9/17/2023 0 Comments Ispeak daniel![]() ![]() In this dream he sees a ram standing beside the river. Not one from a king this time, but one of his own. So it comes as a bit of a relief to me when, toward the latter part of the book, in chapter eight, Daniel reveals that he too can be flummoxed by a dream. No wonder he was granted such privilege and power. What I find especially impressive about Daniel is that he doesn’t solely interpret the dreams of kings he can actually recount one before it’s even been recounted. The king is forced to praise not only the God who protected them and walked with them but also the angel who was sent to deliver them. The three young men were released, not a hair on their heads singed, their tunics hardly damaged. But as the king watched from above the flames, he saw Daniel’s three friends walking through the fiery furnace-with a fourth in their midst, a fourth who had the appearance of a god. If I imagine my own oven, often set at 350 degrees, we’re talking about 2,450 degrees! The escorts were immediately obliterated. When these three young men did not bow and worship a mighty golden statue that the king had set up, they were escorted into the inferno, whose heat was increased sevenfold. There is another wonderful story in the book about how an angel-or maybe it was God himself-appeared in a fiery furnace and rescued Daniel’s compatriots, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So much for reading the writing on the wall. In fact, even after quickly promoting Daniel in a desperate attempt to save himself, King Belshazzar dies that very night. ![]() ![]() He has not humbled himself before God and has misused the sacred vessels. As he reports, things do not look good for Belshazzar. Who can read this foreign writing? Who can interpret what it says? Daniel is sent for and risks all to tell the truth. Until the fingers of a human hand appear out of nowhere and begin writing on the palace’s plaster wall. In his father’s conquest of Jerusalem they had stolen the vessels of gold and silver from the temple, and the king and his mistresses and wives and lords were using them to drink wine and praise false gods. At this point in the story, Nebuchadnezzar’s son Belshazzar has become king. Or consider the expression the writing is on the wall, referring to a forecast of coming doom. Daniel’s interpretation was that Nebuchadnezzar, with all his power, would still contend with vulnerabilities. In the dream he saw a huge statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and those feet, well, partly iron and partly clay. Feet of clay, for instance, refers to the dream King Nebuchadnezzar had. So many popular expressions come from the book of Daniel. His enemies at court weren’t so lucky when the king had his way with them. There was Daniel, alive and hardy, praising God and acknowledging the angel that had held shut the lions’ mouths. The next day the king hurried to see what had happened. ![]() A stone sealed the mouth of the den that held his loyal servant-and the lions. He was called out, and the king was forced to observe the law. Searching for an American college was extremely daunting, even more so because I was looking at places in a country where I knew nobody.No way was Daniel going to deny his God. Still to this day, I remember flicking through books and seeing a photograph of a building unlike anything I had ever seen the Nott Memorial took center stage on a page designated as being for “Union College.” I wanted a small school that wanted their students to make their own path and journey. Union catered to majors ranging from my own interest in Political Science, all the way to Engineering and the hard sciences. I wanted to meet people from a variety of backgrounds, have the opportunity to complete research and to learn a new language. How do you describe Union to your friends and family?Īlthough this could be described as cliché, I say Union is a home-away-from-home. I think this is an important way to feel about your college, as it is where you will spend four years of your life, will grow as a person, and will always have a connection. Whenever I get the opportunity to talk about Union, and my experience so far, I jump at the chance. I describe it to my friends and family the same way that I speak about it to students on my tours: Union is a place that will give you more opportunities than you could ever imagine, but it is up to you to make the most of those opportunities. I believe that I am making my Union journey the best that it can be. What has been your favorite class assignment at Union? I was desperate to get back to Union as soon as possible after the pandemic put an end to in-person experiences, and I am now glad to be back walking through the Schenectady streets and again being around my friends in the college community. ![]()
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