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There are a lot of different things the Bible can tell us about obedience and
disobedience. Many of which have the same outcome. Others have a very different
outcome. In the book of Daniel, there are plenty of ways that the Bible can show
you that there are some bad things that come out of obedience and some good
things that come out of disobedience.
Obedience is part of life. obeying God is a big part. But obeying God doesn't
always work out the way we want it, or it can work out better then we want. This
is shown many times in Daniel. Two of these different ways obedience can have an
effect are shown in Daniel. One in verse 1:8-10. This is where Daniel is denied
his obedience to the law even though he wants to be obedient.
He is given royal food and wine to eat but asks for something different
because it goes against God's law. Even though God makes the official
sympathetic, he is still denied something different to eat. He received nothing
for being obedient. The next part of this shows that the outcomes can be very
different. In verses 12-17, Daniel asks to be tested for ten days and to be
given nothing but fruits and vegetables, then to have him and his friends
compared to the people given the royal foods to eat. After ten days, Daniel and
his friends were in better health then the other people. Because of the way
Daniel handled the situation, God gave Daniel superior knowledge and the ability
to understand dreams. Daniel had been put down by obedience and then glorified
by obedience shortly after.
This same type of situation happens again in the next chapter when the king
has a dream that he can't have interpreted. In chapter 2 verses 10-13, the king
has all the wise men in his kingdom hunted down and killed, because none of them
can explain his dream. This included Daniel and his friends. Once again, by the
obedience to God and the king, he is being punished.
After finding out what was going on, Daniel had a vision from God. He then
was taken to the king and explained to him what his dream was about. The king
had thanked him for being so good and obedient by making him ruler over Babylon
(vs. 24-48). He was once again glorified for being obedient. Obedience can go to
a higher level still as shown through Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
The king had them thrown into a fire for not obeying him by worshiping his
statue (vs.20), but because they were obedient to God, they were saved from the
blazing fire and came out completely unharmed (vs.25). God saves us by our
obedience, but he will also punish you for your disobedience. In chapter 4, the
king is admiring his kingdom for all its glory, and claims that it was all his
doing. As he is saying this, a voice from heaven told him that because he
doesn't worship God, he was getting everything taken away from him until he was
going to acknowledge that God was almighty (vs.28-32). The king then went and
lived like a wild animal. He lived like this for quite some time before he
finally admitted that God reigned supreme over everything (vs. 33-34).
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