Dan. 5-7
God blessed Nebuchadnezzar greatly and the king’s heart grew very proud. He was then brought low in a way that could not be attributed to anything but the hand of God. Restoration followed, and a humbled Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God for all that He is. I don’t know if his son, Belshazzar, came along before or after all of this happened, though it is clear that he knew about it. But for all that the experience did for his father, Belshazzar learned nothing from it. He was not only proud, he was in God’s face proud, using God’s holy vessels in his praise and celebration of false no-gods. He paid the price for his arrogance.
We now have both Nebuchadnezzar’s and Belshazzar’s experiences before us. We may not have been around when they happened, but we certainly know about them. So the big questions are: Do we believe that what we have read is true? If so, will we learn from the experience of others and live our lives in reverent humility before the one and only True God? Or will we, like Belshazzar, lift ourselves up against the Lord of heaven?
And let me add one comment regarding the story of Daniel and the lion’s den. The injunction that Daniel’s adversaries had put in place did not forbid Daniel to pray to God. It merely restricted him from doing so for a thirty day period. One month. That’s it. All Daniel had to do was pray privately, in his own head, for one month. But Daniel didn’t do that. Knowing the risk, Daniel did what he always did. He got on his knees facing Jerusalem in his own private chamber three times a day and prayed to God. It wasn’t about making a scene. It was about remaining faithful to the commitment he had made to the God who had been so faithful to him. That was worth more than his life. How many of us would have a problem with a thirty day injunction against prayer??
Titus 3
Once again Paul shows us a stark contrast between what we now are – or should be – in Christ and what we were before Him. These are the things that demonstrate our efforts to love God above all else and to love others as ourselves. Look back at Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. It’s easy to see how allowing such things to rule our lives will result in the actions and attitudes that Paul encourages here.
Unfortunately, we are not immune to the same things that plagued the Church in Paul’s time – foolish quarrels, controversies, and divisions over things that cannot save. In some respects, the points we quarrel over have changed. In some respects they have not. But as God’s children and Christ’s body, we should seek unity with one another, striving to serve one another in love so that we will be equipped to go out into a world that needs God and live His Truth among them.