Posts Tagged With: Daniel

Egypt in the Bible

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Daniel 10:1-12:13

Last night I noticed a new app on my phone that I hadn’t put there myself – always interesting. But when you have two kids who play on your phone, it’s not unheard of. I tap on the icon and find out it’s a new social media app, fun! I’m a budding social media “expert” so let’s check this out. I start flipping through this new app, Flipboard, and it’s fun. The way you flick to get to the next story is gratifying. And it has news on there along with many many other features like a “trending” page. I noticed that #Egypt was going down in the trends and thought, “Egypt? What’s going on in Egypt?”

[photo courtesy of businessinsider.com]

(Give me a break, I don’t watch the news, like ever. I have my reasons.) So I click on the hash tag and find out about the coup going on over there.

[photo courtesy of www.cbc.ca]

The first thing I think about is the fact that it’s EGYPT. There are few places more Biblical than Egypt, except you know, like Jerusalem and Israel!

[photo courtesy of FoxNews]

[photo courtesy of MediaSalon]

Egypt was the original “bad guy” of the Bible. It was the place where the Hebrews were enslaved for 400 years before the mass exodus and is the symbolic “bad guy” throughout the rest of the Bible because of this very enslavement.

[Photo courtesy of TheBlaze]

So when I see news of this coup going on in Egypt my radar immediately is triggered, but not so much so that I couldn’t sleep last night. However, I am now wide awake at 5am on a Saturday morning. So I pull back the covers and grab my trusty Bible to go hang out with Jesus for a while before everyone else wakes up. As I’m perusing through my pages of Daniel searching for a Word for today I find it. But not the kind of Word I normally get, where it’s personal and sweet. No. This time God gave me a word that has thrown me knee deep into news feed and Google searches. (I’ll include some links at the end so that you can beef up more on what’s happening if you haven’t heard much yet.)

Honestly, what are the odds that I would read a news story about Egypt last night and then less than 5 hours later in my Bible!?! But not just any comment on Egypt, well, I’m going to let you read and make your own decisions. But I find this “God-incidence” veeeery interesting and I plan on keeping a closer eye on Egypt and Libya for a while.

(Daniel 11:40-12:13) 40 At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. 41 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. 44 But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. 45 And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.

The Time of the End

12 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 6 And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 8 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” 9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. 11 And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. 13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”

News links for stories on Egypt and Lybia:

Fear, panic grip Libyan capital as unknown fighters wage battle in Tripoli

By Jomana Karadsheh, CNN

updated 6:49 AM EDT, Thu June 27, 2013

With Egypt unrest growing, U.S. Marines placed on ready as precaution

By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent

updated 6:03 PM EDT, Fri June 28, 2013

Showdown? Egypt’s Morsy defies military ‘ultimatum’

From Hamdi Alkhshali. Reza Sayah and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN

updated 11:39 PM EDT, Tue July 2, 2013

26 dead, more than 850 wounded as post-coup violence hits Egypt

By Ben Wedeman. Reza Sayah and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN

updated 10:30 PM EDT, Fri July 5, 2013

Categories: 365 Life, Daniel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Resisting Compromise

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Daniel 2:1-4:18

“Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Daniel 3:15

Wow! Is anybody else noticing a pattern here? “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Now where have we heard that before? Hmmmm… Oh Yeah! Just two days ago from the mouth of the king of Assyria, Sennacherib! It’s almost as if it’s not the kings saying it, but perhaps someone behind them. Someone… sinister and evil, and hell-bent on driving God’s people to extinction… someone devilish like, oh I don’t know, Satan perhaps?

You see, Satan is doing his utmost best to destroy us. But what Satan intends for our destruction, God intends for our GOOD. In today’s reading we find the beloved story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Three men of God, friends of Daniel’s, who refused to bow to the pressure of the king.

Yesterday we talked about the pressure that Daniel had to withstand in order to “just say no” to the king’s food and now today we find his friends (who also resisted the king’s food) in an even bigger pickle than before. Before it was just the food that they were eating, that was a big test at the time. But this, this was WAAAAY bigger than food. This was bowing to an enormous idol. And not doing so would result in death by fire! I mean, what food to eat, that’s one thing. But worshiping another god, that’s just unthinkable!

Or is it?

We tend to do it every day without ever giving it another thought. In Who Do You Trust I talked about some of the idols that we worship (money, doctors, medicine a hospital); the things or people that we place our trust in to save us from our difficult situations.

Let’s take Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for instance. They could have bent under the peer pressure and done what EVERY OTHER Hebrew there was doing to save their own skin and they could have bowed and worshiped the golden idol. But they didn’t do that.

They were friends with Daniel, who at this point had risen pretty high in the ranks among the king’s officials. They could have played their friend card with Daniel and tried to use his influence to get out of this situation. But they didn’t do that either.

Under the greatest of pressure they didn’t cave and they didn’t compromise, they trusted in God. Period. They stood firm in their faith. Which was no easy task, I might add!

Categories: 365 Life, Daniel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Only God

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Mrs Knochel

2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23 & Daniel 1:1-21

OK, today I especially loved the “coincidence” that we went from reading about the exile from Jerusalem to Babylon and then followed Daniel into the Babylonian king’s court. How cool was that? That doesn’t happen often when we’re reading alphabetically. Anyway, I feel I need to pull more on Daniel’s story today than on Josiah and Jehoahaz.

Daniel had just been sitting around in Jerusalem, minding his own business, doing his own thing when out of the blue he finds himself exiled to Babylon. Once in Babylon he is told that he has been chosen to “stand in the king’s palace” where he will learn “the literature and language of the Chaldeans”. Intimidating, but exciting none the less. Hey, it’s not slave work right? But then there’s something else. Mealtime rolls around and Daniel sits down to the table, his stomach rumbling and his mouth is watering from the smells that are coming from the palace kitchen. He was probably thinking, “This hasn’t been nearly as bad of a day as I had expected.” I can only imagine how crestfallen he felt when they brought in the trays filled with food that he couldn’t eat. Like a sweet-toothed diabetic in a candy factory, he couldn’t eat a thing. Then he probably thought, “I’m going to starve. I’ll be the smartest dead guy around.” The pressure to eat that steaming food before him had to have been incredible. Yet he stood firm in his faith and refused to eat it.

Sometimes in life God plants us into situations where we are forced to make a choice, his ways or the world’s, God’s food or the Babylonian king’s. We’re placed at a fork in the road where whichever path we choose will change life dramatically and neither really looks to be that fun. But we can’t stand at the fork forever; we have to choose one or the other. The pressure to take the World’s way is incredible, yet the eternal resentment of not taking God’s way is equally unbearable. But there is hope. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 tells us,

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

Do you remember in yesterday’s reading when the king of Assyria (Sennacherib) had been attacking Judah and “sent his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem?'” (2 Chronicles 32:9-10) The Enemy of Judah was attacking the cities of Judah and putting intense pressure on the people. Yet they were enduring it and that infuriated Sennacherib causing him to turn his cause of frustration into a taunt. “On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege?” I talked about it yesterday and how there is always SOMETHING we are trusting in to save us, whether it’s money, medicine, doctors, or God. But of all these options, and the many more that I didn’t take the time to list, which of them is able to help you endure the siege? Which of them is able to help you withstand the pressure of the World to eat the king’s food? Which of them is able to help you locate the trap door hidden within every single temptation of life?

Only God.

Only God can be our source of salvation from the siege. Jesus is our shield and refuge, our shelter in times of trouble and in times of glee. Only the power of His Holy Spirit can hold us up in our human weakness.

Only God.

Hallelujah!

Categories: 2 Chronicles, 365 Life, Daniel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

EXHAUSTED!

