Stand

This is where we find Daniel and his three Hebrew friends. Israel had been the most powerful Nation on the Planet, and this is what God had intended for His Children. It was during the time of the construction of the Tower of Babel (Gen., Chpt. 11), when the people of the land had only one language that they spoke. They journeyed to a place called Shinar, which was a plain located near Babylon. It was here that Satan opposed God’s People and tried to destroy them. As a quick side note, God has His Prince, Jesus Christ, and His City, Jerusalem, just as Satan has his prince, the Antichrist, and his city, Babylon. Both play a prominent role in the beginning of time, and Endtime events. It was during this time that God committed the scepter of power into her (Israel’s) hands.

 

 Israel was supposed to be the bearer of light to the world, but due to the constant rebellion of this Nation, God saw fit to remove this scepter and it was placed into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. “The Times of the Gentiles” had begun, and the scepter of power has remained in the hands of the Gentiles until now, and will remain in the hands of the Gentiles until Christ comes back and sets up His Kingdom here on Earth.

 

The Bible says that Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and laid siege to that city. It would be the first of three major deportations that would eventually leave Jerusalem in ruins. The first deportation took place in 605 B.C., and it was during this time that Daniel and his three Hebrew friends were taken captive. The second deportation took place in 597 B.C., and saw Jehoiakim, King of Judah, and his family taken captive, together with Ezekiel, who was a young Priest. And the last deportation happened in 586 B.C., which saw the fall and complete destruction of Jerusalem. For forty years Jeremiah had prophesied of this coming catastrophe, but the warning fell on deaf ears. Judah would not repent, and ultimately had to be destroyed.

 

 

 The same goes with us today. As Christians, we are to be the light-bearers to a world full of darkness. In fact, Jesus Himself said that we “are the Light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before (all) men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven” (Mat. 5:14-16). We the Believer are not only “light,” but the “only light” which comes from Christ. In other words, we are a reflector of the light that comes from Christ. The very purpose of this light is to shine this light in the very midst of darkness, which is the purpose of the light. You and I are “Light-Bearers,” and we must let our light shine for the entire world to see. But if we refuse to let that light shine, we will be destroyed.

 

 This is what happened to Judah. She refused to let her light shine, and because of her refusal to repent, she was utterly destroyed. You may ask the question as to why the Lord allowed this to happen to His People? To understand the reasoning behind this, we must first understand that God controls all things. There is nothing that happens to the Believer that is not either orchestrated by God or allowed by God to happen.

 

During a previous Youth Camp, a young lady, who was about 15 years old, came up to me after one of the morning services. I asked her if I could help her with anything. We sat down on one of the pews, and she asked me, “Does God really love me?” I sat there and tried to answer that question the best way I could when she interrupted me and told me that she had been raped on several different occasions. I could see the hurt and the anger in her eyes as she asked me, “If He loves me, why did God do this to me? If He loved me He could have stopped it from taking place?” I looked at her for a moment, and I really didn’t know what to say at first. To be honest, it was the last thing that I had expected.  I told her first of all that God was not to blame for this matter, sin is. Whoever was responsible was driven by sin, in fact, the Sin Nature. God had allowed that situation to take place for reasons that only He knows. I cannot answer as to why He didn’t stop this horrible act of rape, but I do know that He controls all things.

 

Satan wanted to destroy that young lady’s life, just as he wants to destroy your life, and he would use whatever act to do so. In fact, that’s what he tries to do with all mankind. Christ said, “The thief comes, but for to steal, kill, and destroy” (Jn. 10:10), and that he comes as a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). Satan wants to destroy your life, but the good news is that he can’t. Satan may have been telling you that he’s going to kill you. But just think about it for a moment, if he had had the power, he would have done so already. But the fact of the matter is, he doesn’t have the power to do so. For when Jesus died upon the Cross, He took from our adversary the keys of death, Hell and the grave! He has no power over you, for you are a child of the Living God! And He is watching out for you. To know and understand that nothing can happen to me as a Believer, but that the Lord either causes or allows such, means that He is watching over me very minutely, and this should be a great comfort to know.

 

The Lord had allowed Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, “in whom there was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge” (Dan. 1:4), to be taken captive by the Babylonian army, where they would serve in the king’s court, and would receive training in all things Chaldean.

 

 

This means that the Children of Israel were the smartest people in the world of that day. They were the only people on Earth who had true wisdom, in that they knew the Lord, and if Israel would have properly lived for the Lord, there would have been no nation on Earth that could defeat them. They were light-years ahead of any other nation in the world as it refers to intelligence, because their intelligence was not of man, but of the Lord. God had intended that they would be the most powerful nation and the nation that would lead the world to Christ. But, as mentioned before, because of sin, Israel rebelled against God and turned to idolatry.

 

 

Israel was the only nation in the world who had the Law of God. All other nations had laws devised by man, but Israel received their Law from God Himself. The Law of God addressed every area of life, man’s relationship toward God and man’s relationship toward his fellowman. It was the only true Law on the entirety of the Planet. But yet, because of sin, even God’s People could not keep the Law.

 

Although it was given by God, and was God’s Standard of Righteousness, God did not give man the power to keep the Law. And due to His perfect Righteousness, the Law had to be kept perfectly, which demanded total obedience, which man cannot do. The failure of keeping the Law always resulted in death (Rom. 6:23). But despite this fact, Israel tried to live up to God’s Standard of Righteousness, which none of them could do, and neither can we, at least within ourselves.

 

When we try to live up to God’s Standard of Righteousness, no matter how hard we might try, we find that we constantly keep coming up short. We find that we continue to fail, and we might little understand why. The problem is that if we could keep the Law, it would have the opposite effect on us. Instead of Righteousness and Holiness on our part, it would turn into pride and arrogance. Man’s problem has always been pride, and there is an inherent nature in man that always wants to better himself, but in the wrong way. What is the purpose of all self-help books written by Christian and non-Christian authors? The purpose is to better yourself by your own power. The theme of the modern church is that “You Can Improve Yourself.” The truth is, WE CANNOT IMPROVE OURSELVES! Only the Holy Spirit can improve us, and He does so by us ever looking to the Cross of Christ and our Faith in that Finished Work.  (To be continued)

 

                                    In Him,

 

 

 

                                    Pastor Gabe