Year 9, Day 355: Revelation 10-11

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Revelation 10 is an odd little chapter.  This chapter interrupts the seven trumpets.  In the chapter, we hear that a great message is given but the message mustn’t be recorded.  We also hear that John must eat a scroll that is both sweet and bitter.

Focus on the scroll.   I think that the core message of this chapter is here.  Walking with God has its bitter and sweet moments.  It is sweet to know truth, yet at the same time it is bitter to live in a world that doesn’t care about truth.  It is sweet to be in relationship with God, but the necessary daily sacrifice of our human flesh can be a bitter process.  Even our salvation is bittersweet.  It is sweet to know that we are saved by grace, but it is bitter to realize that Jesus had to die for us to know relationship with God.  Life is often bittersweet because of our humanity.

This segues into Revelation 11 fairly well.  Life is bittersweet because of our rebellion.  Chapter 11 reminds us about the testimony of the witnesses.  They can consume those who oppress them until the beast rises to make final war against them.  In spite of the beast and his apparent victory, the witnesses live again.  We end this chapter on a final note of victory.  God wins.  This is the message of the seventh trumpet.  God wins.  His is the kingdom.  His witnesses can be killed, but not separated from God.

This message is a message of triumph.  As bittersweet as life may be, we cannot be separated from God.  His witnesses may be ignored, mocked, or even consumed by the world.  Yet, His witnesses cannot be separated from Him.  No matter what the world throws at the Lord’s witnesses, in the end they will rise and participate in the worship of God.

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Year 9, Day 354: Revelation 9

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Today’s chapter gives two of the remaining three trumpet judgments.  These trumpet blasts bring the brunt of God’s wrath.  With each blast, people die in torment.  It is clear that God’s judgment is not against the earth and His creation but it is focused on the pinnacle of creation: humanity.  God has come to judge what we have done to His creation.  He has come to demonstrate that He truly is the master of His creation.

Notice the shift in tone of the judgments.  The first four judgments are natural.  These two judgments are supernatural.  Things crawl out of a bottomless pit.  They look like locusts with tails like scorpions.  The four angels are released with a conquering horde to kill with a plague.  Smoke and sulfur come out of their mouths and their tales are like snakes.  Judgment comes in a most unnatural form.

At tis point, though, we are given a sad note.  The people who remain do not repent.  They do not see the error of their ways.  Perhaps they see their inferiority but are too proud to admit it.  God’s judgment comes and it is horrific.  Like the Pharaoh of Egypt who faced similar judgment, the heart of the people is unmoved.  There is no repentance.

God is free to act in full and bring the full plan to fruition.

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Year 9, Day 353: Revelation 8

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In Revelation 8, true judgment comes.  We move from an analogy to the history of the world to a look at God’s response.  Angels are brought forth with judgments to dispense.  The tone turns darker.

Before the judgments come, though, the last of the seals is opened.  God has a surprise for us.  The last seal brings silence.  There is a time before judgment comes for reckoning.  This is that moment when you’ve done something wrong and you’ve been caught.  It’s the moment where you decide to continue the lie or to fess up to the truth.  There is a moment of silence before, quite literally, all hell breaks loose.

When the trumpets blast, God unleashes natural fury.  A third of practically everything is destroyed.  Nothing is outside of God’s grasp. People frequently note how these trumpet blasts are reminiscent of the plagues in Egypt.  Note that those plagues were also judgment!

What is going on here?  God is making the same point here that He made in the Exodus story.  He is in charge.  Nature is on His side.  His judgments are a warning of a greater impending danger.  He uses the judgments to allow us a moment to give Him our attention.

In the end, we are greeted with a woe.  Woe to those who remain on the earth.  Things were bad, but they are about to get worse.  The judgment is about to go from warning to grave danger.

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Year 9, Day 352: Revelation 7

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Revelation 7 is a great chapter, but it has a deep and very subtle point.  What makes it so great?  First, we hear about a specific amount of Hebrew people who are to be saved.  The number is exceptionally specific, being the square of 12 times ten cubed.  In other words, a big number.

