Daniel in Exile Part 9

Let's pray, and we will get started. Lord, again, as we open up your word, and we recognize that we're coming through a section of scripture that is just not easy to understand.

We pray that through your Holy Spirit, and through a careful and diligent study, we may properly understand what you have revealed there, so that we may take comfort in the fact that you've warned us ahead of time about what is coming, so that we may not lose faith.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we are to a tough, and I mean tough, section of Daniel.

And all I can say is, buckle up, it's the end of the world. Cats and dogs living together,

Zul and all those are gonna show up. It's kind of like that. It's really, really a tough vision here, and it's a terrifying vision.

So Daniel 10, in the third year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, a word was revealed to Daniel, whose name was

Belshazzar, and the word was true. And it was a great conflict, and he understood the word, and he had understanding of the vision.

So we'll note that as terrifying as this thing was, Daniel kind of got it. And you'll note, that's kind of the point.

As I pointed out as we began this section of Daniel, just like when Jesus tells parables, and then the disciples ask, what does this mean?

We don't understand what the parable means, and Jesus explains to them how the parable works, and what it means.

Then they're able to kind of put it all together, and finally they get it. Similar thing is happening here with Daniel.

This isn't his first Book of Revelations rodeo. So as a result of it, he's starting to kind of learn how that works.

And we'll see if we can make sense of it as careful students of what we've been watching. So in those days,

I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat, or wine entered my mouth, nor did

I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. I would be homeless at this point if I did this.

My wife would, I'd be out on the street, and it wouldn't matter if it was 20 below outside. You are going to bathe, right?

So, on the 24th day of the first month, this tells you that Daniel was single, by the way.

On the 24th day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the

Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and I looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen with a white belt, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.

His body was like beryl, his face was like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

Hey, wait a second, that sounds familiar. Okay, let's see if we can figure out what this is, all right?

This person has shown up before. Book of Revelation, let's take a look. All right,

I, John, your brother, let's see here. Here it is, okay. I, John, your brother, this is

Revelation chapter one, and partner in the tribulation. Let me kind of point those words out to you again.

I, John, your brother, and partner in the tribulation. Wait a minute, when did the tribulation start?

I thought the tribulation wasn't until seven years before Jesus returns.

You'll note that the apostle John thought he was already in the tribulation, because the seven year tribulation, the seven years is symbolic.

I, partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, and that's the big theme of the book of Revelation.

We talked about it when we walked through it. I was on the isle called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

And then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man clothed with a long robe with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

And in the background you can hear the song Shine, Jesus, Shine, right? Okay. Sorry, couldn't help.

He wanted you to kill him. Even Louisa Bill thought that was too much.

Okay, all right. So this sounds a lot like what Daniel saw, right?

So he's seen the glorified Christ. And that's the thing, Jesus can pop up at any time, but so here we have a man clothed with a belt of fine gold above us around his waist, his body like a barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, but the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them and they fled to hide themselves.

This sounds a lot like what happened to the apostle Paul when he was still Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus, right?

Jesus appeared to him, and the men who were traveling with him, did they see Jesus? Nope. They would have been eyewitnesses of the resurrection had they seen

Jesus. But they didn't see him, but they sensed the presence, whatever it was, right?

So these men, fear and trembling falls upon them. So I was left alone, and I saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me.

My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words,

I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. Again, I always have to take the occasion of appearances like this and the reaction.

When an unholy human being, a sinner, comes into the presence of the holy glorified

God, it doesn't go well for them. We don't really do very well in the presence of the holy.

And here Daniel, even though he is a true man of God, a prophet, and God has used him mightily, he's still a sinner like you and I.

And as a result of that, he coming into the immediate presence of Jesus is like Superman in the presence of kryptonite, right?

He just goes completely, just falls down like a rag doll. So behold, a hand touched me, and set me trembling on my hands and my knees.

So even that doesn't stop the fear and the trembling. Picks him up. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

Don't bring me closer. Yeah, all right. Again, more proof that when

Bethel talks about soaking in the glory and nonsense like this, they legitimately don't know what they're talking about.

So he said to me, oh Daniel, man greatly loved. Understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright.

For now I have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.

Then he said to me, fear not Daniel. For from the first day that you set your heart to understand and you humbled yourself before your

God, your words have been heard. I have come because of your words.

