I did a Beth Moore study of Daniel and just loved this book. This goes way beyond the Lion's Den that we may or may not have heard about in Sunday School......Daniel was taken from his home to exile in Babylon. Babylon liked to take the "choice" young, handsome and smart people into captivity and leave the struggling leftover people in their homes and dependent on Babylon. Ezekiel will be taken to Babylon a little later as the "street preacher" that he was.
Daniel exemplifies trust and dependence on God, even in stressful situations. He negotiated with the guard about eating from the King's table. Beth Moore points out that the Jewish word for "vegetables" includes things that are sown from the earth like grains for bread. Nebedudnezzer cultivates these prisoners and if they are obedient, they can be placed in higher government positions. The officials didn't like the positions that Daniel and his friends were getting, and wanted to get at them. The reported to the king that Daniel was praying to his God and that was against the rules. Old Neb has an assault to the old ego and calls them forth and says, "OK, here's another chance, you can bow to me now." They refuse, saying they can only bow to their God and if they are punished, they will be saved one way or another by their God. Old Neb has no choice (yeah, right) but to throw them in a furnace. He is so ticked, he has it heated up so that the guards die from the heat. Interestingly enough, Old Neb sees 4 people in the furnace (Daniel is off somewhere and not with his friends)...some say it is an angel, some say it is Jesus before he was incarnate ..in human form, and only the bindings burn off. Old Neb believes in the One true God (at least at that moment).
Now as far as Old Neb's dreams, God gave Daniel the power to tell him what the dream was, and how to interpret it....this statue is very significant, because it prophesies the next world powers.....it all comes to pass. Notice that the United States is not mentioned in the statue at all.....I'm just sayin'. Daniel gives credit where credit is due. His God gave him the power to know what Old Neb dreamed and how to interpret it.
The first part of this book will be an account of Daniel's life. The second half of the book has a lot of end time prophecy. Very cool book of the Bible.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
After you read, feel free to make a comment or ask a question in the comment box. You can sign up as a follower on the right, or you can sign up by e-mail at the bottom if you would like to follow the whole year. You may also chose to simply read along and make no comments. Whatever you choose. If you fall behind, as most people will do, don't worry...the whole year is here and you can catch up at your own speed. I highly encourage you to stick with it, If you read the Bible, you are going to mine some real jewels and insights.
No comments:
Post a Comment