January 31: CRUSHED
You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2:34-35
God answered the fervent prayers of Daniel and his three friends. He gave Daniel the precise details of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Its interpretation was also divinely provided, which pointed vividly to the second coming of Jesus – and even beyond that to the establishment of His future kingdom upon the earth.
Daniel’s book contains a series of visions, each of which culminate in the promise of the everlasting kingdom to come under the headship of Jesus. Jesus is known by numerous names. In our opening verse, He is the stone [that] was cut out without hands.
In 7:13 He is One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!
In 8:11 He is the Prince of the host and in 8:25 He is the Prince of princes.
He is Messiah the Prince (9:25) and Michael your Prince (10:21). The name Michael means who is like God.
King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, eventually came to faith in the Savior and tells his own story in chapter 4 of Daniel. The essential theme of overcoming unbelief is taught throughout Scripture. Jesus envisions us as whole and complete overcomers, fit for eternal life with Him. Our tendency is to focus on the visual, attention-getting aspects of life in this world. We want to “know” and “see” ourselves as constantly improving. But this is prideful! Real repentance causes us to be less and less sure of ourselves and increasingly confident in Him. When someone yields fully to Jesus, Jesus Himself bathes him or her in His own Spirit (Matthew 3:11), bringing about a genuine loveliness that He (and others) can see, yet that person is totally unaware of it.
As you learn to yield fully to the Rock, invite Him in to crush character traits in you that are not fit for heaven so that no trace of them remains!
A prayer for our sin-sick hearts is found in the story of the man in the crowd whose son had a mute spirit (Mark 9:17), the subsequent descriptions of which seem to resemble severe epilepsy. This deaf and dumb spirit (v.25) harassed the child and at times was utterly frightening. The man, himself a loving father, wanted to believe fully on Jesus, but his declaration to that effect ironically revealed to himself his greatest need. In recognition of his own spiritual poverty, his anguished cry becomes a great example for all professed believers.
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24