Now here is where we could do a whole lesson on prayer. All right?

So note here, God hears your prayers and you're going to note that Daniel receives an answer to his prayers, one that he didn't expect.

That even the second person of the Trinity would show up and converse with him as he was seeking understanding of the things that he was seeing.

Jesus himself said, all right, I got this one. I'm gonna go down and have a chat with him, right?

But listen to those words. Fear not, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your

God, your words have been heard and I have come because of your words.

Now here's where I will kind of plug this in here. You've heard me say as it relates to prayer that scripture makes it clear that sometimes

God will answer our prayers and say, I'm gonna do according to the words, your words, not mine.

And I liken it to God is doing a fine job of running the universe. I mean, a spectacular job.

I would, the universe would fly apart in a hot minute if I were in charge of it. That's all I gotta say. But God is doing a fine job of running the universe but some of the things that he has planned, the things that he is intended to do, he writes them in pencil.

Other things, he writes them in stone and that's just how this is gonna be. But you'll note the stuff that he writes in pencil that when his children, that's all of us who have been baptized into Christ, when we pray and we come to him and we ask him that he would do such and such a thing,

God will look in his day planner, which I'm sure is spectacular, and he'll look and he'll say, well, that's in pencil and he'll take his eraser and go, shh, shh, shh, shh.

And then what does he do? He then writes in, okay, I'm gonna do what you've asked to do.

I'm gonna answer your prayer. If you've ever felt that your prayers are for naught, that they do nothing, you are dead wrong, okay?

In fact, let's kind of do this. I'm gonna do a quick word search. I know it's in James.

Prayer of a, let's see here, we gotta do a flex search and we're not going to search in the epistles, right?

Here it is. So listen to the words of James chapter five.

Confess your sins to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

The prayer of a righteous person, we sit there and go, well, that's not me. Really? I thought you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Right? You are. So because you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, you are that person.

So you'll note that oftentimes we get backwards and upside down as it relates to prayer.

We get backwards and upside down because we, number one, feel like prayer doesn't do anything.

Well, you're in good company when you think that because even David prayed, where are you,

Lord? How long are you gonna remain silent, right? And then sometimes you sit there and go, well, when

I pray, the thing I pray for is not the thing I get, but it's the thing that I didn't want.

It's the thing that I get, okay? And I would point out, you're in good company when that happens, too. Jesus Christ, on the night that he was betrayed, was in the

Garden of Gethsemane and he was praying, if it's possible, may this cup pass from me, but not my will be done, but your will be done.

And so you'll note that there's a humbleness to prayer that when you're in the midst of trial, tribulation, suffering, and difficulty, that what you really want is for God to give you relief.

But what we oftentimes do not understand and the hard thing to come to grips with is the good that God is doing through our suffering.

And as a result of it, when we are suffering, it is a good thing to pray that God would give us relief, but we also need to pray with the same humble mindset of Christ, but not my will be done, your will be done.

Because we recognize that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope, right?

So sometimes when we are made to suffer, it is because God is working in us in such a way to produce these fruits in us, and yes, it's painful.

And I can think back on my life, there were very difficult circumstances that if I could have had my will,

I would have waved a magic wand and made the problems go away, and they didn't.

Not only did they not go away, they persisted for years. And the resolve to them was spectacular when it finally came, but it came after a long, long time of suffering and difficulty, right?

Similarly then, so you'll note that your prayers are heard even when the answer to prayer doesn't come quickly.

So the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, and that is you, and we ought to not think of our prayers as doing nothing.

I always think back to poor Zechariah and Elizabeth. In Luke chapter one, you have the angel

Gabriel showing up inside of the temple while Zechariah is doing his priestly duties.

And in the beginning of Luke, we learn that Zechariah is a priest of the division of Abijah.

He had a wife and the daughter is a baron. Her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, but they had no children because Elizabeth was baron, and then both were advanced in years.

Advanced, okay? I don't know what that is. If they were in their 50s, I'm gonna be depressed, okay?

But the reality is is that Elizabeth has passed the years of childbearing, and there's a lot of guilt and shame that goes along with being baron, even to this day.

That kind of guilt and shame persists. And when the angel appeared to Zechariah inside the temple, it says, the angel said to Zechariah, do not be afraid,

Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. What prayer? Do you think well -advanced in years that Zechariah and Elizabeth were going, please,

Lord God, even now, even though we're ready to go into the nursing facility, even now it'd be great to have a child?

