I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me. I am striving to improve these devotionals, so from time to time I am going to take note of countries from which I have seen a significant number of visitors and ask how those from that country think I can improve my blog. Today I have chosen Hong Kong. If you live in Hong Kong and are visiting my site today, please tell me why you visited my site and how I could improve it. Thank you.

     Today’s passage is about another dream that Nebuchadnezzar had that was interpreted by Daniel. When Nebuchadnezzar woke from his dream he summoned all of the wise men and magicians of his realm and described his dream to them requesting that they interpret it for him. None of them could give him an answer except for Daniel. Daniel was hesitant to interpret the dream for Nebuchadnezzar but the king insisted that Daniel tell him the meaning.
     The dream was of a large tree that soared high into the heavens such that it could be seen from the entire earth. A messenger came down from heaven and ordered that the tree be cut down and that “he” live as an animal for seven “periods of time.” Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he, Nebuchadnezzar, was the tree and that he would lose his power and his mental capacity and would live as an animal for seven periods of time (the passage never specifies if this is days, months, years or some other unit of time).
     The passage tells us that twelve months later, Nebuchadnezzar was on his palace roof looking out over the city of Babylon and musing on what a wonderful and powerful ruler he was when a voice spoke from heaven and he lost his mind and was driven from human company. He lived as a beast for seven periods of time. At the end of that time, he looked up to heaven and praised God. His exile ended when he recognized that God was the final arbiter of who will have power and who will be powerless, that no human effort can change the course that God has chosen. Upon recognizing these facts, Nebuchadnezzar was restored to power in his kingdom.

     I begin reading Peter’s second letter (the second of the two that we still have, I am sure that he wrote many others over the course of his life and ministry that have not been preserved). He starts off with a wish/blessing for us, but it is a conditional blessing. He expresses his desire that God give us ever increasing grace and peace, but he tells us that this will only happen as we grow in our knowledge of God and Christ.
     Peter writes that God has given us everything we need to live a godly life as a result of our coming to know Him through Jesus. In light of this fact we should make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Peter then tells us how to go about that. The starting point is faith. Then we add moral excellence, followed by knowledge. As we increase in knowledge, we need to exercise self-control. We need to exercise self-control with patient endurance. Patient endurance should be supplemented with godliness. We should add brotherly affection to our godliness and then extend brotherly affection to love for everyone. It is a progression and it all fits together. We cannot skip over parts of it and say, “Well, I have love for everyone, so I don’t need knowledge (or moral excellence, or self-control).” In addition, it is not enough to have knowledge and not love for everyone. On the other hand, it is a progression. We are not going to have moral excellence until we have faith. We are not going to grow in knowledge until we exhibit the moral excellence that we know (and so on). The more we grow in this progression, the more that God can use us to serve His purposes. If we fail to develop according to this process it indicates that we are short-sighted, or completely blind to God’s plans in this world.
     Peter reminds us that his knowledge is not that of clever stories, but of someone who actually witnessed the events of the Gospel. He goes on to tell us that the prophesies in Scripture do not derive from human understanding or initiative. The Scriptures came about when the Holy Spirit moved the prophets to convey a message from God.

     The path to knowledge and wisdom is following God’s commands. If we study God’s commands AND follow them we will be wiser than our enemies. There are two pieces to this. First, following God’s commands will give us greater wisdom than those who do not follow God’s commands. Second, we will not be enemies of those who also follow God’s commands since it is a violation of God’s commands to be at odds with those who are following God’s commands. If we are faithful in following God’s commands we will be wiser than our elders who fail to do so. As we follow the Lord’s commands, we will find doing so as rewarding as we find honey to be sweet when we eat it.
     As we study God’s word and follow His instructions we will find that we do not trip over obstacles we did not see coming. We are able to prepare for troubles before they come upon us and navigate around them. We do not need to stumble in the dark with no way to plan for future events. IF we follow the commands of the Lord we will discover that we are prepared for what happens. The path He will lay out for us will take us around obstacles and troubles.

     Those who do evil will be hounded by enemies that exist only in their minds (although they may have real enemies as well) until the day they die. Those that are innocent will be rescued from harm as if a hand is held over them (because One is), while destruction will come without warning to those who are crooked and evil. When I read this proverb I envision an innocent walking out in front of a bus which slams on its brakes and stops just short of hitting them. Meanwhile the evil person who has been plotting to harm them is walking along behind and gets run over by the speeding car that swerves to avoid the suddenly stopped bus.