NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT JOY FROM YOU. There’s a song that says, “If you receive and you believe, testify.” I don’t really like to talk about myself, but I think it’s important to do so when we go through certain things in life and experience certain things, and whenever God’s presence is in someone’s life, it’s encouraging to share with others. My name is Nives, and I grew up in Croatia. I was born in Yugoslavia, and I was a child from a mixed marriage between a Croatian and a Serb. This didn’t rea...
Nov 20, 2020•29 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 12 concludes the final vision and brings the book of Daniel to a stunning close. In the first half of the vision, we read about a series of kings who would “arise” to their thrones and oppress the people of God (Daniel 11:2, 3, 4, 7, 14, 16, 20, 21, 31). We were told that each king would meet their just “end” similar to the way previous kings in the book were humbled because of their pride (Daniel 11:27, 35, 40, 45). But somewhat surprisingly, we also read that some people who ...
Nov 20, 2020•27 min
COMMENTARY Yesterday, we read the introduction to the final vision of Daniel. Today’s reading reveals the message of the vision, which was “written in the book of truth” (Daniel 10:21; 11:2). This message reads like a history book. It recounts the rise and fall of various kings and kingdoms in the ancient Near East. These kings are not referred to by their names but are easily identified by the activities attributed to them. For example, the “mighty king” of Greece whose kingdom is “broken up an...
Nov 19, 2020•34 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading includes an extended introduction to the final and longest vision in the book of Daniel. It begins with Daniel seeking a message from God through the practices of prayer, mourning, and fasting. As we’ve seen God do so many times in this book, He responds to Daniel by sending an angelic messenger. But this time, the messenger is delayed by three weeks and for a strange reason. In Daniel 10:12-13, the angel says, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you se...
Nov 18, 2020•32 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading continues the occasion of Daniel 9. We’ve seen Daniel praying to God after reflecting on Jeremiah’s prophecy about the seventy years of captivity. Now, Daniel receives a vision from the angel Gabriel, which reveals more about the exile of the people of God. In Daniel 9:24, Gabriel says, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal u...
Nov 17, 2020•31 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 9 contains another vision, but unlike the previous visions, it begins with a reflection on Scripture and a prayer. The historical and biblical background for this occasion is significant. Verses 1-2 tell us that “in the first year of Darius,” Daniel meditated on a message “given to Jeremiah the prophet,” which concerned “seventy years” of desolation for Jerusalem. In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet talked about how the people of Judah would be exiled in Babylon as a result of...
Nov 16, 2020•32 min
I LOST MY MOTHER WHEN I WAS EIGHT, AND I’VE HAD A LOT OF EXPERIENCE WRITING OBITUARIES. I think about death a lot, and that might be totally weird. It probably has something to do with the fact that I lost my mother when I was eight, and I’ve had a lot of experience writing obituaries. I look at pictures totally differently now because I’ve had to sift through them to pick for obituaries. I had to bury two of my brothers and when I look at pictures now, they mean so much more to me because you n...
Nov 13, 2020•38 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 8 contains another vision of beasts and horns, which represent kings and kingdoms. Unlike previous visions, this vision gives some specific interpretations for these images. The first image Daniel sees is a two-horned ram, a representation of the “kings of Media and Persia” (Daniel 8:20). Then, Daniel sees a shaggy goat with a prominent horn, a representation of “the first king” of “Greece,” Alexander the Great (Daniel 8:21). The final image Daniel sees is a small horn emerging...
Nov 13, 2020•32 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading continues Daniel’s vision of the four beasts. The vision begins with beasts emerging out of chaotic waters, a scene reminiscent of biblical and Near Eastern creation stories where creation begins in the context of a watery, dark, and monstrous chaos (e.g., Genesis 1:1-2; Psalm 74:12-17). The vision now moves to a new scene where God, referred to as the “Ancient of Days,” is seated in a courtroom and is surrounded by His holy angels (Daniel 7:9). In this courtroom, anot...
