Daniel chapter 12
Today we are walking in: Only The Wise Shall Understand
Exodus 3:18
And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, H4057 that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
Today we look to the word-WILDERNESS- H4057 midbar --wilderness, pasture, uninhabited land
The Torah testifies.......................................
Genesis 16:7
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, H4057 by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Exodus 4:27
And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness H4057 to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.
Numbers 14:33
And your children shall wander in the wilderness H4057 forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. H4057
Deuteronomy 1:31
And in the wilderness, H4057 where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
The prophets proclaim..................
Isaiah 42:11
Let the wilderness H4057 and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Isaiah 43:19
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, H4057 and rivers in the desert.
Jeremiah 9:12
Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, H4057 that none passeth through?
Ezekiel 20:13
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: H4057 they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, H4057 to consume them.
The Writings bear witness.............
Joshua 1:4
From the wilderness H4057 and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
2Chronicles 1:3
So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. H4057
Nehemiah 9:19
Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: H4057 the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
Psalm 65:12
They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: H4057 and the little hills rejoice on every side.
Psalm 78:15
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, H4057 and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
Only The Wise Shall Understand
The Scriptures tell us that in the End Time Days, only the wise shall understand. (see Daniel 12:8-10).
What makes ‘the wise’ so privileged? What makes ‘the wise’ different from others??
The Proverbs tell us:
“The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a chattering fool shall fall.” (Proverbs 10:8)
“Hear (‘hearken to’) counsel, and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter end.” (Proverbs 19:20)
The above verses tell us that the wise will receive commandments and instruction, and they will hearken to (hear and obey) counsel. This describes one who is teachable!
How does one become teachable?
Let us look at a few clues that will help us become teachable.
Teachable Characteristics
Yahusha Messiah [the Hebrew name for said these words:
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
In this verse, Yahusha was comparing the effects of the wind to the moving of the Ruach HaQadesh.
Just as the wind blows upon the grass, making the grass to gently bend over, so also
… when the Ruach HaQadesh moves upon a person,
… if that person is teachable — they will have a bend-able and yielded disposition, and then that person will be changed, and can be guided by the Ruach HaQadesh. This describes teachable-ness — a bendable and yielded disposition.
Being teachable means we will be sensitive to the influences [the ‘wind’] of the Ruach HaQadesh, and willing to follow His leading.
Being teachable makes us able to hear, listen, and receive the life-changing Words of the Bible, that is, the Words of Yah Elohim [the Hebrew name for the Most High Yah].
This is the wonderful consequence of being teachable!
Being teachable — a characteristic of the WISE — helps us to ‘bend with the wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh, just like beach grass bending in the ocean breeze.
His Word and His Spirit
Yah’s Words and His Spirit are closely related:
By the Word of Yah [the Most High] were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath [spirit] of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6)
Yahusha said unto them, . . . It is the spirit that quickens (makes alive); the flesh profits nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
The above verses reveal the tremendous power of Yah’s Words — that His Words and His Spirit [breath] are one and the same!
Whenever we read or hear Yah’s Words [that is, the Scriptures], we are exposing ourselves to the ‘wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh.
If we are willing to receive the Words of the Bible, if we are willing to be taught by Father’s written Words, then the ‘wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh can move upon us, and guide us — and we will be changed for the better.
A willing heart, a thirsty soul, wants to be teachable. Thirsty Souls want to receive the influences of the Ruach HaQadesh, they want the wisdom of Yah’s Words!
What are some clues to learning to be teachable?
Only the Wise Will Understand
Teachableness is something we acquire as we gain Yah’s wisdom and understanding.
Gaining Yah’s wisdom and understanding are essential, foundational ingredients for acquiring a teachable heart.
Gaining Yah’s wisdom is especially needed during the End Time Days, because only the wise (discerning) will understand (see Daniel 12:9-10)!!
I am not talking about education or general knowledge. Education and knowledge can not impart wisdom, understanding, and discernment. It is only through obedience to the written Word of Yah that we gain Yah’s wisdom and understanding and discernment (Hebrews 4:12).
In the turmoil of the End Times, only the wise and discerning will have the understanding needed for walking with Yah, being guided by His Ruach HaQadesh through the great difficulties. Why? Because they will have a teach-able heart, and will thus acquire the needed wisdom and guidance from Yah Elohim [the Most High Yah] and His Word.
We are living in a time when there is a great need for Yah’s wisdom and understanding, and for discerning truth from error.
Yahusha told us that in the End Time Days, there will be much deception — so much deception that – there shall arise false Messiahs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect! (Matthew 24:24).
Deception will be a dominating feature of the End Times!
Nowadays it seems there are FEW we can trust! Yahusha warned us:
“Beware that no one deceive you! … many shall be deceived!” (Matthew 24:4-5).
Very few have The Necessary Understanding of what is Truth — Truth that is pure, right, good, and eternal — truth that imparts understanding and is a safe-guard against deception!
But . . . only the WISE shall understand:
And I heard, but I understood not:
then said I, O my Most High,
what shall be the end of these things?
