These Dreams

I just finished reading the book of Daniel.  A recurring theme throughout the book is dreams, visions, and their interpretation.  My head is practically spinning from all the imagery, metaphor and symbolism.  Between all the kings and kingdoms represented by beasts, stars and horns and the visions of the short term mixed with visions of the end times, it's difficult to absorb it, let alone correctly interpret it.  Like most Biblical prophecy, I believe Daniel has multiple layers of meaning.  Some prophecies that were understood and recognized as being fulfilled by the contemporary readers may yet have meaning for readers of today.  When I read passages like this, I remember these words from Isaiah:

“Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.  Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Isaiah 6:9-10

This is what the Lord decreed for His faithless people when the vast majority of them had abandoned Him to pursue other deities.  The words of warning spoken by Isaiah were apparently intended for the few remaining faithful, who would become the stump of God's chosen people, but I'm confident that they have meaning still for us today.  Why?

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

Don't You (Forget About Me)

And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?
Luke 18:7

What is justice?  This parable does not go into detail regarding what receiving justice meant for the widow who was pestering the “Unjust Judge”, only that he would make certain that she received it.  To answer my previous question, to receive justice is to receive that which is rightfully yours.  Given this definition, as a child of God what is rightfully yours?  Do You have the right to ask God to act as a genie, ready to do your bidding?  Do you have the right to be delivered from the hands of your enemies?  Do you have the right to live a long and fulfilling life on this earth?  No, you don't have the right to any of these things.  You do however have a right to receive one thing, death.

Suddenly, this verse does not sound so great.  In fact, I would just as soon not avail myself of this right any time soon.  As I have alluded to before, God's justice is not one of His attributes that is pleasant to dwell on.  Incredibly, God gives us a choice.  We can choose to be judged on our own merits, taking the consequences of our actions on ourselves or, option 2, we can choose to be judged on the merits of Jesus Christ, God's own beloved son.  Even more difficult to believe is the fact that though He was innocent, Jesus has already borne the consequences of our sin and lawlessness by dying a cruel death.

Clearly, demanding and receiving “Justice” is not the central point of this verse.  The most important point seems to be the fact that we are “His chosen ones” and that we should be calling on God at all times.  Though it is not necessarily just from His point of view, God wants us to bring our requests to Him.  God wants to hear so much more than just requests though.  If we correctly recognize our relationship to God, we should bring to Him not just our requests, but also our praise, thanksgiving and worship.

I may be wrong, but I believe that many of those who call themselves Christians, like me, possess prayer lives that are heavily biased towards requests.  This is not an unexpected state of affairs, as our problems often seem immediate while we are tempted to think of God as something that is remote.  This could not be further from the truth; the moment you truly seek Him, God is there.  God promises us that we will find Him when we see Him with all our hearts.  I pray that everyone who reads these words, myself included will seek God in this way.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

This to me is one of the strangest stories in the Bible.  Jacob, the Israeli patriarch has a strange encounter with an Angel or perhaps God in the flesh.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Genesis 32:24-30

What is happening in this passage?  One thing is certainly not happening; Jacob does not actually overpower God.  If God chose to be physically detained while wrestling with Jacob, it was at God's design.  Perhaps God's purpose could have been to test Jacob's resolve.  In my last entry, I mentioned a passage from Luke 18, the parable of the Unjust Judge.  In that passage, we were advised to come to God repeatedly with our prayers.  How many Christians today can say that we have literally spent the entire night wrestling with God in prayer?  Perhaps this is why the modern church, particularly in America has become so ineffective.

If our prayer lives look more like "Now I lay me down to sleep..." and less like wrestling with God to the point that we are physically injured, we should not expect God to attend to our prayers.  There's a fine line to walk here.  On one hand, God is sovereign and we need to accept that He knows what is best for us.  But on the other hand, we are instructed to bring our prayers to the Lord again and again.  Even if our prayers are never answered in this life, we have the assurance of a better life to come.