Why is this important?  There are a great number of Hebrew people who are numbered for God.  But there is an ability to count them.  In other words, the number comes to an end.  While I may not believe that the number is meant to be literally accurate, I do believe that the fact that the number is finite tells us something.  The number can be counted, meaning it comes to an end.  I believe this recounts the transition from Abraham to Christ.  Abraham, the people of the covenant, was a finite time.  With the coming of Christ comes the end to the old covenant.

The group of followers that comes next are innumerable!  They come from every tribe tongue, and nationality.  They come from all over!  They aren’t defined by biology of lineage.  They are defined by a salvation that comes through the Lamb.

It is important to understand the point of this passage.  These people are those who come through the tribulation.  Tribulation is a fancy word for time of trial or time of temptation.  They are washed in the blood of the Lamb.

In other words, these are people who in the midst of the temptation of the world find their identity in Christ.  They are people who follow God instead of following the sinful passions within their own heart.  These are the people that believe when all hope is lost.  There are the people who follow when everyone else turns away.  That’s sounds great, right?

Don’t forget, the multitude is unable to be counted.  It is innumerable.  Ever have a pity day when it feels like no more faithful people exist?  The multitude is innumerable. Ever have a day where you swear the world has all gone astray?  The number is innumerable.

I am reminded of a story when the prophet Elijah swore every other prophet had abandoned God.  God replied and told him that there were literally thousands of prophets left.  We tend to be doomsday tellers.  Humans can focus on the negative, not the positive.  We tend to assume we are alone.  The reality though, is that there is a great cloud of witnesses around us and they are innumerable.

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Year 9, Day 351: Revelation 6

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Revelation 6 is an incredibly famous chapter.  This is the chapter about which everyone thinks when they hear the phrase “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”  Here we get our greatest biblical perspective on the figure of Death.  Here we see the martyrs in heaven waiting for justice to be done.  This chapter is filled with classic images.

I love the sequence of the seals.  The conquering horse and rider are first.  The horse and rider who remove peace are second.  Next comes the horse that speaks to economic interests.  The next horse to come is Death and Hades with famine and pestilence in tow.  The fifth horse is the martyrs under the altar.  The last seal in this chapter – the second to last in general – is a seal that brings geological catastrophe.

What is so great about the sequence of the seals?  It speaks to the pattern of human existence.  Human beings often seek to control what is in their vicinity.  In order to control it, we are often willing to take violent means – everything from asserting a physical presence to outright warfare.  Once we have gained control, we quest for economic dominance as we try to focus on pleasure commodities at the expense of basic needs.  Along the way, those who follow this pattern unchecked make martyrs of the people around them.  At some point, though, in spite of our dominance we always come against natural forces that we cannot destroy and ultimately display dominance over us.

In other words, the human existence is about control.  We quest and search for dominance.  We take names, make enemies, and make martyrs along the way until we come upon an immovable force that cannot be controlled.  Only at that moment are we open to learning humility.  Humility is not a natural skill within humankind.  It is only learned through judgment and outside influences acting upon us.

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Year 9, Day 350: Revelation 4-5

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Revelation 4 & 5 give us an insight into the presence of God.  Some might say it gives an insight into heaven.  That might be accurate in some manners of thinking, but it shouldn’t be taken far enough so that we think this is an impression of the afterlife.  This simply gives us an ability to see what being in the presence of God is like.

Revelation 4 focus on the Father.  First and foremost, God is worshipped.  He is the central figure.  Whatever else dwelling in the presence of God may involve, it is about worshipping the core figure of the universe.  He is the worthy one.  He is the source of power and might.  He is the one who allows things to exist.  Everything that is good and full of life comes from His throne.

Revelation 5 shifts the focus the Jesus.  He is the Lamb Who Was Slain.  He is the reason that we can be in the presence of God.  He is the only one who is worthy to open the way for us to get to the throne of God in the first place.  He, being God, is the only one worthy of receiving honor and glory as God receives.

