I Reject The King's Portion! Part 4

Grace to you and peace from our Father dear brethren. Today we are going to start looking at the world system and how it is propagated. We will do this for a few days through looking at the text in Daniel 1:3-8. Today we will look at verse 3 to verse 4 'Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king’s descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans'(NKJV). The background of this text is that Judah and Israel have sinned against God and when Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, Jehoiakim the king is defeated. The result is that Nebuchadnezzar takes into Babylon some of the articles of the temple and orders that some of the young men be taken captive too, for a special assignment.

It is first important to note that often when the names Babylon and Egypt are used in Scripture, they are indicative of the worldly system, sin and Spiritual bondage. When you read the story of Jehoiakim (also called Eliakim) in the last chapter of 2nd Chronicles, we realize that he was a project of king Necho of Egypt. Jehoiakim is installed as king after his brother Jehoahaz (who only reigns three months) is deposed by Necho. At this time Judah has just experienced the reign of Josiah, who has totally cleansed the land of Israel from idol worship and brought back true worship to the land. However, Jehoiakim did not follow the ways of Josiah. He does evil in the eyes of the Lord and God gives him over to Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem is besieged. There are several things I pick up from these texts.

Firstly, when the world wants to ensnare you, it will define you different from your true identity. As long as the world can define you by its standard, then you will feel a sense of belonging towards it. Secondly, the same qualities and attributes (intellect, authority, wisdom, being teachable, physical attractiveness, being able-bodied, strength, etc) that make you a strong candidate for propagating Light, are the same qualities and attributes that make you a good candidate for propagating darkness. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that the world is focused on excellence because excellence is attractive. The reason so many people are caught up in the wiles of the enemy is because the devil does not do mediocre. His style is excellence. Lastly, the world is relentless when it comes to teaching its system. The world pays top dollar to initiate, set up, establish and propagate its beliefs. It does not spare any expense in seeing to it that worldliness is widely accepted. This is why the recent times have been rampant with many worldly trends (homosexuality, secularism, legalism, liberalism, etc). We will continue in the next part.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus thank You for Your love towards me. Many times I have allowed the world to define me and often I have traded what is of You, with what is evil, sinful and filthy. Have mercy on me today. Define me by Your terms. Call me by Your name. Amen.