Sunday 27th April
Read Psalm 106
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
Like the previous Psalm this one is a recapitulation of the past, only this time it is not about the faithfulness of God through the years but the unfaithfulness of the people. The writer admits, “we have sinned, even as our ancestors did” (v6). Even acknowledging this he recounts how God has stuck with them through the years and kept his promises. The goodness of God to us is not because of our righteousness but because of his grace. When we sit down in Church we should think of Him and not ourselves as we prepare for worship.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday 1 Corinthians 16:10-24
Paul is going to send Timothy to the Church and he tells them to put Timothy at rest when he comes because, as his name suggests, he is rather timid and tending to fearfulness. Paul loves Timothy and treats him like a son although he does know that God has blessed him and given him gifts making him suitable as an apostolic representative (look at Paul’s letters to him in 1 & 2 Timothy). We should remember Paul’s care for someone like Timothy and have similar care for those we note as more self-conscious and timid.
He talks about Apollos the gifted teacher who Aquila and Priscilla straightened out about his theology when they first met him in Ephesus. He was an important teacher in the early Church and Paul wanted him to go to Corinth with the others in the group who were going but he declined though said he would go later. Sometimes the time is not right for someone to engage in something: we should always seek God’s leading in whatever we do. Paul tells the Church to be on guard and to stand firm in the faith.
Others he mentions are Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus who he says deserve recognition as faithful workers and he closes by sending greetings from himself as well as Aquila and Priscilla and all the Church that meets in their house in Ephesus. He closes by writing in his own hand the concluding greetings because he used an amanuensis to do the donkey work of writing his letters possibly doe to his poor eyesight. He says those who do not love the Lord ought to be devoted to God in the sense of being handed over to him for dealing with (this is the meaning of anathema) however he seeks the grace of God on them and expresses his love to all in Christ.
Back to the Old Testament.
During some of the past readings we have looked at some of the story of the people of Israel from the time in Genesis when Abraham heard great things about his future progeny. They would be special, God’s own people, and they would be given a land to live in. However we know that over the years the people rebelled against God and his judgement on them was to remove them from the promised land and exile them. We will look at one book which is written about that time and which comes under the name Daniel, a young, bright intellectual but more importantly a man of God.
Jehoiakim reigned from 609- 598 BC and was one of the family of latter Kings of Judah before the exile in 597. It is the time when the small Kingdom of Judah was in vassalage first to Egypt then Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken some of the treasures of Jerusalem away to Babylon and he also took captive some of the young nobles of the country among whom was Daniel.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were among some of the bright young men chosen to be trained up in the Babylonian literature and language with a view to entering the service of Babylon win the King’s palace. Like Jews down the centuries, they were spotted as clever and given a training schedule which included dietary plans. Daniel spoke up that they did not want to take the King’s food (which may have been offered to idols) and asked for vegetables to eat and water to drink. The guard who had charge over them was afraid that this might cause them to deteriorate and he would be punished however Daniel asked for 20 days under this regime to see if they were the worse for this and if not then to continue. Things turned out well and so this and to Daniel a certain was the plan.
The Book of Daniel highlights in a few places the distinction between God’s faithful people and all the rest and the distinction lies in the preparedness to act in ways that show who they belong to. Is there enough evidence to convict you of being a follower of Christ?? Worth considering.
Thes young men were not only bright in themselves, but God added to their knowledge and understanding and to Daniel was given a spiritual insight into visions and dreams, something that was going to come into his life in days to come.
After their preparation they were taken into the King’s service and in conversations with them he found them to far excel the regular advisors, the magicians and enchanters of the kingdom. After this they served during the duration of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and that of his sons until the time of Cyrus (539 BC).
It was in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar (around 603 BC) that Daniel’s help was asked for when the King was greatly disturbed by a dream which none of his wise men were able to help with. His request to his wise men was out of order in that he didn’t just want to know the interpretation of his dream but for them to tell him in the first place what the dream was. The fierceness of the King at their lack of giving him what he wanted was such that all the wise men were scared they were going to lose their lives. We note that Daniel approached the officer in charge with “wisdom and tact” (v14) to find out what was the matter. When men of bluster and anger need to be dealt with it is always advisable to handle with kid gloves and to do so carefully – an example of the wisdom Daniel had.
When Daniel found out what the King was demanding he went back home and summoning his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, he asked them all to pray. When the Church is faced with issues it has to deal with, no matter what they are, the first thing that needs to be done is to pray. All great movements in the Church started with prayer. When the mystery was revealed to Daniel during the night he praised God and the words of his praise are contained in verses 20-23.
Prayer and praise go together in the heart of the Church and these verses give us an example of what is at the heart of praise.
Friday Daniel 2:24-38
Daniel is now taken to the King who asks if he can tell what the dream was and interpret it to which Daniel replies that there is no-one on Earth can do that but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and Daniel begins to unfold what the King has been troubled about but couldn’t remember what.
He says that it is not because of any skill or wisdom that he has but that God has revealed the matter to him and begins by telling Nebuchadnezzar that his dream was about things to come.
The dream was about an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. He then tells of the different parts of the statue from the golden head down to the feet of iron and clay. During the dream a rock was cut out but not by human hands which struck the statue on its feet and smashed them. Broken in pieces they became like chaff on a threshing floor and were blown away in the wind leaving no trace. The rock became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.
That was the dream that the King had and Daniel is going to tell the King that all the parts of the statue represent kingdoms or empires of the earth of which Nebuchadnezzar was the golden head.
Saturday Daniel 2:39-49
He goes on to tell the King what will happen after him and the next part on the way down the Statue was silver, then after that, bronze, then iron, and finally the feet and toes of mixed iron and clay. The four kingdoms have been identified firstly as the Babylonian (Daniel had already said that Nebuchadnezzar was the golden kingdom) after this Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians, the Medo-Persian empire fell to the Greeks and the Iron empire is usually described as the Roman.
The final one is tricky. Many have looked at various European powers through the centuries, some have even pointed to the present era of the European Union united at the Treaty of Rome. But there are other ideas which have been flung into the pot not always figuring as nations or Empires but whatever is used we note that it is a mixed constituency and not stable. The rock is of course God’s Kingdom which will be set up in the same time as those Kingdoms, it will never be destroyed and will crush those kingdoms bringing them to an end. The vision and it’s interpretation has been the subject of much discussion over the centuries however Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed that e honoured Daniel with great power and oversight over his kingdom. This is very much an image of Joseph in the court of Pharoah at the very beginning of the people of Israel.
