Great Exploits

Daniel 11:32b ‘..but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do great exploits.’

An exploit is an extraordinary or heroic deed, or achievement. This week, I saw something in this scripture that I am sure I’ve missed all this time.

The condition for the doing of great extraordinary deeds or achievements, is people knowing their God. Even if the narration is in third person, it has to be brought to the first and second person speech. I’d recompose it this way. ‘He/She, who knows His/Her God shall do mighty exploits.’

The condition isn’t knowing ‘our’ God. It is not knowing ‘your’ neighbor’s God. It is knowing your God. There’s a big difference between a random member of the country, knowing that country’s president, and the wife of that president knowing him (if he is a male). She will know pretty more things that we don’t see when the president is giving a speech.

Daniel is telling us that it’s not enough to know the God of Abraham. He has to become the God of You. It’s not enough to know the God of Israel. You too have to experience Him in your own way. Just like these patriarchs came into covenant with Him, the great exploits will begin when you as an individual, come into covenant with Him.

The scripture wasn’t generic, saying those who know God. It added a personal pronoun ‘their’, or in first person ‘my’… The first time the word ‘know’ appears in the Bible was with Adam and Eve. The Hebrew translation of ‘know’ is yada. Apart from perceiving, learning, understanding, willing, performing, and experiencing, the word is also euphemism for sexual intercourse which we’d also refer to as intimacy. This is in other words saying, those who are intimate with their God (the one they have come to experience on their own and not from stories and tales of others) are the ones who will be strong and do great exploits.

They’ll do what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and what no mind has imagined. David knew HIS God, and we saw the results thereof. Daniel knew HIS God, and we saw what he did in all the different reigns.

This reminds me of Isaiah when He said, ‘Arise and shine for YOUR light has come…’ He didn’t say ‘for light has come’. Your particular light has to come. Your particular revelation has to come. Your knowing your God—and not the God of Moses— must come. You have to have your own experience of Him.

And when you do, that’s when unusual achievements you’ll start to accomplish! Saul didn’t know Him. When He encountered Jesus along the road to Damascus, He got to know Him a whole different way that his name changed. He became Paul and He did mighty exploits from that point on! Could it be … that you’re not doing great & mighty exploits due to your not knowing God beyond the Sunday or religious events?

The preacher in Ecclesiastes said God has set eternity in our hearts. John came later and said eternal life is knowing God and His one true son Jesus Christ (17:3). That knowing won’t be done without your involvement. In a class, groups could facilitate the understanding of things, like church or fellowships would here. But it’s up to the student to understand and internalize what’s being taught into his or her brain so that they’d be found wanting when the examination comes.

Know your God!