No. These were the prayers that were prayed decades earlier.

The prayer that was prayed a long time ago. And you sit there and go, how long is

God gonna take to answer the prayer? I would note that God said yes to the prayer all the way back then, but said, let me schedule that for you.

It's gonna be, well, about 35 years from now. Okay, but the answer's yes, okay?

Now, of course, it would've been nice if he had clued them in that he had said yes and given them some kind of prior heads -up warning, but no, that's not how this goes.

So you'll note then our prayers are heard by God. Even the prayers we prayed when we were children, the prayers we prayed 10, 15 years ago, the prayers we prayed yesterday, that being the case, you're going to note that God has the right to say yes to our prayers because you'll note they're petitions, they're not declarations.

They're petitions, God has the right to say yes, God has the right to say no, God has the right to say maybe, but later.

And you'll see those types of answers to questions all over the place. But the one thing we gotta take into consideration in all this, and there's a big confusion about this, is that when we look at the

Old Testament and the book of Genesis, sometimes people take the account of Abraham, where Abraham, it looks like he's haggling with God, bargaining with God, that this is somehow something that we're doing, that we can do, we can negotiate with God.

Well, God, if you give me a Maserati, then I'll sell my

Aston Martin, you know. Such a good compromise. Wow, yeah, that would be a huge sacrifice, huge.

Not really. But the idea is that that's not how God works, okay? We have to remember that God is our

Heavenly Father. As a result of that, we need to be very careful.

Let's see here, we need to be very careful in how we understand these texts because we're not bargaining with God.

We don't really have anything to bargain with. Is there anything that you own that God doesn't really own?

No, you're just the stewards of God's creation, right? That being the case, you don't have anything to bargain with.

Even your life is not your own. You don't have anything to bargain with. So when we take a look in like Genesis 18, this is where I wanna go,

Genesis 18, fascinating text. Yahweh appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.

This is the days before air conditioning. Boy, am I thankful I live in the 21st century. All right, he lifted up his eyes and he looked and behold, three men were standing in front of him.

When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, bowed himself to the earth and said, oh

Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, I do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourself and after that, you may pass on since you have come to your servant.

So they said, do as you have said and Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick, 3C is a fine flour, knead it, make some cakes.

And the days before microwaves too. And Abraham ran to the herd, took a young calf, tender and good, gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly.

And then he took curds and milk and the calf and he had prepared and set it before them and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, where's Sarah, your wife? He said, well, she's in the tent. And Yahweh said, I will surely return to you about this time next year.

Now, note how the dialogue is going. Who said what? Yahweh said. Who's visiting

Abraham here? God, okay. Yahweh is on the scene.

That's who Abraham is talking to. Don't let that one go too fast. Wait, what? Yeah, uh -huh. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years and the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

That's a polite way of saying that she'd already been through menopause and had all the hot flashes and stuff. So Sarah laughed to herself and said, well, after I'm worn out and my

Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? And Yahweh said to Abraham, why did

Sarah laugh? And say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for Yahweh?

And at the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I didn't laugh for she was afraid. And he said, no, you did laugh. You can't lie to Jesus.

Just, it never is going to work. Why even try? We do the stupidest things in our fear and anxiety, okay?

But God was polite, just said, no, you did laugh. So then the men set out from there and they looked down towards Sodom.

Abraham went with them and set them on their way. And Yahweh said, shall I hide from Abraham what

I am about to do? Saying that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing righteousness and justice so that Yahweh may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

Then Yahweh said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,

I will go down to see whether they have done what they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.

If not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before Yahweh.

Then Abraham drew near and said, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Huh. So what's going on here, okay? Now, this is not one of those

Middle Eastern haggle things, okay, have you guys ever seen like pond stars on television?

Okay, oh, somebody brings some piece of junk and it turns out that the thing is like some long lost artifact from the king of Assyria in like the year 19

BC, right? And so they have their expert take a look at it and they go, yeah, this is absolutely the real deal and you can get such and such amount of money for it at an auction, right?

And so they'll say, yes, it's worth $5 ,000 is what they'll say. So and then the negotiation begins with the phrase, and so what would you like for it, okay?

