No. MS 1 - WHEN, HOW AND WHY TO FAST By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, September 07, 2002 Good morning on this Feast of Trumpets 2002. That was a wonderful service that we were able to have last night with our brethren half way around the world, and now we can have a Bible study that will help prepare us for the fast that is coming up. It is one of the four fasts of Zechariah 8. It will be starting tomorrow night. These four fasts that we are observing are all related to the fall of the temple of Solomon. The Jews do them with reverence, but they do not call them high holy day fasts such as Atonement, which is coming up. They do these fasts with sorrow and great sadness because of the fall of Solomon’s temple. That was a physical temple on this earth, and yet they remember that God’s glory was there. They remember those were the glory years of their country, Israel, and the history of their nation prior to their dispersion around the world and the many persecutions that they have suffered ever since the fall of that temple. We fast because we understand that today God is building a spiritual temple, and that temple is in every bit of a disarray as that physical temple was in 586 B.C. Our spiritual city, Jerusalem, has been besieged all around by spiritual armies of Satan. The walls have been torn down, false doctrine has been put into the Church, and a spirit of hatred amongst the brethren exists. There is a spirit of violence and spiritual bloodshed that has set in upon the temple of God. Of course, Jesus Christ cannot come back to this mess! So we fast for a very serious purpose and a very serious reason. We look back upon what ancient Israel went through, what happened to the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God. We can see that is what has happened in a spiritual sense to God’s temple today. That is the value of having something physical and having an historical record that we can go back to, review and study so that we can apply it to our situation today. We owe a great debt to the Jewish people and to the nation of Israel, because those people suffered physically in awful ways and have been persecuted for a long, long time. They have, by and large, somehow always had some of them hold fast to the oracles of God and preserve it for us in the Christian era. All of those trials and persecutions that they went through are lessons for us, so we do owe them a great debt. What I want to talk about today is the fast that we are going to be going through, and how to do it properly, and why we are going to do it. I want to look at what Daniel did to accomplish the restoration of his people back in his day. LEARNING FROM DANIEL’S FAST If you would turn to Daniel chapter 9, we will start reading in verse 1: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord, given through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” In very much the same way we have learned what we know. God did inspire our understanding, and He helped us see the scriptures in a spiritual way, but it was by diligent searching of the Books. We had to go into the Books. God is not going to open your Bible magically for you and by osmosis put it in your head. That is why we are to study diligently like the Bereans. We need to open up that Book. Like Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, “Blow your dust off it.” We need to open that Book, diligently study, pray, fast and meditate on what we have seen in the Book, so that God can then reveal the words to us. These are just physical words. There is nothing holy about the physical Book. The words and the thoughts behind them are holy because they are God’s thoughts. But as long as we are just reading the physical written word, we get nowhere. We can learn certain principles that would help us be more honest people or hard working or whatever, but we will not understand the full depth of God’s thoughts. This takes God’s help. He has done this for us because of diligent searching of the Books. That is what we have been doing. We have all studied diligently, and we are trying to learn. That is what Daniel did. Continuing in verse 3 of Daniel 9: “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and your judgments.’” Verse 6: “‘Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day - to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.’” Verse 9: “‘To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.’” You notice Daniel, very humbly, includes himself in all of this. It says he made confessions. So when he made confession to God, he was putting himself right in there. Even though Daniel was beloved in heaven, he knew he was a sinner. That is one of the first things we had to learn. We had to learn that no specific group in the Church was more righteous than another group, and no people were more righteous than other people. God had allowed all of us to get tainted. We all had gone down. As far as rebellion goes, it does not matter if you have a hundred sins against you or you have one. We were back under the curse. We were not repenting. I include myself, and I know you all feel the same way. Now that we all understand what the spiritual temple is, what spiritual desolation is, and what spiritual abomination is, we were all abominating our minds, which is the temple of God. What we want to do is focus like Daniel did on what happened to our Church and what part we played in all of this. We all had a part and I include myself. None of us were very hopeful. None of us held out much hope for the world. All of us were judging our fellow brethren. I realize we were not condemning them with the vehemence that others are doing, but we were still doing it. It does not matter if you were doing it half way, all the way or whatever. We were part of the same problem. Not only that, I know that in my life, and I am sure in your life, there is too much television that is polluting the sanctuary of God, too many angry thoughts to pollute the sanctuary of God, and too much trampling of God’s word. We all had to wake up and repent of those things and diligently start working on getting them out of our lives, so that the abominations are cleaned out of the temple. Of course, Christ does that. If you recall, when we started learning these things, we realized we had this daily sacrifice which Jesus Christ performed as our High Priest. So I hope we are all remembering day and night to cleanse the temple with a daily sacrifice, because that runs out after a time. There is a point when God is done working with the firstfruits and our cases are sealed. Our life is finished as far as a reward goes. So as long as we have that daily sacrifice interceding for the temple priesthood, we have to avail