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding. Daniel 8:21

Thank You Lord! Someone who understands!!! I too am EXHAUSTED. I have been quite successfully burning my life like a taper candle lit from both ends. I have been moving and working and living non-stop for as long as I can remember! As a mom there is no end in sight to the “To Do” list we keep in our heads, it just keeps growing and truly never ends! As mothers we give and give and give until there’s simply nothing left to give of ourselves and yet somehow we still find ways to keep giving. Lately we’ve been so busy I have had no time to cook, so we’ve been eating a lot of fast food lately. My husband has been commenting about how he’s missing homemade food. And I keep replying “Me too!” Too bad no one is willing to come to my house, cook a nice big dinner for us (so that it’s my house that smells yummy), will serve us at our table and clean everything up afterward! I don’t know that such angels exist, but LORD, if You’d like to send one my way about now I’d really appreciate it! And while You’re at it someone to clean my house from top to bottom and manage my family too… You know, Daniel took “several days” off from work because he was ill from the tremendous vision You had given him. Can I call in sick to life for a few days too?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my life. I love the ups and downs of the rollercoaster I live on. But as the ups are way up there, the downs are way down there too! And ever so close together. I realized a few days ago that I don’t have a Sabbath day. I don’t have an official day where I truly do nothing all day. I’ve been living under the very Christian (as opposed to legalistic Jewish) philosophy of a break here and a break there equal a Sabbath rest and that’s OK too. But I’m living the reality that this philosophy doesn’t work! Period! Because you know what happens? You start out fine and you take your “break” every day – however long it may be. But then life creeps in, something happens and one day your break gets preempted by an emergency of some kind, say the cat throws up on your favorite rug or your child is sick. So you skip your break that day. And then a few days later something else happens during your break time. And then before you know it a month has gone by since you even thought about taking a break let alone actually took one! And you think to yourself, “Hmmmmm….. maybe that’s why I’ve been so tired lately.”

Are you like me? Are you able to relate at all to what I’m saying? Honestly, part of me wants you to say “Yes” just so I can have some company in my misery and yet the other part of me wants you to say “No” so that I can ask you what you’ve done to make that answer even possible! Cause right now, in this moment of absolute exhaustion, I could really use some helpful everyday tips!

Siiiiiigh….. I digress, and distress… it looks like this may be just the reason that one of the Ten Commandments is “Remember the Sabbath DAY by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or your maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

God commands an entire day out of every week to be holy – or set aside – for REST. ZERO work allowed. PERIOD. In fact, I was just noticing that of all the Ten Commandments, keeping the Sabbath DAY holy uses more ink than any of the other nine commandments. The only commandment that even comes close is not making idols for yourselves. Which I find interesting because when you think about it, by expecting yourself to perform all seven days of the week instead of six, you’re expecting more from yourself than God even does! Even HE took an entire day off (Genesis 1:31-2:3), and it’s not like He actually needed it! HE’S GOD! So who do we think we are to not need that day of rest? God? HA! Yeah right! That, in a way, is declaring ourselves gods, which is idolatry! YIKES! Father, please forgive me! No wonder I’m exhausted! I’m trying to be God! Geez!

Ha, you know, in a really strange way, that takes a load off my shoulders to know that I’m not God. Huh! I had no idea that’s what I was doing! Sabbath day HERE I COME!!! Are you kidding me?!? Where have you been all my life? I’m jumpin’ into my jammies, throwing in a frozen pizza for dinner, serving it on paper plates, curling up on the couch with a good book and a blanket!!! I’ll see you tomorrow folks!

