In these accounts (1 Kings 3 & 2 Chronicles 1), we see Solomon following the LORD and God coming to him in a dream to ask him whatever he wants.
In the start of his reign here, Solomon presents himself with humility before God in his answer.
1 Kings 3:7-9 says
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
He could have so easily asked for more, yet what he wanted was to be able to do the job that God had appointed to him well. I really appreciate this and want it to be an example to me to want to do my job(s) well. I am thankful that for the most part, I enjoy my job, which makes it easier to work hard at it. But I know that is not always the case. For those jobs that I am maybe not fully equipped for, or maybe especially in the ones I think I am, I want to be reminded to ask God for wisdom in how I work or lead so that I can do it well.
As we continue reading, we see the wisdom of Solomon here, and we see how he became a great king, but seeing this positive start here also saddens me when we read how he fell and how he turned away from the God who gave him this great wisdom, wealth, and honor. You’ll read about that later, but I just wanted to note that again (from earlier in the week), we can’t let pride get in the way – even those viewed as some of the “greats” have fallen when led astray.
~Stephanie Fletcher
Reflection Questions
How would you define wisdom?
What is one decision you have made that showed a lot of wisdom? What is one decision you have made that lacked wisdom?
In what jobs/roles/areas of your life should you pray for a more discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong?
I bet we all have experience with someone who is prideful. We’ve heard stories of wildly successful people, and in their triumph, they forget the people who helped them get there.
In 2 Samuel 8, we hear about some of David’s great victories in battle- he’s at the top of his game- a picture of power and achievement.
Then, in stark contrast, chapter 9 gives us a glimpse at a softer and more compassionate side of David where he actively looks for someone “from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” David remembers the promises that he made to Jonathan and, in his moment of power, chooses kindness over vengeance. David easily could’ve broken his promise and basked in his victories- instead, he extended grace to a man who could offer him nothing in return.
This act of unexpected mercy shines a light on David’s character, revealing a heart that prioritizes loyalty and compassion over pride and power.
-Hope Fletcher
Reflection Questions
When have you been tempted toward the power and pride side – or deep into its territory? Have you found a good way to resist pridefulness?
Who do you admire for their loyalty and compassion?
Whom can you (will you) seek out to show a bit of God’s kindness to?
Esther 6:6 – “When Haman entered, the king asked, ‘What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?’”
Today’s Old Testament reading includes some of the most dramatic events! In the end, the bad guy loses and the good guy wins. And through it all we see how humility comes before honor and pride comes before a fall.
At the end of Esther chapter four we see Esther demonstrating humility as she recognizes that the only hope she has to save the Jews from destruction is to fast and pray to God.
Esther is also humble as she risks her life to approach the king uninvited. She knows that the only hope that she has of saving her people is if she shows proper honor to the king.
Mordecai showed humility as he continued to show up to the king’s gate day after day. The king had failed to acknowledge Mordecai’s part in uncovering the conspiracy to kill him. But that didn’t stop Mordecai from doing what he was called to do. What I find especially intriguing is that even in the light of impending destruction of all the Jews, Mordecai remained faithful and humble; he resisted becoming bitter and resentful.
Have you ever been overlooked? Ignored or dismissed after putting forth effort on behalf of someone else or to complete a task. Have you ever taken initiative only to have someone else receive the credit?
If so, it can be disappointing, frustrating, and disheartening, which can then lead to apathy or even bitterness and resentment.
But as believers, we are called to a higher standard. We are instructed multiple times that we do not work for anyone other than God. It is Him who we aim to please. He sees us, He knows how hard we work, He is aware of the self-discipline that is required to practice excellence. And even if our efforts are never acknowledged by others around us, we can count on God being fair and just.
In due time, Mordecai was honored in the king’s court, Esther kept her status as queen, and the Jews were saved from destruction. And as for Haman, his pride led to his death.
God saw and made what was wrong, right. He will do the same for you as you live in humility and honor Him in all that you think, say, and do.
-Bethany Ligon
Reflection Questions
How is fasting (as seen at the end of chapter 4) an act of humility? What is your experience with fasting? How do you think God views fasting? Do you think there was benefit in the 3 day fast of Esther, her maids, Mordecai and the Jewish people?
Where would you rate yourself on the humility – pride scale? What do you tend towards?
What are the dangers that come with pride? When have you seen the pride fall?
