Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Friday, November 21, Daniel 7, part 6

"And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth." (Acts 17:26a)

I've spent a lot of time on this because the groundwork needs to laid to have some understanding, not necessarily for your understanding, but mine. Not that I have much. I glean from teachers smarter than me, and try my best to discern through the Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit. And I pray each day that the Lord lets His truth stick and my mistakes be washed away through the further understanding of His cleansing Word. And if, in the process, I can be used to bless someone else, then I give Him glory and praise. For we are here to testify of the greatness of our Almighty Creator and God until the time He sees fit to take us to Himself. And for that, I can't wait!

Now, when we read about the Beast, we must see it from God's timeless eyes. He gave Daniel the prophecy primarily about the Land and His Chosen people for the Land, which was the tribe of Jacob, known as Israel. And, if in this prophecy, we see some of His working with other nations, we quickly begin to see that they are included to see how He brings Israel back to the land, and to fulfill her mission to be a light unto the Gentile nations. And all of it leads to the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Seed of David, Jesus, God the Son, Who liked to call Himself the Son of Man.

And that Seed was from the tribe of Israel, narrowed down with the call of Abraham. Through them the world has seen God displayed. Their disobedience showed to us both the patience and the judgment of Almighty God, and their recurring repentance showed the mercy and faithfulness of this magnificent Creator who saw fit to let mankind enter that Eternal Dance.

If you read Scripture from Adam, you see that we are all one big "Family Tree". Paul spoke to the "elite philosophers" of his age, the Athenians, and verified this:

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him." (Acts 17:24-27a)

From Adam, for centuries men grew more and more wicked so that they came to a point where "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)

In His great wisdom He knew this would happen, of course, yet it still grieved Him that His creation would foolishly reject Him and follow the way of Adam, devouring the fruit that made them create their own "good and evil" apart from God. The inevitable result was continual evil.

He continued the line through Noah, and if you really take the time to study the "Table of Nations" in Genesis 10, you will see that every "race", so-called, came from the descendants of the little family of Noah. If you want to see a brief discussion on this to get your "feet wet", I left a link below that contains an interesting video from Bodie Hodge, author of an intriguing book called "The Tower of Babel", showing how you can trace the nations we know with the sons and grandsons of Noah. (this discussion begins about 40 minutes into the video)

For example, we can trace the Greeks from "Javan". The Persians were descended from "Elam", and we get "Semites" from "Shem" which most know came Abraham, the Jews from Isaac, and the Arabs from Ishmael.

Well, out of time again. As you see, in a devotional period like this, you travel through all sorts of paths. My main goal here is not learning random facts, or history, but how the Lord leads me to become a better Christian through contemplating on His Word. And sometimes, at 5 or 6 in the morning it leads to all sorts of things to ponder.

Today, we see that we are all one blood—one big family, and God has called many out of this family to Himself. Many will turn to Him, but sadly, many will reject Him and succumb to the Beast, for they love their darkness rather than Light (John 3). I pray that you are one who will turn to the Light.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*ESV used unless noted*

Memory Helps:

Again, here is chapter 7:

Chapter 7: "First HEAVEN-LY Vision:

The Four Beasts,
The Ancient of Days: King of HEAVEN, and
The Son of Man comes from HEAVEN"