Perhaps, you remember Daniel the great prophet who served in two world empires, the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian. He authored the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. You might recall Daniel had visions and prophesied through visions and explaining dreams; “The Handwriting on the Wall” and “Daniel in The Lion’s Den.” In 538 B.C., he prays for His people. As he was studying the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, he saw there would be unfortunate occurrences for Jerusalem. His prayer is instructive on how to pray and when to pray. He wanted to know from the LORD God what would happen to his people. He prayed for understanding and acknowledged God by making confession, acknowledged God was awesome; that God is dependable and keeps His covenant and is merciful toward those who love Him. He confessed the nation’s sins by acknowledging they had been rebellious, not obeyed the prophets who spoke in God’s name. He admitted the Lord’s righteousness and they were ashamed at their disobedience and behavior of rejecting God’s covenant. He repeats how ashamed they are because of their transgressions of His law. He continues that the disasters have come upon them because disobedience. Daniel’s goal was to glorify God in His sovereignty and character, while confessing their dependency on the LORD God, who is righteous in all His judgments. We may ask ourselves the question, “why all this turbulence with the COVID-19. Why did God allow this to come upon us? To the best of my ability and briefly, let me say that behavior has consequences, as I spoke to you before starting from Adam and Eve. The seed that is planted is the seed that grows. What should we do? Let us pray to Almighty God in the name of Jesus Christ and start at home. Pray for ourselves. Pray for peace for the whole world. Daniel’s prophecies reached into the Messianic age, Christ’s Second Advent and beyond. Looking into Daniel’s background over the period of 553 B.C. to 538 B.C., he witnessed miracles, his safety and protection and God’s faithfulness. His prayers were answered. He sought understanding and received it from God Almighty. Is it too much to ask that the world evaluate itself? Can it? Rejecting God, worshipping idols, attempting to kill His image through abortions, seeking war instead of peace, oppressing education, the poor, the weak. What should we say to the omniscient, omnipresent God? God looks through time and space to the end and sees everything, the end before the beginning. This turbulence we are experiencing through pestilences and many other things is just the beginning of other things to come. If we would just give up and confess we cannot be God, not can we beat him! Give in to Him. Obey Him. Trust Him. Why don’t we just take some accountability of everything around us, be kind to one another, abandon greed and hatred and learn to help each other more. “Can’t we all get along?” Rodney King said. There is a common enemy that pervades this world. But, we can overcome. We can do better. We can do more. We’re better than bad. We can be “gooder.” We can be best.
Thanks for reading!!!
Ask Dr. Jeanette Parkertm Ask Dr. Jeanettetm www.AskDrJeanetteParker.comtm; Articles copyright © “Inquiring Minds Want To Know” Jeanette Parker Founder-Superintendent:Today’s Fresh Start Charter School www.todaysfreshstart.org [email protected] Ref: Barnes Commentary.