Yesterday we saw that Paul is not interested in talking about love as an abstract concept. Abstract love is worthless. True love is only proven to be of value by concrete actions. In today’s reading, 1 Corinthians 13:4 Paul starts giving concrete examples.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
We could pick out any one of those examples and do a deep dive into what patience looks like versus impatience or what kindness looks like versus cruelty. But I think we could place them under one major subheading. If love is the main theme of this chapter, the subheading over these 6 things is humility. Humble people will tend to be more patient. Think about it. If I think I’m better or more important than the other person, I’m going to demand that my needs take priority and so I’m going to be impatient with the server in a restaurant, or the cashier at checkout, or the secretary at the doctor’s office. Impatient people tend to think that their time is more valuable than anyone else’s so their needs should be met now. And of course, if they are impatiently placing demands on other people they are not likely to be expressing them with kindness. Patience and kindness are concrete examples of love in the form of humility.
The other four examples Paul gives, envy, boasting, arrogance, and rudeness are all the antithesis of humility. They are all driven by pride. “Why should my coworker get the promotion, she doesn’t deserve it. I’m a far better employee than she is and I have several examples I’d like to give you about why I’m much better than she is.”
I read a story earlier this week about a famous basketball player. The NBA gives out individual accolades to players and they announced the top three finalists for defensive player of the year. The reporter asked this player how he felt about not being one of the finalists for that award. He proceeded to rant about how “The NBA just doesn’t like me. I deserve that award more than any of them, I’m the best defensive player in the league.” When I read his response I felt disgusted about his arrogance put on such vulgar display with his rude and demeaning words about literally everyone in the league. But this is how things are in the world. We’ve come to reward boastful, rude, and arrogant people.
Narcissism is no longer considered a character flaw but makes one a popular candidate seeking high political office. Have you seen how rude certain candidates are as they call others rude names like children on a playground? Humility is seen by many in the world’s eyes as weakness. But not in God’s eyes. James 4:6 says “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Jesus taught the importance of humility so clearly when he said “Blessed are the meek (humble) for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
He told a very vivid story comparing and contrasting a proud person and a humble person in Luke 18:9-14: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The world rewards the proud and arrogant boasters who brag about how great they are. True love is evidenced by the humble who don’t think too much of themselves but rather show patience and kindness to others. As the character Forrest Gump said: “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.”
Pastor Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Can you think of someone who you would describe as humble? What behaviors make you think of them as humble?
Why does our culture seem to reward arrogance in places like sports or politics?
CS Lewis said that “Humility is not thinking less of yourself but of thinking of yourself less.” How can thinking of yourself less help you to love others more?
There is no doubt that you have run across the word “pride” more times than usual these last couple of weeks. While we may not participate in the spirit of this month, it is hard to deny we love celebrating our identities and choices, because in essence, they become the composition of who we are, whether we like it or not. I am proud of the family I have made, the education I’ve earned, the garden I keep, and the poetry I write. Each of these things requires time, effort, energy, and dedication to make it beautiful. These are my efforts, my pride and joy. However, when I think of God, beginning with the incomparable way he makes the heavens and the earth, my feats are futile. We are lying to Heavenly Father and ourselves, if we come to any other emotion than humility.
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6
Yet too often we put our hope in the things that are fleeting or powers that are finite. When we depend on our power alone or put our faith in anything other than God, we will fall short. We have access to a God who stands outside of time and has infinite power, so why is it that we must be weaned off of seeking answers from a lesser source? It is pride. But aren’t we entitled to something for our efforts? The answer is yes – death! But by the grace of God, we do not receive it when we humble ourselves and ask for help from Jesus Christ, and then His Father takes over.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. – Psalm 131:2
Paul, a former Pharisee, clothes himself in humility. He realized that his accumulation of titles, his formal training, his status, and his education were a bogus bunch of accumulation; in fact, these things become his greatest humility when he states, “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me; to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:9) It is when Paul submits to Jesus that he knows the full reach of the Gospel message. Paul decreases, Jesus increases, and the Kingdom of God grows by leaps and bounds with Gentiles receiving the Good News.
Let the message of pride be our call to humility. When we are asked to define who we are, put aside the usual string of things that are our pride and joy. Let our first answer be we are humbled before God, and that He is the source of all we have and do.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20-21
-Aaron Winner
Reflection Questions
What does it mean to have “(insert your name here) decrease and Jesus increase”? (based on words of John the Baptist – John 3:30) What would it look like? What would it sound like? What would be different from last week?
What are the things that you COULD take pride in? When is it good to remember God opposes the proud? How can you work at canning the pride and showing more humility?
