Stuff Michael Meeks is doing
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This is my (in)activity log. You might like to visit
Collabora
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- Up early; fed / changed H. packed chair cushions
away in the roof; got the floor up to wire the door-bell up
to something.
- Peter & Shelly around for nice roast beef &
Yorkshire pudding lunch, lovely to get to know them better; two
young Vets.
- Off to the NCC carol concert in the evening, caught
up with several people, not seen for a while.
- Gordon
sermon on
Daniel 10 - "The Resplendant Christ".
- The concluding vision & revalation of the book,
two more chapters yet to come but this the 4th vision of the
2nd half. The 3rd year of Cyrus - a tremendous year of
disappointment for the people of Israel.
- Despite what's happening on the temporal horizon
& the ebb & flow of even the spiritual conflict; God
is still in control & his kingdom will triumph.
- A book for spiritual expatriates:
how to live as a counter-culture in the midst of a society
that is often indifferent & sometimes outright hostile.
True not just of living in Babylon, but of whichever country
we live in today: But our citizenship is in heaven. And we
eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ
(
Phil 3). What to do - engage with that culture; rolling up
our sleeves, even if a pagan society as of Babylon,
Jeremiah 29: ...seek the peace and prosperity of the city
to which I have carried you into exile - even a city of the
oppressor - Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers,
you too will prosper.
- The 3rd year; of Cyrus - echos how Ch. 1 begins,
In the 1st year - Cyrus issued an edict allowing the Jews to
return to Jerusalem; but the reality in the 1st chapters of
Ezra - only a tiny trickle returned; and they returned to
privation & destitution & the implacable enmity of
their neighbours. The effort to re-build the feeble new
temple was stopped in it's tracks.
- Ch. 1: Daniel remained in Babylon until the 1st
year of Cyrus, this text - in the 3rd year, further into
captivity - no-longer in Babylon, on the banks of the
Tigris; Daniel is again fasting (another parallel with
Ch 1.)
- People think of great moral stands in terms of
standing against what someone else is doing: against their
pollution of the invironment, their racism, the way they
disregard the sanctity of life - or whatever. In reality
the greatest moral stand that Daniel exemplifies is quite
private: the moral stand he makes as a young man - to make
sure that God takes 1st place in his life: seek first his
kingdom and his righteousness & all these things will be
given to you as well - Daniel was incorruptible, because
he kept God first and formost in his thinking.
- The problem behind the problem - the glory of
God - the outward, physical manifestation of God's
presence with his people. On Mt. Sinai - the Glory of
God that descended on the mount; a personal manifestation
of God, in a way that highlights the transcendence of his
holyness. Later (
Ex 40) - the glory of God, filled the tabernacle.
- The 'Glory' equivalent to the idol in the pagan
temples - in the pagan's inner sanctums, a mute stone or
precious metal statue. But in Israel - God's own presence
particularly localised in the sanctuary - enthroned between
the cherubim with the ark as his footstool. There in their
midst.
-
Ezekil 10: sees the Glory of God leaving the
temple, (
Ez 43): promises the Glory will return. The temple
in Jerusalem was empty - looked like it remained empty.
Malachai - promises that it will come: The Lord you seek
will suddenly come to his temple. The temple remained
empty until Roman times.
- Daniel is crushed in the text, because God's
promise seems to have been thwarted. Ch. 9: an instant
reply, Cyrus issues the decree - an Angel is dispatched
in swift flight. Ch 10 - prayer & ... nothing.
- Gabriel - set off as soon as he started
praying, but was detained 21days (3 weeks) - apparently
by a demonic force. A promise here - Do you know why
I have come to you ? - soon, the Greeks will come -
things will go from bad to worse but first I will
tell you what is written in the Book of Truth.
- Despite apparent evidence to the contrary,
there is a plan, in God's book - all our days are
written in it. Daniel's experience of God builds
through the text - initially just dreams, visions,
and then a parousia.
- 10:5 a man dressed in linen... -
features of the vision sounds like an angel, but has
already met several & those didn't have an
effect like this. Enoch (1BC) recognises this as
God, cf.
Ezekiel 1 a figure like that of a man
same vocabulary as used here & no-where else;
looked like glowing metal ... brilliant
light surrounded him: This was the apperance
of the likeness of the Glory of the LORD.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/ and data/ directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my
own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE,
Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International),
or anyone else.
It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy.
Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences
or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)
