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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Monday Nov 16, 2020
Monday Nov 16, 2020
Chapter 7 of Daniel ends with Daniel being alarmed and troubled at the vision he has seen. He does not understand it all. This is not a surprise, since the New Testament tells us that this is the reaction of many Old Testament prophets. See the words of 1 Peter 1:10-12. Daniel does the right thing, though. He keeps the vision in his heart and seeks to understand more. It is the way faithful people reacted to the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:65-66, and how Mary reacted to all she saw and heard at the birth of Jesus and later in Luke 2:19 and 2:51. This is a good reminder for us all — to keep God’s Word in our hearts and to let Scripture interpret Scripture over time, when we don’t understand some things. See Psalm 119 and especially verses like 119:9-16 and 119:97-105.
In Daniel 7, we heard Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, representing four kingdoms that will come and go, as all earthly kingdoms do – the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman. It parallels the vision of Chapter 2, talking about the same kingdoms and their rise and fall, but the eternal kingdom of “The Stone,” our Lord Jesus, Who would and did come. The parallel to “The Stone” is “one like a Son of Man” in 7:13-14, Who appears before “the Ancient of Days” (God the Father) in a courtroom scene, (7:9-10). The “Son of Man” is declared to have glory and dominion and an everlasting kingdom (7:14) in which His believers, His saints, will also be blessed (7:27). This chapter is actually giving a glimpse of God’s whole plan of salvation coming through His “Son of Man,” Jesus.
The term “son of man” occurs in other places in the Old Testament, with regard to people like Daniel (Daniel 8:17) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:1 and 92 other times), who were God’s prophets and pointed forward to the true “Son of Man” to come, Jesus. The term is also used in Psalm 8:3-4 about God’s care for all human beings; but the “Son of Man” referred to in this psalm is much more than an ordinary human being or even a prophet, as verses 5-6 clearly indicate. All things will be put under His feet. See how this passage is quoted and used in Hebrews 2:5-9 with reference to Jesus. No other “son of man,” no other ordinary human being, could be and do what Jesus would do. See also Psalm 146:3-4 and Psalm 60:11-12, for example. Only One from heaven, coming “with the clouds of heaven like a Son of Man” (Daniel 7:13) could do the saving work of God, in contrast with those of the beasts, those of purely earthly origin (Daniel 7:3, 7:17).
This One is already in the presence of God the Father, the “Ancient of Days,” in the vision that Daniel sees, too. Only the Holy God Himself and His angels could be in this heavenly assembly. This means that the “One like a Son of Man” that Daniel sees is also holy and already has the authority and dominion spoken of. Note also the similarity of how the Ancient of Days looks in Daniel 7:9-10 and what John saw of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus in heaven, Who is called “one like a Son of Man” in Revelation 1:13-18.
We have the great privilege of living in a time where we have the whole New Testament that makes all this clearer, especially as Jesus often used the term “Son of Man” about Himself. He uses this term to refer to Himself as the very Son of God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as the One True Triune God, but also as a true human being, who did not always use His Godly power but went humbly to the cross to die for us. John 1:1-5,14-15,18 clearly tells us that Jesus is God the Son, Who was and “is at the Father’s side,” and “became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Very early in His ministry, Jesus forgave the sins of a paralyzed man and said, “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He healed the man. In Luke 6:1-5, Jesus allowed His disciples to do what some thought was unlawful on the Sabbath and says of Himself, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” He is Lord! In John 5:20-27, Jesus calls Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man, and says that He has the power to judge and to give life – the power pictured in the “court” that “sat in judgment” in Daniel 7:10.
Here is a list of more of these New Testament passages where Jesus calls Himself “the Son of Man” in what the catechism calls His “State of Humiliation” as he humbly went to the cross to earn salvation for us.:
Matthew 8:19-20
“The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Matthew 12:40
Like Jonah in the belly of the great fish, “so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Mark 8:31
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Mark 10:45
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Luke 19:10
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
John 12:23,31-34.
“And Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.... Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. ‘ He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die.” (Note in verse 34 that the people knew some of these terms, but did not really understand that Jesus was the “Christ” and “the Son of Man,” Who would soon die for them.)
Jesus uses this “Son of Man” term also for what the catechism calls His coming “State of Exultation” with His resurrection and ascension and return to His Father in heaven and on the last day His return to this earth.
John 6:62
“Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?”
