What a treasure trove the first four chapters of Daniel are!  Wow, so many lessons....so applicable to us!  I just finished session 4, which introduces a week of studying the humbling of King Nebuchadnezzar.  Hands down, the best session yet for me.  What Beth is doing in the first half of the study is based on an analogy btw. the ancient culture of Babylon, what that great city represented throughout the Bible.....and our culture today.  How do we live with integrity in Babylon?  That's the question being addressed.  How do we keep our lives focused on God while bombarded by the lies and deceptions of the world around us?  The philosophy of Babylon is (and this is stated several times in Scripture)  "I am, and there is none but me".    The first thing that struck me about that was the application to a human being of a phrase that God used to describe Himself..."I Am".  Yikes, that seems a VERY dangerous thing to do!   But also striking is the absolute self-centeredness that the second part of the statement reflects and how common it is.....even as I look at my own heart. *gulp*

So session 4 was mostly about pride, when you boil it down. The pride, arrogance, self-absorption, self-centeredness, and callousness that comes so naturally to all of us in our flesh and surrounds us pretty much everywhere you look.  How very difficult it is not to buy into what the world says and to implode with self-absorption!  How do we not?  Well, b/c of God's very great love and grace towards us....He has a way of disciplining it out of us!  Beth started out the session by saying "This is one lesson that you want to learn in the classroom!  You definitely don't want to learn this one on a field trip!"  But you know, afterwards I found myself wondering....Does anyone really learn this lesson in the classroom?  Does anyone learn how to really submit themselves to God, and fully recognize the futility and failure of everything that they are....WITHOUT being forced by circumstances to that conclusion?  Almost everyone I know who does have a grasp on God's sovereignty in their life....did in fact have a moment or a time when they were beaten down to the point of absolute despair....some by tragic circumstances, others by continuous failures....and there was a time of struggle which ended in absolute recognition of God's sovereignty, His grace and the utter inadequacy of themselves.  And they are never the same after.  It's like they know now there's nothing good except Him, and they apply themselves for the rest of their lives to knowing Him more and loving Him more....which are pretty much the only two important things in this life.  All good things flow from that relationship.  And the craving to make it more intimate, to know Him better, to love Him more should drive everything that we do. 

Can we learn it 'in the classroom'.  I honestly don't know.  It almost worries me a little.  B/c I don't feel like I've been brought to that point all at once.  Sure, I've had times and moments in my life where I have despaired and have been out of control.  I feel like I've learned the lesson in different areas at different times.  My learning of it has been more of a steady revealing of my inadequacies rather than one, big event or moment.  And I recognize that I'm so not on the other side of it yet.  I find myself almost stomping my foot with impatience that I can't speed this process along.  That I'm still wrestling with the same, stupid flaws and issues....that I even yet don't seek God as earnestly and constantly as I need to.  I cry out to God to do whatever it takes to completely break me while at the same time shuddering to think about what I could be asking for, you know? 

Old Nebuchadnezzar sure must have been something.  Will he be in heaven, I wonder?  It sure seems that God pursued him.  God obviously revealed Himself there in several major ways....although you have to wonder if it was for Neb's sake or for ours!  For those who don't know the story, God basically took Neb in all his pride at the pinnacle of his empire's breathtaking glory and utterly humbled him by a lengthy, debilitating, humiliating mental illness....and even told him beforehand that it would happen so that there'd be NO question about who was in charge!!  Go read the chapter.  It's something. 

The first half of the session was about the "set-up"...the second about the "fall down".  And in the first half, she discussed the pride that led up to Nebuchadnezzars humbling.  And what he might have been able to do (and what we might be able to do) to avoid it.  She talked about our culture, how rich and privileged we are, and pointed out how Daniel advised the king to get back in touch with the poor of his kingdom.  Those we think we are too good for.  How quickly we lose patience and judge those who are weaker.  How quickly we lose touch with reality and our own poverty of spirit.  

I have to conclude with this poem, which was turned in to Beth by an anonymous woman in the audience.  It's so clever and such a picture of our Babylon...the one we live in every day.  It's going to make my entry really long, but who cares?    Did I really have a point to this entry?  I guess not any one point....just alot of thoughts about what I'm learning and thinking about as I do this study.  How thankful I am for God's grace and how He works in our lives....He doesn't just abandon us to our own devices.  He keeps on pursuing us, willing us to repentance, willing us to abandon ourselves and submit fully to Him....for our own great joy as well as His glory.  Anyway, this gave me chills to hear it.

"Babble on in Babylon"  by anonymous

Brimming closets, shoe racks bulge, one in every color?  I'll just indulge!

My wildest whim will oft be met,  bigger, faster, give me, get

Travel on in Babylon.

 

May I go first?  Knew you'd not care, for my time's precious and you've lots to spare!

I'll slip in front and off I'll go,  See, I'm quite fast and well, you're quite slow.

I and me, fast friends life-long......prattle on in Babylon. 

 

Nip it here, just there a lift, I just turned 40!  It was a gift!

The eyes, the lips, the bosoms new, sculpted, lasered, injected too.

No wrinkles left, the tummy's gone......journey on in Babylon.

 

Enough of me, How do you view me?  You get one, but give me three!

I couldn't bear to just say 'No', it's my desire...and rightly so!

Add another, and on and on........shuffle on in Babylon.

 

No end in sight that I can see, today is blocked by the mirror in front of me.

A wreck, a death, tsunami tide, it mildly stirs me, I must confide. 

TV claims ten thousands gone!  Oh well, let's see what else is on

Numb to the stunning sight of each new dawn.......sinking fast in Babylon.

 

Like a lobster in a pot, who begins to like the water hot,

I've been duped, been tricked, been had....convinced that Truth was somehow bad!

Evil coddled and cooed and purred and beckoned me and called and lured,

Now in a place with the Light turned on......I'm racing home from Babylon!