And He said, Go thy way, Daniel:
for the words are closed up and sealed
till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. (Daniel 12:8-10)
One thing this passage teaches is that if we are among those who do not understand, then perhaps we should ask ourselves ‘Why?’
Notice the warning from this Scripture passage — none of the wicked shall understand!!
Understanding is needed for us to be wise, and to avoid wickedness!
How can we gain the needed understanding, so that we can be wise and teachable in these troubling days — so that we can be guided by the ‘wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh, and avoid the rampant deception?
Only the Scriptures can give us the answer!
The Example of Noah’s Day
In Noah’s day, out of the multitudes of people, only eight souls came into the ark! Only a handful had the understanding and wisdom to walk with Yah and escape destruction!
Noah’s example teaches us that the understanding and wisdom needed for the End Time Days is a very rare possession!
If we truly desire to be among The Wise — the ones who shall understand — then we must seek for understanding diligently, and literally cry out to the eternal Yah Elohim for His wisdom and understanding (see Proverbs 2:1-6).
Noah’s day is a picture of the End Time Days (see Matthew 24:37-42; Luke 17:26-30).
In Noah’s day, the multitudes arrogantly scorned and mocked and rejected the lovingkindness and truth of Yah. Multitudes refused to be teachable, they refused to seek Yah’s Word, and then do the simple and humble actions of repentance!
And just as it was in Noah’s day, so it is true in our day!
In our day, only a handful of people will have the understanding needed for the End Time Days. Only a handful will truly know what it means to walk with Yah (Psalms 14:2).
Only a few among the multitudes, are hungering and thirsting for the everlasting Truth of the True, Eternal, Almighty Yah. Only a few are searching for understanding and wisdom, seeking Yah and His written Word with all their heart.
The Simplicity of Repentance
In the End Time Days, those with understanding will seek the written Word of Yah and will learn what the prophet Job tells us about the KEY to gaining understanding!
Job tells us! Understanding comes to us when . . .
… we ‘depart from evil’!
Or, in other words, understanding comes when we ‘turn from our wicked ways’ (see Job 28:12-28; 2 Chronicles 7:14).
‘Depart from evil‘ and ‘Turn from our wicked ways‘ — both are phrases describing what it means to repent.
More clearly defined, repentance simply means to stop doing what is right in our own eyes, and begin doing what delights Yah, what is right in His eyes!
This is not difficult to do. It is as simple as following the directions listed on a package for a cake mix.
All of us have followed the directions required for many different things — following a recipe, filling out a doctor’s office form, learning to use a camera, installing a small appliance, completing a task. We consider and look at the instructions, and we start with Step One.
How many of us have regretted not following the directions and instructions given?!?
How many of us have wished we had humbled ourselves, wished we had been teachable, and followed the instructions from the beginning?
The Human Machine
Following instructions is what brings understanding!
The same is true for us as human beings. We are creatures in need of instructions! Why? Because we were created by and FOR Yah Elohim, the Holy One who dwells in eternity!
We have been called unto fellowship with Him:
You are worthy, O Most High, to receive glory and honor and power: for You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)
Yah is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son Yahusha Messiah our Most High. (1 Corinthians 1:9)
“Yah designed the human machine to run on Himself. Yah Himself is the ‘fuel’ our spirits were designed to burn, the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other! Yah cannot give us a happiness and a peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” — C. S. Lewis
Understanding comes to us when . . .
we begin doing what we were designed for — to love Yah Elohim, the All-Mighty Creator; loving Him with all our heart, and loving others.
Yah created us and gave us an Instruction Manual, an Operator’s Guide called The Holy Bible, for maximum, effective, and meaningful functioning.
Followers of Messiah Yahusha have found the place of understanding, wisdom, and contentment because they have humbled themselves and have started seeking Yah’s Word and are following the Bible – The Instruction Manual! They rejoice with gratefulness because they have discovered the Key to gaining understanding! They have chosen to obey Yah’s Word and do the simple steps of repentance.
“Because Yah has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” — Augustine
The Bible reveals the three very simple steps of repentance: 1) humbling ourselves, and 2) learning to do what is right in Yah’s sight (as written in the Bible), and 3) learning what is needed (as written in the Bible) to depart from evil.
These steps are the pathway to understanding and to finding true, eternal wisdom! These steps are the clues we need to help us be teachable, patient, and yielded to the ‘wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh.
What is Wickedness?
If we are puzzled and lack understanding, if we need to find that place of true wisdom and understanding, then let us begin to consider our dilemma, and give attention to doing Yah’s wisdom, as revealed by the prophet Job:
“to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28)!!
The simplicity of this instruction is profound!!
Job’s instruction is exactly what we need in our quest for understanding!
Let us consider what Yah’s Word teaches about ‘evil’ or ‘wickedness.’
There are many Scriptures that give a clear understanding of what evil, or wickedness, actually is.
Wickedness is not only doing something that is ‘really bad!’
