Greedy people strive to profit from conflicts and wars, doing everything they can to make them worse so that they can gain from others misfortune. However, those who trust God, and therefore follow His commands, will prosper in the long run.
Take your troubles to the Lord. Cry out to Him in prayer and He will answer you. Be honest even when those around you are deceitful and God will rescue you. Search for peace even when those among whom you live seek violence and war.
The writer wrote this letter to teach us how to not sin. However, he points out that if we do sin, we have an advocate who will plead our case before God. That advocate is Jesus Christ. It does us no good to have an advocate with God if we do not know God. The writer tells us that everyone who knows God will obey God’s commands (perhaps intermittently, but obey nonetheless). The key command is both new and old. This new and old command is that we love one another. The command to love one another is old because it goes back to Moses and before. On the other hand it is new because Jesus gave us an example of what it means to live following it.
The writer goes on to write that if we live in God’s light(returning to the theme he introduced in yesterday’s passage) we will not love this world or the things which it offers. The world offers only selfish pleasures, while God offers us the opportunity to help and serve others. Rather than seek after the pleasures of this world in an effort to please ourselves, let us do those things which please God.
In today’s passage, Daniel describes another vision. In this vision, he saw the fall of the Persian Empire to Alexander the Great and the divide of Alexander’s Empire into four pieces. It is explained to Daniel that a ruler will rise over one of those pieces who will dominate those around him and commit sacrilege against the Temple and God. That final ruler will be brought down by the power of God. While most of this vision is concerning the things which happened from the fall of the Persian Empire until the rise of the Roman Empire, there is a lesson here for us to note. Rulers will arise who believe they have the power to take on God and His people. They may have success for a short time, but God will always triumph.
Take your troubles to the Lord. When times are hard and troubles are all around, cry out to the Lord and He will answer your prayer. I can sympathize with the psalmist’s complaint about living among those who do not live peaceful and godly lives. His answer is the only one there is, call out to God for rescue. God will answer and give us peace.
The author tells us that he wrote this letter so that we will not sin. However, if we do sin, he tells us that we have an advocate before God. If we are truly remorseful for our failures and strive to not sin again, Jesus will plead our case before the Father and the Father will have mercy on us.
If we truly know God we will obey His commands. All of God’s commands are expansions on the command to love one another. If we are living in the light of God’s goodness it is not possible to hate another person. Therefore, if we hate another person we are in darkness. The writer goes beyond that, he tells us that if we are living in the light we will love our fellow believers. It is not enough not to hate anyone. We must also love our fellow believers.
The writer than seems to change focus by warning us against loving this world and the things of this world. This is not entirely a change of focus because it is love of this world and the things of this world that interferes with our love of one another. If we love this world we will be more concerned with obtaining physical pleasures, material goods, and our own success than in the well-being of the family of God (when we are called to care for the family of God, we are called to care for the individual members of the family of God).
Many people believe that the vision in today’s passage could only have been written by someone who actually lived in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes because it does such a good job of describing his rise to power. For me this is the least convincing of the arguments for the book of Daniel being written relatively late. I am unconvinced by such arguments because I believe that the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of giving someone a vision of what the future holds. There are other arguments for the book of Daniel being composed in 164 B.C. which carry more weight for me. The fact that the book is composed of portions written in Aramaic and portions written in Hebrew suggest that it is a compilation of stories which had been passed down for several generations.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Today’s passage clearly applies to the rise of Alexander the Great and the division of his empire into four kingdoms. It tells of the rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his fall. He gave himself the name Epiphanes, which means “God manifest”. Despite his successes in battle, he died of disease and with his death the Seleucid Empire entered into decline. This passage reminds us that no matter how powerful a human ruler may appear, God is in control of history and has determined the time of their power, from beginning to end.
John wrote in order that we might not sin, but he told us that if we do sin, we have one who will intercede on our behalf with God. Those who truly know God will obey His commandments. We can show our love for God by obeying His word and living as Jesus did. The message of Christ is not exactly a new one, yet it is new. We cannot live in the light (see yesterday’s blog for the importance of living in the light) if we hate any of our fellow believers. If we are truly living in the light we will love all of our fellow believers and not do anything that will cause them to stumble.
