And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. Daniel 11: 32 KJV
The background to this passage was the story of a young man called Daniel who was taken away in captivity into Babylon along with other children of Israel. Daniel lived through 4 kings (Nebuchadnezer, Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus) and he was preferred above all the wise men by these same kings. Towards the end of his life Daniel saw the vision of the restoration of Israel to their land. He also saw the war between the king of the south and the king of the north. Daniel was encouraging the people not be anxious concerning that problems they see around the world but that a people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. The word "to know" is “Yada” in Hebrew. It means to have deep intimacy with the subject matter. To to perceive and see, find out and discern, ro know by experience, to understand, to acquire knowledge intimately of God.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6 KJV
Daniel was saying a people that know their God intimately can actually be strong and do exploit. The challenge of life is that most people don’t take enough time to know the subject and object they are pursuing after. A while back a young man came to me and said he wanted to pursue a musical career. I asked him a couple of questions
1.How will you succeed
2.Who are you modelling your career after?
He seem not to have an intimate knowledge of the career to know exactly what he was pursuing after and the environment. This also happens a lot in marriages and between married couples. Husband and wife fail to know themselves intimately, they do not have an indepth knowledge of each other. These causes friction and misunderstanding.
Some couples spend years in marriage and fail to be able to discern the character of their partner because they fail to take enough time of the other person. I tell you people that in courtship people behave well in courtship but in marriage they settle down. If you know your spouse or life partner very well then you can be strong together and do exploits. A lot of Christians fail to take time to know God. They rely solely on what the pastor says; hence they treat their pastor like God and will act only on what the pastor says. People fail to know God for themselves.
Things about knowing God. Who or what is God?
- God created all things; there is nothing that was created that was not created by him. Man does not create anything; what man does is to add value or reshape what God has already created. God created Gold and man reshapes gold to make things from it. Chemistry and technology are revelational knowledge of God given to man proven over time e.g 2 parts of Hydrogen and 1 part of oxygen will give you water. This is a revelation of how God made water. Science is the revelation of knowledge from God to man.
- God is the owner of the universe. Nothing that we have belongs to God. Not even the clothes, shoes, house or cars we have belong to us. We are just hiring it for the period of time it is with us. When we die or lose them it will go into someone else’s keeping. Life goes round the circles. Everything that you own is not your own.
- God is who He was, who He is and who He will be forever more. The only thing you can do this wonderful day is to give your life to God. The “I am that I am”.
