A friend said to me the other day "It seems to me that every time I try to do right that Satan throws something in my way. So why even go through the struggle in the first place?" I believe that the answer to this statement can be found through a study of the Book of Daniel. I am going to attempt to make sense of this question and answer it using the words found in this story. This will be the first part of a three part series involving the parsing of this scripture to bring light to this age old question.
I am only referencing the verses here that we are studying. This was done to keep from turning this blog into a book (smile). So it is very important that you read the verses yourself in order to better understand my explanations. Now let's begin!
Part 1
Daniel Chapter 1 verses 1-21
Verses 1-2
We start this story with the chosen people of God being defeated by Gods permission, captured and brought into a foreign land and forced to serve the king of that land. Please pay attention to the emphasis being placed on the "VESSELS OF THE HOUSE OF GOD," in these two verses.
I see in this the story of the Black people of America we were conquered by Gods permission and brought into America, which was foreign for us, to serve the rulers of this land. Also contained in these verses is the description of our own individual lives. We were and are the VESSELS of the house of God. These vessels can not be material objects, because why would God be so concerned with cups and vases and things of that nature. One of the definitions of vessel is "a person considered as a receptacle or agent of some quality." The the vessels of the house of God are a people made special by God to carry His spirit as a reminder, His chosen people. But these "vessels" are now in an unfamiliar place not the comfort zone they had grown accustomed to. This will make even more sense once we read chapter 2. Next...
Verses 3-7
Now this is very key to understand. The kings plan is to find the best in his kingdom, the smartest, wisest and most attractive and teach them his way of life and language that means that everyone didn't know this way of life. What was the kings overall plan? He wanted to use these that he taught to teach the masses. He wanted to train them for 3 years even changed their names. So he took from them their names, their religion, their culture and their language. And replaced it with his with a special focus on "the children of Judah." The same as what happened to us. And really it's still happening. But yet again we can find deeper spiritual meaning in this. There are times in our struggles we become completely lost. And we start reaching for whatever we can hold on to that makes us feel stable and secure. sometimes even to point that we no longer even recognize ourselves and what we have become. But in everyone of us there is a light that remains. Sometimes just a small part that refuses to go out. This we will see in the next verses. We will call it the "The Daniel Principle."
Verses 8-16
Daniel refused to take up the kings training, he refused the way of life of the king and only took on vegetables and water. Now in the book of Genesis the only thing that God gave us to eat was the fruits and vegetables of the garden but not meat. No I am not trying to get you to become a vegetarian. But if you look meat only came into our diet, according to scripture after the fall of man in the book of Leviticus. So Daniel not eating the meat, but instead taking only vegetables means he kept to the natural ways of God staying in obedience and water here represents the word. He obeyed God over the world and fed off the word. This made him and the others "fatter and fairer" then all the rest. Can you stay true to yourself? Or do you shrink under the pressure of struggle and become what you are not. Can you hold fast to right and true principle even if it means more difficulty in your life? Sometimes it's easier to accept the unfamiliar if it means less pain. But the question is what do we become when we give in to pain and struggle? And What will be our reward once we face and overcome our opposition?
Verses 16-21
Because they chose to obey God over the king then God taught them and made them wiser than the others and placed them in a more favored position with the king, because of the wisdom they displayed when it was time for them to be tested. But the King thought they were under his study and teaching following the way of his world but they were not. They rejected it, so now we are looking at how God in His wisdom begins to interfere with the plans of the world of the wicked to save His people and then use them to destroy the world and set up a new kingdom. All of us need to set a new King in our Dome. This starts with the decision to face our struggles and the refusal to give in to the pressure of opposition internally and externally. We will cover more of this in Part 2 of this blog subject...
No comments:
Post a Comment