This book is not a treatise on heaven or the afterlife because, quite honestly, heaven and the afterlife isn’t the focus and shouldn’t be!  God should be our focus.  We should think on His glory, His honor, His power, and His might.  Our focus should be on Him.

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Year 9, Day 349: Revelation 3

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Revelation 3 teaches about the other 3 churches that weren’t met in chapter 2.  The pattern continues.  The churches all face some kind of threat.  The people of Philadelphia have little power against an external threat, but they continue to endure.  The people of Sardis face an internal threat of being dead inside.  The people of Laodicea face an internal threat of living a lie and choosing to believe it.  The threat to our faith and even our livelihood always continues to be real.

God is always using the world around us to teach us, test us, cause us to grow, and bring about His will.  That is the next level that can be learned from these churches.  In each situation, God encourages the churches to persevere.  Through perseverance, they will gain something.  The people in Sardis, who risk being spiritually dead, will gain purity if they persevere in the Lord.  The people of Laodicea, who live a lie, will find that faithfulness leads to discipline and discipline leads to the opportunity receive things from God that truly matter – even the opportunity to dwell with the Lord!  The people in Philadelphia, who are largely powerless against the trials around them, will find that the testing of the Lord will cause them to be strong enough for God to build His temple around us.

Life can be hard.  Life can be filled with surprises and temptations, both of which can readily cause us to stumble.  Perseverance, though, has its benefits.  Through perseverance we draw closer to God and His ways.  Through perseverance we understand that God can even use the hard moments in life to teach us and make us better.  While perseverance seldom comes through times that are fun and exciting, it is an important part of the walk of the faithful.

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Year 9, Day 348: Revelation 2

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In Revelation 2, Jesus speaks to four congregations of followers.  There are several common themes among these passages.  First, everyone faces some sort of turmoil or test.  Second, perseverance is a highly prized value among people face turmoil.  Third, those who do persevere receive some sort of reward for their faithfulness.  What is the point of this?  God wants us to remain faithful.  He knows that life will not be easy.  He knows that tests and trials will come.  He wants us to be prepared for the life ahead.

What is different about the churches?  The primary difference is from where the trials come.  Some churches have trials that come from within.  For example, take Ephesus.  While they have their moments of faithfulness, they have abandoned their first love.  The Ephesian threat isn’t an external one but one of the heart.  Or take the example of Thyatira and Pergamum.  The issue in these churches is that they are tolerant of false teachers coming into their midst.  Their hearts are willing to sacrifice a firmness in the faith so that they don’t upset people.

Some churches face an external threat.  Revisiting Thyatira and Pergamum, the reality is that the people who are tolerated are external to the church.  These external threats are teaching people to not care about idols or sexual purity.  Additionally, take the church in Smyrna.  Their threat is entirely external.  The people of Smyrna are faithful, but they are about to become quite persecuted.  They are going to be imprisoned, tortured and perhaps even killed.

Whatever the cause, there is reason to persevere.  Those who stay faithful to God through the midst of the threat win God’s approval.  The faithful will have authority over the others.  The faithful will be nourished by truly satisfying spirituality that only God can provide.  The faithful will avoid the punishment of the second death.  The faithful will live forever with God.

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Year 9, Day 347: Revelation 1

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Hopefully it goes without saying that this book is about Jesus Christ.  Jesus is mentioned in the opening passage.  He is standing amidst the lampstands.  He is described in great detail.  He is the key figure in the chapter, as it should be.

What can we learn about Jesus?  First, Jesus stands in the midst of the churches.  He is among His people.  He is not an outside observer who looks down from heaven from afar.  He knows our troubles.  He hears our struggles.  He can see our joy.  He is among us.

He has a long white robe and a golden sash with white hair upon his head: pure and adorned as a ruler.  His eyes are like fire: capable of stripping away that which is not permanent in order to perceive the truth at the core of a person.  His feet were like bronze: strong and sturdy and capable of crushing others underneath his feet.  His voice was loud like rushing water: forceful and powerful, capable of asserting His will.  His right hands holds the seven stars: He holds the messengers of the Father in his grip.  His mouth is like a two-edged sword, capable of cutting through to the truth and a serious threat to His enemies.  His face was like the sun: radiantly shining glory outward for others to see.

