{"id":23569,"date":"2022-10-11T22:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/daniel-1_1-21-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T15:22:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T22:22:28","slug":"daniel-2_1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/daniel-2_1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Give God a Chance to Show Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel 2:1-16 \u00a0 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Daniel 2:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Daniel 2:1-11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The astrologers answered the king, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 Upon hearing the king\u2019s request that they accurately tell him what his dream was in addition to interpreting it, the astrologers understandably exclaimed, \u201cNo one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.\u201d\u00a0 The astrologers got it half right.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that no one except the divine could know and reveal what the king had dreamt.\u00a0 But it is not true that the divine do not live among us: \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.\u201d (John 1:14)\u00a0 What is too difficult for people is not too difficult for God.\u00a0 God was about to use this situation to show Nebuchadnezzar, the astrologers and everyone in their circle that God is alive and actively at work among people.<\/p>\n

Nebuchadnezzar was looking for nothing less than the power of God to show up in this moment.\u00a0 And the power of God is what he would eventually find.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As unreasonable as Nebuchadnezzar’s demand was, there’s a lesson we can learn from it:\u00a0\u00a0When you earnestly seek God and give Him a chance to show Himself, He will.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel 2:12-16 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-16:\u00a0 I love Daniel\u2019s response.\u00a0 Upon hearing that the king had sentenced all the wise men, including Daniel and his friends, to death, Daniel did not give into fear or start playing the blame game.\u00a0 Instead, he spoke to the commander with wisdom and tact, he sought to understand the matter fully and then he boldly went to the king and asked for time, trusting that God was with him.<\/p>\n

It reminds me of Proverbs 16:14 where it says,<\/p>\n

Proverbs 16:14 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will appease it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Daniel stood in the gap between those who were sentenced to death and the king who gave the sentence.\u00a0 Similarly,\u00a0when God in His wrath had sentenced us to death (i.e. eternal separation from Him), Jesus stood in the gap.\u00a0 He would do so not only by praying to the Father and interceding for us.\u00a0 Even more, Jesus would give his life to appease God\u2019s wrath against us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank You Father that You do live among people and are at work to this day.\u00a0 Thank You that You are willing to show Yourself to anyone who earnestly seeks You.\u00a0 Thank You Jesus, for standing in the gap and paying the highest price to appease the wrath of God. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Daniel 2:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Daniel 2:1-11 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,
\n3\u00a0\u00a0he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”<\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 Upon hearing the king\u2019s request that they accurately tell him what his dream was in addition to interpreting it, the astrologers understandably exclaimed, \u201cNo one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.\u201d\u00a0 The astrologers got it half right.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that no one except the divine could know and reveal what the king had dreamt.\u00a0 But it is not true that the divine do not live among us: \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.\u201d (John 1:14)\u00a0 What is too difficult for people is not too difficult for God.\u00a0 God was about to use this situation to show Nebuchadnezzar, the astrologers and everyone in their circle that God is alive and actively at work among people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23572,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23569\/revisions\/23572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}