BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lordmy God…the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.” – Daniel 9:20-21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What is the evening offering? Daniel is praying in Babylon. There was no temple or altar in Babylon.  There was no sacrifice made.  As a matter of fact, it had been almost seventy years since a sacrifice had been made. In the temple, the time for the evening sacrifice was between 3 and 4 pm in the afternoon.  That’s when the animals were slain. They also called it “the ninth hour.”

Daniel says, “I was praying at the time of the evening sacrifice.”  That is, “I was praying on the basis of a sacrifice made a long time ago.  I’m linking my prayer with that sacrifice.”  May I tell you, Jesus died exactly the same hour! “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?  That is, to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)  That same hour was the hour Daniel was praying; only Daniel was praying long after the time of those animal sacrifices and hundreds of years before Jesus’ death.

ACTION POINT:

Daniel’s prayer, like any prayer that has ever been offered, will only get to heaven on the basis of a blood sacrifice.  Whether that sacrifice was made seventy years ago, as in Daniel’s case, or two thousand years ago in our case, we need to link our prayer with Calvary.

For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit

www.lwf.org.