When John falls down to worship, Jesus’ words are telling.  He tells John to fear not.  Jesus’ first message in this book is one of peace and removing fear.  When John comes into the presence of God, like most prophets before him, he fears God.  Jesus wants relationship, so he tells John to fear not.  Jesus isn’t chastising John; John’s reaction is rather righteous!  Jesus is telling John that relationship and not fear is what is desired.

Putting this all together should make sense.  God is a god of relationship.  He came into our midst to seek and to save.  He came into our midst to know us and to love.  He can and will judge us, but He could do that from afar.  He came into our midst to give us an opportunity to know our creator, not be wracked in judgment by Him.

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Year 9, Day 346: Daniel 12

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Daniel 12 brings the prophetic message of Daniel to an end.  Here Daniel sees the interaction of great people who can see into the future.  They have incredible knowledge.  They keep the vast amount of that knowledge to themselves.  This is not a chapter for allowing us to understand the future.  It is a chapter to allow us to continue to understand humanity.

What can we learn about human beings?  The divine perspective is rather clear.  Some will repent and purify themselves.  Others will continue in their sin and rebellion.  People will choose the gods of their serving and serve them – even if our gods are things of our own making!

If there is anything that human beings are good at doing, it is finding gods to whom we can enslave our hearts.  Everywhere we turn, we can see people who are chasing something.  They might be chasing money, financial security, or the power it brings.  They might be chasing belonging, popularity, or the power that brings.  They might be chasing knowledge, education, and the power that brings.  The list could go on for some time, but the truth remains.  Human beings are always chasing something.  We are slaves to gods of our own making. 

Seldom are we content.  Seldom are we happy with God’s provision and calling.  Seldom are we humble in the presence of God.  Instead of seeing our destructive tendencies and repenting of them, we often keep pursuing them to our own detriment.

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Year 9, Day 345: Daniel 11

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In this chapter of Daniel, we see the ugly side of humanity.  This chapter is all about war.  One king rises to power and makes war against another.  Another king rises up and comes against the first.  It continues again and again and again.  Human beings struggle against one another to try and dominate over them and make their resources available to them.

Notice, though, that this chapter shows us two means of gaining the advantage.  First, there is the frontal warfare mentioned before.  Second, and more deceptively, there are the diplomatic means.  Some of the kings seek to gain an advantage through flattery and friend-making.  This is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.  People come to others looking like friends, but they have their secret agenda acting as an undercurrent to their actions.

I find this aspect of human leadership obnoxious.  It is this very sense of power-mongering that makes human leadership so untrustworthy.  There are some good leaders among mankind, but most leaders want something for themselves.  There are few leaders who truly lead while seeking what is best for the community at large.

Worse than all of that, though, is what the power-mongering leads to.  When we teach generations of power-mongering, the result is ultimately a mentality that causes us to challenge the position of God in our life.  When we grow accustomed to challenging each other for power, the next logical step is to challenge God.

We’ve seen this before.  This is the pattern we saw among the native leaders of the Promised Land and it is why the were deposed by the Hebrew people after the exile.  This is the pattern of the Hebrew kings, which is why God brought Assyria and Babylon against them.  This is the pattern we saw in the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, which is why Daniel now stands before Cyrus, a king of Persia.

We love power.  We love recognition.  We learn how to grab for it and take it.  We learn to enjoy what it brings to our life.  Then we learn to take more.  We even take from God.  That is the breadth and depth of our rebellion against God.

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Year 9, Day 344: Daniel 10

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Daniel is praying and fasting during the reign of Cyrus, the Persian king.  Keep in mind that this book started with Daniel under the supervision of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king.  Daniel is progressed in age.  He is likely around 70 or 80 years old in this story.

A messenger of God comes to Daniel.  His presence doesn’t overpower Daniel, but the message that the messenger gives certainly does.  Daniel is left trembling and he fell to the ground.  The messenger helps him up.

