In Touch With Daniel And Deborah

By Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer

Sometimes I need a peaceful place, a quiet place, a place where I can meditate, organize my thoughts, and pray for a way out of this dark tunnel that we are traveling through in today’s world. This is not going to be a morbid or sad story that I want to share with you. I needed something to read. I selected the Bible which is full of books about surviving the chaos created by others with different pursuits in their lives. The books are full of wisdom, faith, hope, love, and endurance. I decided to read the Book of Daniel, and later, I selected the Book of Judges and read about Deborah.

The Book of Daniel deals with many historical events during his captivity in Babylon. Daniel’s administrative skills became extremely useful and important to King Darius, and the king thought very highly of him. That did not sit well with the others in the king’s court and jealousy raised its ugly head by spouting lies about Daniel meditating with the God of his faith and not coming to the king to ask for favors. The lies delivered Daniel to the Lions’ den. God locked the lions’ mouths so that they could not touch him. He was innocent and had not wronged the king. There are those of you who might have read about Daniel in the Lions’ den and know the complete story. This is just a little condensed. Daniel had his faith; he believed.

We are in the Lions’ den today. We need our faith to unlock and overcome the spreading of evil lies so that good will triumph and bring us peace. Evil uses people to get what it wants; but people who have faith will fight evil and will survive.

The Book of Judges covers a period of several hundred years following the conquest of Canaan during which time the people were ruled by individual leaders called judges or saviors. Their task was primarily military and that was to expel the enemy from the land. Deborah was a prophet and the only female judge in the Old Testament. She settled disputes and led military actions and spoke on God’s behalf. She was called by God to lead Israel against the Canaanites. She tells Barak, an Israelite general, what God wants him to do to defeat the Canaanites. Deborah goes into battle with Barak and makes it clear that God should receive the glory for the victory.

One lesson in the Book of Judges is that sins take many forms, and the next result is always the same. When everyone does his own thing, chaos and destruction are the inevitable outcomes. However, God in his faithfulness saves the people when they truly repent and turn to him.

Again, there are those of you who are reading this who might be familiar with the story of Deborah. This is a condensed portion of her story.

As I mentioned earlier, we are in the Lions’ den with Daniel as a people. Deborah is our democracy and a freedom fighter. As people, we must make wise decisions to save ourselves from the clutches of evildoers.