Daniel study, Take 2

Last night I had the privilege of talking with one of my favorite people in the world until the wee hours of the morning. (And just for the record, it was totally worth it.) One of the things we talked about reminded me of a post I have been wanting to make on here, having to do with the subject of "image building," among other things.

I got a bit off track the last time I started to blog about the Bible study I’m participating in. I ended up telling the story of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its fulfillment. Which I totally love, by the way! But I really wanted to briefly overview some of the points that Beth Moore has made so far in the study that have really spoken to me. Briefly. I’m totally serious. I have every intention of being brief. Wish me luck. (And keep in mind that these ideas are not mine - I'm just giving a recap of some really cool stuff I've learned from this study.)

-- Our western culture today is similar to the culture of the Babylonians, where Daniel was taken as a captive to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon’s mentality, demonstrated again and again in scripture is: "I am, and there is none besides me." (Isaiah 47:8,10 and others) (I can’t help but liken this to the "It’s All About Me" t-shirts and attitudes you see everywhere today! Believing that I, myself, am the most important thing in the universe is poisonous.)

-- As a parallel to the Babylonians who took captive the young, handsome, intelligent sons of Israelite nobility when they conquered Jerusalem, our culture is also extremely concerned with age/youth, physical appearance, intelligence, and status. We feel very "less-than" when we can’t or don’t meet our Babylon’s standards for "worthiness".

-- Many Hebrew youths were taken, including Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (who we know primarily by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). Babylon tried to indoctrinate them with intense study in magic/witchcraft, and excesses of every kind, but God Himself interpreted all they learned to their hearts - they were able to stand firm in their beliefs and priorities despite incredible pressures and temptations. Day after day. Year after year. There were many other young Israelite men taken with Daniel and his friends who were eventually absorbed into their new culture...they had so conformed that there was no mention of them in scripture after that point.

-- The statue in King Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream is fulfilled prophecy! (I made this point the last time, but that was about the only point made!)

-- When Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were delivered by the Lord from the fiery furnace, nothing on them was singed (hair, clothing, etc.) except the ropes that bound their hands! A difficult trial can sometimes free us from an area of bondage, too.

-- There was not even a smell of smoke about them! Full deliverance means no longer "smelling like fire." (Convicting. How often do we carry that smoky smell of bitterness or self-pity around with us long after being delivered from the fire? Can we cease dwelling on our past trials enough that someone who finds out about them after knowing us a little would be surprised that we had been through what we’ve been through - that we don’t even "smell like fire"?)

-- When we are faced with a seriously difficult trial, we can be delivered from the fire (immediate healing, etc.), through the fire (survive by the skin of our teeth, but live to tell about it), or by the fire (into the arms of our Lord in heaven). Either way, Jesus walks beside us with every step.

-- Pride comes in many forms, but usually falls into one of two categories: performance (what I do) or abstinence (what I don’t do). Satan is sneaky and cruel, and he will try to twist even areas of joy and victory into pride and bondage.

Okay, I need to stop for now. I’m copying these ideas from the front inside cover of my book, where I’ve been jotting down some of the points that really struck me. There are still a few more to go, but for brevity’s sake (hmmm...that goal is already quickly slipping away from me at this point!) I’ll stop for now.

But here is the one in particular that I wanted to talk a little more about - image building. Here I quote Beth Moore: "The inspiration for building an image doesn’t come from the Spirit. ...for us, image building is any way we intentionally make ourselves seem different - and usually more - than we really are. Image building is the attempt to make impressions that are bigger than we are. Image building may begin with what is true but enhances that truth until it is a lie." This image building that she speaks of is bred of insecurity, and insecurity is magnified by living in our modern-day "Babylon."

I don’t know about you, but this is such a major, major struggle for me. I want to be the mom who has it all together, who is wise and kind and mature and loving, who relishes her job as a homemaker and excells in it, who doesn’t let her kids watch too much TV and always provides a healthy snack of carrot sticks and whole wheat bread to her kindergartner after school, who diligently prepares meals for her family every evening and never picks fights with her husband, who never wonders if she might be in over her head or questions whether her kids might be better off with someone else, who always has a clean house and reads her Bible every day, oh and while we’re at it, who loves to organize things and to exercise. Yeah, that’s what I want to be. But I’m not. I’m actually not any of those things. At least not all the time.

