Study Desk

Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind on understanding and getting rid of your pride before your God, your words were heard. And I have come because of your words.

His armies will come and make the house of God unclean, and put an end to the burnt gifts. Then they will set up the very sinful manmade god.

He will speak well of those who sin against the agreement. But the people who know their God will show their strength and stand against him.

"Then the king will do as he pleases. He will honor himself more than every god, and will say very bad things against the God of gods. Everything will go well for him until the time of anger is finished. For what has been planned will be done.

He will not care about the gods of his fathers or for the one that women like. He will not care about any other god, for he will honor himself more than any of them.

Instead he will honor a god of strong cities, a god his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, stones of much worth, and riches.

And he will fight against the strongest cities with the help of a strange god. He will give great honor to those who follow him, and will let them rule over many people. And he will divide the land for a price.

From the time the burnt gifts are stopped and the very sinful manmade god is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

But I will have loving-pity on the people of Judah. I, the Lord their God, will save them. But I will not save them by bow, sword, war, horses, or horsemen."

And the Lord said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.

"Yet the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,' it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.'

"She does not know that it was I Who gave her the grain, the new wine, the oil, and all the silver and gold, which they used for the false god Baal.

I will plant her for Myself in the land. Those who were not loved, I will call, ‘My loved ones.' Those who were not My people, I will call, ‘My people.' And they will say, ‘You are my God!'"

After this the sons of Israel will return and look for the Lord their God and for David their king. And they will come shaking before the Lord and receive His goodness in the last days.

Listen to the Word of the Lord, O people of Israel, because He has something against the people of the land. "They are not faithful or kind, and no one in the land knows God.

My people are destroyed because they have not learned. You were not willing to learn. So I am not willing to have you be My religious leader. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children.

They ask things of a wooden god and are answered by a stick of wood. A false spirit has led them the wrong way. They have not been faithful, and they have left their God.

Their wrong-doing will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of a woman who sells the use of her body is within them, and they do not know the Lord.

I want loving-kindness and not a gift to be given in worship. I want people to know God instead of giving burnt gifts.

Israel's pride speaks against him, yet they do not return to the Lord their God. Even for all this, they do not look for Him.