PART ONE: THE SET UP
Daniel: 4:4-5, 9-19, 22, 24-31
DANIEL 4:27
We lose touch with the poor. Note the KJV translation: “by showing mercy to the poor.”
Nebuchadnezzar had totally detached himself from the oppressed and the poor. He had ignored their needs.
When we can sit contented and prosperous, imploding within our own self-absorption, and forget that there are people out there with serious needs; that is a waving red flag that we are being corrupted by our Babylons.
Compare verses 4 and 27. The Aramaic word translated “showing mercy” (KJV) or “being kind” (NIV) corresponds to the Hebrew transliteration by the same spelling (chanan). The Hebrew word means “to be favorable, be kind, be gracious; to pity, have mercy; to bestow; to complain; to make lovely” (Isa. 58:10-11).
To complain means that there are times we find a public format (Platform) to go forward and say with tact “I cannot live with what I see here. There must be something that can be done here for the poor and oppressed.”
We need to stay extremely mindful and active for needs where people are concerned.
ISAIAH 58:10-11
It is for our healing, to keep us from the sickness of self-consumption.
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