Look at the prayers of Paul in Ephesians 3. Does this look like your current prayer list? What might you add to your list? If you don’t currently have a written list, give it a try, write it out and revisit it.
In our lives we all have dreams. We have plans and wishes that we hope and pray will come to pass someday.
Joseph is born, the son of Jacob, favored by his father over his other siblings. Jacob was the golden child if you think about it. He was hardworking, honest and kind. That is why his brothers hated him so much. Joseph reported his brothers wrong doings to his father, which made his brothers see him as a snitch. But the fact that their father, Jacob, loved Joseph more made their hatred even worse. Joseph was a young man of integrity, blessed by God with dreams of leadership and prosperity. These dreams and hopes brought jealously from his brothers. Because of this, his brothers set out to get rid of Joseph by selling him as a slave, where Joseph went through many hardships. Regardless of how tough things got for Joseph, he kept his faith, and God’s plan was brought to the light.
Even though Joseph’s brothers were in the wrong for their actions, Joseph also acted in pride when he went and talked about his dreams. We all have our short comings, but what matters is that we learn from them and let God rule our lives.
Joseph was called by his brothers, “the dreamer”. But because of their cruelty, he became a slave. He went through challenges. But because of Joseph’s faith, his struggles turned into blessing.
We can often be slaves to our temptations and sins. We get sidetrack by the things in our lives. The thing is, that when we really look at it, we choose what we let rule our lives. We have the power to move mountains with God on our side. God is working in us, our lives, and our world. Even in the struggles, he is working.
God has a plan for every one of us. That doesn’t mean it is going to be easy and without hardship. It does mean however, that we are going to receive God’s promises through our struggle, and it is going to be better than anything we ever expected or imagined.
-Hannah Eldred
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
What in your life are you struggling through, or what temptation are you facing?
How can you use your situation to grow?
What is your dream for your life? How do you think God can use that?
Tomorrow we will read more of Joseph’s account in Genesis 45.
As a child, I was always told to be a leader, not a follower. The importance of leading with wisdom and godliness was engrained in my mind; it was repeatedly being taught by parents, teachers, mentors, and of course, leaders. I’m sure most of us grew up with similar advise. We all know the impact a good leader can have, as well as the impact a bad leader can have. That’s why if we know what it means to be a good leader, we must take it upon ourselves to be one.
The thing is, most of us do know what it means to be a good leader. We all have it within us to lead as God instructs us to lead, because He gave us this whole enormous book full of leaders to read about and learn from. Jesus Christ was obviously the top dog when it comes to leaders…and everything else, but there are so many others we can look at too, including the not so great leaders.
Throughout the Old Testament, the importance of a strong leader is stressed over and over again. We see these amazing, capable, resilient, faithful leaders bringing God’s people into the light, guiding them in the direction God laid out for them, like Jesus someday would. But we also see weak leaders, lacking in faith and abounding in pride. When leaders like that are in charge, they normally can be observed dragging their followers down with them. The readings of the past week have been absolutely full of leaders who could not leave behind the sins of their predecessors, which “made Israel to sin.” When you have been blessed with the knowledge of the truth, and you know the commands God has given us, it is your duty to be a leader. It is your duty to point others to God in everything you do, not to continually lead others in sin.
When Israel had weak kings who did evil in the eyes of the LORD, the whole nation was brought down as a result. On the other hand, when Israel had strong kings who did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, the entire nation would be lifted up. You can see when God favored Israel and its king, because He would lead them to victory in battle, and bless them with prosperity. When the king and Israel failed, however, they would often be delivered into the hands of their enemies.
It is clear how much of an impact a leader can have in the Bible, and that hasn’t changed at all today. We are so blessed to have the knowledge of the truth, and to know that we are loved by the Almighty. To have this knowledge, and to have a real relationship with God, we also have to accept our responsibility on this earth to be leaders. Not the kind that will lead others into sin, but the kind of leader God can count on to be a light, just as His son was. The kind of leader that has unwavering faith, because they know who holds the future. The kind of leader that obeys the words of the LORD in every circumstance. The kind of leader that shows the unconditional love of God to each and every one of His children, everyday.
Let it be our prayer that we become the leaders God made us to be, to be a bright light that guides others to Him even in this dark world.
-Isabella Osborn
Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – 2 Kings 15-16 and Proverbs 12
I am a fairly humble fellow. I do not stand out in a crowd. I do not try to draw attention to myself. In fact I don’t like attention. I don’t consider myself arrogant and I am very aware of my flaws. And yet, there are still times when I allow myself to feel superior to others. Maybe we all do that at times?
