Daniel 5:13 (NKJV) 13 Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?

As was the case in Joseph’s life, Daniel’s exile was also lengthy.

He was brought to Babylon as a young man and stayed faithful in the service of king Nebuchadnezzar until that king died.

The subsequent king, Belshazzar, took the throne as Babylon’s new king, and Daniel remained in Babylon.

There came a time when king Belshazzar was hosting a great feast. And as part of the celebrations, he had his servants bring out the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of God when Babylon defeated Israel under king Nebuchadnezzar.

As the king and his guests drank from the vessels, a hand appeared and wrote on the wall words that could not be read or interpreted by anyone in the palace.

The inability of the king’s servants to interpret the writing caused the king to grow frustrated.

His wife recalled Daniel and his ability to interpret dreams and speak with wisdom. So, the king had Daniel brought in to interpret the writing.

This put Daniel in an unenviable position, as the writing spoke words about the king that were highly unfavorable.

But Daniel spoke truth as given to him by God’s spirit, and the king honored him for it, placing a gold chain around his neck and making him “the third ruler in the kingdom” of Babylon.

As with Joseph, Daniel could have spent his days lamenting his situation. He could have rebelled against his captors. He could have abandoned God. But he did not.

Again, this is a monumental example for us to learn from, showing us that adversity has the potential to make us someone we never expected to be, using those situations to allow us to grow instead of running or resisting what God brings to us.

You may wonder why we have spent five consecutive days teaching about adverse situations and difficult seasons.

We are living in dark times. Evil is running rampant on a global scale. We are witnessing things that we never thought we would live to see.

It will impact every one of us in some way.

These are times that require strength and great discernment. They require choices to be made by each of us as to how we will respond to the things we are facing.

This requires us to be prepared.

A soldier is never sent into battle without training. A student is never administered a test without being given the proper time and knowledge to prepare. A warrior is never told to fight without that warrior having the strength and stamina to fight victoriously.

And so should each of us be properly prepared, learning how to recognize our enemy, stand strong in battle as led by the Holy Spirit, and responding to adversity based on what God shows us to do.

We pray that God will take these examples and ingrain them in each of us, giving us great understanding, discernment and power in the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Daniel 1:1 (NKJV) 1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

After having spent the last 3 days studying and learning from the life of Joseph, let us now glean some understanding from the life a prophet, Daniel.

As indicated in the verse above, Israel was invaded and captured by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

God used this powerful king to punish Israel for their sins, and to teach them a hard lesson.

As part of capturing Israel, king Nebuchadnezzar exiled many of Israel’s people to Babylon, where he put them to work as servants and slaves.

Daniel, being trained in and well-versed in literature, was sent to the king’s palace, where he was further trained and taught what would be expected of him as a servant of the king.

It is critical for us to remember that Daniel was not a willing immigrant to Babylon. He was a captive, taken by force, against his will, to a land that Jews abhorred.

But Daniel purposed in his heart to please God by serving the king in this foreign land faithfully and diligently, therefore reflecting the excellence of God in his actions.

Daniel and his young friends were put to the test quickly after they arrived when they were given their prescribed dietary requirements as servants in training.

Daniel and his friends were adamant about not eating foods that had been sacrificed to idols. So, this new diet posed a major problem for them since Babylon was known for its blatant worship of idols.

These young men took a stand and asked that they not be required to partake in the regular diet of the king’s servants. And, after much discussion, they were allowed to prove that their own diet was much better.

This may not seem like such a great problem to many. But we need to remember that they were taking a stand against the most powerful king of their time.

Over time, Daniel became a loyal servant in this foreign land.

And though he did not face the same trials as Joseph, he had his own set of difficulties that tested him.

And in the process of walking through these trials Daniel’s wisdom and dedication to his God, which were the root of some of his problems, caused him to excel.

Please join us tomorrow as we learn more from the life and trials of Daniel.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

As we have seen in the previous two days, the course of Joseph’s life took some unexpected turns that made it seem like he would never escape his status as a slave or a prisoner.

But God had other plans. And they were beginning to become visible in Joseph’s life.

While in prison, Joseph displayed leadership skills that caused him to be put in charge of the entire prison population.

