A great opening verse not worried about too much detail just letting you know that King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. I like the way the following sentence reminds us that God is in control; ââ?¬Å?the Lord deliveredââ?¬Â¦Ã¢â?¬Â This opening chapter really show us that God is involved in big nation type events, as well as the individual. In several places God is obviously at work to help Daniel in the predicament he finds himself in (v9,17).
Nebuchadnezzar then ordered the best of the best Israelites to be selected to work in his palace. Daniel along with 3 of his friend where among the men chosen, so was obviously young, hunky and intelligent. This might seem a strange request but the king wanted to remove any potential leaders from among the Israelites and get them onto his brain washing 3 year training camp; maybe a bit like the Starbucks training programme?? They were trying to re-programme them religiously by changing their customs and practices e.g. food, literature, language and names.
Changing each of their names was a lot more significant that I often considered. Names carried a huge amount of meaning for Israelites, Daniel meaning ââ?¬Å?Judged by Godââ?¬Â. Replacing it with Belteshazzar (part of one of their gods) was a constant reminder of their new identity and destiny in Babylon.
The Chapter then moves on to the new food changes. For us the idea of wine and meat sounds great but the food they ate carried a lot more meaning for the Israelites. Wine however was not really restricted so it is thought that Daniels protest was simply a way of saying no and standing out. I find the manor in his protest interesting, he ââ?¬Å?askedââ?¬Â for different food and then requested ââ?¬Å?please test us.ââ?¬Â Daniel remains humble and respectful. So we all know that they eat the veggie food for 10 days and benefited from it so were allowed to continue.
I think this is where we can get some learning for our own lives. Here Daniel finds himself truly in different surroundings where people worship different gods. He is surrounded by people doing things that he knows does not glorify God. Sound much like us today? Daniel does not fight them, he takes the name change and the training but where he can make a stand he does. Very much in their world but not part of it. This is a reminder to me, how do I act in this world? What do I have control over and how can I stand out? I�m not going to go into all the ways we can stand out today, think it�s quite obvious for our generation, drink, sex, drugs, money etc. I want to just leave it as a challenge to us.
Daniel is an amazing example to us and as a result of his humility and integrity the chapter ends by God giving them all kind of wisdom and knowledge. Nebuchadnezzar found none equal to Daniel in all his land.
Interesting point you made right at the beginning of the post. “God is involved in big nation type events” & “God is in control”.
Do you think he is still involved in such events today? (Wars, Invasions, Disasters; natural or otherwise). As a nation we are seriously messed up, (as are a few others in the world) should we be worried?
Rob, this is something i wonder all the time. I was talking to a friend last week who asked me the big “Why does God let bad things happen?” question, and the main answer i tried to give him was that as God created man to have free will and to make decisions along the path of life, with associated consequences, it seems that man has never really learned of the consequences of war, invasion, irregular distribution of resources that can lead to exclusion, famine, greed, etc.
I do believe that our God is still involved and cares deeply for the actions of people and their consequences. However, it seems to me that people have the means to “fulfil” themselves in various ways, none of them eternal and very few giving Glory to God. How do we set ourselves apart, and more importantly, how do we make sure we are recognising Gods heart and sharing it?
It’s not enough to recognise that this is a messed up world we live in, the true challenge is trying to discover and discern what we can do about it, and how God would use us to do it.
Dan, I agree broadly with what you have said, but that does not answer the question. Does God directly work in situations today which are as a result of the ‘behaviour’ of a nation?
i.e. if a nation is bad, do bad things happen to them at Gods hand?
1 Samuel 12 is a chapter which really spoke to me on this one. You guys are probably more familiar with this passage than I am, but it appears as an example of God showing a demonstration of his power to ‘encourage’ the Israelites to remember what it was that God had done in their lives and for generations before them.
As God is unchanging, surely it is for us to believe that God, whilst being slow to anger and quick to love, would
definitely be able to work through situations or bring about events to remind, encourage, or even warn. From what i can see, Old Testament accounts seem to be directly connected to the weather, and extreme conditions. Which of course begs the question, what was the intention/purpose/reason for events like annual hurricane season in the Americas, or earthquakes, or the Boxing Day tsunami?
Sorry if this still doesn’t answer the question very well, Rob. Just getting a few thoughts down.
To be honest I think I would almost want to change what I have written, “God is in control.” I think that suggests God is controlling what happens on the earth. Is God involved? I think yes. Does he have control? Well ultimately I think he does but chooses not to control us. As Dan mentioned we have been given free will and so although I think God has the power and authority to for example stop an earthquake he chooses not to. Not because He doesn’t love us, am sure He is saddened by any suffering we go through; but because He has given the earth to us, we have free reign.
To try and answer your question “should we be worried.” Yes I think we probably should, in a health way. I don’t think God would punish a Nation by sending an army/earthquake (could be wrong there). But think we should be worried about all the individual lives that are lost. Our own nation is defiantly messed up, more and more people don’t have a relationship with Jesus, which is very sad as Jesus is the only hope for so many desperate situations.
I think it is good to think about these things as a reminder of our responsibilities. To make a difference, to stand out, to show God’s love and introduce people to Jesus. I think God can be involved in helping us do that, helping us get through life and be involved in the decisions we make.
Look forward to any other opinions there.