“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”
~ Daniel 10:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa, grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn lived in Volga, South Dakota from the spring of 1982 to the summer of 1983. Your grandpaa went to South Dakota State University in Brooking, South Dakota during this time that he lived in Volga where he completed the one year of liberal arts courses that Moody Bible Institute requires each student to have in order to graduate with a degree. Another reason that your grandmaa and grandpaa decided to spend their scheduled yearlong furlough break in Volga was because your grandpaa’s dad and ma live on a farm that is located one mile west and two miles north of Volga. While your dad was living with your grandmaa and grandpaa in Volga, your dad – for his senior year of high school, went to Sioux Valley High School in Volga. While your Aunt Lynn was living with your grandmaa and grandpaa in Volga, your Aunt Lynn – for her fifth grade, went to the Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School that is in Volga. Your grandpaa was asked to be the commencement speaker at the Volga Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School’s eighth grade graduation exercises. During your grandpaa’s commencement talk, your grandpaa used a verse from Daniel 10 to challenge each eighth grader who were graduating from the Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School. The verse that your grandpaa chose to use was verse 12 which says “Then he continued, ““Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” for each one of the Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School’s graduating eighth graders to seriously reflect on and to apply in their lives. Your grandpaa went from second grade through eighth grade at the Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School. Your grandpaa – for first grade, went to a one room schoolhouse that was located a mile east from where your grandpaa grew up on the farm that your grandpaa’s dad and ma owned. Your grandpaa knew that just because a kid goes to and graduates from a Christian School that this did not mean that the kid had set his mind on knowing God or has even made a decision of faith. Your grandpaa wanted each kid who was graduating from the eighth from the Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School to understand that if he or she really wanted to pull a Daniel – that finishing grade school and beginning high school would be a good time to do this – that this would be a noteworthy or memorable time to set his or her mind on and in God’s ways instead of living in ways that were not pleasing to God. The context of ‘to set your mind’ in the verse is in the shipbuilding context. A ship’s main mast is set securely into the deck of a ship in a way that no matter what kind of weather that the ship would go through that it would never pull out of the deck is the same way that Daniel set his mind on God resulting in his life never being pulled away from God no matter what circumstances that he was in in the same way that that your grandpaa wanted each Christian Reformed Church’s Christian School eighth grade graduate to do.
If you have already set your mind on God, do you remember the day and what was happening when you set your mind on God? Daniel had a revelation in 593 B.C. of a great war. Daniel had this revelation explained to him in a vision by an angel who also reminded Daniel what he had done that had pleased God. Before Daniel was given the revelation, Daniel had mourned for three weeks. Daniel did not during the three weeks eat choice food, eat meat, drink wine and use lotions. Even though Daniel was with other guys – who became really scared when Daniel had the vision in which he saw an angel who was dressed in linen, who wore a finely made gold belt around his waist, whose body was like chrysolite – which is like a transparent silicate, whose face looked like lightning, whose eyes were like flaming torches, whose arms and legs gleamed liked burnished bronze and whose voice sounded like a multitude, only Daniel could see the angel. After the angel told Daniel that he was esteemed by God, the angel told Daniel that he and another angel – Michael, were going to be warring soon in the countries of Persia and Greece against evil spirit princes. Daniel initially was so scared that he could not open his mouth to speak, he lost all of his strength to move and he could hardly breathe. After the angel who was in Daniel’s vision – who looked like a guy, touched Daniel, Daniel was able to move again.
Daniel was a captured Israelite people group guy who set his mind after he was exiled to the city of Babylon to only worship the God of Israel. After Daniel was specifically chosen by a Babylonian people group leader to be an Israelite people group exile leader, Daniel refused to eat the rich Babylonian people group food and he refused to bow down to images that Babylonian people group guys and gals worshipped. Daniel would only eat healthy food. Daniel would faithfully submit to his God. When Daniel made the life decision of setting his mind securely on God, God – as God the Father, saw what Daniel proactively did with the decision that he had made. To set your mind on God is a commitment to live life heeding God’s expectations instead of living life satisfying inner urges to pursue self-gratification. Your Uncle Chris’ little sis is deathly sick right now. Even though your Uncle Chris’ little sis at some point made a decision of faith, your Uncle Chris’ little sis chose a hope draining lifestyle – which involved using alcohol and drugs, which has precipitated the severity of her health condition. If you really want to have lives that are filled with hope, pull a Daniel by deliberating setting your minds on God just as Daniel set his mind on God.
Daniel 10 (908)