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UNCLE JOHN'S Study Bible
Book Of Daniel
PRAYING IN THE DEN
This story takes place in the sixth century B.C. Daniel was a smart kid with a bright future, but as a young adult he was part of the exile of the Jewish people taken captive to Babylonia. Daniel was a man without fear, who believed his prayers were for a hearing God and found great grace among his captors. First, he got them to change the menu and serve them healthier foods. He served in the king's court and was elevated to prominence when he interpreted the king's dreams and was put in charge of all the wise men in the land. Daniel's visions and prophecies and stories stood the test of time. He was put in charge of the court and called the president of the land. He was preferred above the princes and presidents because there was an excellent spirit in him. They could find no fault in him; he is trustworthy, not corrupt nor negligent, so they assembled together to trap him with a decree the king would sign and issue stating no man can petition God in prayer for thirty days. Daniel left his windows open and continued to pray giving thanks before God. Because of his rank and office they sought to bring Daniel down. Daniel fell into royal disfavor when he disobeyed the order King Darius decreed for all not to pray or be tossed to the lions. They locked Daniel in the cave, a lion's den, overnight with ferocious hungry beasts, but Daniel continued to pray and was not afraid. He persevered in prayer. God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the beasts and protected Daniel who survived the night, the lions laying down like purring kittens, and Daniel released into the dawn of the morning to the king, elevated again, really as a witness to the truth and the power of God, and the triumph of prayer, faith, and love over fear. And King Darius issued a new decree to all the people, nations and men of every language throughout the land that they must now revere the God of Daniel: "May you prosper greatly! I issue this decree in every part of my kingdom people must honor the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." And Daniel prospered because he believes in God!
Ezekiel: Lesson 7
The Book of Ezekiel is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to understand. Ezekiel communicated messages from God many he received through visions while he lived in Babylon among the captive exiles. Like St. Francis of Assisi, Ezekiel met with God among nature. He is thirty years old, by the river when he sees the heavens open, and he experiences great visions of spiritual astronomy and a call to be a prophet with a commission to be a watchman on a mission. He is in exile among 10,000 captives in a time when Daniel is in the court of the king, Nebuchadnezzar.
10 lesson study in the Book of Ezekiel Lesson 7
EZEKIEL Chapter 37:1-14
VII
MAY THE FOUR WINDS BLOW YOU SAFELY HOME
What was once the great nation was now in exile, creation in captivity, bondage to corruption. The hand of the Lord touches Ezekiel and he's drawn out by the Spirit of the Lord who "set me in the middle of a valley full of bones". The Lord leads him back and forth among these many dry bones on the floor of this valley and asks Ezekiel “Son of man, can these bones live?” “You alone know, O Sovereign Lord” he replies and listens to the Lord who instructs him “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! I will make breath (in the Hebrew translation also meaning air, wind or spirit) enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin: I will put breath in you and you will come to life.’” So he prophesies as commanded and he hears a noise, a rattling sound like an earthquake shaking as the skeletons are formed into a body as the bones come together bone to bone. He watches as flesh covers the bones with skin but there is no breath in them. The Lord says to Ezekiel: “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live,’ He prophesies as commanded, to the north wind and its convincing power, to the south wind bringing the Comforter. “Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden that its fragrance may spread abroad,” Solomon’s lover sings to him. He prophesies to the east wind, its trials and tests, and to the west wind and its blessings which brings understanding in the present time. Zeke prophesies to the bones a creative word and prophesies to the winds of the Spirit for God to supernaturally move on these bones and for the winds to breathe life and restoration into these bones, and breath enters them and they come to life and stand up on their feet as a vast invincible army.
“Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them ‘O my people, I an going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.’”
The fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision some 2500 years later are the bones of six million Jews killed in the Holocaust in 1945 and Israel scattered without a homeland is given new life when they are recognized as a sovereign nation in 1948 and the four winds of Earth carry the exiled home.
