Our God Reigns

 October 16, 2024

I’m going to take a break from Philippians for awhile. There’s so much good stuff in Philippians that we could hang out there till Christmas, but I don’t think you’d want to do that. So I’m going to take you on a short, but deep dive into Daniel, and look at time.

Today, I’ll set the stage with the first two verses of the book of Daniel.

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.” —Daniel 1:1-2 

Notice two different perspectives in these verses. In verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar is the protagonist; he “came to Jerusalem and besieged it.” As far as he was concerned, he was in charge; he was the one who took Jerusalem. But notice the change in perspective in verse 2: “The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand…” This will be important in the story, and it’s important for us, too.

When you look around, you see powerful people seemingly running the show. Right now, two people are vying for power to be the president of the United States. They think they’re calling the shots, but if you look at it from God’s perspective, he hasn’t relinquished his authority or power. Neither of them can do anything apart from God’s permission. Neither can I. Neither can you. Our God still reigns! Hallelujah!