For the past month and a half, I have enjoyed gleaning so much from God's Word. Now that I am in the classroom (except for today - snow day!!!) I am beginning to develop more of a day-to-day routine. I've found that taking time to read from and meditate on Scripture is my refuge. Since beginning the Daniel study, my intellect has been stretched more than I could have ever imagined. This week's focus is Daniel 5, and the Lord has blown me away with some observations and realizations that perhaps may be of some interest or use to you.
"King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone." -Daniel 5:1-4
After Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, throws this crazy orgy, he demands that those articles taken earlier (Dan. 1) be brought out of storage. Scripture tells us in Leviticus that these articles and every little thing in the temple were anointed by Moses, and now Belshazzar takes these holy articles and uses them for unholy causes. God has been working on my mind to be more aware of whether (when!) I allow myself to be used for the Enemy's purposes as he uses me, whom God deems holy, for unholy purposes. The first problem here is that even as children of God, we often don't view ourselves as holy. I know my inner self is rotten to the core and so egocentric.... yet the Father calls us hagis, saints, all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I guess the first challenge is this: Are we living like saints? Perfection is impossible, of course, but are we too busy dwelling on our sin and condemnation that we forget Christ has made us righteous (Rom. 3:23-24)? Do we treat our bodies, our minds, as the holy vessels that the Father says they are? Then, the second challenge is the question of whether, once I recognize that I am declared holy, I am contributing to the Enemy's habit of using holy people and objects and thwarting them into unholy causes and purposes.
Perhaps the coolest conclusion to this little story is that Belshazzar asks the people to bring him gold and silver goblets, and they bring only gold which likely represents the Babylonian empire (Dan. 2)... then that same night of the party, Belshazzar is slain when the Medo-Persians come in, the silver kingdom (Dan. 2). Although the Chaldeans/Babylonians brought only the gold, at the end of the day the silver kingdom ruled. After that, we know from Ezra that Cyrus the Great and the Medo-Persian empire made many positive advances.... and remember those holy articles used in an unholy way from before? In Ezra we see Cyrus taking those objects from storage and now returning those objects to those who were exiled... a beautiful, redemptive action that signals a shift from the Babylonian mentality.
Friends, we have so much to learn from His word!!!
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