No matter how many flaws we have, all of us are better at something than someone else. And in those moments where we take notice of that, it is easy to allow our egos to puff up a bit, isn’t it? Maybe that is even especially true for those, like me, that are more keenly aware of our shortcomings than our triumphs.
Paul touches on humility several times in chapter 12, and typically when I read these passages, I instantly think about people that are very arrogant, and think, “this doesn’t really apply to me,” or “I’m doing fine in this area.” But then (sometimes) I think about the thoughts that I opened with.
Beginning in verse 3, Paul says, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”
There you have it. Each of us should NOT think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Well then how highly SHOULD we think of ourselves? Frankly, I would say pretty high, because we are each pretty incredible creations of God. And we have each been blessed with many abilities and talents. But as Paul points out, we have all been given DIFFERENT abilities. And it is key to remember that we have been given those abilities. We didn’t do anything ourselves to acquire natural abilities. Some people are born with great musical talent. Others with sharp intellect. Still others with amazing athletic skill. Paul here is speaking primarily of spiritual gifts, but all abilities and talents are indeed granted by our Creator. I really appreciate when I see gifted athletes giving credit to God for their abilities during post-game interviews. I am not always sure how sincere they are, but the message is true regardless.
In verse 10, Paul says to Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one other above yourselves. This is an outward extension of humility, and here, should be motivated by love. How often do you honor others above yourself?
Finally, Paul comes back to humility again in verse 16.
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
We should not just be showing humility to the people we are comfortable being with, or the people that are “our kind of crowd.” We should be showing humility to, and honoring above us those whom we would consider to be of low position.
Again, this is the example Jesus left for us, and it is a humility that is motivated by love, which Paul sums up perfectly in verses 9-21.
So, think of yourselves very highly, as an amazing creation, but do not think of yourself more highly than someone else. That is when you are thinking of yourself more highly than you ought. It’s about recognizing that God has given each of us different gifts, to be used to His glory.
-Greg Landry
Today’s Bible reading passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Romans 11-13.
Tomorrow we will finish the book of Romans (chapters 14-16).
We are going through our final chapters in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians! Thank you for sticking with me through this last week and listening to my ramblings
As Paul is finishing up his letters, he seems to talk a lot about boasting. Boasting can be defined as possessing something as a source of pride. Paul is possessing the knowledge of the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and what that means for his sinful life. He takes pride in the fact that he belongs to Christ, and he wants others to be proud of that too (10:2). He doesn’t want people to be proud of themselves or their own accomplishments, but only be proud of the Lord and being part of a group of believers (10:17).
In chapter 11 Paul talks about those who do boast about themselves and discusses how at the very most we should only be willing to boast about our weakness (11:30). In order to be in a position that you are not only willing to share a weakness but are seeking to openly and proudly share a weakness, you must be truly dedicated and excited to be part of that movement. Paul understood the impact that sharing his weakness, or his testimony, would have on believers because he got to experience first-hand the grace of God.
Paul didn’t always want to deal with the things that created his testimony, he calls them a thorn used to torment him (12:7). He asked for the things that were difficult for him to be taken away, and Jesus told him “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (12:9). Paul did not innately know that the things that were difficult, that were shaping his testimony, were going to be used for God’s glory. But when he learned that his weakness would only more greatly reflect grace, he did not shy away and try to hide or change his weaknesses to present himself as higher than he was to the church. All too often Christians can feel this pressure to hide the parts of their life that weren’t “pretty” in the eyes of other believers. But most times, what we have gone through and come out of because of the grace of God is one of the most powerful tools in bringing people to Christ and encouraging believers. We should be boasting in our weaknesses, in what God has brought us out of, with the purpose of growing and strengthening the Church.
Paul closes his letter by saying this: “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (13:11). Part of becoming mature can include developing and sharing your testimony. Being encouraged can happen when you share and hear about testimonies from other believers. We are all of the same mind when we focus on growing and strengthening the Church. And being at peace comes from knowing that each believer has that same focus. When we are able to do all of these things, God will be with us and give us His strength to complete tasks we never thought possible.
We make up the Church, and we are responsible for continuing to grow the Church and keep one another strong in the faith. Paul’s letters are a great place to start when looking for ways to be part of the Church, but there is absolutely a level of personal communication with God that is necessary to know where He wants you to be. I encourage you to take time today to reflect on your own testimony and to ask God who He wants you to share this testimony with. You may be surprised where He leads you!
