Tragic stories could end with songs of praise!

The way we face the dire circumstances in our life could lead to the wider glory of God. The story of Daniel illustrates that point well.

As in the case of most successful people, Daniel's colleagues envied him. They schemed to trap and destroy him. The Book of Daniel chapter 6 tells us that they forced the king to order that those who pray to anyone other than the king will be destroyed. Daniel’s enemies knew that being a devout Jew, he will not comply and that will lead to his death.

Daniel was a person of integrity. He ignored the royal edict and continued with his routine of prayer to his God, Yahweh. His enemies caught him in action. They reported the matter duly to the king.

Though the king was reluctant to act against Daniel, they forced the king to act on his own order. Though reluctant, the king ordered that Daniel be thrown into the den of hungry lions. We know the rest of the story well. The lions did not attack Daniel. God had shut their mouths.

The king spent the night sleepless. At the wee hours of the morning, he rushed to the den of the lions to find out what has happened to Daniel. He finds that Daniel is safe and the lions haven’t even scratched him. At the king’s orders they soldiers pulled Daniel out and his opponents and their entire families were thrown into the same den. The hungry lions tore them apart.

What is important in this story is the song that king Darius sang when Daniel was pulled out of the den of lions (Daniel 6:26-28). The king reverses the earlier order that the people should fear and tremble before the God of Daniel instead of the king.

The story ends not with the rescue of Daniel from the pit, but king Darius proclaiming the glory of Daniel’s God and ordering his nation to fear that God. The book of Daniel tells us that the king sang a song of praise to the God of Daniel.

Things would have been very different if Daniel had given in to the order of the king in order to save his skin. His integrity not only saved his life but led to the greater glory of God before a pagan king and his empire. His prayer to God was private. But he did it ignoring the dire consequence of his action of defying a power lesser than the power of his God. God protected him from the consequence that his opponents had designed for him. He also used that to bring glory to his name in all the empire of Persia.

Chew the scroll up to preach it!

The Book of Revelation is full of strange symbolism and surreal imageries. In Revelation Chapter 10 we have yet another. In this passage Apostle John receives the vision of a huge angel whose one foot is on the sea and another on the land. He can stretch his hand to reach heaven. He lands on the planet with one foot on land and the other on sea with an open scroll in his hands.
A voice commands John to approach the angel to ask for the scroll. The angel gives him the little scroll with the command that he should eat it. John obeys the angel and eats the entire scroll. It was rather easy to eat the small scroll since it was sweet in his mouth, but it was difficult to hold it in his body since it had become bitter in his stomach.
Centuries back, prophet Ezekiel had a similar experience at the beginning of his prophetic career (Ezek 3:1-3). Just as Ezekiel was told, John was also told that, 'you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings' (Rev 10:11). Eating the scroll was to prepare him to preach to the nations and their rulers.
Now, to unpack the symbolism. What is this scroll and what is the purpose of eating it? We are told that the scroll is open. Anyone who has been following the sequence of events in the Book of Revelation so far might have noticed that the Lamb (risen Lord) has already opened it (Rev 6:1). The image of the angel coming down from heaven with the scroll is the symbolic representation of the truth that we find in (Hebrews 2:2). According to some Jewish interpretation of the event where Moses received the Law, the revelation of God was handed down to him through angels.
John has to eat what God has revealed through the son and given to him now. This eating is thus the preparation for the mission to the nations and their rulers. It is a bittersweet reality. The word of God is sweeter than the honey, however, bringing it out is most of the time a bitter reality. What you like and cherish may not always in line with people out there like to cherish. This brings God's people in conflict with others. However, it has to be done! But before that is done, we need to really grasp the word thoroughly like we eat something so that it becomes part of our body system.