Hey
Gang: I love the Book of Daniel. I believe it is a book for this moment, along
with Zechariah, the major prophets, minor prophets, Revelation and a whole bunch
of other ones. In other words, I am
saying the Bible is a book for this very hour - as it has been since it was
first penned.
The Bible is
filled with the words and actions of very anointed saints of God. Each designed
to be an encouragement to those who, with contrite hearts, step up to His altar
and say, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned.
Daniel first got my undivided attention when the cards were all stacked
against him but stood firmly on the God whom he had learned to love and trust
before becoming a captive in the king’s court in Babylon.
In Daniel
1:8 we learn how deep was his resolve to place his very life in the hands of
his God. We read, “Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the
king’s choice food or wine”. Be advised the Babylonians were not known for
their hospitality but rather for there attitude of ‘My way or no way’. Since an attitude in the young whipper snapper,
who was consider a slave within the nation, would have been viewed as an act
bordering on refusal or rebellion and a trip to the ‘separator of the heads’
department.
For me, it
was a message one should sit up and listen, for this was a very special envoy
from the throne room of heaven. On
graduation from indoctrination school, the whole beauracratic maize of the
headship was in a dither. One might call
it a life or death dither, for the king was in a rage. He had a dream, and the wise-heads could not
interpret what it meant.
Now, one
might say they were given a raw sort of assignment, for he did not tell them
what the dream was. His assumption: if
they were so wise and smart they would know what the dream was. Obviously, he had experience with their dream
interpreting skills and was not about to let them off the hook this time. The dither in the court, he attached an
asterisk to his demand- if you don’t produce, you and your family will “be torn from limb from limb and your houses
made rubbish” (Dan. 2:5b).
It was a definitely
“woe is me” time in the Babylonia court.
But God had placed a young Hebrew kid in the court for that very
reason. Did you know that God does
that? Did he know about the dream? You bet your sweet bippy! He placed it in the king’s head. God’s intent? Elevate a young Hebrew kid to second in command
in the kingdom.
Now, one
would tend to believe that the head-folks in the court would be forever
beholding to Daniel. He did save their
jobs, their influence, but far more their very lives and that of their
families. But, as we will soon learn,
what it really did was build a head of stream in the head- folks to get rid of
this young twerp who, in their eyes, had usurped their influence with the
king. Do you see a correlation with a
later story in the Bible involving a young Hebrew man who bought the wrath of
the religious leaders down upon Himself because He claimed to be the Son of God?
And proved that He was indeed the Son of God who came to take away the sins of
the world.
Well, my
friends, I did not get to the point where I felt God was taking me so will
close this for today and pick it up in later Gramps Morning Message. I close with a challenge to you. If you have not availed yourself to the
wondrous messages hidden in the words of Daniel, I challenge you to do so. It is truly, another of those books that is
coming more alive with each passing day.
Blessings,
Gramps
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