DanM2 — Transcript

Module two, I hope that we have done well during the first week of our classes.

And now I would like to introduce module two.

In this module, I have been pondering about one important question: We may not always hear much about Daniel's life before he went into exile to Babylon.

So the natural question would be, what was Daniel's childhood like, what was his early experience of faith with God?

And what was his youth like?

We do hear first time about him when he was a teenager.

And many things are left implied and maybe unsaid.

But what was Daniel's Bible like, have you ever thought along those lines, did he have meaningful experiences with God?

Some of these questions will be answered in the textbook, but I would like to tell you that the beginning of Daniel's life was tied to an exciting event in the history of the nation of Judah when the young King Josiah started a spiritual reform in the country during which a forgotten copy of the Bible was discovered.

In fact, we get an impression that that was the only copy of the Bible that could be found in the land, and that sparked an even greater reform under Josiah.

So those were good times to be born and to grow up. Unfortunately, good times in life do not last very long, as we all know it personally and professionally.

And tragedies came into Daniel's life, and the first such tragedy was the sudden, unexpected death of the young king, King Josiah, and nobody in the land could apparently explain why God would allow such a committed reformer and servant of God to die and to leave the whole nation in so much uncertainty.

So how did Daniel deal with such a tragedy? In fact, I believe that as he was trying to process that first tragedy, the second one hit, and that was when suddenly he found himself bound as a slave, led to a far away country.

How to make sense of life when events like this occur or like these occur in one's life, we might be wondering, and the question is, how did Daniel deal with them?

We can see that there are prophetic books that left an imprint on Daniel and the messages that are found in his book, and I'm thinking in particular one passage that is quoted in the textbook, and that would be the prophet Isaiah, which says something like, trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is rock eternal.

And that is most likely the reason why Daniel began his book by stating that the events which happened in the land of Judah were tragic, there is no doubt about it, and yet on the other hand, those same events did not go outside of God's control.

This was a very great statement of faith that Daniel placed right there in the beginning of his book, because Daniel was fully aware, we believe that he was inspired, but he was fully aware that almost all, maybe all of the future readers of his book would from time to time experience tragic events in their own lives and ask that question.

Where is God when I suffer, where is God to be found? And this reminds me now of a short story which tells of an idol worshiper who challenged the Jewish rabbi, the first question that he asked the rabbi was, Rabbi, where is your God?

And the rabbi's answer was, I do not know.

And then this idol worshiper asked another question, and that question was, can you see your God, to which the rabbi answered, no, I cannot see him.

At this, the idol worshiper was extremely happy, because the idols were in front of him, and he could see his idols, and he knew exactly where they were.

But it was the rabbi who concluded the conversation by saying the following, no, I cannot see my God, but my God can see me, and this is the feeling that was in Daniel, and he understood that God was still at work, moreover, the first chapter of Daniel tells a story of a defeat that God turned into a great victory, defeat filled with despair when the Babylonian army triumphed over the land of Judah, but through God's faithful remnant in Babylon, the remnant triumphed right there over the enemy forces.

And this victory of God through his remnant in Babylon foreshadowed the great victory of God and his people at the end of Earth's history.

So here we find that great reversal that is found right in the beginning of Daniel's book and gives us basically the message of the book of Daniel in a nutshell, and this message is very important for the believer to know how to deal with the challenges of personal life, and also to know how to deal with the challenges that we encounter in the history of our world.

That our God is capable of turning our defeats into great victories, but can God be trusted to be able to do that today?

That is a question worthy of study and discussion, and that's what makes the second module a great material to study and to apply to apply in our ministry, a number of you who are taking this class will be involved in ministering to others in a special way, especially those who have health challenges and maybe some serious health problems, life-threatening diseases.

I'm wondering if there is that that conviction that can come into our hearts that can stay there with us and give us enough credibility to look into people's eyes and share our experience of faith with others.

And like Daniel to say, I do serve a God who is capable of turning our defeats in this life that make us so disappointed to turn them into a victory, that that is the kind of God that is presented right here in the beginning of Daniel's book, so for this reason, I'm asking you to read the whole chapter, first chapter of Daniel in one sitting, and after that to go into the study of the textbook, and the pages are specified in the module, and they are also mentioned in the calendar.

Please remember to go to the question for discussion, and first of all, submit an original reaction or an original posting.

Read the postings by your friends and react to at least one of those postings with a shorter answer or a shorter posting of your own, and I'm asking you to prepare one page about 300 words and to answer those questions and tell me a little of the ways in which you would like to work on your passage and the sources that you would like to consult, everything is explained about this in the module and in short, you have in the calendar the instructions for this week.

So when tragedies strike is an important topic, and I hope that you will enjoy the study for this week.

And I wish you a lot of success, remember that I'm here as your teacher, and the program coordinator, Dr. Johnny Ramirez, and other tech support people, we are all here to help you succeed.

As the material starts piling up, and if sometimes you feel that you are late or discouraged, please don't give up.

Ask for help, move forward.

I'm sure that by God's grace we can make it in this class, so again, let me offer a word of prayer that will bring more encouragement and faith into our hearts.

To know that whatever we do in our lives, including this class, God is close by.

Father, it is so good to know that your presence never leaves us, and we are here to complete this class, and we know that we are not doing it alone.

Help us as we relate to one another, have a word of encouragement each time when we communicate with one another, but help us also realize that the greatest help comes from you, our creator and our redeemer, you, the God of Daniel.

You are still active in the midst of our lives that sometimes may be filled with tragedies, and yet out of such an experience there can come a victory that will help us minister to those who face challenges in their own lives, including health challenges, we pray for all of these blessings, Amen.