2003-12-12
Good Morning Dear Ones,
You’ll remember that I began this present “The Coming Glory” segment of the True Faith series of messages with mentioning that the Lord never does anything without revealing His plan to His servants. We see this in AM 3: 7 and JN 15: 14-15. However, most of mankind remains oblivious to God’s universal dominion over them. How sad this is, because it means they will miss out on the many blessings God is so eager for them to have. Instead, Satan gains dominion over them, and the believer must work all that much harder to witness to His faith, while watching the world become increasingly mired in evil [RO 1: 18-32]. There are some lessons we can learn from the book of Daniel written about 535 BC long before Christ’s incarnation.
The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, had a frightening dream discussed in DN 4: 1-18. All of his fortune tellers, magicians, wizards, and astrologers were brought in to interpret it, but couldn’t. Then, the king had a young palace worker whom he called Belteshazzar brought in. We know this young man better as the slave, Daniel, who had been captured along with all the leaders of his Jewish nation of Israel when he was fifteen years old and brought to Babylonia. In the Jewish culture, names really matter. The king knew this, so he had Daniel’s and his friends’ names changed to ones in the Babylonian language that all had meanings related to worship of many Gods in Babylonia, instead of the One God of Israel. Despite his circumstances, Daniel was true to Jehovah, the One God of Israel. Some of the ways that God rewards faithfulness is to allow a believer to keep his faith, to reveal His plan to him, and to help the believer carry out His purpose. To that end, God enabled Daniel to correctly interpret the king’s dreams. In this dream, the king saw a huge tree in the middle of the earth, which grew bigger until it reached the sky. Its leaves were beautiful, and it could be seen all over the earth. It was loaded down with fruit, yielding enough food for all mankind and beasts. While the king was thinking about the tree, an angel from heaven came down and ordered the king to cut the tree down, chopping off its branches. The fruit was scattered. All that was to be left was the stump with a band of iron and bronze around it. Then, dew was to fall on the king, and he was to live for seven years with the animals without a human mind. The lesson of this is found in DN 4: 17, “This is the decision of the alert and watchful angels. So, then let all people everywhere know that the Supreme God has power over human kingdoms and that He can give them to anyone He chooses-even to the least important of men.”
DN 4: 19-33 contains Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, one that the king didn’t believe until it actually happened. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he was the tree in his dream. He would lose his mind for seven years and would live like an animal does. This would only come to an end in seven years when Nebuchadnezzar would finally accept the God is the Supreme Sovereign over all and that He along controls who is given power in human kingdoms. The king’s response was to brag about all his accomplishments in building Babylon, the city he built to display all his power, might, majesty, and glory. Suddenly, a heavenly voice could be heard announcing to the king that his royal power had been taken away from him. He would be driven away from human society and made to live with the animals until he acknowledged God’s supremacy. Then, these words became true.
In the end of the story, DN 4: 34-37, the king’s sanity returns, and he says to his people in DN 4: 34b-35, “He [God] will rule forever, and His kingdom will last for all time. He looks on the people of the earth as nothing; angels in heaven and people on earth are under His control. No one can oppose His will or question what He does.” Then, he told his people when his sanity returned, he was given his kingdom back, thus proving God’s ultimate power to decide who shall have power over human kingdoms. At last, Nebuchadnezzar ended with saying in DN 4: 37, “And now, I Nebuchadnezzar, praise, honor, and glorify the King of Heaven. Everything He does is right and just, and He can humble anyone who acts proudly.” Amazing words, say the least, coming from such a once-staunch enemy of Israel! Is it any wonder that the Hebrew name, Daniel, means “God is my Judge” and denotes a person who is discerning?
We must ask a few questions of ourselves. 1) Do I personally acknowledge God’s ultimate dominion over me and mankind in general? 2) How important to me is my agenda when compared to God’s? 3) Do I give God the credit for all that is good in my life and around me, or do I take it for myself? 4) Do I watch for God at work in my life and those of others? 5) What can I learn from what I see? This kind of examination of our own lives is not intended to evoke guilt, but instead, to give us a chance to measure our attitudes and behavior against the ideal set for us by God through Jesus Christ. Praise be to God, we can do this right now while we still have a chance to make the major adjustments in our lives needed to conform to God’s standards. We can obey RO 12:2, “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the complete transformation of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.” We are given the ability to appreciate the opportunity we have been given through Christ’s Atonement and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your altar today knowing full well that there are times when we take credit for certain accomplishments in our lives that belong more rightly to You. You teach us over and over again through the stories in the Scriptures that mankind alone can not carry out God-sized tasks which lead to God-sized accomplishments. We are reminded by such Scriptures as JN 15: 5 how very much we are in need of You. JN 15: 5, “I am the Vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.” People like Moses and Daniel had no idea the enormity of the task You set them out to do. In Moses’ case, all he knew is that You asked him to liberate Your chosen people from Egyptian bondage. In Daniel’s case, all he knew is that he was to be Your obedient servant who was to remain faithful to You. Dearest Abba, You never ask anyone to carry out a task for You that You don’t also equip. Moses viewed himself as inadequate to the task You assigned, because he had a speech impediment. And yet, because of his faithful heart-attitude, You were able to carry out freeing the Jews through him. Daniel was a humble man before You, and You enabled him to see the future and correctly interpret the king’s dreams. In the end, You rewarded Moses with the ultimate blessing-eternal life. We know this by MT 17: 3 where he appears with Christ in the transfiguration. It is most probable that You have done the same thing for Daniel, and You rewarded him by allowing him to have the Vision of the Seventy Weeks [DN 9: 24-27]. Daniel and all who study the Scriptures with faith are allowed to see the entire layout of Your magnificent plan for mankind. We bow before You in humility to acknowledge our utter need for You in our lives, Your ultimate supreme sovereignty, and You endless compassion. You bless us with Your presence, and we thank and praise You. In Christ’s name, amen.
There are still more lessons for us to learn about The Coming Glory from Daniel. These will be the subject of next week’s devotion. I am never bored with seeing what God at work accomplishes in my life or those of others. This morning, I knew I had a big task for God ahead of me. Because of taking so much of my time unpacking from our recent move, I knew it was necessary for me to write this message, study, and prepare a lesson I’m due to teach this afternoon. God is making all of this possible for me through the Holy Spirit. How very grateful I am for His presence in my life-even when He is rebuking me for some foolishness I’ve done. And yes, that comes more often than I would like. But I have learned what PS 107: 43 means first-hand. “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” The same is true for PS 9: 10, “All those who know Your mercy, Lord, will count on You for help. For You have never yet forsaken those who trust in You.” And finally, PS 29: 11, “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.” When we faithfully obey our Lord, He showers His blessings on us-something He is eager to do.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn