Title: How will you live in 2010?
Contents
Bible: Daniel 1:1~21
───────────────────
In the Bible, we can say that the New Testament is the book of Revelation, and the Old Testament is the book of Daniel. Therefore, the book of Daniel speaks of the world to come, the future to come. In order to think about how we will live in 2010 while looking at the book of Daniel, we chose the book of Daniel as today's text.
In today's Bible, there is an eunuch named Asbunas, the eunuch of Babylon's king Nebuchadnezzar. In today's terms, he's the equivalent of a chief of staff. To the chief secretary, "I hope you go to Jerusalem and take some of the smart children, nobles and elites, and bring them to Babylon, where they can be educated in Babylon and set up as servants in Babylon in the future." I give the command like this: So today, the eunuch named Asbunas in verse 3 took Daniel and some smart and capable young men to Babylon.
Since Babylon, Assyria, and Persia were empires with many minorities at that time, competent people were selected from various colonies to rule the country. So Daniel and his three friends are chosen and they go to Babylon to be educated. It is said that they were taken out, but in fact, it can be said that they were taken as prisoners of war. They are not treated as they please and have to study according to the Babylonian style, but they are treated as captives.
However, Daniel and his three friends from Israel were finally chosen, and Nebuchadnezzar became the people who moved Babylon with a different culture.
Living in a different culture is not easy. How will Daniel and his three friends leave their own culture and come to a completely different Babylonian culture and live as God's people? I was worried about Today, through the troubles of Daniel and his friends, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will realize the precious lesson of living rightly as God's people in 2010 through the Word.
The first thing Daniel and his three friends are forced to do is go to Babylon. It's a Changsi name change. It was changed from a name related to God to a name related to the gods of Babylon. Second, what these people did when they were taken to Babylon says that they learned the science and language of the Chaldeans. The word ‘Chaldean’ means astrology. So Daniel and his friends, who had only studied the Word of God, now became students of Babylonian astrology. The third change is that Daniel and his three friends were forced by the king of Babylon to eat his own food.
What we need to pay attention to is how we acted in a situation that changed from our life related to God to a life that had nothing to do with God. This is the part of whether you will become a Hellenist who lives in conformity with the changed culture, or whether you will become a Hasidim who overcomes that culture.
However, when they were taken captive to Babylon, they could easily think that he was an 'incompetent God'. But Daniel and his three friends did not think so.
First, we were brought into captivity in Babylon because we worshiped idols instead of God. Second, we were brought to Babylon because corruption in our Israeli society was rampant. Justice is gone. So it was judged by God. Daniel and his three friends were taken captive during the reign of King Jehovah Kim. King Jehovah Kim was absolutely dependent on Egypt. Daniel and his three friends thought that we were brought to Babylon after being invaded by Babylon without relying on God, but on the mighty country of Egypt. But other people thought that God was incompetent and that they were taken captive to Babylon.
Second, in Daniel 3, we are told to bow down in front of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. But Daniel and his three friends do not bow down. They are eventually thrown into the furnace. Then, “Even if they throw us into the fiery furnace, the Lord God will deliver us from there.” God did not become a captive with the Israelites as you think, but He is a God who lives and works even at this moment. This was the faith in God that Daniel and his three friends had. So Daniel and his three friends did not live a life of being swept away by the wave of Babylon.
Today we are living in the wave of capitalism. Clearly, there are some things we must keep in mind. That is Holy Week, meditating on the Word of God every morning, and being baptized as a child of God. That's what keeps us strong in the world.
We think that our students' lives are decided by one SAT test, but this is absolutely not the case. There is only one God who determines our lives.
I hope that in 2010, we will always receive the Word of God and live as God's people while overcoming the world as God's children during Holy Week. God will make us ten times smarter and wiser than the rest of the world.
2010-02-04 17:19:42