Not, however, that this particular message isn’t recorded.  The conversation between Daniel and the messenger after the message is completely recorded, but the actual message that Daniel receives is not to be found.

What is to be learned from this?  The supernatural world is easy to ignore.  However, it is a powerful world indeed.  The messenger from God drops Daniel with his voice.  The messenger explains that he himself was detained by other supernatural forces.  We ignore the supernatural at our own peril.  It is a world that is often beyond our expertise, well beyond our understanding, and often beyond our ability to interact.  We would be wise, like Daniel, to give this world the respect and honor it deserves.

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Year 9, Day 343: Daniel 9

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Daniel 9 gives us a prayer.  Daniel is reading through Hebrew scripture and he comes across the writing of Jeremiah.  He realizes the error of the ways of the people.  He prays the prayer of the penitent.

Before getting to the prayer, it is interesting to note the surprise that Daniel finds.  It is like the surprise that Josiah or Hezekiah found when searching through the Hebrew history and finding the Law.  How can Daniel not know about what he finds?  It is almost like he is learning about the expectations of God for the first time.

On the other hand, how easy is it in today’s modern age with e-bibles, e-devotionals, and church on the internet for a Christian to still be ignorant of God’s Word?  In today’s day and age, there are plenty of people who confess to believe in God yet know nothing about Him.  Why should I be surprised if it can happen in a day and age like this that it also happened to some extent in Daniel’s day?

As for the actual prayer, Daniel prays the only prayer he can.  He prays a repentant one.  He asks the Lord for forgiveness.  He pleads to the Lord for His understanding.  He confesses guilt.

There is something else that is key to this prayer.  Daniel acknowledges that the prayer of a repentant can only be built upon one thing: the mercy of the Lord.  No prayer that comes from a human is heard by God because it is deserving to be heard.  As Daniel says over and over again, we are sinful.  We are corrupt.  We do not do things the right way.  Our prayers are heard because God is righteous, not because we are.

This is a great point to remember in the midst of Daniel.  The Hebrew people forgot to be humble and repentant before God, so God brought the Assyrians to humble them.  This was the lesson the Assyrians failed to learn, so God brought the Babylonians to judge them.  This was the lesson Nebuchadnezzar struggled to learn, and it took being turned into a beast of burden to get it through his head.  This is the lesson that Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, failed to learn and thus lost his kingdom to the Persians.

Human beings forget that we are not righteous.  Good does not reside within me, it resides within God.  He hears us because He is good.  I come before Him to partake in His goodness, not to have my own goodness recognized.

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Year 9, Day 342: Daniel 8

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This chapter of Daniel reveals two major players and God.  The ram, typically interpreted as the Persian Empire, is strong.  The goat, typically referred to as the Greek Empire, is stronger and more dominant but ultimately fractures because of its strength.  In the end, though, God wins.

From the ram, learn this lesson.  We can be strong and unified when we stay within our reach.  Before the goat came, the ram had things in control.  Its kingdom was just fine.  It was strong and healthy.  The ram didn’t overextend and it had a great existence.

Then the goat comes along.  The ram cannot win, so even though it is doing things right, it still loses.  The greed of the goat is too much for the ram to take.  What do we learn from the interaction of the two?  Sometimes people who ae doing things the right way get swallowed up by those who are lusting after what lies in their heart.  The ram is having a fine existence until the goat imposes its will upon the ram.

From the goat, learn this lesson.  When we pursue the lust of our heart, we might get what we want for a time but it will ultimately destroy us.  The goat looks strong and indestructible.  Then, its power fragments.  Its power fragments because it has overextended itself through its lust after power.  The goat begins to challenge God for His place.  This causes God to step in and cast it out in judgment.  Pursuing the lusts in our hearts always puts us as risk of challenging God’s place in our life.

There is a lesson to learn from Daniel.  Actually, I believe there are two.  First, notice that once ore this great wise man cannot understand God’s vision.  He needs help.  Daniel is great because he continues to understand that it is God who makes him great.  Rather than overextending himself like the goat, Daniel humbles himself and gains wisdom.

