DanM3 — Transcript

Here we are, believe it or not, in our third module.

And we come now to an important chapter in the Bible.

And I hope that you will not mind if right in the beginning of my short introduction to this module, I offer a word of prayer to the Lord.

Father in heaven, we are here for a purpose.

And that's one of the lessons that we learned from the book of Daniel, and may that awareness be strengthened in us as we approach the material in this module. In the name of Christ we pray, Amen.

So I have entitled this module, The Lord of History, because the second chapter of the book of Daniel is somewhat unique.

I cannot think of another chapter in Daniel that combines two important or common literary forms. The first one is a story, it is a faith-building story on how God used his servant Daniel to help the king Nebuchadnezzar and in some ways to restore the order in the city of Babylon when it was a commotion because of King's great fear due to a dream which he had.

So the chapter two of Daniel, chapter two of Daniel contains that exciting story about the dream which the king had and Daniel's ability to tell the king his dream and also the interpretation of that dream.

And yet that same chapter is well known to the students of the Bible because of the prophetic revelation which it contains.

Along my my ministry, I have very often met people who liked to say that they came to the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ through the study of this chapter or they attended a public presentation where this chapter was studied.

The story of Daniel 2 is built on another reversal.

We find a change from the king's fear to his praise to the eternal God, the God who knows the future, as we like to say, who reveals that future to his servants and who holds the future.

So there is definitely another reversal in this chapter that shows the power of God and his control over our lives.

What is striking in this chapter is Daniel's attitude throughout the story that is presented here.

Daniel, when facing even a threat to his life and the life of his friends, he acts calmly, he resorts to prayer, and we learn quite a bit on how to deal with crisis situations in learning from Daniel.

In fact, the text goes into detail showing what what kind of of respect and care Daniel addressed the people who were who were around him as he asked for different favors.

So the question from the prophetic point of view raises an interesting issue.

How is our God the Lord of history?

How can we affirm that?

How can we say that in the face of the tyrants of the past who were responsible for the exterminations of masses of people?

I must tell you that in dealing with that personally, I have come to the conclusion that when we say our God is Lord of history, that is a faith statement.

And by using the eyes of faith, by seeing the unseen hand of God at times, we affirm God's control over history.

Sometimes we come to that conclusion because of what we see around us and that is God's power at work.

At other times, we have to affirm it in spite of the appearances that are around us.

What is nice about Daniel chapter two is that it tells us that our God had a plan even for Babylon, which is which means the country of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire.

In fact, sometimes referring to the country of Babylon, I like to use the term Babylonia.

So not even the city of Babylon, not even the kingdom of Babylon could escape God's control and God's purpose.

He did have a purpose for that country, he did have a purpose for that king to use all of that to his glory.

Chapter two was a very important source for our Lord Jesus Christ as he proclaimed the message of God's kingdom.

Remember that when Jesus began preaching, his message was condensed basically in two statements: repent because God's kingdom is at work.

And the idea of God's kingdom as as presented in the gospels, in the preaching of Jesus, comes clearly from chapter two of the book of Daniel, and that is that exciting chapter we are studying this week.

So I invite you, as usual, to turn to that chapter.

This time it's Daniel 2, and to read it in one sitting.

I also would like to invite you to study the the assigned pages from the textbook in order to gain some deeper insights into the text.

Uh please remember to refer to the discussion forum, find the questions there and write both an original posting and a threaded posting, and please do that during the time that is assigned.

Then prepare for the test, the form of the test will be just like what he had what we had last week.

And finally, uh this week I would like to remind you that you will uh answer the questions on the quiz that I have sent you and submit uh one-page proposal uh toward your uh paper.

And I would like to tell you that there is a good news in this because much of what you uh have in your proposal, you will be able to integrate into the introduction to the paper.

So, I wish you uh God's blessings.

We prayed in the beginning of this module, and I am praying that those blessings will stay uh with all of us as we face another week uh in this study, and I know that the study of Daniel chapter two is going to make a special impact on our lives and also the ministry that we perform. God bless you.