Friday March 6
Further Thought: Below is the chart explaining how the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 ties in with and forms the starting point of the 2,300-year prophecy of Daniel 8:14. If you count 2,300 years from 457 b.c. (remembering to delete the nonexistent zero year), you get 1844; or, if you count the remaining 1,810 years from a.d. 34 (2,300 minus the first 490 years), you come to 1844, as well. Thus, the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14 can be shown to start in 1844.
Notice, too, how the 1844 date fits with what we saw in Daniel 7 and 8. That is, the judgment in Daniel 7, which is the same thing as the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8 (see the last two weeks’ lessons), occurs after the 1,260 years of persecution (Dan. 7:25) and yet before the second coming of Jesus and the establishment of His eternal kingdom.
2,300 days (2,300 years)490 years 1,810 years
457 B.C. A.D. 34 1844
Discussion Questions:
1. Scholars have said, and rightly so, that the 2,300-day prophec y and the 70-week prophecy are really just one prophecy. Why would they say that? What evidence can you find to back up that assertion?
2. What can we learn from Daniel’s intercessory prayer that can help us in our own intercessory prayer life?"
3. Christ’s sacrifice in our behalf is our only hope. How should this help keep us humble and, even more important, make us more loving and forgiving of others? What should Luke 7:40-47 say to all of us?"
4. Look at how central Scripture is to Daniel’s prayer and his hope. After all, the nation has been savagely defeated, the people exiled, their land ravaged, and their capital destroyed. And yet, he has the hope that despite all this, the people will go back home. Where could he have gotten this hope other than from the Bible and God’s promises written in it? What should this tell us about the hope we can have, as well, from the promises in the Word?"
"Inside Story"
Angel in Angola’s AirportBy Andrew Mcchesney, Adventist Mission Do angels live in airports?A TAAG Angolan Airlines airplane deposited me late one evening in Angola’s capital, Luanda. I had a two-hour layover before catching the next flight to the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe to collect mission stories.
At the designated time printed on my boarding pass, I joined a long waiting line to the departure area. But when I offered my boarding pass, the airline representative turned me away with a slew of Portuguese words. Seeing my confusion, she summoned a security officer, who explained that I needed to wait 20 minutes.
Twenty minutes later, the airline representative accepted my boarding pass and directed me into a crowded room. I waited 15 minutes.
Then another airline representative called out, “São Tomé!” I joined a crowd waiting to take an escalator down to the departure area on the ground floor. But this airline representative, guarding entry to the escalator, rejected my boarding pass with a fresh slew of Portuguese words. No security officer was present to interpret, and I guessed I would have to wait 20 minutes.
Other passengers streamed down the escalator, and soon only a few people remained in the room. I decided to go. Nobody remained to check my boarding pass. At the bottom of the escalator, I joined a chaotic line of waiting people.
The minutes ticked by, and no bus came to take us to the plane.Then a young man with brown hair and a tan knapsack slung over his shoulder cut in front of me in line. Idly, I wondered why he hadn’t gone to the back of the line. After a few minutes, he looked at me and said, “My English.”
I had no idea what he meant. I guessed that he spoke only Portuguese.The man gestured toward the crowd around us. “This flight is to Portugal,” he said, speaking in slightly accented English.
“São Tomé is over there.” He pointed down the hall.“Thank you!” I exclaimed—and ran. Sure enough, a bus stood waiting down the hall, and its doors closed shortly after I boarded.Seated on the sparsely filled airplane, I thought back to the stranger in the airport. How did he know that I spoke English? I hadn’t communicated with anyone. How did he know where I was going? My boarding pass had been tucked in my pocket. Why did he cut in front of me in line and single me out of the crowd?
Arriving in São Tomé, I told my story to local church leader Eliseu R. Xavier. He declared that God had sent an angel. If I had missed the flight, he said, I would have been stranded for three days in Luanda. The airline flies to São Tomé only three times a week.
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