The second lesson is that Daniel is sick after the vision.  Seeing the truth about the human lust for power makes him ill.  Having an interaction with something that is so central to his being that it requires intervention by God makes him ill.  Often, it hurts to see the truth.  Once Daniel sees the truth about humanity, it takes him a few days to get his head right again.  It takes Daniel a while to process what is going on.

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Year 9, Day 341: Daniel 7

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This is the chapter of the beasts.  So much has been said about this chapter and its impact upon the apocalyptic literature like the book of Revelation.  It is widely recognized that the beasts represent nations.  Specifically, the beasts are traditionally understood to be Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

There are two significant points that are going to be brought out in this post.  First, look at the end of the beasts.  The fourth beast is killed on the spot.  The other three beasts are allowed to live and linger.  What is special about this fourth beast?  It makes war against God.  The fourth beast blasphemes against God.  The fourth beast will wage war and wear out the saints of God.  Whereas the other three beasts are simply violent kingdoms, the fourth beast makes it personal against God.

This ties back to the lessons of the past few days.  God can forgive many things, but arrogance and refusal to be humbled is something that God takes personally.  This fourth beast will not be humbled.  The fourth beast will not listen.  Because of this, the fourth beast is slain on the spot while the other beasts live on and linger in history.

The other point is a minor point in the chapter that speaks volumes to the life of a prophet.  Daniel receives the vision, but he trembles.  He was anxious and the visions troubled him greatly.  In other words, Daniel was unsure.  Daniel had to ask for help.  The great Daniel, who interprets dreams, needs help.

This should bring peace to us.  Daniel is great because God is with him.  Daniel interprets dreams because God gives him the interpretation.  It isn’t Daniel who is so great, but rather it is God within Daniel who is so great.

We don’t need to be perfect.  We don’t need to be strong.  We simply need to be willing and then let God be within us.

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Year 9, Day 340: Daniel 6

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The Persians take over when Babylon falls to them.  Daniel, however, doesn’t fall.  His reputation goes before him and soon he finds himself in a powerful position among the Persian empire.  Darius seems to have some wisdom about him.  It is always useful to have a cadre of wisdom seekers around you.

Unfortunately, with fame often comes jealousy and competition.  It is tough to be the top dog without recognizing the envious stares from the pack of lower status.  Daniel’s competition seeks to depose him.  A decree that Daniel cannot keep is given.  His faithfulness to the Lord causes him to break the decree.  He ends up on the wrong side of an irrevocable decree and is stuffed into the lion’s den.

This is one of the reasons that Daniel is so respected.  He is not only wise, but he is faithful and loyal.  He would rather violate an unrighteous rule and die from such violation than live according to the unjust.  He is resolute.  His heart is set upon the Lord and His ways.

The Lord spares Daniel.  He conquers the lions because He is lord over them.  Daniel survives the ordeal and comes out unscathed.

Darius’ reaction to the ordeal is intriguing.  He fasts the whole time that Daniel is in the lion’s den.  He knows he cannot break his own rule.  At the same time, he realizes how he was played by the unrighteous satraps.  He does what little he can by fasting.  As soon as he is allowed, he returns to the lion’s den.

It is difficult to be trapped in our own words by others.  Yet, Darius shows his mettle by abiding by them.  As ridiculous as it seems to kill Daniel, he has to keep his word.  He trusts that Daniel’s God can save him.

Those who tried to trap Daniel are then judged.  Clearly, since Daniel was spared, he wasn’t guilty.  Therefore, those who looked enviously upon Daniel are judged in his place.  They are consumed and broken by the lions before they can even settle among the lions.  God sees no reason to spare them.  The unrighteous occasionally appear to win, but they are defeated in the end.  God always wins in the end.

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Year 9, Day 339: Daniel 5

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There is a simple message in Daniel 5.  God can forgive a great many things, but He is deeply bothered by arrogance.  Nebuchadnezzar was proud, but able to be humbled.  Belshazzar, on the other hand, was arrogant.  Belshazzar took the tings of God and made them his own.  He sat in the seat of God himself.  In the end, the very night he was so arrogant, he died and lost his kingdom.