Mark 14:61-62
“Again the High Priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
Luke 12:40
“You must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
In summary, how rich the New Testament is in talking about Jesus, the “Son of Man,” and His saving work for us. One more example: in the Hebrew language, “Adam” is simply the word that means “man.” Romans 5:12-21 reminds us that through the first man, Adam, and his rebellion against God and fall into sin, “death spread to all men because all men sinned.” Through the second Adam, though, the One Man, Jesus Christ, came the free gift of justification and life and righteousness through what He did for us, as the Son of Man.
As we go into Daniel Chapter 8, we see another vision, given earlier to Daniel by God, while Belshazzar is still the leader of Babylon. Daniel sees himself being in the Medo-Persian capital of Susa, where he sees a vision of a powerful ram with two horns, one higher than the other, that moves in many directions and conquers many (Daniel 8:1-4). Then Daniel sees a vision of a male goat flying across the earth with a great horn that destroys the ram and becomes very great. But then that horn is broken and replaced by four other horns (Daniel 8:5-8).
The angel Gabriel is then sent by a man, likely the Son of Man, who tells Daniel that the Ram refers to the Medo-Persian empire to come, with the Persian part the stronger “horn” (Daniel 8:15-20). The goat is then identified as the great King of Greece to come, who would defeat the Medo-Persian Empire. (History tells us that this person was Alexander the Great, who created a great empire, but was in power only from 331-323 BC and then died suddenly. His kingdom was divided into 4 area with 4 leaders (Hebrews 8:21-23).)
Later, out of one of the four horns comes “a little horn“ that creates much trouble for “the glorious land” (Israel) and “the host of heaven” (the people of Israel and their way of life and worship). This troubled time for God’s people will be limited by God and His timing (Hebrews 8:9-14). The ram and the goat parallel part of the image in Chapter 2, and the bear and the leopard in Chapter 7, picturing the rise and fall of empires. We will hear more about this next week along with what is said in Daniel 8:23-26.
Once again, Daniel was appalled by what he saw and it made him sick for some days. But then he “rose and went about the king’s business” (Daniel 8:27). Whatever was coming, Daniel still trusted God and knew he should keep doing what God had placed him in the Babylonian empire to do – to serve the leaders there and be a witness for the one true God.
As Chapter 9 of Daniel begins, the Medo-Persian empire has come into power over the Babylonians. Daniel has been studying Scripture, portions of the prophecy of Jeremiah about the Babylonian captivity and why it had happened – because of the terrible sinfulness of God’s people, in spite of what Jeremiah and other prophets had preached and warned about (Daniel 9:1-2). Jeremiah realized that the captivity would last for 70 years. You can read Jeremiah 29:10-14, as an example of what Jeremiah had said. In that passage, God says, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you” (v.12).
Daniel did not know just when those 70 years began and when they would end, but he knew that he needed to stop and take time to pray for himself and his people of Israel, in repentance for their many, many sins and asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness. We offer a general prayer of confession every week in worship, repenting of our sins. Daniel’s prayer, in Daniel 9:3-19, is a great example of a prayer of repentance from which we could learn in our own prayers, as we are “poor, miserable sinners” ourselves.
Read through the prayer and consider what Daniel says. Note that Daniel admits that God had warned very clearly of the consequences of forsaking Him, including in the Law of Moses. See Leviticus 26:14-39 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68, as long example of these warnings. Deuteronomy 28, verses 15 and 20 might be a summary of the warnings. Note finally that Daniel asks that God give forgiveness “for His own sake” and because of His own righteousness. Daniel has nothing he can offer to God to earn His forgiveness. Daniel simply says, “We do not present our pleas before you because of our own righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive” ( Daniel 9:18-19). It is the teaching of forgiveness and salvation purely by God’s mercy and grace without any merit on our part; and as we heard today, it comes through what Jesus, the Son of Man, did for us as our Savior. We say, with the publican, the tax collector, in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18:9-14: “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (v.13).
We will talk a little more about this next week and see God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer and then move on to a hard passage, Daniel 9:24-27, and what follows.
Monday Nov 16, 2020
Monday Nov 16, 2020
Sermon for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Zephaniah 1:7-16
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Sermon originally delivered November 20, 2011
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Last week, we heard in Chapter 4 of King Nebuchadnezzar being humbled by God and losing his mind and suffering a very unusual emotional illness, before being restored to leadership. Then we heard in Chapter 5 of Belshazzar losing his kingdom and his life because of his own pride and worship of false gods, instead of the true God. God cares for Daniel in these chaotic days, as the Babylonian empire falls and the Medo-Persian empire rises.
