Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “From Battle to Victory”. Daniel 10 shows us a most wonderful truth. That all heaven is engaged in our struggles here on earth. Not just engaged, but solicitous. This truly amazing fact is often taken for granted. A matter of course. The predictability of the universe is a surety. Our own stable days, one after another, causes us no concern (until our own mortality is felt in the loss of loved ones and the loss of our own health). Yet even in this, the sun still rises, the moon still sails through the cosmos on its predictable monthly path. And so the involvement of our God is assumed, as if it has nothing to do with us at all. We just showed up on this planet by chance. A planet that is not unlike any others in the universe of God. A universe that He created and just moves on its own, once God started it. And our God can become an impersonal deity at best, an absentee landlord… or non-existent entity in our evolutionary theory at worst.
But all of the book of Daniel shows us a vastly different God. A God whose very existence is wrapped-up in the affairs of the people on this planet. Who has staked the eternal security of His entire universe on… you and me. Amazing! May we never minimize this or lose this in our God-sustained security. We can be like little infants who never question that Mom and Dad will always be there for us. Will always feed us, clothe us, provide shelter, will pick us up when we cry, and clean us when we soil ourselves. Yet our assumed assurance does not make the miracle of God’s care any less. As we are told, “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Science is very good about discovering and uncovering “facts”. Secrets and enigmas that have mystified man for eons. But science is not so good at interpreting those facts… because our secular scientists have relegated the God of the facts to mythology. And the fact of the constancy of our universe has been used to refute the intimate involvement of our God in the affairs of men. In this, our secular scientists are like the infants, referenced in the previous paragraph. And unfortunately, we who claim to know and love our Heavenly Father, can be subtly affected by this secular thinking. We, too, can take God for granted as if our lives are our own business. But Scripture gives us no such false ideas.
The fact of Jesus’ incarnation should dispel any of these ideas that this planet is left to itself. The fact of God’s intimate passionate care for each, that we have lived-with for so many years, should never cease to impress us, affect us, motivate us. “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalms 8:4), is the cry of the Psalmist. And needs to be our cry, too. Continually amazed, humbled. Continually adoring our Father-God who sets His heart on us, His rebellious children. “The things of heaven and earth are more closely connected and are more directly under the supervision of Christ than many realize” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 349). Our relationship is not a matter of indifference to our Heavenly Father. It is intimately connected with our innermost being and His innermost desires. He places mankind next to Him on His throne… the throne of God’s own heart. Daniel saw this reality, lived this reality. May we so place God on the throne of our heart is my prayer for us all.
With brotherly love,
Jim