Salty Zebra

  Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”   Daniel 3:28  When I was a child, we sang a song in Sunday School about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. I looked it up and it was way more niche than I had imagined. Here’s a link if you’re curious. The thing is, those weren’t their real names. Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah were renamed upon their indoctrination into the Babylonian court. According to David Guzik’s commentary , their names were changed in this way: The name  Hannaniah  (meaning  Beloved by the LORD ) was changed to  Shadrach  (meaning  Illumined by Sun-god ). The name  Mishael  (meaning  Who is as God ) was changed to  Meshach  (which may mean  Who is like Sh...

  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel,   Daniel 1:8-9   Lest we be deceived into thinking that only these four (Daniel, Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah)  faced this fate, we must consider the account of this defeat in 2 Kings 24:14-16 . Here we learn that there were in fact 10,000 captives carried off to Babylon at this time, many of whom were taken to the King’s court ( Daniel 1:3-4 ). Of these, we only hear about Daniel and his three friends requesting to be excused from the provisions of the king’s table. I’d imagine that the others felt all sorts of excuse or validation for consuming it. Perhaps they felt as though God had abandoned them. Perhaps they thought that if God had brought them to this place, He was giving them permission to make exception to their dietary restrictions...

  This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement.  Jonah 4:1-2  There are so many lessons we can learn from the book of Jonah, but today I believe our study’s authors are pointing us to the heart of the matter, Jonah’s heart that is. You see, Jonah was a prophet, someone tasked with bringing the Word of the LORD to the people. He did it all the time. One day, though, he received a Word that he didn’t want to bring. It was a message of destruction he was instructed to bring to the enemies of his people. You’d think this would be right up his alley! Fire and brimstone! Curse the heathens! But no, Jonah knew God better than that. As it sa...

  After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’   Acts 13:22  “Let it be done according to God’s will.” We say it, but do we mean it? When it comes down to the wire, when things don’t look like they are going to turn out the way we hoped, does our tune change? Today we look at two different kings who had two different answers to this question.   Saul, Israel’s first king, had his share of idiosyncrasies. To start with, he was exactly what Israel wanted in a king. He was tall and handsome and strong. He was charismatic and drew people to himself. Shortly after being anointed king, Saul set out to defeat Israel’s enemies that had attacked and shamed his countrymen in Jabesh Gilead ( 1 Samuel 11 ). The country fell in behind him and they saw success because the Spirit of the LORD was upon him ( 1 Samuel 11:6 ). But it didn’t take long b...

  By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.   Hebrews 11:31  Who was Rahab? If you read the NIV version of the Bible, it says that she was a prostitute that ran an inn in Jericho that the spies stayed at. Many of the Jewish theologians argued that she was just an inn keeper and not a prostitute, but the term that was used by Joshua when writing it is used over and over throughout the Old Testament with illicit sexual connotations (Genesis 34:31, Exodus 34:15-16, Leviticus 19:29, etc.). I think that the Jewish scholars just didn’t want to have a prostitute in their genealogy.   Why does it matter? Because I think that Rahab represents so much for us in the Bible, and in order to appreciate that we have to see her for who she was. Rahab was a Canaanite living in Jericho. Her people followed false gods and pagan practices that had made them so abominable in God’s eyes that He was about to wipe them...

  Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.   Deuteronomy 11:18  I see more and more in society where people are seeking to have a long life, to lengthen their days and stay healthy and strong longer. While medical science has found ways to elongate our lives, those extra days and years are not always fruitful or enjoyable. So, how do we set about realistically to live a good, long, healthy, happy life? Thousands of years ago, God told us how in His Word! Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.   Deuteronomy 5:33   The world tells us that living by God’s commands is limiting, that it keeps us from fun or freedom or pleasure, but the truth is the exact opposite. In living God’s way, we can find true peace, enjoyable life, and complete freedom. In fact, it is only in Je...