They know that they can get five grand if they take it to auction, but they're in a pond shop, right?

And so the guy says, well, it's worth five grand, I'd like five grand for it. And he looks at him and goes, listen,

I gotta make some money off of this deal. I can't just take this thing on and not make a profit.

How about I give you 1 ,500 for it? 1 ,500? The thing's worth five grand.

He says, yeah, but after I've spent all my time putting this together and looking for a buyer and stuff like this,

I'll be lucky if I get 15 % profit off of this thing. And the guy's all, I can't possibly depart with it for less than 4 ,000.

And you see with each thing they're coming closer and closer together. Four grand, are you out of your mind?

I already told you I gotta make a profit on this thing. I'll tell you what, I'll give you 2 ,500. 2 ,500, right?

And the final settlement, it'll be at like 3 ,200, right? You know, it'll be somewhere in the middle of all of this.

And the haggling along the way is always a fascinating thing to watch. Now, when I was a kid,

I hated this when my stepfather would do this, okay? He loved that kind of negotiation.

Like, after he graduated from the university, he ended up going to like Tibet with like the

Peace Corps and stuff like this and spent some time in the East and learned how to haggle. And he came back with like, you know, really elaborate carpets that were made, you know, in India and things like this.

And I remember one time going with him because my mom wanted a really nice new carpet for our, you know, a decorative carpet.

And so I was with them when they went to this specialty shop in the middle of nowhere Los Angeles.

I mean, like one of these like seedy neighborhoods. And the guy that was running the shop was legitimately from the

Middle East. And he didn't expect this, but my dad knew how to negotiate.

But once it started, I didn't know what was going on. I was so embarrassed, I couldn't even watch, okay? But he did this also, like, when it came time for me to get my first car, okay?

It's like, I just wanted the car. He wanted to figure out what else he could get with it, you know, and it's like, and oh, it was just awful, okay?

But anyway, that's a skill. But this is not what's really going on here. So don't think that this is really a bargaining.

Because here's the issue. Who is in Sodom that's related to Abraham?

Lot. Lot and his wife. And so Lot and his wife and their children are there.

There's family. And if God's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, guess who's going to be gone too, okay?

They're all gonna be gone. So what he's trying to do here is basically, this is an interesting attempt at kind of like doing some intercessory prayer and holding

God accountable to God's own character. And so you'll note that there's an interesting way in which this works in scripture, and that is that God himself allows himself to be challenged with his own character and with his own words.

And so here, Abraham says, "'Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? "'Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city.

"'Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it "'for the 50 righteous who are in it? "'Far be it from you to do such a thing, "'to put the righteous to death with the wicked.'"

Abraham knows a thing or two about the nature of God. That's a pretty good prayer, okay? "'So that the righteous then fare as the wicked.

"'Far be it that from you shall not the judge "'of all the earth do what is just.'"

Well, come to think of it, yeah. Okay, does God ever act unjustly?

No, all right, so Yahweh said, "'All right, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, "'I will spare the whole place for their sake.'"

Does God know how many righteous people there are in Sodom? Of course he does, okay? So here's the thing.

You sit there and you go, why is he saying, I'm gonna go and examine it, and if it's as bad as the report that has reached me, then

I'll know it. This isn't for God's sake, this is for Abraham's sake. This is for our sake.

So Abraham answered and said, "'All right, behold, I have undertaken "'to speak to the Lord. "'Who am I but dust and ashes?

"'Suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking. "'Will you destroy the whole city for a lack of five?''

Now this sounds a little bit more like one of those Middle Eastern negotiations, right? He said, "'I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.'"

And again, he spoke to him and said, well, suppose 40 are found there. He answered, well, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.

And then he said, oh, Lord, let not the Lord be angry that I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there.

Even Abraham at this point is sitting there going, yeah, are there really 30 righteous people in San Francisco?

I don't think so. Right? Okay. So he answered,

I will not do it if I find 30 there. He said, well, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there.

He answered, well, no, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. And he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry that I will speak again, but this one, suppose 10 are found there.

Are there even 10? There are not. He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.

And the Lord went his way. But Abraham, the whole point of the reason why he's doing this, he doesn't want

Lot and his wife and his daughters to be swept away in God's judgment.

And does God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes, he does. Were there 10 righteous people there?