As Chapter 6 begins, Daniel is appointed as a trusted leader in the Medo-Persian Empire. (History of those times tells us that the Babylonian people were unhappy with their own leaders and put up very little opposition to this change of government.) Others are unhappy that Daniel has such power, though, and decide to attack him on the basis of his religious views, as a Jew. They convince Darius to make a new law that for 30 days people could pray only to Darius himself and to no one else. This was not unusual in a polytheistic world. Kings were often honored as if they were gods. This law was also made “a law of the Medes and Persians,” which meant it could not be revoked. (You can read of the “Law of the Medes and Persians” also in the Book of Esther 1:17-19 and how God worked to bring Esther to become queen and help protect her Jewish people.) The penalty for breaking this law of Darius was to be thrown into a den of lions - certain death (Daniel 6:1-9).
Daniel knows that he must be faithful to the one true God and keep praying to Him only. He does what he has been doing even since he came to Babylon as a young slave. He prays regularly toward Jerusalem and prays humbly, on his knees. (He did not have to do his praying just this way, but was following the example of others in the Old Testament. See 1 Kings 8:27-30, Psalm 55:17, and Psalm 95:6, as examples.) Most of all, Daniel keeps praying and prays only to the one True God, no matter what the law says (Daniel 6:10). His enemies know what he is doing and report him to Darius and demand his death in the lions’ den (Daniel 6:11-15). Daniel, though, is doing only what the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament teach. See Mark 12:13-17. Daniel respects government and its proper authority and serves his government faithfully, even as it changes. At the same time, he has to give God what is God’s - his worship, and his obedience, even if he contradicts governmental law. (See Acts 4:1-12 and 5:27-32.)
Darius likes Daniel and wants to protect him, but he can find no way to do so. He must put him in the den of lions, but hopes that Daniel’s god will help him. The den is sealed. (Notice the similarity to how Jesus’ tomb was sealed, too. Yet, both came out alive, by God’s grace.) Darius fasts and cannot sleep and at daybreak hastened to the den and cried out in anguish for Daniel. Daniel answers that he is safe, for he had trusted God, and an angel has shut the mouths of the lions. Daniel is pulled out of the lions’ den, perfectly safe, and his enemies are thrown into the den, where they are immediately killed (Daniel 6:14-24). (There are other examples of God helping people in danger from lions. See Sampson in Judges 14:6 and David in 1 Samuel 17:34-37, and even Paul in the New Testament, in 2 Timothy 4:16-17.)
Darius makes a new decree that people of his kingdom are to respect the God of the Jews, for he rescues and delivers and does signs and wonders and is “the living God” who endures forever. In this way the Jews are protected even in captivity, and God cares for them, too, even though they had been so unfaithful to Him too often. Daniel himself also prospers under the Medo-Persian leaders (Daniel 6:25-28).
With Darius/Cyrus in power, the Babylonian Empire has ended. In the New Testament, though, Babylon becomes a symbol for all evil and all the enemies of God and His will. See how Rome is called Babylon, with its wickedness and opposition to Christianity (1 Peter 5:13). The Book of Revelation also predicts the eventual destruction of Babylon and all evil, too. See Revelation 14:16, 16:19, 18:2-4, 21-23.
Jesus does not promise that we will escape all trouble, though. He predicts trouble because we are followers of Christ. See Matthew 10:24-25 and 1 Peter 3:13-18, for example. We even face our own “lion,” the devil and his temptations. See 1 Peter 5:6-12. Jesus will help us through, and He is our own good “lion,” protecting us. See Genesis 49:9, Revelation 4:7, and 5:5.
Darius promised some earthly peace to people in Daniel 6:25. The New Testament uses the same phrase, but promises that “grace and peace will be multiplied” for us, in Christ - “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, and will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.” There is our confidence, in Jesus, in life and in death (1 Peter 1:2, Philippians 4:7).
Chapter 7 of Daniel brings some changes. Daniel speaks in “the third person” in Chapters 1-6. He and others did this and that, and God gave visions to others that Daniel interpreted, by the gift of God . In Chapter 7 and following, Daniel speaks in “the first person” - “I saw in my vision”, etc. (7:2). Daniel also tells of some of his dreams that happened in earlier days - as in the days of Belshazzar (7:1).
In Daniel 7:2-8,17, Daniel sees a vision of four great beasts, coming out of the turbulent sea, coming from an earthly place and origin. They are a lion with wings, whose wings are plucked; a bear, leaning to one side, with three ribs in its mouth; a leopard with four wings and four heads; and a terrifying beast with iron teeth and 10+ horns. This all might seem very strange to us, but kings and nations and empires were often pictured in this way in the ancient world. As Daniel would walk through Babylon, he would see many images of lions, representing the Babylonian empire, and sometimes with wings. (Archaeologists have found such lion images in the ruins of Babylon.) If you think about it, we still use such images today in sports and in other ways, to depict power and strength. In the National Football League, we have the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles, and on and on.
