Daily Discovery 30th April 2020 Devotional – Lifting The Veil
TODAY’S TOPIC: LIFTING THE VEIL
Opening Prayer: Thank You, my God, for giving us hope of Your coming eternity!
Read Daniel 2:24–49 – Daniel Interprets the Dream
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”
25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”
26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”
27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:
29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.
30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.
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Daily Discovery 30th April 2020 Devotional
31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.
32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.
41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.
42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.
43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.” Daily Discovery 30th April 2020 Devotional
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him.
47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.
49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
New International Version (NIV)
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Reflect – Daily Discovery 30th April 2020 Today
Have you ever felt like a bad situation was going to last forever?
In the Bible, “apocalyptic” passages “lift the veil” on normally hidden spiritual realities in order to reassure God’s people. Did you spot how many times in this passage Daniel uses “interpret/show/reveal” words? See God, he says, who is behind it all.
This gives Daniel a particular perspective—what is the first thing he says to Arioch (24)? Here he lives out the promise God made to Abram; his prayers and actions save the (mostly pagan) wise men of Babylon.
It also affects how Daniel sees Nebuchadnezzar—read verses 37 and 38 and remember how he has behaved so far (and it’s only going to get worse). How can God hand such power to a tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar? Do you know (or work with) anyone who tends towards abuse of power?
Apocalyptic writings work in two ways. First, they reassure us that God is not turning a blind eye to evil, even though it might feel like he is. Second, they promise that, no matter how strong evil seems, it is only temporary. Read verses 34 and 35 again. Could the final victory of God be expressed any more definitively than in the phrase “without leaving a trace”?
Apply: In Genesis 12:3 God promised Abram, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” How can you be a blessing to others today?
Closing prayer: Father, please help me to have confidence in Your final victory, that I might be a blessing to others.
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Daily Discovery 29th April 2020 Devotional