Not even close. They didn't even get to five. They weren't even halfway to 10. That being the case,

God did have mercy because the heart of Abraham was here for the love of his nephew,

Lot. That was what this was all about. And so God answered his prayer, even though it was, let's just say that what he was really praying for was kind of hidden between the lines.

It was inferred but not overtly spoken. And then I always like to throw this into the mix.

In the book of Exodus, remember that account with the golden calf, right?

The golden calf. Now here's an interesting aspect of prayer. Now we know how the story goes. Moses comes down from the mountain.

I love how God says the people who you brought out of Egypt, they've sinned and they've made of themselves an idol.

Okay, it always reminds me when I was like, you know, I'd come home from work one day when my kids were young and my wife would say, your son has done something terrible, right?

He becomes my son when he's misbehaving, but he is her son when he's doing good.

Okay, it's this fascinating thing. I see some of that dynamic going on here. But what ends up happening is that after that event,

God punished and a bunch of people lost their lives. And in the aftermath of that, what ended up happening is that God said something that was just absolutely devastating.

And that is, is that God said, I'm not gonna go with you to the promised land.

And it's in Exodus 33, right after the golden calf in its sentence. The Lord said to Moses, depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which

I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying to your offspring, I will give it. I'll send an angel before you.

I'll drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff -necked people.

And that was a devastating word. Because you'll note up to this point, that the visible presence of God has been with them the whole way.

God precedes them as a pillar of smoke by day, a pillar of fire by night.

And when the pillar of smoke or fire rests in a place, they rest, and they don't move until it begins to move again, right?

And the presence of God has been with them in such a mighty way that that presence kept the armies of Pharaoh at bay while God then opened up the

Red Sea. And so here they've got a, this is a disastrous event.

They are at Mount Sinai, they've heard God's law, they've seen the glory of the Lord literally burning the top of Mount Sinai.

And now that they've committed this foolish act of idolatry, God says, I'm done with you,

I'm not gonna go with you. If I go with you, I'm gonna kill you. And so Moses at that point then begins to try to figure out what can be done so that God will go with the people of Israel.

And because he knows how utterly devastating that is. So Moses said to Yahweh, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me, yet you've said,

I know you by name, and yet, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now don't overlook this.

Moses in this part of his intercession, he's confessing something. And here's what he's confessing.

He says, you say to me, I know you Moses by name, and you

Moses, you have found favor in my sight. But here's the thing, Moses doesn't know how he pulled that off.

He, okay, I have found favor in his sight. Not them, but me.

How? He legitimately doesn't get it, okay? And so this is where, remember what

Paul said? I chose nothing among you except for Christ, and I'm crucified for our sins. This will come into play here. He says, now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways so that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

How did I do it? Show me your ways so I can figure this out, because what he's trying to do at this point is basically say, tell me how

I pulled that off so that I can tell them so they can pull it off, right? That's kind of the idea, all right?

And so consider too that this nation is your people, right? And then he said, well, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

That's not good enough. That's not what he wants, okay? And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here, for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight,

I and your people? Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?

So the Lord said to Moses, well, this very thing that you've spoken, I will do for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.

God's just repeating himself at this point. Is Moses any closer to getting this? He legitimately doesn't understand how.

How have I found favor in your sight? So he said, okay, so Moses at this point comes up with the ultimate

Hail Mary pass, and this one comes out of nowhere. So Moses said, all right, show me your glory.

All right, and you could just see God going, okay, cool, yeah, I like this, all right. And so he said, all right,

I'll make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name,

Yahweh, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And so Yahweh said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by,

I'll put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. So Moses prepares another set of tablets, the covenant is removed, and then, let's see here.

Did I go past it? Let's see here. There we go, here it is.

So Moses cut the two tablets of stone. He rose early in the morning, went up on Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded him, took in his hand the two tablets of stone, and Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed.

So we know from the setup, here's what's happening. So Moses now is in a cleft of a rock.

The hand of God is covering it. He can't see the glory of God. He hears it, okay?

And that's not a bad thing, because the eyes of faith are stuck in your ears, all right, you gotta think about that.

So the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh, a

God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, love this phrase in the Hebrew. Long of nose is what it says in the

Hebrew. God has a really long nose. Okay, you sit there and go, how long are we talking here? Okay.

