It's A Slow Fade | Devotional | Daniel 1:1-2

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. — Daniel 1:1-2 So I will come back to this verse tomorrow because it's going to take a little time to set up the book and the characters. But right here, in these first two verses, we are confronted with a monumental question. And the question we are all going to ask is this: Why did God give his land, people, and national leader over to be enslaved by an enemy superpower? Why the wording here, "And the Lord gave?" So when we ask a question like this, here is one thing to keep in mind and the two reasons why the Lord gave them over. So, the one thing we have to keep in mind is this. When we ask a big question of God, we might be asking from a myopic view of the given situation. Fellas, there is a lot of backstory that landed Israel in their predicament right here at the beginning of Daniel. With this, we need to remember that God sees a much bigger picture and has a longer view of life, history, and people than we do. We see only what we see and draw conclusions and assumptions only from that; therefore, we ask this big question about God. Second, there are two reasons that God hands them over. First, he hands them over because God is just, therefore, he must discipline his children. We don't like this about God, but he has to do this to be true to his character. Second, he did this because they were sinful, and he promised he would punish them for their disobedience. Listen to the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 39:6-7: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. So guys, sometimes in this life, we don't take God's teachings, directions, and warnings seriously enough. Thus we distance ourselves from him and his truth to do the things we want to do. As a result, we slowly look more and more like men of the world rather than men of God. And if we become men of the world, then God gives us over to the world to do what we want to do because he wants a different man for his kingdom. Paul said in Romans 1:28: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." So gentlemen, as we begin the book of Daniel, be prepared to listen to God to say some hard things to his nation and people. This means God might have some hard things to say to us and our nation in our time. And remember, he is just, so the time to respond to his discipline is now. ASK THIS: Are you giving yourself to things that are not of God? DO THIS: Come back to God today, before a time of strong discipline. PRAY THIS: God, I come back to you today. PLAY THIS: Slow Fade. Check out other all Vince Miller's videos and audios for small groups at: https://beresolute.org/ Get Vince's most widely read resources The Daily Devotional at: https://beresolute.org/mdd Check out more ALL IN products like the one Vince is wearing at: https://beresolute.org/product-category/all-in-hats/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Connect with Vince socially: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/millervince INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/vinceleemiller LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincemiller TWITTER: https://twitter.com/vinceleemiller