The Day of Restoration

SCRIPTURE

Daniel 8:1-14 (NRSV)
A vision of destructive power

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me at first. In the vision I was looking and saw myself in Susa the capital, in the province of Elam, and I was by the river Ulai. I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the river. It had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up second. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. All beasts were powerless to withstand it, and no one could rescue from its power; it did as it pleased and became strong.

As I was watching, a male goat appeared from the west, coming across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. The goat had a horn between its eyes. It came toward the ram with the two horns that I had seen standing beside the river, and it ran at it with savage force. I saw it approaching the ram. It was enraged against it and struck the ram, breaking its two horns. The ram did not have power to withstand it; it threw the ram down to the ground and trampled upon it, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from its power. Then the male goat grew exceedingly great; but at the height of its power, the great horn was broken, and in its place there came up four prominent horns toward the four winds of heaven.

Out of one of them came another horn, a little one, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the beautiful land. It grew as high as the host of heaven. It threw down to the earth some of the host and some of the stars, and trampled on them. Even against the prince of the host it acted arrogantly; it took the regular burnt offering away from him and overthrew the place of his sanctuary. Because of wickedness, the host was given over to it together with the regular burnt offering; it cast truth to the ground, and kept prospering in what it did. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one that spoke, "For how long is this vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled?" And he answered him, "For two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."


DEVOTION

I'm going to be honest with you, this prophesy from the book of Daniel is mysterious to me! As a Christian, I am willing to live with sacred mystery. I realized a long time ago that I am not able to understand all things having to do with God, for God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

Suffice it to say, there is going to come a judgment day in the future. When that day comes good will ultimately triumph over evil and God will reign supreme.

Now this pericope makes it clear that for a while, it will look like evil has won; but do not be fooled! We serve a God who is always victorious in every battle and we serve a savior who conquered sin, death, and the grave when he was resurrected on the third day with all power in His hands!

My favorite phrase from today is, "the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state."

There are a lot of things that need restoration in our world, lives, and relationships! Marriages are fractured, church families are torn asunder by disagreement, nations are at war with one another, personal finances are a mess, people live with addictions of every kind, and I could go on and on...

We are all in sore need of restoration! We desperately need God to put things back together again in our lives, communities, nation, and world.

Without God we will continue in the mess that we are in. Sin has put us in a terrible tailspin as each of us pursue our own agendas for greedy gain!

But, God knows our frame and has made provision for our sin to be forgiven, our relationship with God reconciled, and our lives to continue eternally, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

When we put all of our hope in Jesus believing that He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we should ask or think, we open the door to true restoration in every area of our lives!

I don't know about you, but on a daily basis I need Jesus to fix me up! Today's scripture prophesies that all will be restored to its rightful place in God's perfect time and that gives me a certain peace that will allow me to endure any hardship that may befall me.

As I await that great day of reckoning, I will pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come!"

Do you need some restoration in your life? If so, please pray with me:

Holy One, my life is a mess and I really need your help. I've tried to fix things on my own, but I just can't do it. Will you please restore all that is broken? Today, I am putting all of my hope in you. Please forgive my sin and fill me with the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day. Please help me to share this good news with others, in Jesus' Name, Amen.


THE INVITATION

If you have questions about how to become a friend and follower of Jesus, please see the devotion entitled, “Come to Jesus” @

http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/come-to-jesus.html