On a scale of one to Pinocchio. Yeah, on a scale of one to Pinocchio, this one's really long. Why would

God be long of nose? Because sin is described as a stench in the nostrils of God, okay?

And so the fact that God is long of nose means that he can tolerate the stench of sin for a long time before he acts in anger, okay?

I mean, have you ever been driving down a highway on a road trip and you've gone by a legitimate cow steer farm or whatever, with Bandini Mountain and other things like this?

You can smell that thing from 10 miles away. And it's like, and the smell is horrifying.

Duck farm. It gets in, oh, duck farm. Don't even get me started on that. Oh, oh, man.

That was, that duck farm was. That was on the way to Pastor Swirly's church. Yeah, holy smokes.

Coming up the 405, okay, just before the 10 freeway going north in Southern California on the 405, there's a duck farm.

It is the worst smell I've ever, ever experienced in my life. And it's like, if I forgot to like turn the car vent off, like, you know, at the right time, you have to do it like several miles, okay?

If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, that smell gets in your mouth, it gets in your nostrils, and it doesn't go away.

It's horrifying. Yeah, it's, I can still, I can smell it right now. Okay, okay.

It's just rain. So that's your metaphor for sin. It's a duck farm. The one off the 405 in California as you're heading up just before the 10 freeway.

All right, so the Lord passed before him, and here's what he said. Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger.

So long of nose gets translated into English as slow to anger, that's the idea behind it. Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, and here it comes.

Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Oh, that's how he found favor.

But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

Now this bit's fun because remember, I've chosen nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified.

And what I find hilarious is that one of my nemesises, okay, Tony Jones of the late emergent church movement, he hates this text.

The reason why he hates it is because he thinks it contradicts itself. What do you mean

God forgives iniquity, but he doesn't hold, he will by no means clear the guilty?

Isn't forgiving iniquity the exact thing that that is, clearing the guilty?

How is this even possible? He hates this text. Okay, I've heard him rail on this one. The answer's actually quite simple.

I was chosen of nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified. So note here,

God forgives your sin, but did he clear the guilty? No, because Jesus was the one carrying your guilt and God didn't clear him,

God punished him. You cannot get this text without an understanding of the gospel and the vicarious, penal substitutionary suffering of Christ.

So now I'm sure Moses didn't get all of the aspects as it relates to the cross and wasn't really keying in on the contradiction, but instead he heard the word forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and he went with it.

And here's what he ends up doing. He prays back to God the things he just heard.

And so Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and he worshiped and he said, if now

I have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff -necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.

And God goes, all right, yeah, behold, I am making a covenant before you and all your people.

God now is going with him, okay? The band is back together, they're on a mission from God.

So this is all good stuff happening here. And all Moses did was listen and then pray back the words he heard to God, forgive us.

That's exactly how it works. And so you'll note then, there are some pretty terse prayers in the

Psalms, really, really terse. And you can pray to God quite bluntly.

And it always cracks me up when I, there's some Psalms when I teach on prayer, I'll read them and I get somebody in the comments saying, can you pray that way to God?

Yeah, okay. Prime example of it is just Psalm 13. Great example of this.

This is a Psalm, but it's a prayer, all right? Here's the prayer. How long, oh

Lord, will you forget me forever? Can you talk that way to God?

Dwayne's answer, yeah, you can do that once. And thus perished Dwayne Clark.

How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? That's an interesting prayer, right?

Consider and answer me, oh Yahweh my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say

I've prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I'm shaken. But I love the way this ends, okay?

So here David is in the middle of a really difficult circumstance, and we can probably see the context of this.

I mean, think about poor David. He was chased all over the Judean countryside like a dog.

Hunted on two occasions by King Saul, who wanted to do him in, and had been completely slandering him.

And did David just stand his ground and go, well, I decree and declare that I'm safe. Nope, he legitimately had to figure out on a day -to -day basis, where are we gonna get our food?

Where's Saul's army? How do we avoid them? And on a couple of occasions, things got really, really squirrely, right?

Okay, and so in the midst of all of this, was there a ready answer to this? No, and David legitimately in the midst of all that felt like he was being completely ignored by God, and he goes, hello, are you there?

Are you paying attention to what's going on here? Because my enemy's about to kill me, you know, right?

