Week 12: Day 1
It's a new week of Orbit! Today, Christie introduces us to King Belshazzar.
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Daniel said: ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea.
Intro: Hello and welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Christie Gilfeather. Each weekday we share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.
Bible: In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Daniel said: ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea.
Thoughts: Often when we’re reading the Old Testament, we hear stories of strange figures who lived long ago. Stories begin with the reign of this or that king, who has been on the throne for some amount of years, or we read about great kingdoms that once existed… often we read straight past these details because they don’t mean much to us or we don’t think they’re very important. But, what might we discover if we paid more attention to these kinds of details in scripture?
This passage from Daniel begins in with the words ‘in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon…’ It is the mention of Babylon that really helps us out here. If we re-wind the book of Daniel right to the beginning, we hear in the first three verses of chapter 1 that ‘King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it’ and took the people away to Babylon in exile. This is really important for understanding the book. Daniel finds himself living in Persia and involved with the happenings in the court of the king because his people were captured by the Babylonians and taken away. This event which happened in 586BC is referred to as the exile and lots of the books of the Bible reflect on this incident. During the exile, the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles tells us that the temple was destroyed. This was a cause of great pain for the people who were confused about why God would let such a troubling thing happen. The exile lasted for 70 years, and in that time the people of God had to learn to worship in a foreign land, away from the promised land that God gave them. How do you think this would have felt for the people? Have you ever found yourself in unfamiliar surroundings unsure of how to pray?
Silence: Lets pause here for a moment of silence to ask God what he might have to say to us through this passage
Prayer: Loving God, thank you that you never leave us. Through the most difficult of circumstances, you never leave your people – help us to worship you more deeply today in the face of whatever challenges come to us. Amen
Action: Every day on Orbit we give you a simple practical challenge to help you put this passage into action in your life. Here's today's: The next time you come across a strange place or name in the Bible which is unfamiliar to you, make some time to look it up. You might have access to a study Bible or be able to look something up online using a website like Bible Oddessy. Who is this person and and why do you think they are included in scripture? How does God use them in the story?
Outro: That's it for today's Orbit. Thanks so much for joining us - we'll be back with another reflection tomorrow.