Chapter 2 of Daniel introduces us to some prophecy as Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. This dream is part prophecy, that is prophecy when it was written but to us is now historical events. It is also part eschatology, which is a big fancy word for the study of end time events.
The DVD session was, as usual, filled with fascinating information and wonderful insights. I could never do it justice, but I will simply highlight some of the things that really spoke to me.
Daughters of Babylon
Beth Moore talked about how we are in this culture. We have no choice but to live here, this is where God wants us to be, and until he moves us somewhere else then we need to be a part of this culture. We need to be culturally relevant and live our lives in some ways so that we fit in with our culture, in the way we dress, transportation, communication, etc.
At this point I am reminded of her comments that Daniel and his 3 friends were the only ones mentioned, all of the others were so absorbed into the culture that they became spiritually irrelevant. The influence of the culture over shadowed the influence of their spirituality.
How do we relate to this? We are surrounded by the influences of our culture everyday, but what is the effect of those influences on our relationship with God? Are we spiritually relevant? When people see how you live your life do they immediatley recognize that you live a Christian life? Do we have a spiriutal influence on our culture? Certainly important questions to ponder!
The Rock
Much of the session dealt with discussing the various parts of the statue in the dream and how the interpretation of the 4 empires was exactly played out in history, just as Daniel prophesied. Of course I find all of this incredibly fascinating, but she took us down another path that literally gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes!!!
Daniel 2:34-35 and 2:44-45 are about the rock in the Kings dream. This represents the Kingdom of Jesus. In the session we learned that Psalms 113-118 are called the Hallel and are read in entirety at Passover. So while Jesus was celebrating Passover right before his death, He would have read these verses! He also quoted in 1Peter 2:4-8. They are important to understanding the power of the coming reign of Christ.
(NIV) Psalm 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
(NKJ) Psalm 118:22 The stone [which] the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
It becomes more clear when we truly undertand the importance of a capstone or cornerstone. It is the piece of the foundation that holds it all together. Without this piece fitting perfectly, the whole structure would be unstable. The Jewish nation rejected Christ because they thought he did not fit what they expected the Messiah to be. But they will see that He does fit, He fits perfectly - as the final piece, the capstone. The most important piece, the chief cornerstone.
This is the Day
Psalm 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Literally one of my favorite verses! It gave me goosebumps when Beth Moore talked about this verse. First, when I flipped that Psalm open this verse was already highlighted!! But then I realized that the bookmark I just bought and have been using to mark Daniel for this study quotes this verse! And finally, a couple weeks ago we had congragational choice of hymns at our church - guess what hymn I requested! You got it "This is the Day". Certainly God is speaking to me through this verse!
And I have a new love for this hymn! Too bad I couldn't find a singing audio clip of it for you to share it with me. However, I did find this version so at least you can have the tune in your head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfUyuJsZLv4
The first verse lyrics are:
This is the day, This is the day,
That the Lord has made, That the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, We will rejoice,
And be glad in it And be glad in it!
This is the day that the Lord has made,
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
This is the day, This is the day,
That the Lord has made.
1 comment:
I'm finding it interesting to compare our recent study of Esther with events/people/topics in Daniel -- realizing that the envents in Esther actually took place several hundred (?) years AFTER the events in Daniel and that it is the decendants of those Jews that decided to stay when King Cyrus finally freed the captives (was that the 3rd kingdom represented in King Neb's dream) of Babylon that have their very lives threatened by Haman. Wow!
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