And this is like legitimately the tone in which he's praying this. How long, oh

Lord? But then I love the resolve. But I've trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. You'll note that his faith chimes in and says, even if everything goes totally terrible,

I'm still gonna rejoice in the salvation of God, right? And you can pray this too.

So let's kind of walk this through. There you are in the middle of a long terminal illness.

It's gonna eventually take your life. And the doctor has given you two years, right? And the worst part of it is that at the end of those two years, you're gonna be in hospice, and you're gonna be in a lot of pain.

You're gonna be in morphine. You can see the train coming down the track and ain't nothing gonna stop it, right? After you get over the initial shock of being told that you're going to die in such a short amount of time, right, you've kind of get your things together.

You've got your will worked out, and then you're in the midst of it. And in the middle of your suffering, you cry out, how long, oh

Lord, are you gonna forget me forever? Man, I am in a lot of pain here, God. You need to help me, right?

But I've trusted in your steadfast love. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the

Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me, right? It's a good prayer.

Good prayer in the midst of a completely losing situation by the world's standards. Situation that many of us will find ourselves in, you know, some day or another, right?

So we can bank on the goodness of God even if our ending is not so great, right?

Or even if the middle part's not so great because we have a lot of suffering to do. And then always and again in this context too, when we're talking about prayer, there's one other woman we have to talk about, okay?

Because this is a fantastic prayer. And one that, this is one that just,

I always like to point this out. This would not go well in today's culture. If Jesus were doing his ministry today and this occurred, he would be canceled, okay?

I mean, he kind of was. Yeah, you do make a point.

Jesus definitely was canceled. We can say that by the cross was his cancellation, right? But here's the account.

But this is a great example of prayer. Fantastic example and kind of shows in some ways how it works.

Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. So Jesus is now outside of Israel.

He's in pagan territory. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, oh

Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon, all right?

And by the way, die monied, oh my, okay? Oppressed here is probably possessed.

Okay? Huh? Possessed, all right. Think, you know, red rum and stuff like this, got it?

Okay, we're talking. Pea soup and head spinning around. Yeah, pea soup, head spinning around. We're talking that kind of stuff, okay?

And of course, Jesus didn't say to her, well, you got what you deserve. That's what happens when you worship pagan gods.

You know, you open yourself up to demonization. You should have known better, you idolatrous woman. It doesn't do that, right?

But here, she's crying out, and pay attention to this. Have mercy on me,

Kyrie Eleison. Oh, wait, didn't we sing the Kyrie today?

Uh -huh. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, Kyrie, she's calling

Jesus Lord, son of David. I, wow, what confirmation class was she in?

Because she's got some really good understanding of who Jesus is.

She recognizes that he has power to help her. She prays properly, begging him to have mercy, and she addresses him properly as her

Lord and also the Messiah, the son of David. Huh. So we know already by what she just said, this woman has faith.

But a lot of people don't consider the catechetical answer to be a good one. So she's crying out, my daughter has a demon.

So what did Jesus do? He did not answer her a word.

Well, that's awkward. Doesn't Jesus care about her? Of course he does.

But he didn't answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, send her away, she's crying out after us.

You can see, this is how this is going down. Was this woman going anywhere? Uh -uh.

If we were there, it wouldn't surprise me if she was saying, I know you heard me, Jesus.

Don't think that you can hide from me. You're not making eye contact with me, but I know you're hearing my words.

I know who you are, I know what you can do. I'm not going away. And the disciples are going, send her away, please, please, please, please.

This is really getting embarrassing. He's telling me this lady wanted to speak to the manager of the universe.

Right, I would like to speak to the manager of the universe. So Jesus finally answers.

And here's his first response. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So what?

Okay. So that doesn't get rid of her. So she comes and she kneels before him, saying,

Lord, help me. Right, she's on her knees. That's a prayer, by the way, is it not?

This is exactly how prayer works. So have you noticed? There you are. You are praying to God.

Lord, you gotta help me. And what does Jesus do? Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

Da, da, da, da, da. Hello, are you there? Da, da, da, da, da, da. Sorry, busy running the universe.

Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. Right? Who's this for?

Her, for you also. Right? So now Jesus, he puts it out there.

He answered, well, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. And you can just hear everyone go, right?

In fact, it created a low -pressure system in Tyre and Sidon that day, from all the people who just inhaled so quickly.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Right, right? There were flights overhead that had to be diverted because of the insane weather that was formed by that.