Thank you all for joining me through the Corinthians! This week has been a great time for me to refocus on the mission, and I hope it was for you all as well. Until next time, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
-Sarah Blanchard Johnson
Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – 2 Corinthians 10-13
Tomorrow we begin a new week reading Acts 20:1-3 and Romans 1-3.
As the narrative in the book of Daniel has progressed, it seems like the focus has been stolen away from Daniel and put on Nebuchadnezzar. Could there really be redemption for the tyrant who besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and scattered the people of God into exile? The story up until now has given us the crazy idea that yes, redemption seems possible, although the pathway there for the king hasn’t been linear.
Nebuchadnezzar has now again been plagued by bad dreams, has again called his sages to interpret, and has again been disappointed by their inability to deliver. The man for the job is Daniel, clearly. So he tells Daniel of his dream of a big important tree that gets chopped down to the stump. Daniel helps us fill in some blanks. The tree is a representation of the highly powerful and influential king. But he is going to be driven away from society, go live with the animals, and be bathed by the dew until he learns a lesson. And when he learns that lesson, recognizing that God is sovereign, he can be re-established as king, extending again from the stump and roots that were left.
A year after having this dream, Nebuchadnezzar goes to his roof and delights in how powerful and great he is for creating such a beautiful Babylon. This is the perfect moment for God to come in and knock him off his high horse. If I may paraphrase God, he says, “I warned you this would happen.” And it seems like our creaturely ignorance requires him to say this a lot.
Just as he was warned, Nebuchadnezzar wanders off into the wilderness and lives like an animal, eating grass, getting all wet in the dew, growing his hair out scarily long and tangled, and letting his fingernails become like that of small velociraptor claws. But don’t worry, he is unable to open doors. I like to imagine that during this time, he also became the vocalist of a local metal band, but they had to let him go because of creative differences. It was like someone flipped his beast mode switch.
And then one day Nebuchadnezzar suddenly snaps out of this terrible phase, acknowledges the sovereignty of God, and has all his former glory restored to him. I love what he says to close out chapter four: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are truth, and his ways are justice; and he is able to bring low those who walk in pride.”
Amen to that. But the last part can sometimes be a hard reality to swallow. We’ve all heard that pride comes before the fall, and we’ve seen here one more example of how that pans out as a true proverb. Having healthy levels of self-esteem and confidence is a good thing. The kind of pride we saw in Nebuchadnezzar seems to be an amped-up and unbalanced version of this that made him believe he was all that. And when you prop up that delusion long enough, painful and humbling reality has to come out eventually.
So now we can add big bad Nebuchadnezzar to the long list of unlikely redemptions. I’m on the list, and so are you. Praise God that he seems to like orchestrating these all the time.
With Nebuchadnezzar ending his appearances on a high note, he has left a legacy in the air. He is an answer to the question of what can happen when God gets through to someone and they yield to him, however painfully. Enter Belshazzar. He is an answer to a contrasting question: What can painfully happen when you not only don’t yield, but also add a large amount of idolatry and blasphemy to the equation?
Belshazzar is in the middle of throwing a very well-attended and sexy drinkathon when he comes up with a great idea. He asks for the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar looted from the temple in Jerusalem, because he thinks it would be extra classy to drink wine from them. So that is what they do, along with worshiping gods of various metals and materials.
What happens next is what any reasonable person would expect. Of course, a disembodied hand writes on the wall. The terrified and probably self-wetted Belshazzar calls for his experts, but they are unable to figure out what the writing means. The queen knows just the man for the job.
Daniel agrees to help and even indicates he doesn’t want the rich rewards. But first he recounts the story of Nebuchadnezzar and how he humbled himself after his prideful fall. Belshazzar knows this story well, yet he has not followed his example and humbled himself before God. Daniel tells Belshazzar that “the God in whose power is your very breath, and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored.”
The writing is on the wall. That’s right, the phrase we utter in the face of impending doom comes from this very story. If you are like me, you have read Daniel’s interpretation of “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin” many times and not really understood how he got there. Somehow it means that the days of Belshazzar’s kingdom are numbered, that he’s been weighed and found wanting, and his kingdom is going to be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. At least the Medes and Persians part seems to groove with the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmare about the gold headed statue. But did Daniel skip a step on the board?
