Malcolm X once said, “If you want to hide something from Black people, put it in a book“. I think this same sentence may apply to the Chrisstiandorm. As long as we keep the Holy Bible closed, we neglect and forsake so much information and knowledge that God wants to show us.
Daniel’s account in Daniel chapter 9 gives us insight into the things of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding we neglect every time we keep the bible closed. A quick look at Daniel’s history and story from Daniel Chapter 1, tells us how King Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem to beige them and take a lot of them captive. Sadly, Daniel was amongst the number that were taken captive in Babylon. Nonetheless, Daniel made up His mind to still live for the God of His fathers – Daniel 1:8. This lifestyle that Daniel chose entailed eating clean and staying away from the meat and wine of the king who besieged his city. This lifestyle entailed seeking God’s face continually, this entailed studying the books of the prophets (which we could call the Holy Bible if it were this time and age). Daniel loved the Lord and it was so evident in the way he did his things, the way interacted with people, and so on. I encourage you to take a look at the book of Daniel for yourself to see the exemplary lifestyle Daniel led. The Icing on the cake is the fact that he was a young boy when he was taken into captivity, this didn’t deter him from living for God. Therefore, my teenage friend to my young adult who feels too shy to live it all out for God – draw inspiration from Daniel’s story.
Now, for the sole purpose of this blog post; allow me to paint a picture for us. So you see all of the unpleasant things happening in the world, yeah? So many people have various reactions to these happenings. Some people would murmur, and grumble, some look for solutions to the problems, some have turned to gods, while others to the almighty God. God’s children were in a similar predicament, they found themselves taken as slaves to a city by a king they could have defeated hands down. But here they were clueless, drained, frustrated, scattered abroad with no clue of when this oppression will end. Their reactions? If we go back to the trends and patterns of God’s children, many of them were or are murmurers – so I imagine that many of them complained about their situation. Perhaps some of them prayed to God, asked Him questions, and so on.
However, in the midst of all of this chaos, we see a man of God who went about living his life for the one who gave him life. Nothing out of the ordinary for him: study God’s word, worship, and pray to the almighty. So I imagine that on one of those nights or perhaps morning or evenings as he studied God’s word – He came across gold. He tells us in his book that
in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet,
Daniel 9:2
We see that as he studied the chapters of prophet Jeremiah’s book, he gained access to prophecies that had gone forth years ago. He understood the reasons for the plight of His kindred. He knew how long they would be in that position and as soon as he gained understanding – he took action. He tells us how he spent time repenting of his sins, repenting of the sins of the people while he also begged God for mercy. By the time he was done, he had an encounter with an angel of the Lord.
The huge lesson for me from Daniel’s account is the fact that we forsake so much knowledge by keeping our Bibles closed. When the whole world is thrown into confusion and turmoil about situations around them, as Christians – we should look to God, look to His word. The more time we spend in God’s word, the more access we have to knowledge, revelational knowledge that could move our lives forward and answer our most throbbing questions. It is my prayer that we make up our minds from here to search the scriptures, to study God’s word. I pray that as we do, our eyes are opened to secret things that would help our lives, I pray that our eyes and understanding are opened, and may we have the grace to take action in Jesus’ name.
Happy studying 🙂