Nov 12, 2020•31 min
COMMENTARY Chapter 7 marks a critical juncture in the book of Daniel. It concludes the Aramaic section of the book, which runs from Daniel 2-7. It also marks the beginning of the apocalyptic section of the book, which runs from Daniel 7-12. Technically, we have already encountered some apocalyptic material in the dreams of Daniel 2 and 4. But whereas Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams were a part of narrative stories, the dreams and visions we read now in the second half of the book of Daniel are just that...
Nov 11, 2020•34 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading continues the story of Daniel and the lion’s den. As we’ve seen, Darius was manipulated into making a decree that required all prayer go to him for 30 days. In humble noncompliance with the decree, Daniel offered prayers to God, just as he had always done. Now the story continues with the conspirators turning Daniel in. They say to the ruler in verse 13, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in wr...
Nov 10, 2020•26 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 6 introduces us to another ruler, and not just a new ruler, but a new empire – the Persian Empire ruled by Darius the Mede. While the leaders and their governments have changed, some of the ways they conduct business have remained the same. In fact, just as the story of Belshazzar in Daniel 5 paralleled the story of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, the story of Daniel 6 parallels the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. In Daniel 3, three men of Judah were faced wit...
Nov 09, 2020•26 min
Growing up, I walked to school, I was a crossing guard and the ice cream truck would come by; it was idyllic. We used to run around and play cops and robbers in the neighbors’ yards. It was wonderful. It really was. My name is Sarah, and I grew up in Schaumburg, IL. We were raised Catholic, and while I still really enjoy and love that tradition, I never had a relationship with God then. I always thought it was the priest who had the relationship with God. But I still loved church. I love to sing...
Nov 06, 2020•35 min
COMMENTARY In today’s reading, the story of Belshazzar and the writing on the wall continues. As we’ve seen, the local Babylonian experts have proven ineffective yet again at interpreting an omen of truly divine origin. In fact, in each successive story, they’ve shown themselves to be increasingly incompetent. In Daniel 2, they couldn’t tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream. In Daniel 4, they couldn’t interpret a dream even after hearing it. Now in Daniel 5, they are not only unable to interpret a messa...
Nov 06, 2020•30 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 5 introduces us to a new ruler in Babylon named Belshazzar. The chapter begins with Belshazzar hosting a banquet. This banquet was likely the customary drinking party that ancient military commanders would host in advance of great battles. At that time (approximately 539 BC), the Persian army was approaching the city of Babylon and preparing to topple this old empire. So at his party, Belshazzar tried to encourage his people with a visible reminder of how the Babylonian gods ha...
Nov 05, 2020•28 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading narrates the interpretation and fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream. As we’ve read, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a cosmic tree that was cut down and transformed into a beast. Now, Daniel reveals that Nebuchadnezzar is the tree and that he would quite literally take on animal-like qualities. Nebuchadnezzar’s degeneration into a beast plays off key ideas from the opening chapters of the Bible. Genesis 1:26-27 teaches that God created humankind in His “image.” In...
Nov 04, 2020•30 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 4 records the story of another dream that comes to Nebuchadnezzar. Like the dream in chapter 2 and the story in chapter 3, this dream focuses on another large object: a tree. This was not just any large tree. The tree that Nebuchadnezzar sees has cosmic features. It is described as standing in “the middle of the land” (literally: the center of the earth), is so tall that its “top touched the sky,” and is “visible to the ends of the earth” (Daniel 4:10-11). Although Nebuchadnezz...
Nov 03, 2020•32 min
COMMENTARY In today’s reading, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego continues. As we’ve seen, they have been accused of refusing to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. Now, they are threatened with death in a blazing furnace. The passage begins with a stunning statement by the three men. They say in Daniel 3:17-18, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want ...
Nov 02, 2020•28 min
Oct 30, 2020•37 min
COMMENTARY Daniel 3 tells the story of another colossal statue. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a statue. Now, perhaps inspired by the dream, he builds one. (Evidently, he forgot that the statue in his dream came crashing down!) It’s not clear who exactly this statue represented. Some suggest it was an image of a Babylonian god. Others suggest it was an image of Nebuchadnezzar himself. In any case, Nebuchadnezzar decreed that all nations and peoples were to worship the statue or be thr...
