It was Sunday morning,
I had just checked my iPhone for messages, made coffee, and sat down in front
of my laptop when my mind began thinking of all the changes (technological,
geopolitical, moral, and social) that have taken place in just the last few
years. As I was obsessed with that
thought I went to look at my laptop – I was greeted with a page wanting me to
share the fact that me and my wife have been “friends” on Facebook for six
years that day. The fact that our oldest
child is three times that old tells me that we’ve been “friends” for more than
six years and that this social media “friendship” thing is a fairly new advent.
At this point,
to show just how much the world has changed, it would seem useful to shamelessly
steal one of those comparisons lists graduation speakers use to illustrate
change in the life span of the graduating class. Through the power of the internet I’ve excerpted
a June 2015 Pennsylvania
high school commencement speech by Stephen Vehslage,
an Ivy League lawyer turned teacher who describes the changes since the
students started school:
“…how
your world has changed – since you were a toddler…. Back then the United
States was running a budget surplus; our presidents had all been white men and
gay marriage was barely even on the radar. People still went to video stores;
the twin towers were still gracing the New York skyline, no one had ever heard
of Facebook, and there were a billion fewer people on the planet... it took
twelve-and-a-half minutes to download a song on a 56k modem. Internet Explorer
had a 95 percent market share – it was a different world.”
Vehslage
continued by contrasting that to the present, “Now fast-forward 13 years, the number of global internet users has
mushroomed from under 600 million to almost three billion. Facebook alone has
1.4 billion users. The total number of websites jumped from less than four
million to over a billion, and a new website is created every second of every
day. The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and the word ‘app’ quickly became part
of the modern lexicon...”
The prophet Daniel foretold of a time coming that seems
to fit our present age. He was told to
seal up his writing until a time when it could be understood. The King James translation of Daniel’s
writing (which is nearly 400 years old
now) describes it this way, “ But
thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the
end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” The Living Bible (copyright 1971)
translates it this way, “But
Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal it up so that it will not be
understood until the end times, when travel and education shall be vastly
increased!”
So what could we gain by opening Daniel’s
book today?
The
first lesson might be the same one that has been imparted to millions of
children through the years. Put simply,
when forced with a choice of bowing down to Government or God – choose
God. After making that choice, expect to be
punished by that same government. And lastly, expect
God’s help, even to the point of shutting the mouths of lions.
The second lesson is similar to the first. Daniel’s friends Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego faced a similar fate for failing to neither serve the Government’s gods nor worship its image of
gold. Although in this case, rather
than lions, their future was a blazing furnace. But like Daniel, they
too emerged unscathed, not even so much as smelling of smoke. In this instance God did not just see these
three through – He was with them in the fire.
But even if He does delay, or does not deliver
us, these appear to be the days to be prepared to face the lions or feel the
fire.
Well said, Colonel. "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). Daniel's prayer is surely a model reflecting the proper understanding and urgency we need in these days when knowledge is increasing, but wisdom is not. Until our Lord comes, and the times in which we live have all of the prophetic indicators that His return is imminent, there is clear instruction for us today from His Word: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:15-17). Time is short. We are wise to invest the action of each moment into the far-reaching dividends of eternity.
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