Trusting God's Plan in the Fire: Lessons From the Book of DanielMuestra

Welcome to Jerusalem, nearly 600 years before Jesus was born! King Jehoiakim is reigning in Judah, but unfortunately, not for long. Our heroes Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are children of Israel living in and around Jerusalem, but before they are taken to Babylon as exiles, you must first know a little background info. For many years, the Jewish people had been drifting away from God and His commandments and laws. These laws weren’t created to hinder them, but actually created by their Heavenly Father to protect them. The Jewish people weren’t full-on rebels at first (who really is?), but they started making small concessions here and there until they worshipped idols of other nations, which was against God’s law. To put this into perspective today, think of a diet. Diets have guidelines and rules to follow in order to achieve optimal results. If you continue to follow the diet, you’ll start dropping pounds and feeling healthy. But when you begin making little cheats, just eating something off the list here and there, the pounds start creeping up over time. Before you know it, you’re hitting the fast food restaurants and disappointed those pants of yours are feeling tight again. By the way, no judgement here. We all do it, but the real point is showing how little, tiny decisions to disobey can lead to big problems later. Back to the children of Israel, please don’t think that God didn’t warn them about their disobedience either! He’s a loving Father who will discipline his children when needed. Over and over He used His prophets to tell them to stop worshipping idols and repent. But His children became more and more defiant and stubbornly refused to listen to Him. They wouldn’t turn from their sinful ways, so God allowed an enemy nation to take His children captive. “And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.” Daniel 1: 2 Tomorrow, we’ll actually get to meet our heroes and learn a little more about how they were chosen to serve under a foreign leader. Until then, think about the questions below. Questions: 1\. What little cheats here and there have you been doing, if any? 2\. Do you think it’s a big deal, why or why not? 3\. Why do you think God allowed his children to be captured?