Categories: The Crazy Mom Blog | Tags: , , , ,

Flypaper Sins

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

our prayers are like flies and our sins are like flypaper keeping them from ever reaching God“Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2b)

Some of you may know this already, but I pray a LOT. While I’m folding the laundry, doing the dishes, washing my hands, making breakfast, lunch or dinner, vacuuming, are you noticing a trend here? Housework, busy work, if it doesn’t take a whole lot of brain power, I’m praying while I do it. J Well, I’m sure you can imagine that with all these prayers going up I wouldn’t want them to get stuck like flies on flypaper between me and God or the answer to my prayer getting stuck between Him and whomever I’m praying for. Well, I heard a sermon on prayer the other day where the pastor talked about one of Daniel’s prayers getting stuck for twenty-one days before it was delivered to him in person by the angel Gabriel! (Daniel 10) This got me really thinking, what hinders my prayers and answers from getting to where they’re supposed to go? I just had to dig deeper! I was so thrilled with what I found and the liberating qualities of it all that I just had to share it with you TODAY!

Have you ever felt like your prayers are simply just bouncing off the walls & ceiling and coming right back to you like a bounced email with the wrong address? Like God’s not listening or accepting your phone calls, no matter how desperate they are? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly been there before! So when I found Isaiah 59:1-3, I was so relieved. “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities (aka sins, disobedience to God’s laws) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.” Isaiah is explaining that although it may SEEM like God’s not listening or acting to answer our prayers, the reality is, it’s not God’s inactivity that’s causing the communication error, it’s ours! It is because we have unresolved sin lurking in our lives that God isn’t willing to act on our part. Why? Because, every sin that goes unresolved hangs like a strip of flypaper above our heads where we pray, preventing our prayers from flying with wings like eagles up to the LORD above. With our own hands and fingers we have done things we really shouldn’t have, our lips have spoken untruths or half-truths, deceptions, hurtful things and words not fit for the Holy Spirit to hear. We’ve had eyes that have lingered just a liiiiitle too long on things they shouldn’t have, thoughts that should have been cast immediately out of our minds instead of being dwelt upon… and yet they were. All of these things build up, and block the LORD’s precious face from our view; and our prayers from being effectively answered in a timely manner. What sins are we committing to cause Him to turn away from us?

While the list of our flypaper sins may be a mile long, God is loving and abounding in grace and mercy. And in Leviticus 26:40-42 He tells us: “But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers – their treachery against Me and their hostility toward Me, which made Me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies – then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.” This scripture is loaded with details on how to get God to remove all the flypaper sins that hinder our prayers from reaching Him so let’s dig in! He starts with the word “But”. As a disciple of Christ, the word “but” is one of my favorites, because it usually follows a long list of things that we’ve done wrong or against God; which is the case here. From verse 14 to verse 39 is a laundry list of all the punishments for disobedience… and then He follows it all with a BUT! Praise God! There is hope for us yet. He follows that but with an “if”. “IF we will confess our sins and the sins of our fathers”, IF, isn’t it so great? God is gracious enough to give us yet another “second” chance. IF we confess our treachery and hostility that we committed toward Him. This scripture tells us that our sins make God “hostile toward us”. I was curious about the Hebrew definition of the word translated hostile so I looked it up and it means “opposition, hostile, or contrariness”. Our sins put us in opposition with God; they put us on the OTHER side of the battle lines that have been drawn. Now I don’t know about you, but when I’m fighting the war of life, I want to be on the SAME side that God’s on! This phrase also explains why our prayers aren’t being answered in the order in which they were received; we’re in opposition to God! First John 5:14-15 tells us “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” So if we’re in opposition to God, then we can’t be according to His will… even if our prayers are! Woo, that is a scary thought! BUT, again, God is gracious, and He remembers! He remembers those prayers, He saves them for later! So that when we have confessed our sins and the sins of our fathers, when our hearts have been humbled and when we’ve paid for our sins (Hallelujah, Jesus did this part for us, otherwise there would be no hope for us) God can pull those prayers back out of the bowl and send the answers down to us as quickly as supernaturally possible! How awesome is our God!?! Oh, but wait, He gets better! Not only does He remember our prayers, He remembers His covenants too! He remembers those promises that He gave to us generations ago, He doesn’t forget them either. God is so good!

Categories: The Crazy Mom Blog | Tags: , ,

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