Psalms 50:16-17 is a good description of what ‘the wicked’ do.
The wicked hate instruction [correction, discipline] and they cast Yah’s Words away, turning their back on His Words.
In other words, the ‘wicked’ are not teachable!
Thus the wicked will not understand — they do not have the needed wisdom to understand the lovingkindness, the judgment, and the righteousness of Yah [the Most High].
Simply put, when any of us, at any time, reject Yah’s Word and His instructions, then that is wickedness!
No matter how small the matter may be, if we reject Yah’s Word, then we are turning our back on Him. As a result, we begin to make our own understanding of greater importance than the Words of the Bible.
Father Yah warns us to not do that!
He tells us, “Lean not unto [do not trust in] your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
When we make our own understanding to be of greater importance than Yah’s WORD, then we begin to be puffed up with pride, and we actually lose and diminish in understanding; we lose discernment and good judgment; we lose our ability to be teachable.
The result is that we begin to lean on the subtle and crafty and corrupt wisdom of this world, which is harmful to us, and is foolishness in Yah’s eyes (see 1 Corinthians 2:13-14; 3:19).
No One Exempt
There is no one exempt from this kind of prideful thinking and behavior. All of us are guilty, at various times, of trusting in our own understanding, and rejecting Yah’s instructions. Many times, we do not even realize that we are rejecting Father’s Words of instructions.
Our earnest cry therefore must be, “Help me Father, to be among the wise, and to be teachable!”
It is the wise who will seek Yah and His Word, and will take the three steps of repentance, as mentioned above.
It is the wise who will choose to depart from evil.
Steps 1, 2, 3
If we desire to be among the wise, then the very first step is to humble ourselves by earnestly seeking Yahusha Messiah, who shed His blood, giving Himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:1-2).
We must humble ourselves by talking to the heavenly Father, in the name of His Son, and admit our need for His forgiveness, His understanding, and then begin to study His written Word for ourselves!
Perhaps we may have already taken this first step of humbling ourselves before Him, and receiving His forgiveness. HalleluYah!!
But this first step is only the starting point of a journey we must all take.
This first step is necessary for all who would be wise.
After this first step, we must continue to seek the Saviour, by prayer and reading and obeying the written WORD, because none of us have arrived at perfection yet.
We need to humble ourselves every day by praying frequently for a teachable heart, a heart willing to read and receive Father’s instructions and corrections from His Word, and thus gain in understanding His lovingkindness (see Psalms 107:1-43).
Praying also for a grateful heart is another important clue in helping us to gain an understanding heart (see Psalms 100:1-5; 116:1-19).
Thirdly, if we desire to be among the wise, then we must regularly study the Operator’s Guide [the Bible] for instruction, and receive the needed correction.
This is the on-going practice of ‘the wise’. We read Yah’s written Word over and over, so that we will have His Word firmly planted in our heart (Psalm 119:11). We also begin to adjust our lives to be in agreement with His Word. This is how we learn to bend with the ‘wind’ of the Ruach HaQadesh’s guidance.
By hiding Father’s Word in our heart we eventually gain the wisdom and understanding that King David learned:
“For I have kept the ways of Yah [the Most High], and have not wickedly departed from my Yah.” (Psalms 18:21)
Yes, it is true that the wise are tried and tested, as stated in the passage from Daniel. But the testings are to purify us and make us blameless, harmless children of the eternal Yah — children who possess the understanding to shine as lights in this troubled world (see Philippians 2:14-16).
The trials, the pressures, the loneliness — all these work together to conform us into the likeness of Yah’s Son, and prepare us for His appearing.
If we can maintain our bend-able, yielded, teachable attitude towards Yah’s Word, then the testings help us learn to be more teachable, gaining more patience and wisdom from Father’s instructions and corrections. Little by little, with Father’s abundant grace, we learn how to depart from evil, we begin to understand some of Father’s mysteries, and we gain even more wisdom. Little by little, we become a shining light of Yah’s Truth to a fallen world.
Enduring to The End
Father wants to give His children the understanding and the wisdom that is from above, guiding us by His written Word, and leading us by the ‘wind’ of His Ruach HaQadesh.
Yah’s lovingkindness is available to all who will choose to seek His Word, love His Word, and follow His Instructions!
The Wise will be quick to receive Father’s written Word, and be teachable to its influences, and will be grateful for all of Yah’s benefits.
Let us become bend-able, just as the lowly beach grass — sensitive to the soft, ocean breezes.
We need Yah’s love and faith and patience if we are going to endure to The End. We need the understanding that comes from Him alone!
The understanding that comes from Yah’s written WORD is how we learn to be led by His Ruach HaQadesh, and to avoid deception.
Those with Yah’s understanding, will have a soft, teach-able heart.
Those with Yah’s understanding, will love and heed Yah’s written Word, and depart from evil.
Those who depart from evil become wise!
As a result, they will have the needed wisdom for these End Time Days!
And they will know with certainty, why it is, that only the wise shall understand!
No comments:
Post a Comment