ourselves of that sacrifice and keep working on it day by day. So that is what we want to do brethren. With this fast it is a very good opportunity to look at our own lives again and to pray for the Church as a whole, keeping in mind that we will have an impact around the world as well. So let us continue in the Book of Daniel. Daniel 9, verse 12: “‘And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such never has been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.’” Verse 15: “‘And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day - we have sinned, we have done wickedly! O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.’” This is a very good description of what is happening in the sanctuary of God, to His temple, and to His holy city Jerusalem today. It has been desolated. Verse 18: “‘O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name, for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.’” So Daniel prayed and fasted after studying into God’s Books, admitted the guilt of himself and the people, and prayed that these desolations would be reversed, and they were! That is an interesting concept because he did it as a member of the temple of God, as a priest. He was able to have an impact upon the whole nation, begging God for mercy upon the nation, just as Moses was able by himself to stop God from destroying ancient Israel when they rebelled. He repented for the people and begged God’s mercy, and God withdrew His hand! CLEANSE OUR TEMPLE That is the position that we have, brethren! It does not take a lot of us, but it does take a fervency, a zeal, a love for the truth, a love for our brethren, and a love for mankind for God to hear and act. That is why we have to diligently cleanse the temples that we each have, which has the impact of cleansing the whole sanctuary of God, the temple that He wants to come to. It allows God to accept that on behalf of the other brethren who are blind, who are scattered, and who have been devoured by wolves. It is our duty to do this out of love and concern for our brethren and our fellow man. So that is what we are going to work on with this fast. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah 61 starting in verse 1, and we will see just what God can do for us as a Church and as a people. “‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.’” This is, of course, talking about Jesus Christ, but we are His representatives, the body of Christ on the earth, and this is what we should be praying for. Verse 2: “‘To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.’ And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs.” Let us look at a few of these scriptures that we just read now. Backing up we found in verse 1 that there are good tidings to be brought to the people of the world and to the Church. The Church does not understand “good tidings” yet. They have forgotten. Part of those tidings are that God will bring liberty to the captives and open the prison that Satan has the world shut into. The world will be released from captivity, as well as our brethren from the terrible captivity they have been bound in. Verse 3 says that comfort and consolation will be brought to the Church and to mankind. Verse 4 says that the desolations will be repaired, starting first with the temple. Verse 5 says that there will be new crops born. Those crops of people will go on and on, as God’s kingdom and His government grows forever. There is an interesting statement in verse 7 that there will be double honor for the priests, for the people in the temple. The concept that the Church is pictured in Job is scorned by some people, but this is a direct reference to what takes place in Job. Let us take just a moment to go back to Job chapter 42 and verse 10. Sometime we will do a study in all the ways that Job is a good comparison to the Church and a symbol of the condition of the Church. Right now let us look at this. We want to go to Job 42 and verse 10. We know the sufferings that Job went through, how he was desolated and what happened to him in his life; but here at the very end of the book of Job the Lord said the following. “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” So the concept that Job pictures the condition of the Church is a very accurate one. We have seen it in other places in Isaiah and other places in the scriptures. Here we find the idea of the Church receiving double honor eventually. Even though we have shame right now, there will be double honor. WHEN, HOW AND WHY TO FAST Let us go to Isaiah 58 and study when, how and why to fast. Isaiah 58 starting in verse 1: “‘Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?” In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.’” God continues to talk. Let us pause here for a moment. There are a number of Church groups out there fasting on a regular basis, and God is not doing anything. He is not answering their fast. He is not cleaning up the Church. He is not helping the world yet. Why? He goes on to explain here why. What is behind the fast is what God finds reprehensible. The reasons for the fast and the condition of the Church when fasting are not acceptable. We cannot, as the priest of God, avoid cleansing ourselves and think we can approach God and ask His favor. It is not going to happen. We have to be very humble in our approach to God like Daniel was and admit our sins, our transgressions, our shortcomings. Then God will hear. Until that occurs, God cannot answer because He is a righteous God. So continuing in verse 4 of Isaiah 58: “‘Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?’” God says do not have strife among you and debate. Do not be promoting the fist of wickedness, in other words a violent message. Do not be afflicting your laborers, which can be the people in the Church and the shepherds. Do be afflicting them and come to Me fasting to answer your prayers. It does not work that way! Continuing in verse 6 God then starts to tell us what He wants to see in our fast. “‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am.”’” So God says I want to see a fast where the brethren of God are fasting for these reasons. Fast to loose the bonds of wickedness. Who has the world held hostage? Satan holds the world captive. We need to fast to get those bonds loosened and undo the heavy burdens that Satan has put upon all mankind. Look at the anxiety, the depression, the sadness and the despair in the world. We need to fast for this to get lifted. Look at the sadness, the despair and the misery in God’s Church. We need to fast for this. “To let the oppressed go free,” it says. Pray for the oppressed. They are waiting for God’s kingdom, and they do not even know it! In most cases, the world is not even aware