He shall speak words against
the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High ... (Daniel 7: 25)
Was it oppression by a king or a kingdom that Daniel the prophet was
predicting, those hundreds of years ago, when writing as a prisoner of the
Babylonian empire? In the last
analysis it can mean both…. and more.
For God’s people across the ages have never been far away from the
oppression that will always confront those men and women whose hearts are
locked into following and serving their divine Creator and Redeemer. Could it
have been Rome – seemingly the last of the four mighty kingdoms prophesied in
Daniel chapter 7? Certainly; but
to that can be added the Spanish Inquisition, the reign of ‘Bloody Mary’ in
England, the slaughter of Huguenots and other believers in Europe that led to
the religious exit to America of The
Pilgrim Fathers … and right
up to the intolerances imposed on humble disciples of Christ in country after
country around today’s world.
After the time of Daniel, it would be the notorious Antiochus
Epiphanes, the Syrian ruler of Greece, who would make life impossible for the
Jews, living under his reign. For ever after, he would be identified as The Abomination of Desolation – a title
reserved by Jesus for an end-time figure of oppression who, similarly, would do
everything possible to ‘wear out
the saints.’
Christian reader! Do you and I feel under such pressures to some degree
- in these early months of a New Year? It won’t be too surprising.
Indeed, if you sense yourself right now to be in the middle of a great
storm, place yourself in that rocking reeling 27 foot-long fishing boat on Lake
Galilee with the other disciples of Jesus – the wind blowing them everywhere;
the waves cascading into the boat … and with your leader apparently asleep, his
head on a cushion, at the back (Mark 4: 35-41).
But no, He’s truly in charge. Keep your eyes on Him; He knows what he
intends to do! If we keep our eyes on Him – He will show US what to do. It is only if we have eyes for the
storm itself, that we could be worn down to nothing.
“Heaven
fights for those who pray”
(Pastor
Reynolds of the seventeenth century)
--ooOoo--