The beasts in Daniel represent four great kings and their empires (7:15-17), which will come and go, over time. Different picture images are used, but it is the same message as in Chapter 2, with the great statue, with four parts, like the four beasts, which represent the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. Each empire will follow and conquer the previous empire, but none will last. These empires also are pictures of many more nations and empires that will rise and fall, through the centuries.
During the time of the 4th beast, the Roman Empire, a Stone will come in Chapter 2 to break down the rest and bring in an everlasting kingdom. That one is Jesus, as we have heard. In Chapter 7, “one like a son of man” comes, of heavenly origin, just as the Stone of Chapter 2 is not made by human hands. Again, it is Jesus, who often used the description of Himself as “the Son of Man.” He brings in an everlasting kingdom, too, unlike the earthly kingdoms. See the vision of Daniel in Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14,18, and 26-27, which is so different from the beasts, the earthly kingdoms. Next week, we will see how the New Testament reveals Jesus as “the Son of Man” and what that means for us. There is something sure and certain and eternal in this changing and decaying world; and that something is Jesus and the eternal Kingdom He brings us.
As we close, note in Daniel 7:28 that Daniel is greatly alarmed and probably turned pale, with all he sees and hears. He does not get it all, “but I kept the matter in my heart,” he says. How comforting for us, too, as we do not always grasp everything our Lord is trying to tell us in Scripture. We are called to keep listening and meditating and asking the Lord’s guidance, as we keep His Word in our hearts. He will bless us and give us more understanding, over time.
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Sunday Nov 08, 2020
Sermon for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered November 13, 2011
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Monday Nov 02, 2020
In the first chapter of Daniel, we have heard of how Daniel and his friends were in Babylon as captives, but how the Lord helped and blessed them and allowed them to become respected advisors of King Nebuchadnezzar. In chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling dream that no one could describe or interpret except for Daniel. By the gift of God, Daniel told exactly what the dream was and how it revealed the rise and fall of nations and the everlasting kingdom of God coming through a Stone, not carved out by human hands. That mysterious stone was Jesus, the New Testament reveals, who would be the Cornerstone of God’s kingdom as the Savior of the world, but over whom people could also stumble and fall, in unbelief.
As Chapter three begins King Nebuchadnezzar has built a 90 foot tall image of gold, which everyone was to bow down to and worship. The Jewish friends of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (their Babylonian names) refuse to do so. Some other advisors of the king are jealous of them and report them to the king. (The Aramaic of Daniel 3:8, which says they maliciously accused these three, more literally says, “They devoured the pieces of the Judeans” by their vicious words. The New Testament warns that we can do the same by unkind, “biting” words we say to one another, even in the church. See Galatians 5:14-15.)
The king then confronts Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and gives them another chance to bow down and worship the image but they refuse again, directly to his face. They know the First Commandment, that only the One True God is to be worshipped. See Deuteronomy 5:7-9 and 6:4-5, and the golden calf story and how many times the people of Israel had failed to follow the one true God. That is precisely why the Jews were captives in Babylon. Maybe these three men also knew the prophecy of Isaiah 43:2 that “when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” That protection from God literally happened to them here. But even if it would not, they said they would still follow God’s will (Daniel 3:16-18). See the listing of these events in the examples of faith described in Hebrews 11:32-34 – both theirs and Daniel’s rescue from the lions’ den in Daniel 6, still coming.
Remember that we are called in the New Testament to seek to have the same trust in God, by His grace. God’s people might still face a “fiery trial” just because they are Christians, Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:12. Jesus also uses the image of “the fiery furnace” as a picture of hell, for those apart from Christ, at the end. See Matthew 13:40-43. Following our Lord alone is the true way. See Jesus in Matthew 4:8-10, when He is being tempted by Satan, and the early Christians in Acts 4:18-20 and Acts 5:27-29.
The king, though, orders the three men to be bound and thrown into a burning, fiery furnace, seven times hotter than it had been. (Note how the number “7” is used here and in other places in Daniel as we go on. It is not always a literal number, but symbolizes something full and complete. The fire was as hot as it could be and the “mighty men” throwing the three into the furnace die as they throw them in. Think, for example, of how Peter asks Jesus in the New Testament if he should forgive people up to seven times - a pretty full number of times, he thought. Jesus said to forgive 70x7 times, which is not an exact number, but over and over again, as the Lord first forgives us. Watch for more symbolic numbers in Daniel, as there are later in Revelations.) The king boastingly says, “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (3:15) - as if he were a god himself, whose hands controlled things.
