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Good Brought Out of Bad

Pastor Bill Farrow

Daniel 1:2

 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.

(Verse 2) - Which he carried into the land of Shinar-The region around Babylon. The exact limits of this country are unknown, but it probably embraced the region known as Mesopotamia - the country between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The derivation of the name "Shinar" is unknown. It occurs three times in Genesis, and once each in Joshua, Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah.

To the house of his god - Which would be to the temple of Bel, at Babylon. This was a temple of great magnificence, and the worship of Bel was celebrated there with great splendor [description of this temple]. These vessels were subsequently brought out at the command of Belshazzar, at his celebrated feast, and employed in the conviviality and revelry of that occasion. we will discuss this further when  we get to Dan. 5:3.

And he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god - As we noted, it would seem from this that the vessels had been taken to the temple of Bel, or Belus, in Babylon, not to be used in the worship of the idol, but to be laid up among the valuable treasures there. As the temples of the gods were sacred, and were regarded as inviolable, it would be natural to make them the repository of valuable spoils and treasures. Many of the spoils of the Romans were suspended around the walls of the temples of their gods, particularly in the temple of Victory.

 It is important for us to remember that all of this, as far as God is concerned, this is only a preliminary thing. It was certainly a horrible experience for all of those involved, but God knows the end from the beginning. His plan has a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are times when that plan spans more than a single lifetime. This was true for most who saw the beginning of the captivity. Countless people died in exile having never seen avgthing but the beginning and perhaps a bit of the middle of that plan. To them, the plan looked almost entirely negative.

The point I am making is that it is a grave mistake to evaluate the captivity by the experience of those who only saw the first portion of it. For them it was a terrible thing - entirely negative. But that was not the true nature of the captivity. Yes, it was a negative thing that brought much pain and suffering into the lives of everyone concerned with it.

Yet, were it not for the captivity, much good in the lives of individuals as well as in the nation as a whole would haul gone undone. For instance, King Nebachadnezzar would never have become a redeemed man. His salvation, and I do believe Him to have been a true believer, was the result of Daniel's witness to him (at least in part). Had there been no captivity, there would have been no Daniel in Babylon.

Another example is the nation of Judah's fascination with idolatry before the captivity. After Babylon they are completely cured of idolatry and that sin is never again a problem in Judah's life.

 To say that God can bring good out of what seems to be evil really doesn't say it all, nor does it say it well. The truth of the matter is that God is in control all along and that which we perceive as evil is only seen as such because we are not God and cannot see the beginning from the end. Were we able to see it thus, we would quickly agree that the matter isi not an evil at all, but is, indeed, a good part of the plan of God!

I need to learn to try and see things from this kind of long-term perspective. It is the most productive and God-honoring perspective there is.