“Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalms 119:105).

Expect to hear from God every day!

Week Forty-Three

Monday: Daniel 5-6; John 1; Psalm 130

Tuesday: Daniel 7-9; John 2; Psalm 137

Wednesday: Daniel 10-12; John 3; Psalm 123

Thursday: Ezra 1-2; John 4; Psalm 84, 85

Friday: Ezra 3-4; John 5; Psalm 113, 127

Study points:

Monday

• Daniel 5:20a – But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride…

• Daniel 6:10 – Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

• Daniel 6:16 – So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.”

• Daniel 6:23b – So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.

• Daniel 6:26-27 – I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, And steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, And His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, And He works signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

• The purpose of Daniel’s salvation from the lion, other than the obvious protection of someone who trusted God, was to show the world who the living GOD is.

• John 1:41b – “We have found the Messiah”
  

• Psalm 130:7-8 – O Israel, hope in the Lord;  For with the Lord there is mercy,  and with Him is abundant redemption.  ⁸ And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Tuesday

• The prophecies of Daniel are very interesting to study. Some have been fulfilled and some are still waiting to be fulfilled. And some still are double fulfillment, in that they were fulfilled once and will be again.

• Daniel 9:2 – in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

• Daniel studied the Word of God and understood by revelation that Israel’s time of captivity in Babylon was nearing its end.

• Daniel repented for his whole nation

• The prophecy about the time Messiah would come was fulfilled exactly.

• John 2: 5b – “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

• John 2:21-22 – But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Wednesday

• Daniel 12:10 – Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

• John 3:14 – And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

• Psalm 123 is a psalm of ascent. It is sung while they are going “up” to Jerusalem. It is fitting that this Psalm makes us think of the release from Babylon of the Jews and their return to Jerusalem. Which is happening even more in our days as the Jews return from yet another Diaspora.

Thursday

• Ezra 1 – God recorded the names of those who returned. God is very specific.

• Ezra 1-2 – Their first priority was to rebuild the temple.

• Ezra 2 – This chapter correlates with Nehemiah 7

• The Samaritans and the Jews were bitter enemies.

• John 4:14 –  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

• John 4:27 – And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

• We do not always understand what God is doing in another person’s life, but it behooves us to be quiet, watch and learn.

• John 4:42 – Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ,^[a] the Savior of the world.”

• John 4:50-51 – Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

• Psalm 84:10 – For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Friday

• Ezra 3 – The first thing they did was restore the festivals of the Lord and the sacrifices.
  

• Ezra 3:11-13 – And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹² But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, ¹³ so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.

• There will always be resistance to building the “temple” of God, both then and now.   This is especially true of the building of the spiritual temple of the Holy Spirit.

• John 5:6 – When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

• John 5:23 – that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

• Psalm 127:2 – It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late,  To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

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