SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2013
7:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
True Faith Confronts the Challenge PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
3:1-12
Message of the
verses: We will look at the last
sub-point under this main point of “True faith confronts the challenge” in
Today’s SD.
The Hearts of the Three Jewish Men (vs. 8-12): “8 ¶
For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought
charges against the Jews. 9 They
responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: "O king, live forever!
10 "You, O king, have made a decree
that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery,
and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden
image. 11 "But whoever does not
fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing
fire. 12 "There are certain Jews
whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon,
namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. These men, O king, have disregarded
you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set
up.’”
If we could have had a view from above over the “celebration”
that was going on in Babylon at this time, a view like the “Goodyear Blimp”
gives us in our world today we would have seen three men standing tall while
all of the others were bowing low in worship to a false god. What was in the hearts of these three men that
caused them to defy the orders of the king?
Perhaps they were thinking about what Isaiah the prophet had written, “1
¶ But now, thus says the LORD, your
Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 "When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you
walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.” We can say for sure that these three men had
great faith, faith in the One who could save them from these circumstances that
they were in. Dr. Wiersbe states the
following as he describes faith: “Faith
means obeying God regardless of the feelings within us, the circumstances
around us, or the consequences before us.”
We see that there were
people in the crowd who were called “Chaldeans,” whom we have meant in chapter
two. These men were a part of the king’s
servants who were to give wisdom to the king through their “magic.” We know from the last chapter that they
almost lost their lives until Daniel gave the message to the king that he
wanted them to hear, but we also know that the king had made Daniel and his
three friends rulers over the different providences of Babylon and t his did
not set well with them, and so they must have had an eye out for them and saw
that they bow to the idol. The brought
them to Nebuchadnezzar and quickly told him about them not bowing to the
idol. When these men told Nebuchadnezzar
about them they also brought up that the king had appointed them to the high
positions that they now were in.
More from Dr. Wiersbe about true faith: “True faith isn’t frightened by threats,
impressed by crowds, or swayed by superstitious ceremonies. True faith obeys the Lord and trusts Him to
work out the consequences.” We have to
remember the first of the Ten Commandments which states “3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself
an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or
in the water under the earth. 5
"You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on
the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to
those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
(Exodus 20:3-6) If these three
men would have bowed to this idol one time they would have destroyed their
witness and broken their fellowship with their Lord. Dr. Wiersbe points out that when Jesus was
being tempted by Satan in the wilderness as seen in Matthew chapter four that
he asked the Lord to worship him, and the tense of the Greek verb shows that
Satan only wanted Jesus to bow down to him one time, of which Jesus did not do,
but quoted Scripture to him to overcome the temptation. We see that these three courageous men would
not bow down even once.
Spiritual meaning
form my life today: These three men
have set the bar very high showing that they had a great faith in a great
God. They are a wonderful example to me
and I desire to follow in their footsteps and not bow to any idols that Satan
brings into my path, but trust the Lord to keep me from those temptations. I posted an earlier SD on my other blog this
morning from the 17th of December of 2003 and in that SD I had a
memory verse that I was committing to memory:
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God
is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but
with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be
able to endure it (1 Cor. 10:13).” This
is a great verse to give me the strength to overcome temptations.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Quote this verse when I am being tempted by
the evil one.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Cor. 5:17-18
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who
reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible Question: “Moses
was 120 years old when he died.” (Deut.
34:7)
Today’s Bible Question “Through
what might we have hope?” Hint: the
answer is in the 15th chapter of Romans.
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
5/8/2013 8:58 AM
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