Friday, January 8, 2016
Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered
to execute the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to him, “Don’t kill the wise
men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.”
Daniel 2:24(NLT)
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are
wise. Make the
most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord
wants you to do. Don’t
be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your
hearts.
Ephesians 5:15-19 (NLT)
Babylonian
King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on earth, had a bad dream. He summoned all his magicians and soothsayers
to interpret the dream. But, to make
sure they weren’t faking an interpretation, he demanded they first tell him
what the dream was. Well, they couldn’t
do that, so the King was going to have them executed.
Enter
Daniel…Hebrew slave, born in captivity to the Babylonian empire. To make a longish story short, Daniel was
minding his own business, and the whole mess got dropped in his lap. He went to prayer and boldly followed God’s
leadership to disclose the king’s dream and what it meant. Daniel was rewarded with the king’s favor,
wealth and position in the kingdom’s hierarchy, along with Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego.
End of
story…we all lived happily ever after; right?
Not so…Daniel
and the three Hebrew boys didn’t have entirely smooth sailing. It was still an adventure living in Babylon,
avoiding the intrigue and sub-plots of palace life in a hostile land that was
not their own; especially that fiery furnace event!
In the
New Testament Paul understood that kind of messy, vague life, where you’ve got
a clear vision to serve God, but there are plenty of temptations and trials to
throw you off course. His advice to us
is to live, not as fools, but wisely, keeping sober and on our knees, so we
will know what God wants us to do, as the Holy Spirit fills our hearts and
lives with purpose, leading us to follow God’s will.
The key
to living wisely with boldness is never to do a bold thing without God’s
direction, and never hold back from boldness when God has said to do
something. When Jesus turned his
disciples loose to go minister he warned them:
Look,
I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.
So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16(NLT)
Daniel understood
that; he didn’t go to the king until he’d spent time on his knees before
God. You need that for developing both shrewdness
and harmlessness.
Before he
was renamed Paul, he was a persecutor named Saul – more of a zealot to eradicate
the church than anyone. Saul found out just
how painful it can be to go against God’s will.
So did
I. I once preached a very bold sermon to
a congregation; actually, I only thought it was bold – it was really
just a stupid reaction of anger that I hadn’t prayed over, and let God direct
me. I wound up alienating half the
church and confusing the rest.
And I
believe that is where the difference is to be located between living wisely and
boldly as opposed to living as a fool – anger and selfishness. If you have a passion to do something for
God, and locate any bit of anger or self-righteousness in your own heart over
what you’re contemplating – don’t do it…you’re not following God, you’re just being
foolish.
For You Today
When you find yourself tempted to do something foolish…take
time to pray, sing a song of praise; make some music in your heart to praise
the Lord. Then ask your closest friend,
God’s Holy Spirit, what it all means. He
just may give you the words your Nebuchadnezzar needs to
hear.
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