The king is amazed, though, when he sees Shadrach and friends unbound, unhurt, and walking around in the fire, with a fourth being, someone looking like “a son of the gods.” (Watch for terms like that and “a son of man” coming later. This was either an angel or maybe the pre-incarnate Son of God, keeping them safe (3:24-27)).
King Nebuchadnezzar has to admit, though, that these three men had great trust in their god, and that there was “no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” He even orders that no one in his Babylonian empire is to speak against this god (Daniel 3:28-30). God is thus helping Daniel and his friends, but also helping the many other Jews in Babylon. They are being punished for their many sins and even unbelief, at times, but He still cares for them and wants them restored as His people. He cares for us, too, even in very troubled times.
In Daniel, Chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar speaks for himself about how he finally had to be humbled by God, because of his pride. See Daniel 4:1-3 and v.37. Nebuchadnezzar was doing very well (4:4). He had a great empire and was very accomplished. He had the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” built - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Life was good. But then Nebuchadnezzar has another disturbing, puzzling dream. He calls his usual advisors in, but they cannot interpret the dream, even when he tells them all about it, until Daniel comes to him (4:5-9).
The dream is of a mighty tree, which grows to touch heaven and the ends of the earth and provides a safe place for so many people and creatures. But then “a watcher, a holy one” comes from heaven and orders the tree to be chopped down, till only a stump is left. Then someone will be wet with dew and live like a beast for “seven times” and will learn that the Most High rules all men (4:9-18). Daniel is very troubled, because he knows that the dream predicts trouble for Nebuchadnezzar himself. He finally speaks diplomatically, as he cares for the king, even with his weaknesses. Daniel explains that the tree is the king. He has prospered, but now he will be chopped down and become like a stump. He will lose his power in his kingdom and lose his own mind and become like a beast for “seven times.” (Note again the symbolic seven. It is not a specific known time, but God’s own time and choice.) Finally, the king would look toward heaven and be restored and carry on in his kingdom (4:19-26).
Daniel then calls upon the king to repent of his sins and follow God’s way of goodness and mercy and maybe he will be spared from some of these troubles (4:27). We see the call to repentance and trust in God throughout the Old and New Testaments, because of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Even repentance is a gift of God, as God’s Spirit works through the Word of God, in people. See passages like Acts 5:30-31 and Acts 11:15-18. One can resist God’s working, though, and sadly, Nebuchadnezzar does that. Some months later, in his great pride in himself, the king is boasting of the Kingdom of Babylon that he has built by his own power. A voice comes from heaven that the dream is fulfilled. The kingdom departs from Nebuchadnezzar and he loses his mind and becomes like a beast for seven times (4:28-33).
There is a rare malady that supposedly still occurs in our own time, called boanthropy. It is a psychological illness where one thinks he or she is a bovine, an ox or a cow, and walks on all fours and eats grass. There is a Babylonian inscription that seems to describe something like this happening to Nebuchadnezzar, too, as hard as it is to imagine. After 7 times, whatever that time is, in God’s wisdom, Nebuchadnezzar looks to heaven and regains his mind and is restored to his kingship. He tells of this and praises the Most High, who works as He wills and can teach people humility (Daniel 4:34-37).
God was certainly working on Him, and Daniel and his friends were witnessing to him; but we do not know if he ever came to genuine faith in the one true God, alone. He may have remained a polytheist, willing to honor one more god, the god of Israel, but not exclusively. That is the pattern still today for many, including most Hindus, who have 30,000 gods to choose from, and can add Jesus in, but only along with all the rest. Much prayer is needed for those people today and those sharing the faith with them.
As Daniel, Chapter Five, begins, we meet a later king of Babylon, Belshazzar. His name is close to that given to Daniel (Belteshazzar), but don’t confuse the two names. Belshazzar was likely a son or possibly a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. This leader is having a great feast, with lots of wine and many guests, and decides to use gold and silver vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem, where they had been used to honor the one true God of Israel. Belshazzar and his friends use them instead to praise their own false gods, their idols (Daniel 5:1-5). Suddenly, a hand appears, with its fingers writing words on the plaster walls of the palace. Belshazzar is terrified and calls his advisors to translate the writing, but they cannot do so (5:5-9). The queen (maybe the queen mother, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who had lived far longer than her husband) then came into the banquet and says that they should consult Daniel, who was still an advisor to the Babylonians. She would have known of Daniel and his abilities to interpret things, as he had done before (5:10-12).