In God’s supernatural ability is the power for the dead to be raised and revived. Lost hope will find new faith. What is written as inspiration in the Bible brings vision to the spiritual dead to find new purpose in the manifestation of life. We come to the four winds that enable breath in air to blow on the Spirit of the mind that entitle and transform us and will carry us in song safely home. The same Lord who formed human flesh and bones from dust and breathe air into our nostrils to make us living beings shall open our graves and bring us up from them and put his Spirit in us that we may live again. Then we will know the Lord has spoken and done this and we will know God.
Uncle John graduated with high honors from Christian Life International Bible College in 2001
King Solomon & The Queen of Sheba
"There was never a king like Solomon
Not since the world began
Yet Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man"
--Rudyard Kipling
King Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, lived in a palace of gold. He had the power to move nations. He had great wealth, good health, unbelievable abundance, riches and fame, but these were not the things Solomon sought the most. He wanted wisdom and understanding, and God grants his wish and his mind is transformed with knowledge, common compassion and sense, spiritual insight, a keen mind, heart to God, and in tune with all of nature. He is calm in the sight of bees, learned to build with trees, watches the caterpillar change and approaches the butterfly with "Thank you" and "Please!", and sets his sights on the birds' flight and stars at night.
"When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan-with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold and precious stones-she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her....She said to the king, 'This report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.' "
--1Kings10: 1-7
Solomon is in his young thirties, famous for his wisdom and wit, his lavish wealth, his songs and wives. Much has been written about Balkis the Queen of Sheba, Queen of the South. They believed she came from the southernmost point of the then known world. She came to Jerusalem and hung out with Solomon. He's the wealthiest in the extreme sense, good-looking, who had the best of the best and most of the gold yet these were not the things he had sought. When God offered him a gift of his choosing he chose knowledge and wisdom and he was transformed into the wisest of all and these other blessings followed him. How many of you, given a wish for anything in the world, would ask for wisdom? Solomon's fame traveled the commercial world and the Queen of Sheba arrives in Jerusalem with gifts and caravans of followers and is greeted by a cart of Solomon's wives. Some of what's written about the Queen of Sheba is man's speculation but the truth of who she is can be found in the Bible and she is drawn to Solomon spiritually like a story from the Bible, and it would be an awesome study listening to Solomon's commentary. Balkis is different from his other visitors. She brings him gifts of things he has never seen, spices he is smelling for the first time; she is royalty seeking true wisdom and in awe of the magnified magnificent Solomon.
"King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart."
--2Chronicles 9: 22-23
Solomon's wisdom is Divinely inspired. Balkis, the queen of Sheba, follows Solomon's fame seeking an audience with him to test him with hard questions and he responds with quick, versatile, innovative, natural examples, framed in light with "an understanding heart to judge the people and discern between good and evil." There is no hesitation in him for he is spiritually blessed with greater knowledge and deep understanding and insight. Wisdom is the power that discerns and utilizes the innermost truth of things, finds and practically applies whatever is essentially Divine. Solomon expresses this wisdom in many ways, including books, literary compositions, through history and science, and architectural undertakings. Proverbial is the Book of Proverbs. Poetic are his songs and psalms. Solomon is the songwriter of Song of Songs in the Bible. Socratic, by question and answer, are like riddles-"dark sayings" and the interpretation thereof. The Queen of Sheba communes with him and shares what's in her heart. She remains amazed that all she has heard about Solomon's achievements and wisdom are true, exceeding all expectations she had, and her eyes are full of wonder at the splendor she beheld. Solomon's accomplishments and tales of his wisdom spread abroad through all countries and his fame attracts kings and queens to his court to hear his oracular insight, as well as to gaze upon his grandeur.
SOLOMON'S POEMS, SONGS & PLAY
Pleasant words are a honeycomb
Sweet to the soul and health to the bones
A bit of kindness, a pleasant phrase, soothing comfort, a soft word, costs little yet means so much. The comparison with honey speaks across all cultures through every generation. As the story goes, his father watches a swarm of bees covering the infant head of Ambrose in his cradle, and when the bees lifted they left a drop of honey on his lips, foreshadowing his future persuasive eloquence.
