Setting yourself up
The old man had been a slave in a foreign land his entire life. Today, as he was spending his customary time with God, he had come to understand that his people’s captivity was about to come to an end. He must have felt delight to know that bondage was about to end for his people. But he also felt an overwhelming sense of shame. He and his people ought to have known this was coming. They should have prepared. The Law told them what to do. Have you been looking for clues to God’s will for your life? What the prophet Daniel did in Daniel 9 forms a great model for us all in seeking God’s will: First, he was consistently reading the Bible. That’s a way of hearing from God regularly, knowing Him and putting His plan first. Second, this had prepared him to know what to do in a specific situation. He found out (by reading Jeremiah 25:11) that the captivity would be seventy years long. But from Leviticus 26:32-45 he knew that meant he could be the one to intercede for Israel. Experience applyi...