Oct 30, 2020•29 min
COMMENTARY Yesterday we read about Nebuchadnezzar’s search for someone who could tell him his dream and its meaning. Today, we finally learn about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its meaning. Daniel reveals that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a colossal statue that was composed of four different metals: a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron. This sequence of metals, which declines in value from top to bottom, corresponds to an ancient way of orga...
Oct 29, 2020•28 min
COMMENTARY Toward the end of yesterday’s reading, we learned that God gave Daniel the ability to “understand visions and dreams of all kinds” (Daniel 1:17). Today, we see Daniel use these gifts for the first time. The story begins with Nebuchadnezzar having a troubling dream during the second year of his reign. Like much of the world at that time, ancient Babylonians found a great deal of significance in dreams. They understood dreams to be messages from the gods. Archaeologists have actually un...
Oct 28, 2020•29 min
COMMENTARY In yesterday’s reading, we were introduced to Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These men were taken captive in Judah and brought to Babylon because of Nebuchadnezzar’s foreign policy, a policy which aimed to thwart future rebellions by capturing and indoctrinating the elite citizens of defeated nations. As we read in Daniel 1:3-7, these four men were placed into a program of forced cultural assimilation. They were given Babylonian names, a Babylonian educa...
Oct 27, 2020•26 min
COMMENTARY The book of Daniel begins with a tragic scene. Daniel 1:1-2 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, conquered Jerusalem and carted off treasure from the Jerusalem Temple, placing it in the temple of his god in Babylon. The events described in these verses took place around 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar rose to the Babylonian throne and his kingdom became the most powerful empire in the world. In that cultural context, it was common practice for kings to steal treasure from the...
Oct 26, 2020•26 min
Introduction to Daniel THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF DANIEL The book of Daniel is set in the context of the Babylonian and Persian Empires where Daniel lived as an exile from the nation of Judah. He had been taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 BC and resided there until at least 537 BC, after the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great overtook the Babylonians. THE HISTORICAL SITUATION OF THE READERS OF DANIEL While the setting described in Daniel is quite clear, the date of the composition of th...
Oct 01, 2020•22 min
COMMENTARY Our final reading tells the story of Jesus’ resurrection. Compared to Mark’s account of the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion, this story is short, and it may be shorter than it appears at first glance. About halfway through our reading, the text provides a note saying, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.” Modern scholars almost universally agree that these verses are a later, second century addition. Though they sound a lot like wha...
Apr 10, 2020•26 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading tells the account of Jesus’ crucifixion. As we read this story, we shouldn’t miss the agony Jesus would have endured as He died on the cross. Our familiarity with images of the cross can numb us to the brutality of Jesus’ death. The reality is that it was likely much worse than we imagine. Roman crucifixion was an excruciatingly slow, public, and humiliating form of execution. Victims often experienced some form of torture beforehand like flogging (Mark 15:15). After b...
Apr 09, 2020•35 min
COMMENTARY A recurring theme we’ve seen in the book of Mark has been Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. Story after story demonstrates that the God of Israel has now appeared as the person of Jesus. This theme rises to a crescendo in today’s reading when Jesus makes His first public claim about His divinity (Mark 14:62). While Mark wants us to understand that Jesus was fully God, He also wants us to see that He was also fully human. No story expresses His humanity more poignantly than the first ...
Apr 08, 2020•27 min
COMMENTARY Today’s reading describes two of Jesus’ final meals. These meals both include symbolic actions that anticipate what will happen to Jesus. In the first meal, Jesus is anointed with perfume, an act that foreshadows His death and subsequent enthronement. In the second meal, famously known as the Last Supper, the symbolism goes one step further. At this meal, Jesus reveals not only that He would soon die but also why He had to die. He gives us clues about the meaning of His death. These c...
Apr 07, 2020•24 min
COMMENTARY Mark 13 includes Jesus’ longest teaching in the book of Mark. This section is called the Olivet Discourse because it takes place on the Mount of Olives, which sits across from the Temple. The primary focus of this teaching is the fate of the Temple. Jesus has already symbolically stated that the Temple was under God’s judgment (Mark 11:12-20). Now, He communicates verbally, albeit privately and cryptically, that the Temple’s destruction is near. One key to understanding this confusing...
Apr 06, 2020•32 min