that is what they need. So they need a temple and a priesthood to intercede for them. We are praying for them the prayers that they cannot utter and the thoughts that they cannot understand. It is a very, very high calling and a very high responsibility. We have to take it seriously. Also it says “That you break every yoke.” This refers to the yoke that people bear. If you look around the world and not just in the Church but the physical world, people live under such hardship! Most people live such horribly depressing lives. Those of you who have done a little traveling to third world countries know what I am talking about. This world is in an awful state where people bear a terrible yoke. In our own wealthy countries how many people are bearing yokes of drug addiction, alcoholism, cancers, anxiety and depressions and racial hatreds? We are burdened with so many things, and they come from Satan, his way of life and his broadcasting. We need to beg God to release those people from that and release God’s Church from the yoke that once again has been put upon them. It goes on to say, “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out?” Yes, physically we are to share, and most of the Churches of God do not even do that physically. But God is mostly concerned here with the spiritual food. There is a famine of the word. We have brethren starving, and very little is getting done about it. A lot of accusing gets done, a lot of animosity between groups, a lot of charges and counter charges but very little gets done to feed the brethren. Physically we do not care for the least among us, and with spiritual food we do not seem to care for the least among us. God says when He returns His reward is based upon what we do for the least of His brethren. So we better look around and find the least of God’s brethren in a physical and spiritual sense and lend a helping hand. That is what God wants to see because that is out-going love and concern for our brethren. He goes on to say in the same vein as what we have studied in the New Testament. Verse 7: “‘When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily.’” We will be healed spiritually and physically as well. Our prayers will be answered swiftly. If we do all the aforementioned things, then God will listen to our prayers and listen to our fast. This is what we want to do as we concentrate on this fast starting tomorrow night. I would like you to turn to Isaiah 51 because if we do these things God promises His people comfort, consolation and help. Let us read Isaiah 51 starting in verse 1: “‘Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him. For the Lord will comfort Zion’” (We know Mount Zion is the mountain upon which the Church rests.) “‘He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.’” The garden will prosper once again and bear fruit. Right now there is very little fruit, as we studied last night and we heard in the sermon. There is very little olive oil being produced in the Church. This is going to be turned around somehow. It is going to be healed. Continuing in the last part of verse 3: “‘Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation: for law will proceed from Me, and I will make My justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands will wait upon Me, and on My arm they will trust.’” Remember this here where it mentions God’s arm twice. We are going to talk about that a little bit in a minute. Verse 6: “‘Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner; but My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished.’” Verse 7 of Isaiah 51: “‘Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is My law: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but My righteousness will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, and wounded the serpent?’” Verse 10: “‘Are You not the One who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I, even I, am He who comforts you.’” God is going to comfort us, but look how He calls His people. He says “’Awake, awake” in verse 9. “‘Put on strength, O arm of the Lord!’” The concept of the Church, His people, being the arm of the Lord is something we need to start looking into. He does things through His Church. He has always performed things through His Church and through His called-out prophets. It is an interesting concept that God will use His people as He wields an arm and makes use of a strong arm. THE CHURCH IS THE ARM OF THE LORD The Church is, in a sense, the arm of the Lord. The physical Israel, the ancient nation of Israel, was a physical arm of God, so to speak. I think that continues on today in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia. I think in a physical sense God has kept peace upon the world and has brought much physical blessing upon this earth through Israel. He has accomplished this by keeping warring nations apart, keeping tyrants from conquering whole continents, bringing physical prosperity to the earth, providing freedom of the press and freedom of religion and also Judeo-Christian ethics. I really think there is a physical thing that has been done here by God to preserve the peace as best is possible until Christ returns. Then there is a spiritual side of God’s arm which is His Church, spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel is to do far more than physical Israel to release the world from captivity and to be intercessors for the world for their problems and to have staved off trials, wars, famines and diseases! We should be able to walk this earth as God’s people healing the sick, giving consolation to those who mourn, helping those people who do not know God and help them to find Him. That is our purpose! As long as Satan keeps us stirred up against one another, that cannot get done. He has neutralized God’s arm! You see the concept I am getting at? He has neutralized God’s arm. Once again, this fast is for us to say to God, “Use us, go ahead. We give our lives to you. You use us to accomplish something and bring some peace to this earth and to help our brethren who are in such a state.” Let us continue rereading verse 11: “‘So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’” God is going to comfort His Church. He is going to help us and then help the world. Verse 12: “‘I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?’” Do not fear the physical. God is with us spiritually. Verse 13: “‘And you forget the Lord Your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy.’” We are all afraid of Satan or afraid to die or afraid of health trials or financial trials. We are afraid of other people or afraid what other people will think of us. We walk around carrying all of these fearful burdens all of the time, and Satan keeps throwing them