Just as important as loving our fellow believers is having God’s love within us. We cannot love this world and have God’s love within us. This world offers only physical pleasure and pride in our accomplishments. The things of this world will fade away and are fading away. Instead of loving this world let us love God and do what is pleasing to Him.
I will take my troubles to the Lord. He alone will answer my prayers. I will not rely on liars and deceitful people in order to find peace. I know that only God can be trusted, only those who rely fully on God truly desire peace. I will spend my time with those who love God because that is the path to knowing and following His will for me.
Ultimately the cause of all fighting is greed (James made the same point in his letter as well). The only path to true prosperity (which may have nothing to do with material wealth) is trusting in God. If we trust God and follow His will we will have riches beyond measure (most of which money cannot buy). It is foolish to trust solely our own understanding of a situation. If we wish to find the wise path, we will seek counsel from others.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Daniel describes yet another vision that he had. In this vision he saw a ram with two horns, one longer than the other. The ram butted everything out of its way in all directions. Then a goat with a single horn appeared in the west. The goat charged the ram and broke off both its horns then trampled it on the ground. The goat became very powerful, but at the height of its power its horn was broken off and four horns emerged to replace it. Each of the four horns pointed to a different compass point. At this point the metaphor of the vision becomes confused (as often happens in dreams). A small horn came out of one of the four horns and extended towards the land of Israel. The power of the small horn extended up to heaven where it challenged the authority of the Commander of heaven’s armies by cancelling the daily sacrifices and defiling the Temple.
In the dream someone who looked like a man approached Daniel and a voice called out that Gabriel should explain the vision to him. When Gabriel approached Daniel, Daniel was so frightened that he fainted. Gabriel roused Daniel with a touch and explained the vision to him. The ram represented the kingdom of the Medes and Persians (what we know today as the Persian Empire). The goat represented the kingdom of Greece. The single horn represented Alexander the Great (something we can tell looking back that is not explicitly stated in the explanation) who died at the height of his power. He was replaced by four generals who each took over part of his empire (one in each direction from the land of Israel). Shortly before the four Hellenistic kingdoms were conquered by Rome one of those kingdoms was ruled by a king (Antiochus Epiphanes) who attempted to put an end to traditional Jewish worship and who rededicated the Temple to the worship of Zeus. Daniel is told that this king will be brought down, but not by human power. Antiochus Epiphanes was successful in battle against the Parthian Empire (revitalized Persian Empire) who had invaded his territory. However, after his initial successes and before he could consolidate them he died suddenly of disease. There are many who see more to this vision than that obvious interpretation since at the end of the explanation Gabriel tells Daniel to keep the vision a secret. I am satisfied with the interpretation of this prophecy being about the fall of the Persian Empire to Alexander the Great and the eventual fall of the Seleucid (Antiochus Epiphanes was a member of the Seleucid dynasty) dynasty. I am willing to consider additional meanings for this prophecy considering that in the explanation Gabriel says that it refers to the very end of time.
John wrote this letter so that we might not sin, but he told us that even if we do sin we have an advocate who will plead our case before the Father. IF we know and love God we will follow His commands. Someone who does not follow God’s commands does not know or love God. If I wish to be viewed as living in God I must live as Jesus did.
John tells us that the command to love one another is not a new command. Yet it is new because Jesus showed us what it means to truly live this command. If I claims to be living in the light in fellowship with God, yet harbor animosity towards a fellow believer, I am in fact living in darkness and am not experiencing the light of God. If I love my fellow believers then I am living in the light and I will not cause anyone to stumble. John tells us not to love the things of this world. I strive to love serving God more than I crave physical pleasure, more than I take pride in my accomplishments or my possessions. All of those things will fade away and be of no real consequence. I know that only what I do that pleases God and serves His will has real meaning, but I still find myself chasing after those other things.
If we cry out to the Lord when we face trouble, He will hear our prayer and answer us. He will rescue us from among liars and deceitful people, but we must be careful not to be one of those. I will seek peace, even when I live among those who are seeking war and violence.
Greed is the source of conflict, we fight because we want what others have. Trusting in your own insight is a sure route to trouble. Ask others for their advice and you will soon learn wisdom.
