Monday 28th September

Daniel 2 vs 28

“There is a God in heaven...who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come” 
 
The level of change which most of us have faced in the last eight months has been unprecedented. Our everyday language defines those changes: social distancing, face-covering, hand washing/ sanitising, ‘R’ number, furloughed, press un-mute, and much more.
 
For many this may seem to be like a bad dream...a nightmare...and they wonder when they will ever wake up. Recently a Christian counsellor of our acquaintance commented that so many of her clients at this time are terrified by the prospect of catching Covid-19 and are wilting under the weight of the ‘new normal.’ ‘Waking up’ does not appear to be on the agenda in the near future. So, how does a believer respond to all this?
 
Two and a half thousand years ago Nebuchadnezzar was king of the most powerful empire on earth, Babylon. He was a very religious man who believed that his gods spoke through dreams and his dreams were very disturbing. He was looking for answers.
 
In Daniel 2 we enter the king’s nightmare world. Were these visions a word from his god? Could it mean life or death? He took it very seriously. He was right but it wasn’t the Babylonian gods who were getting in touch with him...it was the God of the Hebrews and of Daniel. God wanted an audience with him and his empire, and He had chosen Daniel to deliver that word, a man with God-given wisdom (Dan.2:23).
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God has not changed in these days of Covid-19. God still wants an audience with the world. He has a word for the world and it is a matter of life and death for every human being. As He revealed Himself through a dream to Nebuchadnezzar and to Daniel, in these days He has revealed Himself to us as a person, Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul describes Jesus as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor.1:24). And what does the power and wisdom of God look like? Christ on the cross dying for the sins of the world.
 
God went to extreme lengths to make sure His word would get out into the world...He got in touch with a religious pagan king. God went to even greater extremes to save men and women from their sin. He did not socially distance Himself from the sin-virus, He came right into the middle of it, suffered and died under its infected followers...and rose from the grave, defeated its power and effectively became the only vaccine to cure us from it!
 
This pandemic is a nightmare. It is certainly a wake-up call to the world and it needs Daniels who can boldly state that God is speaking and that His wisdom is found in Jesus. We who believe in this Jesus are called to this ministry...a world in crisis needs to hear from us!