So last night, we were talking about this, and we wondered...what about those super-people who seem to have it all together? Between the two of us, we know quite a few of them. And some of them we know well enough to know that it’s real - at least some of it. (By real, I mean that their house IS actually really clean all the time, and not just when they know someone is coming to visit...they actually DO sit down as a family after supper and read long chapter books or Bible passages to their children who all listen quietly - even the 2-year-old.) But I think that everyone has areas in their own life that they see as a glaring failure, or at least in need of a lot of improvement. Maybe they’re just not as obvious as mine. And maybe mine aren’t really as obvious to everyone else as I think they are. If that’s the case, which I suspect it is, then I am building a false image of myself, and I am in sin. So I continue to struggle in presenting the true me to the world, complete with plenty of flaws, and risk judgment and ridicule and those awkward silences where you know someone thinks you’re totally incompetent.

But who do we love more, the person we admire for all his/her success and perfection - or the person who is truthful enough (or who we’re close enough to) to show us his/her struggles and what they’re learning from them?

(If you’re still reading at this point, bless your dear soul! You possess much tenacity!)

I choose truth. But for me, it’s a constant struggle and a conscious choice that must be made every day. It is so easy to slip into image building...one exaggeration or omission at a time. To God be the glory when things go well, but His grace is sufficient when I’m not all that I dearly want to be.

Daniel study

It’s been awhile since my last post, and I have been feeling really busy! I wanted to share something meaningful today, and I have something I’ve been chewing on, but it hasn’t been coming together too clearly in my head! But I’ll do the best I can...

I’ve been participating in a ladies’ Bible study again this fall. This particular study is by Beth Moore, and it’s called Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy. It’s really an incredible study. (Just for the record, I don’t think I’ve done a Beth Moore study that wasn’t incredible!) (And also, just for the record, I think any study is probably a lot more incredible when you actually do your homework...which I've been doing faithfully this study for the first time in - ahem - a really long time.) Anyway, even before this study, I had really loved the book of Daniel, just because of the fulfilled prophecy aspect of it. But this study is bringing out a lot of totally new and amazing concepts for me.

For those who are not aware of what the book of Daniel is about, other than the lions’ den part (that was me about two years ago!), I want to explain something really interesting. Toward the beginning of the book of Daniel, there is a pagan king (Nebuchadnezzar) who has a dream about a statue made of different types of metal: head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. There is a rock "not cut by human hands" that crashes into the statue at its feet. The statue falls, smashes into little bitty pieces, and is blown away in the wind. Then the rock grows into a huge mountain that covers the whole earth. The king is sick with worry over his dream and wants an interpretation.

Long story short, God reveals the dream and its meaning to Daniel, and Daniel tells it to the king. The different types of metal are the different gentile (non-Jewish) kingdoms from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar until the end of history, and the rock/mountain is the eternal kingdom of God. (Daniel 2:44, "...the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people...it will itself endure forever.") Looking back, scholars agree that the first four metals, from the head down, represent kingdoms or empires that have already passed: gold is the Babylonian empire (this was Nebuchadnezzar’s domain), silver is the Medo-Persian empire (which took over the Babylonians in the book of Daniel - remember the story of the handwriting on the wall? That’s the very night the Babylonian empire ended), bronze is the Grecian empire (think Alexander the Great), and iron is the Roman empire. That the feet are of a mix of iron and clay represents strength mixed with weakness, and that the people are not united... and you also can’t help but notice that the iron seems to continue from the legs to the feet, although it’s diluted with clay in the feet. It appears that we are in the "empire of the feet" right now. The Roman empire has passed, although many remnants of it still remain around the world...many systems of government (including ours in the U.S.) have been greatly influenced by the Roman way of doing things.

There are two really cool things that I like about this, and I can’t decide which I like best. One is that four of the kingdoms have already come and gone - so we are looking at fulfilled prophecy! I love it that for centuries upon centuries, no one even knew if Daniel was right. For all the proof that existed, he could have been telling an elaborate, fictional tale - but now, several thousand years later, we can see clearly that he was right on! God holds history in his hand. History and time itself were created by the Lord, and he has absolute control. (I remind myself of that sometimes when things don’t seem to be falling into my little timetable the way that I want them to!)

And the second really cool thing is that four of the kingdoms have already come and gone - so it seems we are near the end of time as we know it - that is, time before the return of Christ! Woo-hoo! Can you imagine how exciting it would be if we were the generation who got to witness the return of Jesus in all his glory and meet Him in the air? Believers for almost two thousand years have waited. But again, God’s timing is perfection. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

So that’s what I love so much about Daniel...and I was totally going somewhere else with this post, but I like that part so much that I got stuck! I think this is long enough for today (especially with no pictures of my kids) or I will probably lose you forever - to other, more interesting and photo-laden blogs! (Just kidding...I hope.)

So, I will share some more about the "new" stuff I’ve been learning in this study in another post.

And I also promise to post pictures of the boys soon, too!