{"id":7555,"date":"2021-06-18T12:44:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T17:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7555"},"modified":"2021-06-18T12:44:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T17:44:12","slug":"devotional-on-daniel-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-daniel-41\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Daniel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-A43KfvspePk\/YMt42BpUMcI\/AAAAAAABKgQ\/T3peKbySfPYAb9l6gSdY3k9fgPEhulvogCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/2011%2B-%2BParis%2B-%2B-29.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2011 &#8211; Paris &#8211; Versailles &#8211; Orangerie<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe big picture<br \/>\nDaniel 12: It will be a time of trouble, the worst trouble the world has ever seen.<br \/>\nImagine the second part of Daniel as a mural done by a master artist depicting the rise and fall of kingdoms through history.  As we examine the mural we see mighty nations rise, then divide, and then fall to some new world power.  Some folks have patiently examined Daniel\u2019s \u201cmural,\u201d attaching labels to the various kingdoms he describes.  Those folks might be right and they might be wrong.  Frankly, for me to attempt this is a waste of time.  The least of those who seriously attempt to match nations up with Daniel\u2019s vision is superior to me.  I get lost in it all fairly soon.  I do come away from Daniel\u2019s sweeping picture with certain impressions.  For one thing, I&#8217;m reminded that, even though I firmly believe human beings have free will, there&#8217;s an overarching flow of human history that&#8217;s firmly in the hands of God.  Second, even though it seems some things happen outside of God&#8217;s providence, I\u2019m reminded that the Lord remains Sovereign over all.  Whether or not I think God is orchestrating, down to some detail, the flow of events I need to remember that nothing&#8217;s happening on the world stage that he isn&#8217;t at least allowing to happen.  Finally, I see that there&#8217;s an end to the story.  Things won\u2019t forever continue as they are.  Daniel sums it up with a description of everything coming to a head with &#8220;the worst trouble the world has ever seen.&#8221;  The Lord isn\u2019t a bystander to human history.  He&#8217;s ushering us along to some specific events and, ultimately, to a specific conclusion.  As I watch the world news and see the clashes of world powers, it&#8217;s good to remember that nothing that happens is a surprise to God.  That may not be a very complete view of the nature of prophecy, but it&#8217;s not a bad place to start and, while I may not understand the specifics, I do get the big picture.<br \/>\nTake Away: There&#8217;s an overarching flow of human history that&#8217;s firmly in the hands of the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The big picture Daniel 12: It will be a time of trouble, the worst trouble the world has ever seen. Imagine the second part of Daniel as a mural done by a master artist depicting the rise and fall of kingdoms through history. As we examine the mural we see mighty nations rise, then divide, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1488,6,7],"tags":[120,373,381,433,871],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15342,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7555\/revisions\/15342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}