A cursory scan of the religious leaders that are lifted up in the Hebrew scriptures gives us a varied list.  Abraham was confident, manipulative, and faithful.  Joseph was proud, hard working, and serious.  Moses was unsure of himself, loyal, and disciplined.  David was passionate, assertive, and faithful.  There are others, of course, but we’d continue to get a varied combination of leadership traits.  The one thing that they all were, though, was capable of being humbled.  They were able to be shown their error and repent of it.

God can see our flaws.  He can accept our imperfections and work through them.  What He can’t do, though, is accept arrogance.  The arrogant heart cannot be humbled.  It cannot accept its flaws.  It cannot accept teaching, training, or mentoring.  The arrogant heart can only be judged.

I love the juxtaposition between Nebuchadnezzar’s moment of insanity versus Belshazzar’s moment of insanity.  Nebuchadnezzar is able to recover because his heart is willing to repent and change.  Belshazzar is unable to recover because there is no humility and ability to repent within.

The moral of the story?  Everyone has their flaws, and God is willing to work through the flaws of those who know the meaning of the world humble.

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Year 9, Day 338: Daniel 4

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In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar has another dream.  As with before, there is no person in Babylon capable of interpreting the dream except for Daniel.  As with before, the message involves King Nebuchadnezzar.  Daniel gives the interpretation, which comes true.

Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind.  He goes insane, living like a beast of burden in a field.  After a certain amount of time, God allows Nebuchadnezzar to regain his mental faculties.  Nebuchadnezzar becomes king once more.  He takes control of his kingdom back.  In the end, he praises the greatness of God.

What’s sad about this story is that it is all reasonably avoidable.  God has been trying to get Nebuchadnezzar’s attention.  God is the one behind Nebuchadnezzar’s rise to power.  God is the one who deserves the praise.  However, Nebuchadnezzar has been ignoring God, making false images, trying to destroy those whom God sends to bring him into the light, and doing his own thing.  Daniel even warns him to give up his sinful ways.  Nebuchadnezzar refuses to listen until he has no choice.  He refuses to listen until God literally strips him of everything, including his sanity.

So often, this is the case with us.  When life is going fine, we ignore the signs God sends to us.  When life is well, we think we have everything under control.  We look at the construction of our own hands and get caught up in its greatness.  We forget God.

Like Nebuchadnezzar, we sometimes need to be humbled.  Hopefully we don’t let it get to the point that Nebuchadnezzar does to where we lose our minds!  Often, though, we need a little humbling to get us to remember God is the center and we are not. 

That’s what is going on with Nebuchadnezzar.  God isn’t trying to judge him.  If He were, God could simply have killed him and been done with it.  Being humbled isn’t about judgment, it is about perspective.  God humbles us to get our attention and to bring our perspective back around.  The sooner we listen to the signs that God sends us, the easier the lesson is to learn.

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Year 9, Day 337: Daniel 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The cool part about Daniel 3?  Daniel isn’t even in the story!  This is a story about Daniels three friends who were renamed with him in the first chapter of Daniel.  So often we hear about Daniel and the fiery furnace.  But in this story, Daniel isn’t involved.

The book of Daniel is far deeper than most people think.  So often it is made into children’s stories and we think of it as an introduction into God’s Word.  While many of the stories are accessible to young people, Daniel should not be thought o as a child’s book!  This is a book with roots than descend into what it means to be human and the extent that God tries to reach us.

For example, take Nebuchadnezzar.  Here is a Babylonian king who has seen God’s power at work twice now.  God has tried to reach him and show Nebuchadnezzar His splendor.  What does Nebuchadnezzar do, though?  Nebuchadnezzar builds himself a golden image and tells everyone to worship that image.  He had the power to invite people to worship God, who has proven Himself to Nebuchadnezzar.  He had the power to worship God Himself!  Instead, Nebuchadnezzar creates so golden image of his own making and tells people they have to worship that.

