A future hope

Reading Dennis Tucker’s “Rejoice in the Lord’s Sovereignty” lesson commentary in the Baptist Standard, made me wonder: “If Christians choose to live faithful to God in difficult times, can we expect that the hearts of evil ones around will be changed?” I would have to answer, “Not really.” In this case, a Christian’s desire to see evil changed to good is dashed. Thus, just as the exiled Jews during Daniel’s time needed reassurance, suffering Christians today need encouragement.

When evil continues to triumph so abundantly today, we find hope in the same Person that controlled events in Daniel vision—The Ancient of Days (by William Blake). Evil surrounding us may not be immediately cutoff, but we can have faith that God is in control. We must learn to accept God’s plan for dealing with evil since He is sovereign.

Tucker writes “the book of Daniel suggests that in light of the pain and fear of the present moment, we must choose faithful living and then lean into the presence of a faithful God.” This reminded me of Proverbs 23:17-19.

Finally, I was meditating yesterday on Mark 1:2 and God said thru the prophet Isaiah that He would send a messenger in advance to prepare the way for Messiah. Two verses later, Mark simply writes, “And so John came”. In other words, God said what he would do and later it happened exactly that way. God said. John came. We can be confident that God will do what He has said He will do. Lord Jesus will return.