So when Samuel came with his horn of oil to anoint a new king over Israel, he said to Jesse, 'Call your sons to the sacrifice.' And the first boy stood before Samuel, tall and strong and handsome. And Samuel said, 'Surely, the Lord’s anointed stands before me.' Eliab stood there, a very prince: charming, strong, and beautiful. But God said to Samuel, 'You look on the outside, on the countenance, but I look on the heart. I have rejected him.' Then Jesse calls his second boy to stand before Samuel. His name was Abinadab. He was fine and strong and handsome, like his older brother Eliab. But God said, 'I have rejected him.' Then Jesse calls his third son, Shammah, to stand before Samuel. And Samuel said, 'Surely, this is the Lord’s election.' And God said, 'I have refused him,' and all seven of Jesse’s sons passed by in front of Samuel, and in each one, God said, 'I have not chosen him.'

, God choosing that lad to be king over Israel.

Elijah suddenly appears in the seventeenth chapter of 1 Kings. Just out of nowhere, there stands Elijah before Ahab. And in the confrontation between Jezebel, Ahab, and Elijah, in despair Elijah cried, saying, 'And I, I only am left.' But the Lord God said, 'Elijah, I have seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal nor have kissed his hand'; always that remnant.

It might be well for us to remember that when we think that the day is so dark and evil is so overwhelmingly present, but God always has His people.

This is the vision and the prophecy of the seventy weeks. God says to this prophet-statesman, Daniel – he’s not a preacher. He’s not any ecclesiastic. He’s not a priest, doesn’t even belong to the family of priests. He’s not a Levite. He belongs to the family of Judah, and he is a prime minister of the Babylonian empire, and later Persian. God says to that statesman:

[Daniel 9:25-27]

Man, these prophets are telling about things that are coming to pass hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years yet to come: In the case of Isaiah, over six hundred years; in the case of Genesis 3:15, thousands and thousands of years. That’s God.

And whenever you think that Russia, who is a modern colonial power beyond any voracity we’ve ever known, when you think of Russia – and little-by-little, they are taking out the chunks of the whole earth – and you stand in abject fear of what tomorrow may bring, just remember what God said to Daniel: 'There will never be another world empire, never.' And remember what Ezekiel says in chapters 38 and 39. When Russia comes down to the Middle East – and it’s very apparent to us today why, because of its vast oil resources – when Russia comes down to the Middle East, that’s when God will destroy her forever and forever; that’s Daniel, and that’s the miracle of precise prediction, the sixth mighty miracle of the Old Testament.

For the love of God is greater

And the heart of the Eternal is

[from 'There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,' Frederick William Faber]

I knelt down by the side a few days ago of a man who had been, in the eyes of the world, a most vile sinner. And when he prayed, asking God to save him, this is what he said: 'Lord, Lord, how I thank You that You reached down to save, in this dark and sinful world; and especially, Lord, that Your hand of mercy reached down even further to touch me.' All of us are like that: 'Lord, Lord, thank You for the grace and the mercy that reached down to save this lost world; and especially, Lord, for the grace and mercy that reached down to touch me.' It is a wonderful gospel, it is a glorious message: the miracle of God and His outreaching love and mercy.

THE SEVEN MIGHTY MIRACLES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Psalm 89:1-8

6-8-80

I. Noah – the miracle of preservation
II. Abraham – the miracle of promise
III. Moses – the miracle of deliverance
IV. David – the miracle of election
V. Prophets – the miracle of the remnant
VI. Daniel – the miracle of precise prophetic prediction
VII. Jonah – the miracle of world redemption

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