It’s like reading someone else’s history. But what if I read this chapter and it was about my nation and my area and what was going to happen to me and those I care about? In one sense I think I would be trembling. But in another sense, I know something similar is soon to happen as the nations of the globe prepare for war, and yet it doesn’t seem real.
It didn’t seem real for Israel either. Partly because they just didn’t believe God would really ever do anything. Even though he warned them over and over, it just never seemed to happen. But also because I think, like me, they perhaps see it coming but it doesn’t seem real. What do you do about it?
For Israel, they had a way to change things. If they would repent en masse and turn back to the LORD, perhaps he would have mercy. But by this time their hearts were too hardened by sin. Too focused on self. Too deceived by their own delusions.
For us? As this is being written the world is preparing for war. The big Asian nation is preparing to take on its little island neighbor as well as they have started the initial steps of war to take on the U.S. in some fashion or another. Russia is already at war and who knows if they will finally just give up an in an effort to win, deploy some nasty missiles. The Western world has become decidedly weak with corruption and immorality, dividing nations. Food supplies have been targeted through farmers in Europe and factories in the US. And the world economic forum is declaring that by 2030 we will all “own nothing and be happy.”
And I think, if there was a mass revival of repentance, would all the chaos stop? Would God show his mercy upon the earth? Perhaps. But here’s the problem just like Israel…outside of a dramatic move of God do we truly people that there will be national, corporate repentance?
It’s hard to convince people that men can’t become women. Just watch the “logic” on this weeks Piers Morgan show with Zuby. It was unbelievable.
So we must pray that God would move. That he would pour out his Spirit in conviction of sin. That His name would get the glory.
For Israel the LORD had bad news.
“An enemy will overrun the land” (v. 11)
“As a shepherd saves from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved…” (v. 12)
Even the altars that were used in worship to God would be destroyed.
“On that day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground” (v. 14).
To say it was going to be a horror would be an understatement. There would be no escape.
So in this and in our situation, I think of Daniel. He was a righteous young man living in Israel in a very corrupt nation. Judgment was coming and he would not be spared. Instead he would be carried off to serve another nation and another people.
It’s very likely too that he was made a eunuch—one who was castrated to serve in the temple. This would also even make him incontinent and there were no Depends to help. It was not pleasant and at any moment he could lose his life. It was certainly threatened several times and only the intervention of the LORD saved him.
But Daniel resolved to remain faithful, even to death. He would not compromise. They would stand firm in the faith.
And I think that’s where we need to start positioning our hearts and minds. That whatever comes to our respective nations, because what I believe is coming will be be and entail great suffering, that we will remain faithful. We will not compromise the truth of God’s word. That we will serve others. That we will love without letting our hearts get hard. That we will trust God even when we don’t understand and even in our suffering.