Isn’t this the embodiment of human existence?  How frequently are we able to invite other people into the worship of God?  Yet, how frequently do we want something of our own making to get recognition instead of God?  Hasn’t God proven Himself to us as well?  Hasn’t God show Himself more powerful than the stuff in our life that we tend to worship instead of Him?  Yet we act like Nebuchadnezzar and ignore God’s invitation while instead focusing on ourselves and the greatness of our own thoughts.

As true as this is, there is something even cooler within this passage.  Nebuchadnezzar sins when confronted with his error.  He throws the trio of faithful people in a fiery furnace.  God saves them.  God doesn’t let the sin of Nebuchadnezzar impact the trio of Daniel’s friends.  Don’t think of this as a precedent.  God doesn’t always protect us from the consequences of other people’s sins.  In this particular case, though, He does intervene.

What God does, though, is show mercy.  After all He has done, God doesn’t smite Nebuchadnezzar.  He gives him another chance.  He allows the trio of faithful men to escape unharmed so Nebuchadnezzar can get another opportunity to respond to what God is trying to do in His life.  He is gracious and merciful.

He’s that way with us, too.  He is gracious when we don’t deserve another chance.  He is gracious when we miss an opportunity.  He is gracious when we deserve condemnation.  He is gracious.  That’s the awesome part of this story.

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Year 9, Day 336: Daniel 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Daniel 2 tells a simple story.  It isn’t a story about the greatness of Daniel.  It isn’t even a cool story about the interpretation of dreams, although it might seem to be that at first.  It isn’t a story about God’s dominion over Babylon.  While all three of those things are in fact true, this story is about one thing.  Daniel nails it before he even interprets the dream.  God in heaven is the source of everything.

God gives wisdom.  God is the one who reveals things that we cannot understand.  God is where light dwells.  God is the one who deserves our praise.  This story is about that.  This story is about God being God.

I find it interesting that Daniel praises God before God does anything about the dream.  Daniel praises God because He is great, not because God made Daniel happy.  Daniel praises God in the presence of the Babylonians not because God has demonstrated His power to them but rather as an example of what relationship with God is like.  Relationship with God isn’t about worshipping Him so that He is gracious to us.  Relationship with God because with simply recognizing who He is.  He is gracious to the just and the unjust.  Our job is simply to recognize Him and point the way to Him to others.

Daniel lives out this truth.  This is why God works through Him the way that He does.  It’s like this with all the strong religious figures.  David was the same way.  Joseph, in the book of Genesis is the same.  These are all people whose relationship with God is about recognizing His greatness first and foremost and then pointing the way to the greatness for all to see.

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Year 9, Day 335: Daniel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Something strikes me about Daniel.  Notice that Daniel isn’t forceful in any way.  Daniel is brought to Babylon and set up royally in the palace.  He’s given lavish food.  But he doesn’t want any of it.  He wants to abide by His God’s might, not the might of Babylon and whatever gods the food may have been blessed by.

To this end, though, Daniel doesn’t make demands.  In verse 8 we are told that Daniel asks the person over him if he would be allowed to not defile himself.  In the conversation, Daniel proposes a small simple test that wouldn’t be much of a risk to anyone’s health.  Daniel is a person who moves subtle, gently, and gives grace to those around him.

It works.  The authority over Daniel feels comfortable listening to Daniel and allows the trial.  It goes well.  God blesses Daniel and his friends.  They prosper in Babylon under Gods care.  They prosper, not because of some radical hard line in the sand that Daniel metaphorically drew.  They prosper because Daniel is willing to go about God’s will in a peaceful and graceful manner.

So often people of faith – any faith – react as though dialogue and communication are swear words and anti-religious.  We shouldn’t ever compromise our faith, of course.  Dialogue, though, is one of our main tools!  Look at Jesus and how He did ministry; He did it almost exclusively through dialogue and conversation.  When people of faith act in a way that severs communication, then we have lost plain and simple.

Daniel wins because he acts graciously.  He gives the people around him room to think.  He allows the people around him to see the example God makes out of him.  Rather than forcing people into a corner and forcing them to choose, he allows people to warm up to him and embrace his ideas and see the sanity contained within them.

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