Chaos in Kabul and Who's Really Minding the Store (a meditation on what's happening today and yesterday)

We've seen this movie before

This past week's news cycle has been quite unsettling, hasn't it? The images from Harmid Karzai International in Kabul, Afghanistan of frightened Afghans clinging to US cargo planes seeking to escape the Taliban conjures up those iconic photos of the last US helicopter taking off from the rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon back in 1975 as the North Vietnamese army took control of that city. Meanwhile, our southern border is presently leaking as a sieve as thousands of migrants pour daily into the continental US. And then the spike in the delta variant of COVID-19 has got school districts all over the country debating reissuing mask mandates once again. It's enough to make you want to hunker down and hide while these storm winds blow. 

A timely read for me

Personally, I'm grateful that my personal Bible reading has been in the book of Daniel this year. If ever someone felt less in control of the times they lived in it was Daniel and his friends: their city was conquered, their country overrun, they were conscripted into the Empire's service and marched off from kith and kin to start a new life in Babylon. This is a summation on my part but his book essentially amounts to what we might call a memoir today - about his life in Babylon and what happened there. In chapter 1 he is a boy and by chapter 12 he is an old man but certain themes remain the same throughout his account. Namely, despite what may be going on in world affairs (in his case, Babylon's rise - and later fall - of Persia's rule and through the various dreams and visions he later received of the coming of the Greeks to be followed by the Romans), God remains in control. 

Right out of the gate of his memoir, Daniel sets the record straight: The kingdom of Judah was not conquered by the Babylonians; "...the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his [Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon] hand..." (1:2).

After Nebuchadnezzar is afflicted by his strange dream Daniel

rightly interprets it as describing a series of world kingdoms that will rise and fall but ultimately succumb to the arrival of the kingdom of God "...that will never be destroyed. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever" (2:44).

When Nebuchadnezzar threatens Daniel's friends with death by incineration if they don't bow to his magnificent gold statue, they abjectly refuse and are thrown into the furnace. But they are not extinguished but find a companion that appears to look "like a sons of the gods" and together they walk around unharmed. At the end of it, as they emerged unscathed from the fire, it is Nebuchadnezzar kneeling on the plain of Dura declaring that anyone in his domain who dares speak against their God are the ones who are in peril of dying (3:29).

It is Nebuchadnezzar, who during the season of his insanity has a come-to-Jesus moment and when he emerges declares that Daniel's God - "the Most High" - has a dominion that will never end and will last until the end of time and that "He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth" (4:34). It is King Belshazzar, one of Nebuchadnezzar's successors, who discovers too late that the mighty walls of Babylon that could never be breached were no match against the Lord's hand who "measured the days of his reign and brought it to an end" (5;26). And after King Darius'

When someone says
"the handwriting is on the
wall", it's not a good thing.

"dark night of the soul" - brought on by his anxiety of unwittingly signing Daniel's death warrant - when Daniel emerges unscathed from the lion's den he issues this proclamation to the empire that all "must fear and reverence the God of Daniel 'for he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end" (6:26)

Not a good book
to be listed in

Again and again and again, this theme emerges from Daniel's memoir: the powers that be may appear to be ruling the roost but their crows - all of them (Alexander the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero of Rome, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, ad infinitum  - are shortly silenced. They will have their day in court and judged for their blasphemy. And the people of God? "...the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever - yes, for ever and ever' (7:18). 

But until that Day comes we will be subject to all kinds of "horns" (see Dan 7 and 8) who will throw their weight around for a measured period of time before exiting (to quote Macbeth) "a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more."  Daniel assures us that evil kings and world leaders will come but their reigns, in light of eternity, are remarkably brief 

So what do we do in the meantime? Well, we pray. Behind the

conflict we see going on abroad and at home, there is conflict going on in the spiritual realm. When Paul asserted to the Ephesians that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph 6:12, NIV) he meant it. Don't we know there's a war going on and therefore we need to remain vigilant in prayer? 

We also need to engage in holy living. Citing the NLT's version of Daniel 11:32, as the human ruler (Daniel 8's "little horn") seeks to dominate God's people they "who know their God will be strong and will resist him." The voice of our culture - a voice that is increasingly demonic - is trying to persuade us that it is loving to accept all lifestyles and belief systems as equal. There is no absolute authority; it's just people who are choosing the lifestyle that best suits them. The people who fear the Lord and love God know better. But our fight is not with people but with that spirit that would seek to delude us and cause us to compromise. 

And finally, we need to keep our head while a lot of folk seem to be losing theirs. At the end of his memoir after being given yet one more vision of things to come that left him breathless, the messenger from heaven says to him, "As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance" (12:13). The Message interprets it this way:  "Go about your business without fretting or worrying. Relax. When it’s all over, you will be on your feet to receive your reward." 

It seems contradictory counsel. Throughout the book on several occasions the curtain that separates him and the things of the future is pulled back and each time he is overcome by what he sees. But at the end of the book the messenger says, in so many words, "Just breathe, Daniel. Everything will play out in its time. Don't lose too much sleep about it. You keep on living your life of faith before the Lord." 

So the Taliban are running amok in Afghanistan, wave after wave of illegal immigrants are pouring over the border bringing with them drugs and trafficked human beings, and COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country and the answer of heaven is - or seems to be - 'relax'? Or is it better to put it the way Paul stated it in his letter to the Philippians?

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (4:4-7, NIV)

Keep breathing, friends! And keep praying and keep living in such a way that pleases him. This is doing more than we know and seems to be an effective way to combat the fear and despair that threatens to seep into the foundation of our lives.