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Daniel 8:18 Daniel's encounter with Gabriel - Day 296

Good morning brothers and sisters,

One of the things that makes me confident that the Bible is true is the impact revelation had on the men who received it.  No one would sign up for this task.  And no one would keep going without the life changing impact of having received some part of God's self revelation.  Daniel is a prime example.

Blessings,

Jeff

After all that he has experienced personally and interpreted for others, Daniel's visions of the future utterly undoes him.  When Gabriel appears and comes near him, Daniel falls on his face.  Then when Gabriel speaks to him, he falls into a deep sleep with his face to the ground.  Then Gabriel touches him and makes him stand up.  

If the person who has the vision accurately records it, seeks to understand it, has an angelic visitation to "make this man understand", gets the explanation and accurately records that as well, but at the end still does not understand, how are we to claim to understand it.  

This is when Belshazzar was king.  So all this happened before the "writing on the wall".  Maybe this is why that event was no big deal to him.  After seeing the distant future, the immediate future is not very threatening.  And this also happened before the lion's den.  Maybe this vision is what made Daniel so at ease in continuing to pray.

Just writing this makes me wonder why I can get so anxious about immediate future when I know that God's plan for the distant future is sure.  I may not understand what the plan is, but I know that God who revealed the plan understands it completely.  Him I proclaim.  His word is all I need for life and faith.


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