And then from there, the internet went abuzz. Twitter melted down. Even Elon Musk suspended

Jesus's Twitter account, right? Did he just call this Canaanite woman a dog?

Yes, he did. Yes, yes, yes. But here's the thing.

This woman has faith. Yes, yes, it's all of that.

She has faith. And so what's funny is that she does this great jujitsu move, and I mean, it's just spectacular, okay?

Where she takes Jesus's words and she hears a promise.

Rather than get offended to the fact that Jesus, or Lord and God, just called her a dog, she legitimately hears a promise and goes, ah, there it is.

She goes, yes, Lord. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

Now give me my crumbs, bow -wow. Right? Tom DeVore is having trouble.

And Jesus now answered, oh, woman, great is your faith.

Great. Be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly. Now, why?

For you. This was done for you, for her sake also. Faith is something that is hidden in the heart.

It's hidden, right? You can see it through what you do. You can see it through actions. And this woman's actions reveal her faith.

And then Jesus says, see, that's it. This woman has great faith. And she took these words and just prayed them right back to Jesus.

And she prevailed over Christ. Sounds like Jesus had that girl's exorcism written in pencil, right?

Non -exorcism. And this woman's words prevailed against Jesus. Don't stop, don't think for a second your prayers mean nothing.

And you sit there and go, yeah, but when I pray, nothing happens. Or when I pray, something worse happens. Yeah, what's your point?

Wrestle with Christ. Take him and catch him in his words.

That's what Moses did. That's what this woman did. And there are other instances like that also in the scriptures.

So you'll note, this is a great model for us as it relates to prayer. And all of that just because we took a look at what happened with Daniel.

That Christ said, fear not, Daniel, from the first day that you set your heart to understand and you humbled yourself before your

God, your words have been heard. And I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.

All right, so this, we're gonna end off here because this next part is where it starts going really weird.

Okay, we'll have to figure out what's going on here. Michael and all the angels. And this is where we first hear of Michael the archangel.

All right, so what is going on here? We'll have to pick that up next week. Now, let me check questions to see where we're at here.

All right, so thanks for the, don't forget to hit the record thing. I did have to hop off today.

Okay, was Christ's prayer just to avoid suffering of the cross and not necessarily death since it says he was distressed to the point of death while praying in the garden?

I like to think of it this way, Chuck, is that when Christ prays, if it, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, your will be done,

I think that shows the true humanity of Christ. Now remember, he's the God man. But here's the thing, who of you guys are willing to just go jump into death?

Okay, especially a super horribly painful suffering death? Any of you guys ready for, if it were me on trial,

I would've been like, no, I'm innocent, you gotta let me go, I didn't do anything. All right, Jesus, on the other hand, this was the plan that they had planned, the trinity plan, long before the foundations of the earth.

And there, Jesus, true God and true man, he has the same feelings that we have. That desire to live and not die, to not have to suffer, you know, it's all there.

And so those, that survival, that survival instinct inside of all of us was also inside of Christ.

And yet, he even laid that aside and said, not my will, but your will. But he legitimately, fervently prayed that it would pass if it was possible.

And the God, the Father said, nope, it's gotta happen. So I think that's a great way of looking at the true humanity of Christ.

Are the three men the trinity or Jesus with two angels? Lily, you ask a great question.

And when you read the Hebrew, it strongly hints but doesn't overtly say that the three visitors that visited

Abraham were probably the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There's hints at it in the

Hebrew, but when you read it in English, those hints are lost. But then when you're reading it in Hebrew, you sit there and go, no, can that really be?

But it's, the best way I can put it is it is inferred but not overtly stated. So, yes?

Where can I get a good Greek New Testament? Greek New Testament, okay. So you need the Nestle Elan 28.

You can get that at Amazon .com, or do you have the Logos Bible software? Okay, for you, because you are young, and we have to limit your screen time,

I would recommend an analog copy with pages. Okay, but you're also going to need a copy of Brown, Driver, Art, and Gingrich.

The BDAG lexicon as well, get the two together. You're probably gonna spend about 120 for the two of them.

So, hope you guys can work that out. Maybe you can mow lawns or shovel snow or something.

But, all right, there you go. All right, this is where we're gonna end off, and Lord willing, we will see you guys next time.