Daniel comes in and is willing to translate the words on the wall and their meaning. But first, he reminds Belshazzar of what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar and how he learned humility. Belshazzar had not learned this lesson, but has mocked the true God. The first word on the wall is “Mene” (number or numbered) meaning that Belshazzar’s days are numbered and have come to an end. “Tekel” means “weighed” and that Belshazzar his been weighed and found wanting – unworthy. “Peres” means “divided,” and the kingdom will be given to new leaders, Medes and Persians, leaders of the Medo-Persian Empire (5:17-28). That very night, Belshazzar is killed, and Medo-Persian leaders soon take over. (The Babylonian people were very unhappy with these later leaders and it is said that they let the Medo-Persians come in and take over without a battle or resistance at all (Daniel 5:30)). Incidentally, archaeologists have found a place in the ruins of Babylon that they think is this palace, described in Daniel 5. It had plaster walls, just as is said here.
Next week, we will finally hear of Daniel and the lions’ den and then move on to a harder section of Daniel, Chapters 6 and following. In all this, we see that the Lord is ultimately in control of nations and the rise and fall of the Babylonians and others; and we hear the continued call for humility before the Lord. His will is done on earth, as in heaven, and we are called to walk humbly before Him in faith, even if we do not understand all things. See Romans 11:33-36, along with Philippians 2:1-4 and 2:5-11 and 1 Peter 5:1ff. and 5:5-7. The humble work of that Savior, Jesus, promised by Daniel and others, is the pattern for our lives and faith, too. Jesus is much more than an example, of course; He is our “wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” and so we “boast” and trust alone in Him, our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Sermon for All Saints' Day based on:
Sermon originally delivered November 6, 2011
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Last week, we heard of God’s judgment upon His people because of their continued sin and rebellion against Him. Many Jews were carried away into captivity in Babylon. Daniel and his three friends were young, talented people and were carried away to learn the ways of the Babylonians, and then serve the Babylonian government and king, as advisors, if all went well. God was with them and blessed them, as they sought to follow God’s will as well as they could in a very difficult culture. God helped them, so that they were far superior to others who were brought to serve the Babylonian leaders.
As Chapter Two of Daniel begins Nebuchadnezzar, the leader of Babylon, had a very disturbing dream and wanted his regular advisors to interpret the dream for Him. Probably to test his advisors, he asked them to tell him what his dream was and then to tell what it meant. The advisors try to stall and buy time because how were they to know all this? Finally they admit, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demands” (2:10). Only the gods could know what he asks, and they are far away from human beings (2:11). Nebuchadnezzar is so angry with them that he orders that all the wise men of Babylon are to be destroyed. When Daniel and his friends find out about this, Daniel wisely and discreetly asks what is going on. When he finds out, he asks for permission to see the king himself.
Before he goes, Daniel asks his Jewish friends to pray for God’s mercy and help with this “mystery” of the dream (2:17-18). This is an important theme in the Book of Daniel and later on in the Scriptures - revealing mysteries in God’s plans for the future, for the Jewish nation, for the rise and fall of other nations and empires, and for the coming of the Savior, Jesus, and the coming of God’s eternal kingdom. Most important is revealing that God cares about all people and nations and wants to help and bless all , through Jesus. (See Romans 16:25-27 and Ephesians 3:3-6, as examples of this mystery being revealed.) Both Daniel, and Revelation in the New Testament, are examples of mysteries and their being revealed through numbers and dreams and visions and unusual events. Reading Daniel helps us understand more about the Book of Revelations, given to John. We will talk more about this later.
In Daniel 2:18, God gives a vision to Daniel himself, revealing what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was and what it meant. Daniel is ready to see the king, but first he thanks and praises God for revealing everything to him. The one true God, His eternal God, is in charge of times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He reveals deep and hidden things and shines light in the darkness (2:20-23). The God of heaven controls even the stars. The stars have no control over us, in spite of what astrology, etc., says. Daniel even speaks on behalf of his fellow advisors - that none of them be killed, even though they have been not been helpful to Nebuchadnezzar (v24). Daniel does not practice the “cancel culture” we often see today. He cares about his fellow workers and wants to help them.
Daniel is then quickly taken to the king and is able to explain what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was and what it meant. He begins, though, by making it clear that it was not by his own wisdom and power, but only through the God of heaven (2:27-30) Who draws near and helps His people, unlike the false idols of the Babylonians, “whose dwelling is not with flesh” (2:11). The closeness of the one true God became even clearer with the coming of God the Son, Jesus, in the flesh to reveal God’s “grace and truth." (See John 1:1,14-18 and Hebrews 1:1-2.)
Daniel shows the dream of Nebuchadnezzar as his seeing a great, bright, mighty image, with a head of fine gold, a chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet of iron and clay. A stone, not cut by human hands, then comes and hits the feet of the image and shatters them and the whole image collapses and disappears. The stone then becomes a great mountain and fills the earth (Daniel 2:31-35).
Daniel then describes the meaning of this dream (2:36-45). The golden head is the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and leaders following. After the Babylonian Empire, three other empires come and go. These are usually described as the Medo-Persian Empire, followed by Alexander the Great and the Greek Empire, and then the Roman Empire. The point is that earthly kingdoms come and go, as history clearly showed, as time went on after Daniel’s time. It is still true today. This was not an evolution into better and better kingdoms, through human progress. Parts of the image become “inferior” over time (2:39). Finally there are “feet of clay” - a term still used for human weakness, a characteristic of all human beings.
Against all this comes a stone, not cut by human hands, that shatters everything, and becomes a great mountain, filling the earth. This is an everlasting kingdom, coming during the Roman Empire and set up by the God of heaven, in the midst of earthly kingdoms (2:44-45). There had been other prophecies in the Old Testament of a Stone to come. See Psalm 118:21-23 and Isaiah 8:13-14, and how Jesus applies these prophecies to Himself in Matthew 21:42-44. Peter, in Acts 4:11-12, clearly say that Jesus is that Stone, on which the Kingdom of God, the church, all believers in Jesus, is built. There is no other way to salvation than through Jesus. See also Ephesians 2:19-22 and I Peter 2:4-10, etc. One is either built on Jesus, by God’s grace, or one stumbles over Jesus and falls by rejection and unbelief. The everlasting nature of God’s kingdom is also tied to Jesus, the Rock. See John 12:36, 1 Corinthians 15:20-25, and Revelation 11:15, for example.
Finally, all enemies will be defeated and there will be only everlasting peace through Jesus for believers. How do we end the Lord’s Prayer? The kingdom and power and glory forever and ever are not with an earthly leader like Nebuchadnezzar, strong as he was (2:37), but with the true King of kings, Jesus. (See Revelation 1:5, 17:14, 19:16, etc.) We take comfort, in these days of an important election. God is still in charge and at work, no matter what human beings decide, for good or for ill. We pray for good, as we see it, but trust God above all.
Of course, not all this is fully clear at the time Daniel tells and writes this. It awaits the revelation through Christ and the New Testament, including the Revelation to John. Nebuchadnezzar honors Daniel for what he reveals (2:46-49) though maybe as much for his being able to describe the actual dream, along with the revelation, which does recognize Nebuchadnezzar’s power at least for a while. Nebuchadnezzar was right, though he likely did not fully believe it himself, when he said, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries.” This could be called the key theme to the rest of the Book of Daniel, as well.
Daniel’s friends are promoted, too, and Daniel remains an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar and others following him. We don’t know for sure, but likely Daniel also taught God’s Word when he could, including prophecies of a coming star and a king born from the Jews. The wise men came the East, and the word for the Magi, in Matthew 2:1-2 is a Persian word, from Medo-Persian times.
Sadly, Nebuchadnezzar continues to be a polytheist, following more than one God. In Daniel, Chapter 3, he builds a great golden image, 90 feet high and 9 feet across, (could he have been inspired in a bad way by his dream of a golden head?) Note the contrast between an idol built by human hands, and Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the Stone not cut out by any human hands (Daniel 2:34). Nebuchadnezzar commands everyone to do what he says and worship this image he made and indirectly, at least, to honor him and his words more than the Word of God, which allowed only for the worship of the One True God. The three friends of Daniel are reported as disobeying the command of the king, and they are the three men thrown into a fiery furnace, as a punishment. We will hear more of that next week along with Daniel 4 and 5, if possible. God cares for His people, in bad times as well as good, as we shall see.
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Sermon for Reformation Sunday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered October 30, 2011
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Sermon for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered October 23, 2011
Thursday Oct 22, 2020
Thursday Oct 22, 2020
I have been given just six weeks to cover the 12 chapters of Daniel, which is a very short time for me, as many of you know who have been in the Colossians study for many months. I will therefore not add so many references to other Scriptures as I usually do. I will also not talk about several topics that could be included: 1) the very liberal views of many scholars critical of the Bible and of the reliability of Daniel, and how their criticisms can be refuted; 2) legends about Daniel and his friends that are not true and not Scripture (some of the “apocryphal books“ of the Old Testament), but which were mixed in with the true Book of Daniel in a Greek version of Daniel; 3) that parts of Daniel were written in Aramaic, as well as Hebrew, and why that might be; etc.
