SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/8/2014
8:51 AM
It may seem a bit ironic that in today’s SD we will
begin to look back at the book of Daniel, a book we have been looking at for
around a year, as we took one chapter a month and actually began looking at it on
3/7/2013 9:59 AM according to my notes from the first chapter of Daniel. The reason that it seems ironic to me is that
I just posted an older SD on the other blog I have on the look back at 1
Samuel. Warren Wiersbe has a complete
chapter in his commentary on Daniel on the look back of the book so it may take
us several days to complete this task. I
have learned much from the book of Daniel, a book that I have read many times
and studied parts of it many times but this was only the second time that I
studied the complete book, as the first time was in a Sunday school class about
three and a half years ago.
It was back in January of 1974, a little over forty years
ago that I was first introduced to the book of Daniel. I was visiting a high school friend in
Florida and he had a series of tapes at his house entitled “Two Years After The
Late Great Planet Earth.” The messages
were given by the author of the book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” who was Hal
Lindsey, and as I began to listen to his messages one of them was on the ninth
chapter of the book of Daniel which he called the greatest prophecy given in
the Bible. His message was on the last
portion of the chapter, the part where the prophecy of 70 weeks is given, and I
remember that he spoke briefly on the first part of the chapter saying that it
was a great prayer, and that he did not have time to go over the prayer at the
time of that message. When we studied the book of Daniel in the summer of 2010
I began to listen to messages by John MacArthur on the book of Daniel and when
we got to the ninth chapter it was my responsibility to teach the Sunday school
class. It was kind of an emotional time
for me because it brought back memories to me of when the Lord saved me, for it
was during that time in Florida a little over forty years ago that I became a
believer and it was those messages that I was listening to that the Lord opened
my heart to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As I was listening to John MacArthur’s six
messages on the ninth chapter of Daniel I learned something that has been a
great comfort to me. Daniel prayed to
the Lord asking Him to accomplish something that He had already promised to
accomplish, and that was to return the remnant of Jews back to the Promised
Land. I learned that because Daniel was
praying about something that God had already promised to do that God gave him a
wonderful prophecy that stretches from the time that the Jews went back to the
Promised Land to the first coming of Christ all the way to the second coming of
Christ and the Kingdom age. I learned
that as a believer that I should pray to God about the promises that He has
made in His Word like Daniel did.
Before, in my mind, I did not think that this was a necessary part of
praying, but found out it is very important.
As we begin our review on the book of Daniel we can look
at a couple of things: One is we can
look at the wonderful prophecies that he has written in his book, and two we
can look at the man Daniel, for by looking at the man we will learn much. One thing we can learn is that Daniel was a
man of prayer, and we can also look at his strength. Another thing we can learn from the life of
Daniel is that he loved the Lord, and he loved the Word of God and that he
lived a life that was uncompromising for his life was lived to the glory of God
and he did not compromise in his godly living for the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Knowing God’s future plan and obeying
God’s present will should go together.”
Daniel surely did this in his life.
We can compare Daniel and Joseph and see many similar
things that happened to them. They were
both called by God to serve Him in a hostel place, in pagan empires. Both were taken from their families in cruel
ways. Both went through difficult times of testing and were lied about and were
falsely accused. Both of the maintained
a godly lifestyle, as I believe that both of them at a young age believe that God
was the One who controlled their lives even if they were put in positions where
they really did not want to be in. Both of them were able to minister to the
people of God, and both of them became respected leaders in the empires where
they served the Lord. The things that
Daniel wrote gave not only the Jewish people hope, but also gives all the
people of God hope today. I have to
believe that as Daniel read through the OT that he drew comfort and strength
from the life of Joseph.
Dr. Wiersbe compares the book of Daniel with Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians as they too have much in common. “Ephesians teaches us about the spiritual
battle in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:10-18), and Daniel participated in such a
battle (Daniel 10:10-21). Paul prays two
prayers in Ephesians, the first for enlightenment (Eph. 1:15-23) and the second
for enablement (3:14-21). Daniel and his
friends also prayed that way, that they might understand God’s plan and receive
the power they needed to serve Him and remain true to the end.
“Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians emphasizes the spiritual
posture of believers: we are seated with Christ (2:5-6), we walk with Him (4:1,
17; 5:1-2, 8, 15), we take our stand in Christ (6:11, 13-14), and we bow our
knees to Christ (3:14). Daniel was a man
who bowed his knees to the Lord, walked with Him, and was able to take his
stand against Satan. He was given a place of authority in Babylon, but that was
nothing compared to the authority God gave him from the throne of heaven. Daniel
was a pilgrim and stranger in Babylon because his home was in Israel, and we
are pilgrims and strangers on this earth because our citizenship is in heaven
(Phil 3:20-21). Like Daniel and Joseph,
we live in an alien culture with people whose thinking, value, actions, and
goals are totally different from and opposed to that of God’s people. And yet, just as Daniel and Joseph kept
themselves pure and helped to transform people and circumstances, so we can
become transformers in our world today.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Dare to be a
Daniel is a song that has great meaning to it, and it is because Daniel was a
great man. Key verse in the book of
Daniel is something that I desire to follow:
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself” (Daniel
1:8).
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to remember these words and by God’s
grace make them true in my life today.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Nothing” (2 Kings 5:15-16).
Today’s Bible Question: “What
will God supply by Christ Jesus?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/8/2014 10:31 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment