How would you feel if every part of your life was preplanned? Would you feel caged or would you feel free?

Daniel 11 predicts the future with amazing accuracy. For example, v. 17 says, “He [the king of the north] will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the South. And he will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plans will not succeed or help him.”

In history, Antiochus III (the king of the north) gave his daughter Cleopatra I to Ptolemy V with the hope that she would serve as a spy in the south, but Cleopatra aligned her interests with her husband. Thus, Antiochus’s plans did not succeed.

And here’s the amazing thing. The Book of Daniel was written several hundred years before this took place in history! Chapter 11 of Daniel goes on and on about the kingdoms and the kings detailing their alliances, attacks, successes and failures. Only if these kings read the Book of Daniel, they would’ve known exactly how their campaigns would go!!

Yet, when these kings acted, they were acting freely without compulsion. They made the decision, and they executed. Yet, they were executing God’s plan. “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Prov. 19:21)

Depending on whether we are in rebellion against God or in submission to God, we will feel about the preplanned life. If we see God as a gracious, loving, joy-inducing Father, then the preplanned life feels like freedom, for we feel secure in His sovereignty. But if we are in rebellion against God, then the preplanning feels coerced, caged, and trapped.

Do not draw the wrong conclusion from this and that is, “Since my life is preplanned, I don’t have to do anything. What will happen will happen.” That’s fatalism and there’s no place for it in the life of a believer. Our acting and our effort are what God uses to bring about His will.

Act! But know that we are secure in His will as we act.

PH