And his ability to interpret dreams eventually led him to Pharaoh’s palace, where he was tasked with interpreting dreams that Pharaoh was troubled by.

Joseph’s interpretation of these dreams, and his recommendations to Pharaoh, caused him to find favor, and he was made 2nd in command in Egypt, overseer of the entire country.

Because of God’s plans for Joseph, he had suddenly gone from a prisoner to the second most powerful man in Egypt.

Joseph’s path to this lofty position was a difficult one. He endured much hardship along the way. And these hardships could have led him to doubt God or be angry with Him.

But Joseph kept his heart right, honoring God in all he did. And because of this, he saved millions of lives when famine struck the land. And his life of so many difficulties became a life of royalty and luxury.

How about your life, or my life?

Do we face difficult seasons, times of hardship or distress?

And when we do, how do we handle them?

Do we become angry with God and question Him as to why we must suffer such things?

Or do we step back, take a breath, and ask God how He wants us to handle this, and what steps does He want us to take?

It is unlikely that any of us will ever face difficulties like what Joseph faced. And it is even more unlikely that our difficulties will thrust us into positions of power or royalty.

But we can say with certainty that our trials can teach us much, and they will prepare us for greater things.

The big question is, what will we do with them?

Join us again tomorrow as we look at one more example of God using adversity to push His people toward His path for our lives.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

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Genesis 39:21 (NKJV) 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

When we finished yesterday’s devotional, we were discussing Joseph’s life as a slave to an Egyptian officer of Pharoah.

The scripture we referenced stated that the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.

As we mentioned yesterday, if we looked at things only through the natural eye, we could never view Joseph’s life as successful while he was living life as a slave.

The verse above again states that the Lord was with Joseph.

Unlike yesterday’s scripture, this verse states that God showed him mercy.

Joseph had undergone another radical change in his life that changed his circumstances drastically.

While managing his master’s household, he had been falsely accused of rape by the master’s wife.

Potiphar, Joseph’s owner, immediately had Joseph thrown into prison for his alleged offense.

Take note that the verse above makes no reference to Joseph’s success, but instead speaks directly of God’s mercy on Joseph.

Joseph had now gone from a slave to a prisoner, yet he had committed no crime.

Naysayers may look at Joseph’s life and proclaim, “how can anyone call God merciful when Joseph has been handed such a poor run of events?”

But wait. The end is better than the beginning!

You see, God was carrying out a divine plan in Joseph’s life that was still difficult to see or understand.

As Joseph walked through each season, he was careful to glorify God in his actions, doing everything as though God was his master. And that behavior earned him favor with those he belonged to or worked for.

Potiphar put him in charge of his entire household.

The prison master put him in charge of all the prisoners.

And it gets increasingly better in the final chapter, which we will examine tomorrow.

We hope you will join us!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Genesis 39:2 2 (NKJV) The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.

Those words can be deceiving if we fail to understand the whole story.

Not that Joseph wasn’t successful; he was. But understanding the context in which these words were spoken is critical if we are to grasp the depth of the statement.

If we look up the word “successful” we would see that some synonyms for this word would be victorious, triumphant, fortunate.

Knowing that, if we look at the big picture of Joseph’s life, we would be unlikely to consider him triumphant or victorious.

He was betrayed by his brothers, who tossed him into a pit and sold him to a slave trader.

Those same brothers told their father that he was dead, killed by a wild animal.

He was then taken to a foreign land where he was subsequently sold by the slave traders to Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh.

Joseph had gone from being the highly favored son of Jacob, to being sold as a slave by his brothers who despised him. Then transported to a foreign land, where he was now working for an Egyptian master.

He was a slave, plain and simple.

If we were to look at Joseph’s situation at this point in his life, would we really consider him to be successful?

In the natural sense, there was no success to be found.

In the natural sense, his life would have been seen as miserable.

And in the natural sense, Joseph had suffered blows that gave him good reason to live out his years with hatred and bitterness in his heart toward his brothers, and toward the God who had allowed this to happen to him.

But what did Joseph do? How did he handle this seemingly tragic turn of events?

Please join us tomorrow as we look deeper into Joseph’s life and see what we can learn from it.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page.