“While I was speaking in prayer, 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. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, ‘O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand’ ” (Daniel 9:21, 22).
Locks and keys have been around for a long time. The earliest known lock-and-key devices were found by archaeologists in the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Today the most common key is made of a small piece of metal with two parts: the blade, which slides into the keyway of the lock, and the bow, which allows the user to apply pressure to turn the key. A key is usually meant to open one specific lock.
As burglars became more sophisticated at picking locks, new types of keys and locks were created to foil them. The lever tumbler lock was created by Robert Barron in 1778. Jeremiah Chubb perfected this system in 1818 so that only one key could open the lock. Around this time the Bramah Locks Company in the United Kingdom displayed the “Challenge Lock” in its shop window, inviting anyone to pick the lock. The challenge stood for sixty-seven years until an American locksmith named Alfred Charles Hobbs opened the lock. It took him fifty-one hours.
When the prophet Daniel received the 2,300-day prophecy in vision, he desperately wanted to unlock its meaning. About this time, he had been studying Jeremiah’s seventy-year prophecy and knew that the
time for Israel’s release from captivity had arrived. The Bible explains how the elderly statesman received divine insight: “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” (Daniel 9:3, 4).
Sin blinds our ability to see truth. If we truly want to understand God’s will, we must repent and ask for cleansing. As did Daniel, we may acknowledge the Lord as the Source of light and unlock the meaning of the Bible.
Dear Father, I humbly acknowledge my need of You. Forgive me for my sins and open my heart to Your Word.
