The main point of this entire study, as I have mentioned previously, is the thought that it is all about God. Our very existence, the world around us, the circumstances that we find ourselves in, the tests and temptations that we face are all about our Creator and about the relationship that He desires to have with us. He created us for a purpose but that purpose is not served by our existence alone. His purpose must be lived out in our lives one day at a time. So, when we read the Scriptures, one of the main questions that we should be asking ourselves is what lesson God is trying to teach us about Him.
So, when we get to Daniel 3:13 and King Nebuchadnezzar is “furious with rage” and he calls Daniel and his friends to appear before him, we get a clearer picture of who this king really is and of what he thinks of His creator. We have mentioned before that Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan king so we shouldn’t be surprised but somehow we always are.
When he summons Daniel and his friends, he demands of them to know whether it is true that they refuse to worship and serve the gods that he had set up. It should also have been quite obvious to him by this time. After all, it wasn’t that long before that the magicians and other religious leaders and wise men of his kingdom, all pagans, were unable to perform his demands. In spite of this and their pagan beliefs about gods, the Creator revealed both the dream and its interpretation to the king through Daniel. Since Daniel gave all of the credit for this to his God, the king had no reason to think that this God was even in the same league with the gods that he worshiped.
Regardless of degrees of surprise on either side, the king was angry at Daniel and his friends. This was to be expected from a human standpoint largely because Daniel and his friends had defied the king’s orders (again) but this time in such an open manner that their lack of respect for and obedience to the king could not be hidden or overlooked. Now the king was humiliated in front of his other leaders. How was he to keep them all in check when he had this small group who would openly defy his orders in front of their peers? Further, he was enflamed by the words of the accusers who had reported that Daniel and his friends “pay no attention to you.” Kings are never supposed to be humiliated and these men had given him a large dose.
In spite of all of this, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to recognize the contributions of these men. So, he gave them another opportunity to bow down and worship his gods, especially this new statue that he had just finished building. In fact, he promised them in verse 15 that he would forgive the first offense and let them go free if they would only bow down and worship this statue when the music began again. But, he didn’t stop there. He reiterated his promise to have them executed by throwing them into a fiery furnace if they chose not to obey his orders again. He apparently had no doubt that their love of their own lives would motivate them to obey. But even this was not enough for Nebuchadnezzar.
The king made his promise to burn Daniel and his friends if they refused to worship. He knew that he had both the authority and the power to have these men thrown into the fire. That was not even in question. Since he also was well-acquainted with the power of the flame, he had no doubt of the outcome if they were thrown into the furnace. In fact, he asked them to tell him, “Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” The implication was clearly one of his supremacy by the use of fire, whose power nobody questioned. The implication in his question is that he was not acquainted with the God who made fire.
Thought: In Romans 12:3, Paul stated: “For I say , through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think ; but to think soberly , according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (KJV) He is really making both sides of the same two-edged point. On the one hand, he is saying that we should not be puffed up, not think of ourselves in terms that exceed either our authority or our power. On the other hand, he is also saying that we should not underestimate the power of the Living God, our Creator and Saviour.
Satan already went there. He thought so highly of himself that he vowed to ascend to a place of power, to a position, that would be recognized and worshiped alongside of the Creator. This is a violation of God’s command to have no other god before Him. In holding himself up so highly, he also, by default, placed God in a lower place than He deserved. His condition was evidenced by self-worship while goal and objective was to gain the worship of others. Nebuchadnezzar clearly shared this character trait and this goal. He issued the challenge, “What God will be able to rescue you from my hand?” He really thought that he was on top of the world.
Stay with us because we will shortly see that nobody can attempt to ascend to and be seated on God’s throne without being cut down to size. Only God is God, and He is only One God.
By His grace, there is more to come….
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Daniel 3: Holiness and Half-truths.
Lying is an obvious moral problem and most of us would describe ourselves as being too honest to lie. This does not mean that we necessarily believe we are above lying, but rather that we have advanced to a place of maturity or sanctification (or we are merely much too honest as humans) where we just plain do not wish to lie or to be known as a liar. We have a personal code of integrity that will not permit us to tell an outright lie. This is definitely not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good thing. But how many of us who would not even think of telling an outright lie wouldn’t think twice before telling a half-truth if is seemed to suit our position?
It seems to be a staple of humanity to tell the truth, or at least a part of the truth, because it actually does seem to suit us and our purposes better than lying. We may be able to manipulate the results that we are looking for by telling at least a partial truth while conveniently leaving out a portion of the truth. Altogether too often, it is the part of the truth that we have omitted that becomes the crux of a matter. In fact, many a reputation for integrity has been destroyed by the half-truth rather than by the whole lie.
In verses 8-12 of Daniel 3, the king has begun the dedication of his great statue of gold. All of the people who held positions of importance throughout his kingdom were invited to attend. Also, they were all jointly given instructions to bow down and worship the statue when the “worship music” began. Since the one giving the order and the one who built the statue was their king, were they all not required (morally) to obey the king and bow down to this statue? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego decided that they had a higher moral obligation to their own Creator than they did to the creator of this gold statue. They also may have assumed at this point that the king would understand and permit them an exception but we won’t get properly into that part of the story this week.
These three men and their friend Daniel all remained standing when the others bowed down to the huge gold statue. As we still see today, not all of the worshippers were paying attention to what they were doing. Several of them were apparently looking around during the worship (music, prayer, etc.). They came to the king and told him what they had seen. They reported that Daniel and his three friends (the Jews), “neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”
You might ask, “What’s the big deal? Didn’t the king already know that these guys worship a different god than he? Would he really have expected that these men would bow down to a cold, gold, inanimate statue?” He should not have expected these men to change and probably had not even contemplated that there would be an issue. In fact, if the men who “ratted them out” had come to the king with a simple message regarding how these faithful servants who had also told him his dream and its interpretation had not bowed down, the king might possibly have acknowledged their difference and permitted them to worship in their own way. However, that would not have pleased these men who came to the king.
Apparently there was a bit of a jealous streak between them. They told the king that, “they pay no attention to you, o king.” In fact, these were the inflammatory words that they started with. Was this statement a true statement? It could only be judged as true under the light of their actions. Since they refused the order of the king, this might have been a reasonable conclusion to come to. However, introducing the story with the conclusion before the facts was merely inflammatory and introducing these men with the mere statement that they would not bow down was a calculated move on the part of these men to move the king to anger. They succeeded. The very next verse begins with, “Furious with rage…” and we all know what dire, even unreasonable actions can be taken by any man who is filled with fury and rage.
Thought: It is vitally important that we be careful in our choice of words. It is often easy to state the obvious when the less-than-obvious is more pertinent. It often serves our desires and ambitions better to state the facts that are true on their face, knowing the reaction that they will bring. What we ought to remember though is that speaking in this way makes us morally (if not legally) liable for any damages that ensue.
In James 3, the tongue (our speech) is likened to a fire (v. 6) and goes on to say that the fire it possesses is lit by hellfire itself. Of course, the point of the entire passage is that we ought to take possession of our tongue rather than allowing it to take possession of us. As we begin this new year, let’s determine to be more careful to guard our tongue and to use our speech in ways that build people up rather than tearing (or burning) them down. Let’s speak the whole truth and take a step closer to the holiness of Almighty God.
By His grace, there is more to come….
It seems to be a staple of humanity to tell the truth, or at least a part of the truth, because it actually does seem to suit us and our purposes better than lying. We may be able to manipulate the results that we are looking for by telling at least a partial truth while conveniently leaving out a portion of the truth. Altogether too often, it is the part of the truth that we have omitted that becomes the crux of a matter. In fact, many a reputation for integrity has been destroyed by the half-truth rather than by the whole lie.
In verses 8-12 of Daniel 3, the king has begun the dedication of his great statue of gold. All of the people who held positions of importance throughout his kingdom were invited to attend. Also, they were all jointly given instructions to bow down and worship the statue when the “worship music” began. Since the one giving the order and the one who built the statue was their king, were they all not required (morally) to obey the king and bow down to this statue? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego decided that they had a higher moral obligation to their own Creator than they did to the creator of this gold statue. They also may have assumed at this point that the king would understand and permit them an exception but we won’t get properly into that part of the story this week.
These three men and their friend Daniel all remained standing when the others bowed down to the huge gold statue. As we still see today, not all of the worshippers were paying attention to what they were doing. Several of them were apparently looking around during the worship (music, prayer, etc.). They came to the king and told him what they had seen. They reported that Daniel and his three friends (the Jews), “neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”
You might ask, “What’s the big deal? Didn’t the king already know that these guys worship a different god than he? Would he really have expected that these men would bow down to a cold, gold, inanimate statue?” He should not have expected these men to change and probably had not even contemplated that there would be an issue. In fact, if the men who “ratted them out” had come to the king with a simple message regarding how these faithful servants who had also told him his dream and its interpretation had not bowed down, the king might possibly have acknowledged their difference and permitted them to worship in their own way. However, that would not have pleased these men who came to the king.
Apparently there was a bit of a jealous streak between them. They told the king that, “they pay no attention to you, o king.” In fact, these were the inflammatory words that they started with. Was this statement a true statement? It could only be judged as true under the light of their actions. Since they refused the order of the king, this might have been a reasonable conclusion to come to. However, introducing the story with the conclusion before the facts was merely inflammatory and introducing these men with the mere statement that they would not bow down was a calculated move on the part of these men to move the king to anger. They succeeded. The very next verse begins with, “Furious with rage…” and we all know what dire, even unreasonable actions can be taken by any man who is filled with fury and rage.
Thought: It is vitally important that we be careful in our choice of words. It is often easy to state the obvious when the less-than-obvious is more pertinent. It often serves our desires and ambitions better to state the facts that are true on their face, knowing the reaction that they will bring. What we ought to remember though is that speaking in this way makes us morally (if not legally) liable for any damages that ensue.
In James 3, the tongue (our speech) is likened to a fire (v. 6) and goes on to say that the fire it possesses is lit by hellfire itself. Of course, the point of the entire passage is that we ought to take possession of our tongue rather than allowing it to take possession of us. As we begin this new year, let’s determine to be more careful to guard our tongue and to use our speech in ways that build people up rather than tearing (or burning) them down. Let’s speak the whole truth and take a step closer to the holiness of Almighty God.
By His grace, there is more to come….
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Daniel 3: Worship is More Than Form.
Worship is a popular word in the church today. Everyone is trying to improve their “worship experience”. This often includes better music, more instruments, and more advanced technical support. We try to get a dramatic element into our church services by employing these and other musical elements because we now know that music is powerful in the way that it bypasses so much of our intellect and speaks directly to our hearts. It is almost as though the church has made a thoughtful decision to employ music for the purpose of bypassing the brain, ignoring the intellect. This obviously isn’t true of all churches but you cannot deny that our focus is more on worship and worship music than it is on holy living.
In Chapter 3 of Daniel, it is hard to miss the significance of a pagan king setting up his nest version of god and then commanding all who are present to bow down and worship when they hear the music. He had it down, didn’t he? He had a full orchestra with all of those instruments. He had a huge crowd gathered and it must have been an awesome sight to see such a great crowd bowing in response to all of the worship music that was being played that day. I wonder how moved Daniel and his friends were at the sight and sound of the event.
2 Timothy 3 speaks of what things will be like “in the last days.” In verse 5, we hear that people (in the last days) will have “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” This “form of godliness” can take a lot of forms and many have been eloquently spoken of by preachers over the years. As the church continues to change with the times, it is important that we examine its practices in light of the truth of Scripture to be certain that we are embracing true godliness and not merely a form of it. Is our worship the kind of worship that Jesus said we should participate in? Are we worshipping in spirit and in truth? Or, are we merely mimicking in body what we believe to be true worship, leaving out both the spirit of worship and the truth of worship?
Some will respond by claiming that I have taken an Old Testament passage out of context and have applied it wrongly to today’s church. Looking again to 2 Timothy, we find in chapter 3 that, “16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (KJV) We cannot exclude any portion of Scripture from our study of God and His ways if we would truly learn of Him and if we would genuinely draw close to Him in worship. In Daniel 3, we see a clear example of false worship against which Daniel and his friends stood, fearlessly.
Thought: It should not be our desire that worship be dry and dull, devoid of emotion. However, we also need to avoid using manipulative techniques to generate emotion that is devoid of the spirit of repentance and humility before a holy God. We should not use any technique that encourages us to come boldly before this Almighty Creator in an unholy condition which He cannot accept. That is failing to worship in truth and we have been commanded to worship in both spirit and truth. No false teaching or false, manipulative techniques to bring men and women to worship.
What we do need is the pure, unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ to bring the hearts of men and women to a place of repentance so that their hearts and their minds can be prepared by the Holy Spirit of God for the act of worship. Unless we are prepared to confess our sin and repent of it, we have no business coming before God with any other request. Once our hearts are changed and cleansed, we are commanded to come before Him with thanksgiving, with a heart filled with worship. It is only when we come before Him in the way that He has prescribed that we will know His forgiveness, experience His love, and enjoy the peace that only He can give.
By His grace, there is more to come….
In Chapter 3 of Daniel, it is hard to miss the significance of a pagan king setting up his nest version of god and then commanding all who are present to bow down and worship when they hear the music. He had it down, didn’t he? He had a full orchestra with all of those instruments. He had a huge crowd gathered and it must have been an awesome sight to see such a great crowd bowing in response to all of the worship music that was being played that day. I wonder how moved Daniel and his friends were at the sight and sound of the event.
2 Timothy 3 speaks of what things will be like “in the last days.” In verse 5, we hear that people (in the last days) will have “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” This “form of godliness” can take a lot of forms and many have been eloquently spoken of by preachers over the years. As the church continues to change with the times, it is important that we examine its practices in light of the truth of Scripture to be certain that we are embracing true godliness and not merely a form of it. Is our worship the kind of worship that Jesus said we should participate in? Are we worshipping in spirit and in truth? Or, are we merely mimicking in body what we believe to be true worship, leaving out both the spirit of worship and the truth of worship?
Some will respond by claiming that I have taken an Old Testament passage out of context and have applied it wrongly to today’s church. Looking again to 2 Timothy, we find in chapter 3 that, “16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (KJV) We cannot exclude any portion of Scripture from our study of God and His ways if we would truly learn of Him and if we would genuinely draw close to Him in worship. In Daniel 3, we see a clear example of false worship against which Daniel and his friends stood, fearlessly.
Thought: It should not be our desire that worship be dry and dull, devoid of emotion. However, we also need to avoid using manipulative techniques to generate emotion that is devoid of the spirit of repentance and humility before a holy God. We should not use any technique that encourages us to come boldly before this Almighty Creator in an unholy condition which He cannot accept. That is failing to worship in truth and we have been commanded to worship in both spirit and truth. No false teaching or false, manipulative techniques to bring men and women to worship.
What we do need is the pure, unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ to bring the hearts of men and women to a place of repentance so that their hearts and their minds can be prepared by the Holy Spirit of God for the act of worship. Unless we are prepared to confess our sin and repent of it, we have no business coming before God with any other request. Once our hearts are changed and cleansed, we are commanded to come before Him with thanksgiving, with a heart filled with worship. It is only when we come before Him in the way that He has prescribed that we will know His forgiveness, experience His love, and enjoy the peace that only He can give.
By His grace, there is more to come….
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