at us always. Because when we are afraid to do anything, we usually do not do anything. Then God’s purposes are held back! The arm grows weak! Verse 14: “‘The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail. But I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared - the Lord of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “You are My people.”’” I have big plans for you, He says. Do not be afraid of anybody! You have Me with you. Just let Me use you. Verse 17: “Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out.” That is what is happening to the Church at this time just as it happened to ancient Israel. Verse 18: “There is no one to guide her among all the sons she has brought forth; nor is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have come to you; who will be sorry for you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword - by whom will I comfort you?” That is true. Who is feeling sorry that this Church that God built through Mr. Herbert Armstrong has been destroyed? There is not much pity because the world and Satan behind the world hate what God was doing, so there is very little pity on what happened to God’s Church. GOD WILL RESCUE US Verse 20: “Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, and drunk but not with wine. Thus says your Lord, the Lord and your God, who pleads the cause of His people: ‘See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it. But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to you, “Lie down, that we may walk over you.” And you have laid your body like the ground, and as the street, for those who walk over.’” So God is going to rescue us. He is going to do something awesome. He is going to rescue us not only from our oppressors in the world but also the oppressor that is Satan, and the oppressors within God’s Church! God is going to rescue us and help us to get His work done, but we have to come to Him and do like it said in Isaiah 58. We must be in a proper frame of mind. We must fast, pray and beg for His mercy and His help to accomplish this. He will, and I believe He has started right here! What a wonderful God we have! He is truly merciful, loving and kind; because we did not deserve this either, brethren. We have just come to the place where we all gave up and said You can have us! From that point God started using us and helping us. We must always remember the gifts we have came from Him. All we are doing is allowing Him to use our lives. That is it. He does everything else! It is an amazing thing that is getting done here. I would like to go to Isaiah 60, and we will read how God will then bless Zion. Isaiah chapter 60, starting in verse 1: “‘Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.’” So God says yes the light has gone out on My Church but I am going to bring the light back. That light will be so bright the entire world will see it! The Gentiles will come to it. Verse 4: “‘Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.’” We understand the sea is the world. The abundance of the sea (the people) will turn to God’s Church because the bright light on Jerusalem will be so bright they will be able to see the truth! They will have consolation and be redeemed. They will be healed and have this oppressive spirit lifted up off the earth. What a wonderful time, but God has to have a temple (a people) to do this with. We are starting! We are just a little tiny group, but it is starting! God promises to make this a huge work! Continuing in the last half of verse 5: “‘The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall ascend with acceptance on My altar, and I will glorify the house of My glory. Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands shall wait for Me; and the ships of Tarshish will come first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in My wrath I struck you, but in My favor I have had mercy on you.’” God understands He had to punish, but He is going to bless. All we have to do is realize like Daniel that we were at fault, that we let Him down, and that we polluted His sanctuary. We need to allow Him to clean it up Then His mercies will flow! Verse 11: “‘Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles, and their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious. Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy one of Israel.’” We are talking about people who form a city and a temple. God says the whole world will recognize what He has done with you people! It will be a blessing to the whole world, and those who tried to get in the way and persecuted them will have to admit it someday. It will be a hard pill to swallow, but they will. I am confident that God’s mercy will be extended to the maximum number of people. It all depends on their heart. That is what God is looking at. Verse 15: “‘Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations. You shall drink the milk of the Gentiles, and shall milk the breast of kings; you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.’” Verse 19 of Isaiah 60: “‘The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.’” The Church and Jesus Christ will then be united, the bride and the bridegroom, and it will be awesome! We will be right in His light all of the time. We will be reflecting His light all of the time. The city will be able to be seen eventually in the whole universe! It will be awesome! Verse 20: “‘Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.’” We understand this is not so physical anymore. God is talking about His Church. As the moon goes bright and dull in cycles, we are seeing the Church do that through history. It reflects Christ’s light well at one time and very poorly or not at all at another. God says that is never going to happen again! The breach is healed, and we have reconciled; I have married My bride. You will always reflect My light. It is going to be awesome! The world has never contemplated such things as what we understand here! It is not just talking physical sun and moon. They are just to help us understand the spiritual. Verse 21: “‘Also your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.’” Jesus Christ called it dividing up the cities. So as He divides up the nations to be ruled, He will watch our little cities grow from small to eventually huge. As it said earlier, He will plant the heavens. Eventually God’s government is going to go out there to outer space! In that whole vast universe, things will be healed. People will inhabit those places. The family of God will grow larger and larger. From earth that throne, that brightness, will shine out into that dark universe. What an awesome future that we have to look forward to! What a blessing from God that He has allowed us to see these things!