Today as we meet on the first Sunday of a new year we are going to embark on a leisurely but meaningful study of the book of Ecclesiastes. The month of January is regarded by many as the toughest month of the year. No doubt this year will be fuelled by Covid-19 pressures and the uncertainty of Brexit. Ecclesiastes makes us confront why there are people who have no foundation in life, why there are people filled with fear, and why everything appears to be empty and evaporates like a mist from the oil burner on a frosty morning. We shouldn’t be measuring things against the latest personal or national crisis we should be making our decisions in the full knowledge that death and eternity come irrespective of the causes, that is the cycle of life

In our Sunday morning worship in First Rathfriland Presbyterian Church the service will be conducted by Rev Seamus Burke. The Rev Burke gets us to focus on the lives of Simeon and Anna.

Our reading this morning will be from the book of Isaiah 7:7-17. We would encourage you to open up your Bible as we learn more from God's word together.

The Old Testament Christmas Story We could think of Isaiah as a kind of ‘mini Bible.’ There are 66 books in the Bible and 66 chapters in Isaiah.  There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.  If you took the whole book of Isaiah, you could divide it between chapters 39 and 40.  Chapters 1-39 are dealing with Isaiah talking about exile, saying, “People need to repent and turn to God.  We’ve strayed from God, He’s going to lead us back to him and it’s not going to be pretty, so let’s just go ourselves.”  Chapters 40-66 is Isaiah setting out a vision of their place in exile and the place of God who turns up in their exile.  V1-2 Words of Comfort Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

We will read from Daniel 4:24-27 Facing the facts of Dream No.2 There has been a lot going on in the life of Nebuchadnezzar’s. Nebuchadnezzar had been made into a god and a huge statue or idol erected for people to worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship the idol and were thrown into the fiery furnace and survived. Now Nebuchadnezzar has a second dream that torments the life out of him. Again he calls on Daniel to explain what the dream meant.  The last time Daniel interpreted a dream for the king it wasn’t bad news for the king. Daniel was the only person who could give a true and accurate explanation. Daniel received his promotion. This time it is different. The explanation that Daniel has is bad news, it is humiliating for the king. How will the king respond to Daniel?

Respect for God’s Plan How many times have you heard people quote the verse from Jeremiah 29:11 “11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” People quote it and cling to it as they seek direction for the future relating to a job, retirement, a role in the church, going into full-time ministry, getting married, etc. Saul was anointed king in 10:1 “Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his inheritance?” There what did I tell you? Jeremiah 29:11 “11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Saul at the age of 30 was going to be the first king of Israel and his family was going to reign over Israel forever. Saul reigned for 42 years.

Daniel and his Promotion As we learned last week Daniel graduated from Nebuchadnezzar’s university and entered employment in the civil service. We are not told very much about his initial activities until we read about this major promotion to the cabinet-level of the government.

These verses at the end of Daniel chapter 1 are a summary of three years of hard study, human contribution, and the result of God’s blessing upon the four faithful young men, divine contribution. The young men were probably twenty years of age plus. Now they had knowledge, skill, intelligence, and a thorough understanding of the Chaldean way of life. They also had insight into its true meaning. Every business has a culture and a way of doing things and they want their employees to buy into that. Amazon's mission statement,  “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”

In the Lunchtime Talk this week the Rev Boyd will be examining how Daniel introduced a change. Evidence suggests that none of us like change and as individuals some cope with change better than others. When companies change things it has to be done in a measured way to get both employees and customers to adopt the changes. Today we are focussing on how Daniel persuaded the person in authority to change the system. Some of you might say depending on your experiences of change that Daniel was a glutton for punishment.

Achish has sent David and his soldiers back to their home in Ziklag. These 600 men had thrown in their lot with David and now they head back to Ziklag with their tails between their legs rejected by the Philistines and on the run from King Saul and unable to return to their homeland. When they trudged over the hill to Ziklag licking their wounds of embarrassment they see their adopted city still smoldering after the fires of destruction.