SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/6/2013 9:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God Discloses the Secret PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
2:14-23
Message of the
verses: In Today’s SD we will begin
the third main point from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of Daniel
which has three sub-points in it. We
will see how far we can get today as we look at this great portion of God’s
Word.
Introduction: Perhaps
it would be good to look at this from how Satan was operating. Satan had just lost the first battle as the
king would not allow the “wise men” to give him any false information, and now
Satan is trying to have Daniel and his three friends killed along with his false
prophets. Satan cares nothing for those
false prophets and if they have to die in order to have Daniel and his friends
killed so be it. We will now see how the
Lord will intervene and how He will accomplish His purposes and how He will
bless His people.
Remarkable Postponement (Daniel 2:14-16): 14 Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; 15 he said to Arioch, the king’s commander, "For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?" Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. 16 So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.”
As we read more and more about Daniel we can see that he truly is a special person whom God will continue to use. We remember that when Daniel and his three friends got to Babylon they wanted them to eat the king’s food, but Daniel used the same kind of discretion and discernment in talking to those in charge of them so that they would not have to defile themselves by eating the king’s food. Now we can be sure that Arioch knew something about Daniel and his three friends and so even though he was taking his life in his hands by postponing the execution he would allow Daniel to go into the king. Let us look at Col. 4:5-6 “5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
We can assume that the king had calmed down a bit and
allowed Daniel to see him, for after all Daniel and his friends were not in the
meeting with the incompetent wise men.
This took a great deal of courage and also faith for Daniel to go into
the king and tell him that he would be able to answer the kings questions and
explain the dreams to him, after all Daniel did not know what the dreams were
or what they meant at this time, but he knew that the Lord had given him a gift
to understand dreams and visions.
Believing Prayer (Daniel 2:17-19): “17
Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, 18 so that they might request compassion from the God
of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed
with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the mystery was revealed to
Daniel in a night vision. Then
Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”
Let’s begin with an endnote from Dr. Wiersbe explaining “God
of heaven.” “This name for God is used
six times in the Book of Daniel—2:18-19, 28, 37, 44; 5:23. It is first heard in Scripture from the lips
of Abraham (Gen. 24:3, 7) and is found frequently in Ezra and Nehemiah. It appears to be the name of God used by His
people during the years of their exile and dispersion. The God of heaven isn’t limited to the land
of Israel; He can work even in might Babylon!”
When we get to chapter six we will see that Daniel prayed
three times a day with his window opened towards Jerusalem: “44 “When Your people go out to battle
against their enemy, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to the
LORD toward the city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for
Your name, 45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and
maintain their cause.” This is 1Kings
8:44-45 which was a part of a prayer that Solomon gave at the dedication of the
temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
As Daniel and his friends began to pray to God it was in the night that God gave Daniel the answer to what they were asking for. God gave this to him in the form of a vision. In the 18th verse we see the word “mystery” which is the Aramaic word (raz) and it is used eight times in this chapter. This word is equivalent to the Greed word mysterion and this word is used twenty-eight times in the NT. The meaning, according to Dr. Wiersbe is as follows “a hidden truth that is revealed only to the initiated.” “God had hidden the prophetic truth in the dream and He enabled His servant to know both the dream and its interpretation and to understand God’s future plans.” James 5:16b tells us “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
Joyful Praise (Daniel 2:20-23): “20 Daniel said, "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. 21 “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. 22 “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. 23 "To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.’”
There are times in our lives that we have prayed for
something and by God’s grace He answers our prayers and then we are so happy
about the answer but forget to praise the Lord for His gracious answer. Jesus healed ten lepers that is told about in
Luke’s gospel but only one came back to thank the Lord for the healing and the
one that came back was a Samaritan. Daniel was not like that for we read that
he praised the God of heaven for the answer to his prayers along with his three
friends. One thing that we see in this
section about the names of his friends is that they are given in their Hebrew
names and not the names that were given to them by the Babylonians which spoke
of their gods, while the Hebrew names spoke of the God of Israel.
I mentioned earlier that Satan would not have cared if
his false prophets would have been killed if Daniel and his friends were also
killed, but now that God gave the answer to Daniel even the false prophets
would not die. Dr. Wiersbe has an
endnote about this: “Because Lot was in their city,
the people of Zoar escaped the judgment that destroyed the cities of the plain
(Gen. 19:18-25), and because Paul was on the ship, God saved all the passengers
from drowning (Acts 27:21-26, 30-32, 42-44).
The world opposes God’s people; little realizing the blessings comes
because of them.”
James 1:5 tells us that if we lack wisdom then we are to
ask of God and He will give it to us, and that is exactly what happened with
Daniel and his friends.
I have to mention that Daniel 2:21 gave great comfort to
me during the 2008 Presidential elections because the verse says that God is
the One in control of choosing the rulers of the nations along with all elected
officials. God is the One who is the God
of history for it is He who can set and change the times allotted to rulers and
to nations and this is what seemingly was so troubling to Nebuchadnezzar. His dream brought darkness, but Daniels
brought light.
Daniel would include his three friends in his praise for
the answer and later on he will remember his three friends before the king and
he will give them greater positions in his government.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section with these words: “When God’s people today face a crisis, they
need to follow the example of Daniel and his friends and take the matter to the
Lord in prayer. Faith is living without
scheming, and faith brings glory to God.
Daniel and his friends couldn’t take credit for what happened because it
came from the hand of God ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver
you, and you shall glorify Me’ (Ps. 50:15, NKJV).’ ‘Whatever God can do faith can do,’ said A.
W. Tozer, ‘and whatever faith can do prayer can do when it is offered in
faith. An invitation to prayer is,
therefore, and invitation to omnipotence, for prayer engages the Omnipotent God
and brings Him into our human affairs.’”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I can see the
compassion of God in this section, and also I can see His great power. I can see His sovereignty in this section
also. I did not think that we could get
all the way through this third main point from Daniel’s second chapter as found
in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary but we did.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Believe in the compassion, power and
sovereignty of God in a personal way even though I do not know how it will
affect our nation which truly seems to be under the judgment of God at this
time
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:7-9
7 You are my hiding place; You reserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah. 8 I will instruct you and
teach you in a way that you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon
you. 9 Do not be as the horse or as the
mule which has no understanding whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold
the in check, otherwise they will not come near you.
Answer to yesterdays Bible
Question: “Jonah” (Jonah 4:3)
Today’s Bible
Question: “Hezekiah was king of what
country?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
4/6/2013 11:02 AM
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