Christmas 2009.

As another year draws to a close, we celebrate Christmas once more. With all of the traditions, including the music, gift-giving, family gatherings and church services, it is so easy to become completely detached or to be completely caught up in the re-enactment of Christmases past. Perhaps it is no wonder that so many people find this to be the most depressing, the most lonely of any season all year long. Yet this year has served to drive a lesson home for me that is so obvious and yet had escaped me for years.

In Matthew 1:23, the Scriptures say that a virgin will give birth to a child who shall be called Immanuel, a name that means literally, “God is with us.” A lot of time is spent traditionally on several aspects of Christ’s birth, not the least of which is his birth by and to a virgin. But perhaps we often overlook the name given to Jesus in this passage, and the interpretation or the meaning of this name. Immanuel. God with us.

The name is not one which we are accustomed to using any more and so we may overlook it or even look right past it as though it were not there. Even the meaning, God with us, is often dismissed or overlooked. After all, perhaps we can concede that He was with us about 2000 years ago but that’s all ancient history now. Further, if we take the “us” in that phrase to mean all of the population of the entire world, it becomes very impersonal at best. So, what difference does this name, and its meaning, really make?

Having served as a police officer for a number of years, I have become keenly aware of what it means to respond to a call having someone with me. Responding to any call alone causes you to think in very defensive terms. But when you have someone that you know and trust responding to the call along side you, it frees you to think more strategically and perhaps even proactively. Having someone respond with you is invaluable in producing excellent results in situations that can otherwise be extremely dangerous.

Of course there are many other situations in life which are made better by the mere presence of someone else with us. If you are lost in the woods, it is less frightening and more survivable if you have someone with you. If you should happen to be in a strange land, it is less foreboding if someone you know is accompanying you. It is a known part of human nature that we like to have someone with us in many situations in our lives. If we are cold and alone, we instantly feel better when we meet the gaze of a friendly face and perhaps a warm embrace from this same friend or family member. Whether children or adults, young or old, we do not like to be alone.

When the angel of the Lord (some would interpret this to be the Holy Spirit Himself) appeared to Joseph in a dream and explained to him that he should go forward with his plans to marry Mary, He told Joseph that the babe that Mary was pregnant with would be called Immanuel and he explained that this name meant, God with us. He was making a very important statement about the role that Jesus was to play in the lives of human beings all over the world. He was to be with us so that we would no longer be alone, lonely, cold, unloved, uncared for.

When we speak of Jesus and of Salvation, we often speak of sin and of our need for someone to pay our sin debt on our behalf. While this is true and is no small matter, it is important to realize that God was providing a means of bringing us back into fellowship, intimate friendship with Him. When He came walking in the Garden of Eden to speak with Adam and Eve and found that they were hiding from Him because they had disobeyed Him, He also felt the separation and was hurt by it. He had created us out of love and of a desire to have a friendly relationship and now the relationship had been ended. For about 4,000 years, God looked forward to the day when the relationship would be mended and Christ was the means to that end.
When Jesus came to earth, He came as the physical representation, the very physical presence of God with us. God gave His son to get us back to Him, to renew and revitalize our relationship with Him.

Thought: When God created us, it was not His intention that we should go through life on our own. He did not intend that we should fail, especially failure due to being overpowered or outnumbered. He intended to be there with us through every day and every situation. It was us who broke that relationship when we entered into sin, rebellion against Him. He would not allow even this to defeat us or to make the broken relationship inevitable.

Jesus came to be God with us here on earth. This is why it was so important for Him to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, when He returned to God the Father to let Him know that the objective had been met, that the goal had been accomplished. Having God with us, having our Creator with us, causes us to be triumphant over all our enemies through His strength. We are the winners when we allow Him to get the victory in and through us. Hallelujah for Immanuel and for His presence with us in every situation. We are no longer alone!

By His grace, there is more to come….

Daniel 2: Faithfulness and rewards.

Where is our discernment? I mean, we have been duped on several occasions over the decades. In fact, I might characterize the church (generic) as being rather gullible. We hear someone say that they are “born again”, they sing songs that COULD refer to Jesus and heaven, or they use language that we expect only true Christians to know and use and we immediately conclude that these people are also true Christians. I dare say that there are people in the church today that would conclude after Daniel chapter 2 that Nebuchadnezzar had been converted. However, chapter 3 gives a somewhat different view of the king.

Obviously, based on the things that God said about Nebuchadnezzar in the dream and its interpretation, Nebuchadnezzar was an ambitious person. He had high aspirations and perhaps this is why his kingdom was the head of gold and represented so much earthly glory. His ambition is evident in the opening of chapter 3 as he erects a statue of his own (as compared to the one in his dream). This one is all of gold and it is about 90 feet tall. This piece of art was pretty impressive by any standards. However, it wasn’t simply a piece of art. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan king in a pagan country and although he had recognized the God of Israel as being special and unusually powerful compared to his own gods, he was still a pagan at heart.

So when the statue was completed, he gathered together all of the leaders that were under his command. He invited them to come and participate in the dedication of this new work that he had made (v. 3). When he had gathered everyone together, he had an announcement made to all who were there. The announcement was that everyone was to bow down and worship this statue when they heard the music begin to play. Sounds a little like church, doesn’t it. After all, we play and sing music when we “worship” god, don’t we. A lesser man than Daniel and his friends might have seen this sight and thought, “What could be the harm in this? After all, it isn’t like this statue is alive or anything.”

Daniel and his friends new that God had commanded that His people should not worship anyone (or anything) except Him. After all, it logically follows that we should not elevate the art above the artist or the music above the musician or the creation above the Creator. What would we (or should we) expect for a reaction from our mother if she cooks a wonderful meal for us to enjoy and we begin to give all our praise and thanks to the food itself instead of to her, after she has prepared it intentionally for us?

If bowing before this image could be viewed as “not a big thing”, then there would likely be little or no consequence to failing to bow. But the king commanded and the herald declared that anyone who did not bow to the image would be thrown into a fiery furnace. This may not have been such an unusual thing as some pagan cultures practiced human sacrifice and this was the type of ceremony where such a thing would have been likely to take place. Also, burning human sacrifices in a furnace was not an uncommon method of performing this type of sacrifice. In any event, by placing this level of punishment on anyone who refused to bow the king made it clear how important this (forced) idol-worship was to him.

Thought: The Scriptures urge us repeatedly to be discerning. Solomon used words like wisdom and discernment over and over in the Book of Proverbs. Also, Jesus said that we would know people by the “fruit” of their lives. We need to be more careful in our examination of people to know for certain what they believe, not just take their word for it. Words can be very deceiving and we often do not interpret words in the same way as others based on the context in which they are used.

Let us determine in our hearts to be more discerning, to exhibit the wisdom of God in our daily interactions with others. After all, we cannot pray for the salvation of a lost person if we falsely believe them to be saved and we cannot encourage the believer if we do not know that they are in the family.

By His grace, there is more to come….

Daniel 2: Faithfulness and rewards.

As we finish our study of Daniel 2, let’s not skip over a couple of very significant verses right at the end of the chapter, verses 48 and 49. These verses are particularly significant in light of the title and purpose of our study (“It’s All About Him”). Although verse 48 begins with “Then the King…”, this is clearly an act of God. Don’t make the mistake of equating the king with God but understand that nothing happens without God’s direct intervention, or at least with His approval. So, when the king gives Daniel and high position in the government and then appoints Daniel’s three friends to similar positions right under him, this is really an act of Almighty God.

Recall that just a few verses earlier the king is laboring under a false assumption perpetrated by the king’s other wise men. They had asserted that God is too big to be interested in the affairs of men or the things of this earth. Daniel had to set him straight on this matter, letting the king know that God is very interested in the things of this earth and that He is never too big or too busy to communicate with men.

So now, the king acts as a servant of the very God that he knew little or nothing about just a short time before. He exalts Daniel and his friends to positions of great prominence, influence, and authority in the kingdom. This would not be the ordinary, expected response of a pagan leader. By taking this action, he was officially acknowledging that the God of Daniel, the God of Heaven, and the God of Creation is and was a true God. He was acknowledging the personal yet powerful nature of an almighty, Creator God.

In Hebrews 11:6, the author writes that God is “a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (KJV) This is representative of a theme that runs through all of Scripture. God likes to give rewards to people. In the closing verses of Daniel 2 we see a practical example of how God rewards those who seek Him, those who are faithful to Him. In this case, He exalted Daniel and his three friends to these prominent positions. If that is not a reward, especially after all that they had been through, then I can’t imagine what would be a reward. It reminds me a little of the stories I read as a child where the king would offer the hero anything he wanted “up to half of (my) kingdom”.

Thought: We tend to complain frequently about how God treats us. We even look at all of the evil in this world and begin to doubt that a loving God can exist. However, perhaps we would be better to examine ourselves, our motives, and our behaviors to see whether we are in a position of faithfulness to Him. If we have not been faithful, if we have not been loyal to Him, how can we legitimately expect Him to do anything for us?

Mark 8:38 says, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.” (NIV)

Daniel and his friends were not ashamed of who they were or of the God that they worshipped. In return, God rewarded them for their faithfulness. What will God have to say to you when you finally stand before Him? Will it be, “Well done.”? Will you also be rewarded?

By His grace, there is more to come….

Daniel 2: The Rest of the Story (sort of).

I’ve already promised that I will not attempt to give an interpretation of this prophetic portion of Scripture, largely because so many who are more qualified than I have done so already. I will keep that promise but I want to point out just a couple of very significant elements that are included in the dream and its interpretation.

First, Daniel plainly states that Nebuchadnezzar was represented by the head of gold. You can read the entire portion that includes the dream and Daniel’s interpretation in Daniel 2:29-45. In verses 36-38, Daniel declares that God used the gold head to signify Nebuchadnezzar’s reign because of his greatness as a ruler of men. He even refers to the king as “the king of kings” (v. 36), meaning a king among kings, or one whom other kings would look up to (or bow down to). This was a compliment of the highest order, especially since the compliment came directly from God.

Lest Nebuchadnezzar become puffed up with pride at this description of his kingdom, Daniel goes on to show that this description is very much relative. He describes the nations, kingdoms, or empires that would come in the future and how they relate to other portions of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream.

The last portion of the statue was the feet and it was described as being a mixture of clay and iron. Although I have not heard any Biblical scholars espouse this position, I find it very interesting (coincidental, perhaps) that the United States of America is becoming every day more and more like this “empire” or “kingdom” that is described as being a mixture of iron and clay. In verse 42 this entity is described as being both strong and brittle. It goes on to describe the people of this land as being a mixture that “will not remain united.” (v. 43) This may not be a good interpretation of the intent of God; however, the feet of clay and iron represent a final world power before Christ returns. We do know unequivocally that the time of Christ’s return is very near.

When the interpretation of the dream was complete, it is very significant that Nebuchadnezzar did not get caught up in the details of the dream or its interpretation. He did not dwell on his position in the lineup. Rather, he immediately recognized Daniel’s integrity and the awesome power and wisdom of Daniel’s God. Whereas he had been ready to kill of the wise men for the error of the pagan wise men, he was now prepared to recognize and reward those who had remained faithful to God. This was true even though he was a pagan king.

Thought: Whether the USA is seen symbolically in this statue dream or not is not really the important thing. The most significant thing to note from this dream is that nearly all has been fulfilled and we are definitely close to Christ’s return. We must therefore be prepared.

Secondly, we see again in Nebuchadnezzar’s response to Daniels interpretation that our response, our reaction to the circumstances God puts us in is very important. We must remember to put God first, to bring our praise to Him alone as the source of all wisdom and power. He may choose to use men and women in the process of communicating with us but we are obligated to remember and acknowledge the true message sender.

As we now move from Thanksgiving into the Christmas season, let’s remember to give thanks continually for the grace and goodness of God in our lives. Let’s put Him in His proper place and be prepared to humble ourselves before Him. After all, we cannot be too big to bow before Him when He was not too big to hang on a cross for us.

By His grace, there is more to come….