SCRIPTURE: Daniel 11:36-45
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Once again we see the hand of God behind the events of the day. “For what has been determined must take place.” (v.36). This raises the difficult question of how God controls everything, yet we remain free agents. If God is sovereign in everything, can we be free? If God’s purpose always prevails, then are our decisions determined for us? This is a great mystery, but somehow it comes together in a tension between God’s sovereignty and human freedom. It is not easy to tell where one ends and another begins, but somehow it works out, beyond our ability to understand.
I think of this tension like the merging of a fresh water river into a salt water ocean. It is impossible to state clearly where the one ends and the other begins; they blend into each other.
PRAYER:
Lord, this is a mystery, yet one that leads us to worship You. Help me not to think that I know better than You, that my mind can understand the mystery that You are. Help me rather to worship You in fear and wonder and love. Amen.
As the king goes, so go the people. Not only did the king go his own way, but the people also did. Every one did what was right in his/her own eyes. Everyone was a law unto themselves. Alliances were made so that the king would get his own way. Any man all wrapped up in himself makes a very small package. In the end, no one will come to his aid.
My Aid, my Helper is the Lord my God. I am His and He is mine. Lead me in the Way everlasting. Help me Lord to always place my hand in Yours in my living for Jesus.
He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep,
His banner over me is love.
He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep,
His banner over me is love.
He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep,
His banner over me is love.
His banner over me is love!