This is the kind of thing that would have been a little more obvious to the original audience, but gets totally lost in translation for us. To compound the confusion, Daniel maintains its reputation for being a weird book by being written partly in Aramaic (from the middle of 2:4 to the end of chapter 7). So you thought knowing Hebrew would get you out of this pickle? Think again. I know only English. This is where commentaries or the internet come in handy.
As it turns out, the words are all measures of weight: a mina (or 60 sheqels), a sheqel, and two half-minas. So the first layer of this is that you can take the succession of kings and plug them in according to their weight or legacy. Nebuchadnezzar, the king who humbled himself, is worth more, so he is the mina. Belshazzar is a joke, so he is like 1/60th of Nebuchadnezzar, or a sheqel. Then the two half-minas would be the decently presented Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. But in this schema, they are each only half the man Nebuchadnezzar was.
Okay, this will work, but it isn’t the angle Daniel is taking. There is wordplay that hopelessly eludes us. Mene is interpreted as a similar word mena, a verb that refers to something like counting or reckoning. Teqel is interpreted as a verb meaning “to be weighed” but also it is interpreted as tiqqal (to be light). Belshazzar? Nothing to him. Daniel is clever and says Peres, which is the singular of Parsin (half-minas). Peres gets us to more wordplay since peras means assessed or divided. But to top it off, paras means Persia. Like I said, this all hopelessly eludes us as English speakers separated from the writing by more than two thousand years. The Bible is full of wordplay and puns like that, but sadly, we miss most of them. My apologies go to anyone who is actually familiar with Aramaic, as I’m sure my Jedi-waving over the vocabulary probably wasn’t adequate.
Belshazzar richly rewards Daniel for the interpretation and makes him third in rank in the kingdom. That night, Belshazzar is killed, and his kingdom is handed off to Darius the Mede. After all, the writing was on the wall.
Darius retains a very high rank for Daniel, which makes the satraps extremely jealous. They are unable to find any dirt on Daniel, because he lives with integrity. But they know Daniel prays, so they come up with a conspiracy to make it illegal to pray to anyone except the king for thirty days. The penalty is being demoted to Temporary Cat Sustenance Technician. This is always a demotion.
Daniel knows this, yet continues to faithfully pray, neither concealing nor broadcasting what he is doing. According to the satraps’ scheme, he is caught, and the king has no choice but to follow through with the punishment, since he signed the law, although he does not want to harm Daniel.
Here is another friendly reminder that doing the right thing doesn’t guarantee you anything. Maybe you will reap benefits. Maybe you will be granted protection. Maybe you will upset people very close to you. Maybe you will be hated and persecuted. Maybe you will be physically injured or even killed. Especially when faced with extreme situations like Daniel’s, the idea of doing the right thing might sound like it is not an option. But there is an option. It could be that the only thing you are guaranteed by doing the right thing is never having to wish that you had done the right thing. And that’s the right place to be, wherever it takes you.
In this case, where it takes Daniel is a miraculous deliverance much like his friends had just a few chapters ago in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. They have almost identical stories of faithfulness to God, resulting in peaceful noncompliance with the authorities, and ending with the miraculous skirting of the death penalty. Most of the time, you can be faithful to God and honor the authority of your Babylon without a conflict (Matt. 22:21, Rom 13:1), and even when faced with a conflict, for most of us in this modern world, the consequence for being faithful to God instead of the state doesn’t result in death. But sadly, persecution, violence, and martyrdom are still the fate of many of our brothers and sisters.
This next part is probably not mentioned or illustrated in the toddler bedtime bible, although kudos go to anyone with the audacity. Darius doesn’t let the satraps get away with their act of deception, so he orders them, their children, and their wives to be thrown in the pit. The lions tear them all to pieces before they even hit the ground. Barbaric and chilling? Absolutely. This is one of many examples that would earn the Bible an R rating for its content, if not worse. Anyone who thinks of the Bible as just a bunch of nice bedtime stories hasn’t read it. If you run across these types, it is probably best not to correct them, because if they knew what was in there, they might be offended and launch a campaign to have it banned. I kid, but only halfway.
Overlooking his feeding of the lions with women and children, Darius seems to be a decent king and understands how it works, without the same kind of power struggle and roller coaster that Nebuchadnezzar had. He orders that all the people tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, “For he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth; for he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”
Darius gets it. Way to be, Darius.
-Jay Laurent
Today’s Bible passage can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Daniel 4-6
Tomorrow we will read Daniel 7-9 as we continue on our
Seek Grow Love 