Dan. 8-10
Can’t say that much of this stuff in Daniel makes any sense to me. But God opens our eyes and gives us understanding over time, so perhaps there is yet hope. I do marvel at Daniel’s prayer, though. He continues to display his humility by not considering himself any more righteous than the rest of the nation. That hits home with me because my nation, too, has defied God and rebelled against His ways. Like Daniel, many of us are crying out to God for redemption and restoration. But do we, like Daniel, truly consider ourselves part of the problem? We all fall short. So if our nation has turned so far from God, that shame is as much ours to bear as anyone else’s.
However, we, too, can and should turn to God in earnest prayer, confessing our sins and acknowledging His righteousness and mercy. We can do this with confidence because of who God is. “For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy.” (Dan 9:18b). God has done great things for His people because He has a plan. This includes all of us who believe on the name of His Son, Jesus. We will be His people and He will be our God. He has been steadfast in love and abundantly merciful in working out His plan, in spite of our stubbornness, selfishness, hardness of heart, and outright defiance. Time after time He lovingly humbles us, mercifully turning us back to Him because it is His good plan and because we, His people, are called by His great name.
Phil. 1
As I understand it, Onesimus was a bondservant who left his master, Philemon. He somehow ended up with Paul, who led him to Christ. This letter is Paul’s request for Philemon to receive Onesimus back with mercy and forgiveness. While I don’t understand all the cultural implications of this situation, I can see in Paul’s words that there has been a change in Onesimus that Paul believes will result in a significant and positive change in the relationship between bondservant and master, if Philemon accepts it.
Paul did everything he could in this letter to ensure a good reception for Onesimus. He appealed to Philemon’s good character, stated that he would love to keep Onesimus for himself, and even offered to pay any debts Onesimus might owe due to his evidently wrongful departure. Paul also used some clever wordplay by saying that Onesimus would finally live up to his name, which means “useful”. I hear Paul saying, “Receive him with open arms, Philemon, you won’t regret it! When you see what a changed man he is, you will realize that you have been given a great gift where you thought you had been wronged!”
There are a couple things I want to walk away from this story with this morning. One is to not hold anybody’s past against them when given evidence that they have changed. There are a lot of nuances to that statement. Through the lens of this story, though, it means that I never want to underestimate either the power of God to change someone or the power of forgiveness in a relationship. The other take away is to understand that often what looks like something bad in my life turns out to hold the biggest blessings. I want to trust that when I choose to lean on God and humbly accept whatever He throws my way, He will bless me in ways that I cannot even imagine.