We will simply trust the words of Jesus Himself, when He quotes from Daniel and says that these words are the very words of “the prophet Daniel” himself. See Matthew 24:15-16. We will just read through and talk about Daniel, believing that this is the true, prophetic Word of God coming through Daniel.
In Daniel 1:1-2, we hear that the Lord Himself gave the King of Judah into the hands of the pagan, unbelieving King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This happened because of the judgment of God for the many sins of His chosen people and their rebellion against Him as the one true God and His will for them. After the reign of King David (1009 BC to 970 BC) and King Solomon (970-931 BC) the Kingdom split into two kingdoms, which often disagreed and even fought with each other. There were times of faithfulness to God, but many times of unfaithfulness. The Northern Kingdom of Israel drifted most quickly away from God, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah followed in evil ways, also. See 2 Kings 17:13-18 for a description of how bad things were in Israel, which was conquered by Assyrian armies in 722 BC and many of the people were carried away into captivity in other nations and never came back. See 2 Kings 17:19-20 to hear how bad the Southern Kingdom of Judah became, too, leading to the events we hear about in Daniel, chapter one. Nebuchadnezzar took control of Jerusalem and King Jehoiakim in 605 BC and carried away treasures from the temple and took some Jews as captives, including Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. (Later on, Nebuchadnezzar came back and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC and carried many more Jews into captivity in Babylon, as well, as part of that judgment of God.)
Read Daniel 1:3-7 to hear why Daniel and his friends were captured and taken to Babylon. They were capable young Jews, probably in their teens, who were to be trained for three intense years in Babylonian ways and then could serve the king as advisors. That included learning of Babylonian religion and gods. Their names were all changed from names that honored the one true God, Yahweh, into names that honored Babylonian gods. It was a difficult time in a very different culture, with many views opposed to the true God and His will. (Dr. Gene Veith, a member of the LCMS, wrote a very interesting book, Loving God with All Your Mind, which talks about living in our current culture, which is becoming more non-Christian. He uses Daniel 1 to describe the “University of Babylon” and how Daniel and his friends coped, and what our high school and college students can learn from that. They are not in church but in Babylon, in some ways, in a university with a “Universe” of ideas, good and bad, around them. They can survive and thrive by God’s blessing (He is still with them and us) and by sticking with the Word of God and the Biblical training they have already received, and supporting each other.)
Read Daniel 1:8-16. Daniel is faced with an Old Testament challenge about what Jews could eat and not eat. (We are free from that in the New Testament, by Jesus and what He teaches us, but Jews in Daniel’s day still had to eat foods that were acceptable and prepared in a “Kosher” way.) That was not possible, with the King’s food and drink
Daniel is not nasty and rebellious, though, but tries to find a way to do what God wishes and yet not get the people working with him in trouble. Jews could eat vegetables with no restrictions, and drink water, all from the King’s table. Daniel also provides a way to show that this diet will not hurt but help them, even in 10 days time. God helps and blesses all of this, and Daniel and his friends are much better off than the others. They are safe in doing God’s will.
Read Daniel 1:17-21 and see how they are better off throughout their training and when they are examined by King Nebuchadnezzar - 10 times better. (Notice, by the way, that certain numbers, like number 10, occur again and again. We will talk about that later.) They had learned the good and useful things they needed at their university and were able to sort out by God’s Word what was not so good. The Babylonians, for example, were said to be ahead of other nations in science and astronomy and math of that time (sounds like a STEM curriculum!), but also followed astrology, which the Jews knew to reject. See Psalm 119:97-104, where the psalmist praises God for His Word, which makes the psalmist wiser than many, including his enemies and even some of his teachers and the aged (and some very smart professors who know a lot, but not about God and His will, the things that count the most!)
Finally, note in Daniel 1:21, that Daniel ended up, by God’s mercy, serving at the court of King Nebuchadnezzar and those who followed him, for many years, and even when the Medo-Persian leader, Cyrus, conquered the Babylonians and led a whole new empire in 539 BC. Cyrus is the one who allowed the Jews to return to the land of Israel and even gave them help in starting to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. See 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and Ezra 1:1-4. Maybe Daniel was left there, from 605 - 539 BC and even a little after that, to be an advisor who could help guide the unbelieving Cyrus to do what he did.
God was clearly still helping His people who did trust Him, even in very difficult times, as He still does today, in these complex, challenging times. The Word of God stills works and helps and teaches us, as we pay attention to it.
Read on in Daniel 2 and following, too, if you have time. We start with Chapter 2 in the next lesson.