Week of January 23rd
This week’s sermon focuses on Daniel 2 and how God works throughout creation, including individuals and entire kingdoms, for His purposes. How can we be used by God through the situations and relationships in which He has placed us? What steps must we take to be prepared?
Monday, January 23
This week’s account of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar’s dream echoes an earlier passage about Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dream in Egypt. Joseph’s encounter drastically altered not only his own situation, but also the course of two nations.
What is Joseph’s immediate response to Pharoah’s request?
How does Pharaoh react to Joseph’s revelation?
As we study Daniel 2, look for the recurring themes from Genesis 41. Consider what God is trying to reveal about His nature, both to the believing and to those who do not know Him.
Tuesday, January 24
King Nebuchadnezzar set a much higher bar than Pharoah: His advisors must first tell him his dream, and then provide the interpretation. The price for failure was execution. Likewise, Daniel demonstrates a higher degree of boldness. While Joseph was pressed into service to Pharoah from his prison cell, Daniel purposefully seeks out an audience with the king.
Why might Nebuchadnezzar have treated his advisors with such distrust?
Verse 14 says that Daniel spoke “with wisdom and tact”. How do you see these attributes in his approach?
When have you felt called to choose bold action?
Wednesday, January 25
We find in Daniel 2:17-19 that Daniel seeks the Lord’s intervention and help in knowing and interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Their lives, along with those of the other wise men, were on the line, so the risk was great! While beseeching the Lord during the night, the answer came, and Daniel and his friends rejoiced that God answered their prayers. These young men believed that God would hear them and answer them, and did not stop calling on God until he answered. Likewise, in James 1: 2-7, we are told to ask for what we need and we will receive it, but are also instructed to “believe and not doubt.” In Mark 9, we read the story of a father seeking help for his son, in spite of his doubt.
In James 1;6-7 of this passage, we are told, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt.” For whatever reason, doubt seems to be a part of our human make-up. Yet, could doubt be what keeps us from the answers we are seeking? Why is it sometimes so difficult to believe that God will perform the miracles we seek? Is overcoming doubt and fully trusting God part of the maturing process for Christians?
In Mark 9:23-24, the father confessed his unbelief, asked for help with it, and Jesus answered his request in spite of his unbelief. Is it possible that the confession of unbelief and the request for help overcoming it changes the way God answers our prayers?
Thursday, January 26
Living in a secular society makes it easy to get comfortable. Makes it seem easy to self-sustain. Makes it easy to enjoy the royal treatment; maybe even to expect it. Daniel came from nobility and was given a royal position in Babylon, but his focus was not on those perks. Other prophets were given difficult visions to convey God’s message throughout Biblical history.
Whether you are the messenger or the receiver, what can you do to be prepared for God’s revelations?
Did God’s message usually appeal to the audience who was receiving it? How have you responded to God’s revelation or message?
Friday, January 27
In Daniel chapter 2, when Daniel interprets king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he lets the king know that God provides the king the opportunity to be let in on what God is doing. Similarly, in Acts 10 Cornelius and Peter are given a vision where God lets them, and other Christ followers, in on the new things that God is doing. (If you have time, Acts 11 extends the reactions of others to this event.)
How do the people who are witness to God’s revelation respond to His message? Who would you most identify with in their response?
What similarities are there between what God revealed in Daniel and Acts?
Saturday, January 28
In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel calls on the Lord to help him interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king not only wants someone to interpret the dream, but to tell him what the dream was. Every other wise man could not do this, and so the king ordered all of the wise men to be put to death. Yet Daniel believed that God would reveal the dream to him, and he did. When Daniel shared the dream and its meaning with the king, he was rewarded, and was put in a position that would enable him to continue to show God’s might and power. Similarly, in 1 Samuel 3, we find the child Samuel being called on to share a prophecy with Eli, the high priest, whose sons had disobeyed the Lord and corrupted their priestly positions. Samuel obeyed God and told Eli all that God had said, God rewarded him, too, by using Samuel to relay his messages to Israel.
Obedience to God sometimes means putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Both Daniel and Samuel had to relay difficult messages to men in power, which probably made them somewhat, if not very, nervous and uncomfortable. Yet they did the hard things they were called to do. Have you ever been called to do something difficult, and doing so made you feel nervous or uncomfortable? How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
When we obey God, what are some of the “rewards” that come out of our obedience?