Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 27. I will then key in on verse 17 - As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Friends, it is vital that we have one or two close friends that we can be accountable to. These friends should allow you to pray for them (and they pray for you) when there are issues in your life that you are dealing with. The main point I want to emphasize is that it takes humility to have these friends. Having these relationships shows that we are vulnerable and demonstrate that we admit that we can not deal with all the issues of life on our own. Today we will take a look at a young man named Daniel in the Old Testament. Daniel lived about 2500 years ago and he, as well as thousands of others, had been taken away as captives from the land of Judah and taken to a foreign land. Daniel was a young Jewish man who knew who the God of Israel was. He was faithful to him, and was not about to turn away from him just because he was being taken to a foreign land. I will begin reading in Daniel, Chapter 1, and read verses 8-21. Daniel humbled himself before his God and asked that he (and his three friends) be treated differently than the other young men where they were in captivity. After 10 days, the man in charge realized that these young Jewish men seemed to be in better health than the same ages men from that country. In addition, the king noticed how intelligent and full of wisdom these young men were. King Nebuchadnessar has a dream - but the key astrologers of the land were unable to interpret the dream of the king. The king decides to kill all of the wise men of the kingdom - but Daniel intervenes and interprets the king's dream for him. The king shows favor to Daniel by promoting him (and his three young friends). The king then makes a 90-foot tall idol depicting himself and states that anyone that will not bow down to this idol will be thrown into a fiery furnace. When told that Daniel's three friends refuse to bow down to the idol, they are brought before the king. They tell the king that they will never bow down to the idol. They are immediately thrown into the fiery furnace, but are not harmed by the fire. Rather, they are removed from the fire and they do not even smell of smoke. Suggested scripture reading - Please read the first three chapters of the Book of Daniel.
