Daniel 4 study...why it is important now

Good morning, all! A very cloudy start to the day, to be sure, but a glorious day, nonetheless!

This morning, I was able to have quiet time...not even the cats were bothering me this morning, and I was studying the Book of Daniel, chapter 4.

Now, the study that I'm using was originally printed in 1965, but I still found that the writer has hit this modern day on the head.

If you are familiar with the 4th Book of Daniel, you will know that it has to do with Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King...the one who threw Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace. Well, by this chapter he has come to see the error of his rule, and is working to change it...sort of.

Nebuchadnezzar at this point has proclaimed that the God that Daniel and his friends serve is THE GOD, and He is mighty above all other gods. This is good, but then comes the dream.

He dreams of a massive tree, that its cut down, but, it's stump is banded for "seven times," or in our vernacular, seven years. When Daniel interprets the dream, he warns the king that he has a year to repent of his pride. At the end of this year, the king is said to say this: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?"

This is the point in his life that the King goes stark raving mad, eats grass like the cattle, his hair and nails grow to great lengths. But during this time, God sees fit to protect his reign. Once the seven years have come to fruition, Nebuchadnezzer comes to his senses and repents, his kingdom is restored to him.

The study goes on to make the comparisons between this chapter and Revelation 13, which explains the seven year Tribulation period.

Now, this is all beyond interesting and compelling in and of itself, but the book that the study is in goes on to say this:

"It might well be thought of as a seven year period of Gentile insanity, exceeding even the madness of our modern day." Remember, this study was first published in 1965, and most likely was written one to two years before, bringing it to approximately 1963-1964, the time of the Vietnam War and the beginning of not only the Sexual Revolution, but also described as "the Counterculture."

It was a time when the strict cultural norms that preceded it were busted, so to speak. Everything we knew as a Country regarding speech, dress, mannerisms, parenting, all of it was rebelled against by those who thought that "The Man" (law enforcement in general, authority as a whole) was wrong, out to get them, yadda, yadda. They rebelled against the way their parents brought them up, the way they dressed, the things they did, and The Swinging Sixties became a thing.

Fast forward to today. Cultural norms are being challenged again. The way that our parents had raised us (for those of us who are left of the Boomer Generation) is being called into question. Common sense is not so common anymore. Our own DNA is being challenged as just a fluke, but whatever we feel we are, then we are that. To me, this sounds as if the words from the study were a bit prophetic. We have indeed, exceeded the madness of the Sixties.

When I sit and watch the news, I no longer wonder where we are generally in the Last Days...I'm pretty convinced we are on the precipice and any day now, we could fall headlong into the Tribulation period. However, I also know that God is faithful, and until the last I is dotted and the last T is crossed, we still have room to repent of our madness.

Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer. It was a day when people across the Nation came together to lift up our Country, our Government, our People to God, praying prayers of repentance and pleading for His mercy on this Nation. It is my prayer as we go forward into the remainder of this year, that we will stay in the position of constant prayer for all of these things, as well as Salvation for those around us.