God is in the Details

A few nights ago Elizabeth was working on some history homework.  She is in 8th grade & studying ancient history.  She was working very hard on her project & wanted to show it to me.  Yes, wonderful, I love to see your homework and how excited your nerdy self gets.  (that is a compliment by the way, we love nerds in our house.)  As I looked over it & made her correct her spelling errors, I realized that God is in the details.

It was a really cool moment for me.  You know the ones where He kinda takes your breath away as He reveals Himself to you.  If you've never had a God moment like that, you need one.  Talk about awesomesauce, well that is it.

What God revealed was one particular time on her sheet...the fall of the Babylonian Empire to the Persians in 539 BC.  Yes, that is a pretty innocuous date to us, but do you remember who was living through it & what was going on?  I heard God whisper to me...Daniel.  O.M.G., Daniel!!!  I had more fun sharing God's word with Elizabeth & Henry about what was happening biblically and how it related to the date 539 BC.

Not one hair on their head was burned & their
clothing wasn't consumed by fire.  The only
things that burned where their chains of bondage.

Just a quick refresh on some big happenings: we've had Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (aka Rack, Shack & Benny for all you Veggie Tales lovers out there...I love the bunny.) in the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar grew prideful & became like a wild animal in the field for 7 years.  He ate grass even, lots of fiber.  After 7 years he acknowledged the Lord and became the ruler of Babylon again.  After Neb. dies several other rulers rule for a few years here & a few years there.  None of them were significant...until we get to Belshazzar.  Oh my, he was B.A.D.

So Belshazzar decides to throw a major partay, and while it's going on, he remembers all the gold taken from the temple in Jerusalem.  Yeah, it's Solomon's temple...lots of gold & silver.  So to make his party complete, he sends people to get said gold & silver.  Um yeah, we don't take what God has consecrated for His use & party with it & praise the gods of gold, sliver, bronze etc.

The handwriting on the wall.

All of a sudden, a hand appears & begins to write on the wall.  Talk about scary, a hand & nothing else.The Lord writes:  Mene Mene Tekel Parsin.  Now, Belshazzar had no idea what it meant.  He called for all of his different advisors to tell him, but the only one who could interpret it was...you guessed it...Daniel.  Mene means:  God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.  Tekel:  You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.  Parsin:  Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.  You know what happened?  That night, Darius the Mede, of the Medo-Persian empire, and his army invaded Babylon & killed Belshazzar.  

Daniel in the lion's den.

You remember another part of the book of Daniel.  It was Darius' satraps that had tricked the king to have Daniel thrown into the lion's den.  Turned out great for Daniel, not so good for the satraps and their families.  After Darius ruled, Cyrus the Persian ruled Babylon.  I mean is that cool or what?  History points us to God's Word.  We see the truths written when we uncover our eyes and ask God for His wisdom to see.  I think that is just too cool that God is in the details!



Celebrating Life!
~ashley