Old Testament reading: Daniel 7-8
As seen from the first verse of Daniel 7, this vision was seen in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign. Since Belshazzar was killed in chapter 5, this is our first indication that Daniel is not written in chronological order. This vision contains one of my all time favorite texts, namely Daniel 7:13-14. In these verses the Lord Jesus (One like the Son of Man) is pictured approaching the Heavenly Father (the Ancient of Days) to receive His kingdom, the same everlasting kingdom foretold in Daniel 2:44 that would never be destroyed. Note also that this kingdom was given as the Son of Man entered the Father’s presence “with the clouds of heaven.” How did Jesus ascend to heaven when His time on earth was finished? Acts 1:9 says He was taken in a cloud. What happens in Daniel 7 when Jesus entered heaven? He was given a kingdom. What happened in Acts 2 following Jesus’ ascension? Christ’s church, His kingdom, was established (cf Acts 2:47, Matt 16:18-19). This vision also pictures the four kingdoms seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Daniel 2. The four beasts are identified as four kings, representing those four kingdoms that would rise before the coming of Jesus — Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 12-14
“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says” (1 Cor 14:34). Though this is a different word for silence than is found in 1 Timothy 2:11, they are nonetheless the same though their relationship to Divine appointment. In 1 Corinthians, a woman’s silence is said to be with submissiveness in connection with the Divine instruction of the Law, but which law? There is no specific Mosaic injunction for women to keep silence. In 1 Timothy 2:11, her silence is connection with the Divine order of creation and the fall of man (vv 13-14). Thus, one should understand the silence commanded in the law is a reference back to Genesis 2-3, and specifically 3:16. A glance at “silence” in 1 Corinthians 14:28-34. Understood contextually, the demand for silence in 1 Corinthians 14:34 is not absolute. The Greek word translated silence in verses 28-34 appears three times in the chapter and nowhere indicates absolute silence. The word must be understood in its context.
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