The honeybee is a symbol for work, industrious, pleasant, busy, cooperative, creative, orderly, and diligent. The honey produces a symbol of wisdom, sweetness, wealth, eloquence, and positive changes pleasing to the soul, and the senses, with healing characteristics. The Hebrew name for bees is connected to the word "speech". The true and righteous words of our Lord are said in the Bible to be "sweeter than honey" and the pleasant words of humans compares to the health-giving honeycomb. A sweet-talking person's lips "drip as the honeycomb" with honeyed tongues. The Bible refers to the Promised Land as a land of abundance "flowing with milk and honey."
Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, as I know of him, is the patron of beekeepers and candle-makers. He taught that church is a beehive, and the bees faithful, diligently storing up treasure or honey in heaven. The beehives represent a peaceful, cooperative community wisely ruled by one head, the Queen bee. It is like the sweetness produced by eloquence. Words can create a buzz and can sting too.
Bees represent vigilance. And because they store up honey, they are examples of thrift, banking and forethought.
Ambrose is known as the honey tongued Doctor, bestowed upon him because of his speaking and preaching abilities. He is also a teacher, and a Bible student who is a great influence on others. Born to Roman nobility, he was a wealthy man who gave it away to the poor, serving up as an example. He was part of a chanting choir and wrote many hymns. Ambrose is a great orator, and a Christian universalist, who believes that all people shall eventually achieve salvation.
When Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, appearing behind locked doors to his disciples, they thought they were seeing a ghost, even after Jesus spoke to them and showed them his punctured hands and feet, they still did not believe it was him, until he ate a piece of fish and honeycomb, convincing them this was not a ghost, but the same man they saw die, now return in the flesh to life, fully alive.
Love is magnanimous, and its eloquence sweet as honey. Solomon understood nature and drew wisdom from his surroundings. He wrote: "Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."
A positive attitude, pleasing, kind, watchful words can transform and heal us through the inner workings and power of the Spirit true.
Solomon wrote a powerful book of sweet romantic poetry in a play called the Song of Songs located in the Old Testament of the Bible. It's a song of love in a heart of hearts.
excerpt from SONG OF SONGS
by Solomon
Friends "How is your beloved better than others,
most beautiful of women?
How is your beloved better than others,
that you charge us so?
Beloved My lover is radiant and ruddy,
outstanding among ten thousand.
His head is purest gold;
his hair is wavy
and black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves
by the water streams,
washed in milk,
mounted like jewels.
His cheeks are like beds of spice
yielding perfume.
His lips are like lilies
dripping with myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold
set with chrysolite.
His body is like polished ivory
decorated with sapphires.
His legs are pillars of marble
set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon
choice as its cedars.
His mouth is sweetness itself;
he is altogether lovely.
This is my lover, this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
Friends Where has your lover gone
most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn,
that we may look for him with you?
Beloved My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the bed of spices,
to browse in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
I am my lover's and my lover is mine;
he browses among the lilies.
Lover You are beautiful, my darling, as Tizrah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
majestic as troops with banners.
Turn your eyes from me;
they overwhelm me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
descending from Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin,
not one of them alone.
Your temples behind your veil
are like the halves of a pomegranate.
Sixty queens there may be,
and eighty concubines,
and virgins beyond number;
but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,
the only daughter of her mother,
the favorite of the one who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed;
the queens and concubines praised her.
Friends Who is this that appears like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
bright as the sun,
majestic as the stars in procession?
Lover How beautiful your sandaled feet
O prince's daughter!
Your graceful legs are like jewels,
the work of a craftsman's hands.
Your navel is a rounded goblet
that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
encircled by lilies.
Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
Your neck is like an ivory tower,
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon
by the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
looking toward Damascus.
Your head crowns you like Mt. Carmel.
Your hair is like royal tapestry;
the king is held captive by its tresses.
How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
O love, with your delights!
Your stature is like that of the palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
I said, "I will climb the palm tree;
I will take hold of its fruit."
May your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
and your mouth like the best wine.
Beloved May the wine go straight to my lover,
flowing gently over lips and teeth.
I belong to my lover,
and his desire is for me.
Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside,
let us spend the night in the villages.
Let us go early to the vineyards
to see if the vines have budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
and if the pomegranates are in bloom-
there I will give you my love."
