After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. – Daniel 9:26

Today's Scripture Reading (August 11, 2020): Daniel 9

Ann Frank wrote, "Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness." Maybe no one's life demonstrated the truth of the statement more than Ann's herself. In the midst of one of the darkest moments in this planet's history, Ann's candle shone, and it is still shining today. We need her light, but we also need to follow her example and become lights in the marginally brighter world in which we live.

Much of what Daniel writes is obscured by mystery. Scholars and armchair Bible critics argue over what the words might mean, or even how the words might be coming true in our midst. And this passage is no exception. We really have no idea what the "seventy-sevens" are all about, regardless of the bluster that might emerge out of some prophecy attracted authors.

But there is a light in the passage that should shine so brightly that it jumps off of the page. Daniel makes it clear; the Anointed One (Messiah) will be put to death and will have nothing (or maybe better, but not for himself). The Messiah will be executed, but the reason for his execution with be for someone else.

Anyone who knows the Jesus saga should recognize the theme. Jesus was executed, but he did not die for the sins that he had committed, but rather for wrongs that the rest of us have committed. For all that argue that Jesus could not have been the Messiah because he died, maybe they need to reread the prophecy of Daniel because Daniel seemed to believe that that was precisely what was going to happen.

And Daniel says that after the death of the Anointed One, "the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary." Daniel's words accurately describe what happened forty years after the execution of Jesus. The Romans marched against Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the Temple. "The end will come like a flood." It wasn't just Jerusalem and the Temple that was destroyed, Israel ceased to exist for almost nineteen hundred years.

And yet, the light of the Messiah continued to shine in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it. In the face of death, destruction, and the annihilation of a nation, the Messiah continued to work among the people. As hard as they had tried to extinguish his light, the light continued to shine. And it still shines to us and through us today.

And it is time for us to keep the candle of the Messiah shining through us to a world that needs that light. Because Jesus light still defies and defines the darkness.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Daniel 10