Mark Grace began the teaching from Daniel opening the book to us from chapter 1.
In 1995 Mark, soon after starting studying, was travelling north from Auckland. His girlfriend grabbed his arm and told him to pray! Immediately after praying a car smashed into the car – a drunk driver had lost what control he’d had of the car he was driving. This incident led to Mark beginning to understand the importance and the place of study.
In Daniel 1 we see Daniel and his friends swept up in the historical events surrounding the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar’s, destruction of Jerusalem and the theft of the best and the brightest of Judah. Religious and cultural reshaping takes place – even their names are changed. The stakes are hugely high – the king’s pleasure meant life or death.
Today’s student world is also shaped by external forces – economic and political pressures have influenced both the choice of place of study and the focus of study. There are high stakes involved today too – more graduates than graduate employment placements; more debt for less return.
God is sovereign – despite the external circumstances, in the face of our personal choices God still rules. God’s sovereignty does not remove difficulties or tensions in our lives. Daniel and his friends lived as little more than displaced hostages; ripped from their homes, homeland and families.
Will you study with the same convictions as Daniel and his friends? Will you live under God’s sovereignty regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in?
3 approaches:
Study and Faith – compartmentalised. The student does not think of their studies and their faith together at all. They are completely different and unrelated disciplines.
Study and Faith – conflict. The student believes that everything in the context of their study is alien to and hostile to their faith. They bunker down and starts fighting and retreating.
Study and Faith – integrated. The student believes that everything in their faith says that everything in their study has everything to do with God.
For Daniel and his friends they saw that their studies, even their diets, were subject to the sovereignty of God – even in a situation where God’s sovereignty might easily be questioned. They determine in their hearts NOT to be turned aside/defiled by their studies in as much where their studies impinge on their faith.
They are willing to take the consequences of their principled, faith filled, stance – though they are convinced that their convictions will not disadvantage them.
How does this work out today? It shows itself in courageous convictions and godly character, as well as conscientious study. Applying the mind that you have to the application of a Godly perspective on your area of study: not allowing faith to be an excuse for laziness and bad marks.
God gives Daniel and his friends the ability to do the work that he has set before them:
1:17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and wisdom; Daniel also had insight into all visions and dreams.
Too often today we separate what God gives between secular (knowledge, skills in literature, practical wisdom) and sacred (understanding in dreams and visions). YET this is NOT what we see in Daniel 1.17 – we see that God gives them all: they ALL belong to HIM!
The whole of your study (or area of work) – the WHOLE of it – belongs to God, it is for His glory. Jesus is the the one in whom and through whom it all hangs together. His Word is as relevant to quantum physics and town planning, to art and architecture, as it is to sexual ethics and evangelistic endeavours.
Daniel and his friends are empowered in study to become competent and credible in their sphere of influence.
Studying for the glory of God is seeing that God is sovereign: He has placed you were you are, gifted you as you are for the sake of His glory both now and into your future through your faith in the Lord Jesus.
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