Do You Understand?

Daniel 12:8-13

And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

God's Words are meant to be understood by believers. These are the milk we needed as babes in Christ; the meat we needed to grow and be strong in the Word. 

There is wisdom in the Bible and more yet to be revealed as future events unfold. During the times of Daniel, certain truth was not revealed to him as the passage talks about the events of the future. We are blessed today to have other passages in the Bible to help us understand this passage. For Daniel he went by faith, knowing that God controls the entire future and all that was written will come to pass.

The key to understanding the wisdom in the Bible is through salvation. Without the belief, there is no understanding of the truth in the Bible. As a believer, the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom to interpret the Bible as we study the Word.  As we grow in the faith through the study of God's Words we grew also in the deeper understanding of the Word and it's an application to our lives. Our thinkings, feelings and actions will then be more aligned to the teachings of God. We will then go through the process of sanctification, and become more and more Christ-like. This is the path God wants us to take, to grow and gain more understanding of what God wants of us in our lives.

In this week's weekly newsletter, there is an article on the English Translation of the Bible. An article was written by TS Eliot in 1962 on the then-new translation of the New English Translation vs the established Authorised King James Version. In the article, there was a few interestingly funny translation of the passages in the Bible that showed the simplicity of man when they decided that the old translation was no longer relevant and must be discarded. Examples of such translation include: "Do not feed your pearls to pigs"; "Or how can you say to your brother, 'let me take a speck out of your eye' when all the time there is that plank in your own?"; and as for the house built upon sand, "down it fell with a great crash!". Any student of the Word knows that the wisdom of God is written in parables and never as literal meaning. When man uses his own understanding to interpret the Bible, it not only make a mess of it but also misled people down the wrong path. The scholars of old had God as their guide to provide the faithful translation in King James Version, we will do well by following that translate and pray for wisdom to understand God's Word as it is revealed in the Holy Bible.

Sunday Service Sermon - Standing Up for God

Daniel 1:1-21

Daniel walked right with God from very young until the end of his life. He was a man that exemplified how we should live by faith. Contrary to the saying the every man has a price, Daniel has none. He lived for God alone. Few faced such temptations and yet remained faithful, except Daniel. He is the rebuke for us all, those who are weak in the spirit and only go with the flow of the world.

Daniel faced adverse situation as a slave in Babylon. Chapter 1 showed the destruction of Jerusalem. See the event in the eyes of the sovereignty of God, for God gave Jehoakim to be defeated, and not the mightiness of man in Babylon's victory. We must view all our events in our lives through the spectacles of God's perspective, then could we see the true intent of our lives.

Daniel faced great temptations. Nebuchadnezzar made it easy for the young people of Israel to forgot God, although he did not outrightly forbade them to worship. So long as generations of people knew not God, there will not be traces of God left in the history and culture of the place. See modern day Turkey, UK or Europe. The timing of the temptation was also bad. Daniel just arrived after a long journey and he was physically weak. Surely it is right to obey the King since God allowed them to be given to his hands? The consequences of disobedient is severe. Daniel already purposed in his heart not to defile himself. He took it upon himself to speak to the guards privately and did not hide the true intention of the request. He did it with much wisdom given by God.

In the modern day we faced much temptation that is easy for us to succumb to its pleasures. But the bible tells us that such pleasure are but for a season and do not last. Stand up for God and sin not. If you live for God you will find that God will take care of you, just like he did for Daniel. He and his friends rose far higher than the rest of the captives in Babylon. The life of a compromised Christian is the worse life to live, and far worse to die in.