A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

                                                FAR FROM HOME PART I

"I, Daniel, used to live in Jerusalem with my family.... I grew up there... My closest friends grew up there as well.... We used to see each other every day....But one day Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came with his army to our city and took us to his country.... He took our king as well.... Moreover, he took some of the articles from our temple... These articles are to be used in the worship of our God, the God of Israel.... But they are now in the treasure house of Nebuchadnezzar's god.... I wonder what will happen to these articles.... I can only hope that they will never be used in the worship of their god....Everything and everyone is so unfamiliar for me.... I wish I was back home with my family.... I can only pray to my God that one day I will be allowed to return to them.... In the meantime I must trust my God that He will keep me safe.".... Please read the typed out attachment when you will learn of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.


               ATTACHMENT A PURPOSEFUL LIFE; OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

                                                FAR FROM HOME PART I

Every day you are faced with choices. Some of them are very easy to make, such as what you are going to have for dinner. However, other choices are more difficult to make and may well have far reaching consequences. In the Book of Daniel you can read about a young man named Daniel and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah and the choices they had to make. Their story begins when they are taken from their country Israel to a foreign nation Babylon as you can read in Daniel 1:1-2

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king f Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along some some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried of to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Daniel and his friends are, in fact, only teenagers when they are taken from their country. Their nation Israel has sinned against God and God disciplines His people by allowing them to be taken into exile. And Daniel is one of the people taken into exile, even though he himself has not sinned against God.