjoy.  Absoletly wunderbar!