Battle between God’s Kingdom and Man’s Kingdom
4/16/2010
Daniel 1
Last week we introduced the topic for the next few weeks. I got a lot a positive feedback from that sermon, and I want you to know I appreciate your comments.
Just a little more introduction and we’ll get into the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.
Firstly, it might be good to go clear back to the very fundamentals of Bible study. As people who respect the authority of God’s Word, we believe that if the Bible says it, we have to adjust our thinking to accommodate the Bible, not adjust the Bible to accommodate our thinking. My wife loves HGTV. (It drives me nuts, but she doesn’t watch football with me either.) But once in a while I will sit down with her and watch it. The other night there was a show about the HGTV “good guy” construction expert going into a home that was left supposedly 95% complete when a disagreement between the owners and the old construction company gave way to a legal dispute, so the “good guy” construction expert came on the scene to complete the work. What he found was atrocious – the electrical system was not up to code, the plumbing had errors in it that required the sheetrock to be pulled off so it could be accessed, the bathtub had to be removed, it was a serious mess. And all the owners could do was stand there white faced, checkbook in hand, fuming over the loss of their entire life savings which they had put into the addition to their house. But it couldn’t be helped; it all had to be re-done.
Jesus told a story about a man who built his house upon the sand, and when the winds came the house was blown away. I remember singing that song in VBS as a child. But when I grew up a little and realized that he was talking about building a life, it only made sense to me to be like the guy who built his house on the Rock, even though there was so very much in my life that I had mis-laid and that had to be torn down in order to be rebuilt on Jesus. It’s a painful and expensive process, which is why we are encouraged to count the cost, but it is the only way out of the struggles of life into God’s salvation. Once a building has been constructed, it is seriously difficult to repair an error in the way the foundation is laid, but the Christian is committed to doing just that if that is what the Spirit asks him to do. To do less than that is to reject God’s authority over our own lives, and that is a really dangerous place to be.
And so we study the Bible every Sunday, and I hope you also study every day. The idea is to back up where necessary and rebuild, but also to keep from making the same construction mistakes in the future. So we study to learn how to lay our foundation solid and secure on the Rock of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we need to keep in mind that the Bible’s focus is on the redemption of man. Whatever kind of material we run across in the Bible, we also must be sure to understand it in terms of the focus of all Scripture. Now I am not going to target this series of sermons on prophecy, but it is in there, and so as we brush by it we will deal with prophecy in exactly the same manner that we deal with all Scripture – letting the Bible speak for itself, and letting Scripture interpret Scripture, and understanding the more complex and obscure passages in light of related simpler and easier passages.
The primary theme of the Bible is the redemption of man. Even the stories that seem to have no bearing on this primary topic, when they are seen in light of the rest of Scripture can be seen to be just small parts of this idea, just trees in the forest. It doesn’t describe all the details of everything that happens in human life. It only focuses on what God is doing in His continual quest to redeem man. Now while that is true, from the other side of the coin it can be seen that when the Bible does reveal some detail, it would be good to pay attention carefully, because it is there for a reason. The details are relevant. And when all the details are understood, we will see that they all point to Jesus Christ.
And that is the only direction, the only thing that counts in human life. Without that, there is nothing. We are all loved by God, Who wants to bring us into His Kingdom and bless us and make sense out of our lives. Now the “Kingdom” I am talking about is a kingdom built not with our physical hands, but with our minds. We choose how we want to order and prioritize our lives, and our values, that is, what we consider important, is what we will consider as of first importance. Then we begin building our character. But if we don’t consider what God thinks is important, if we reject His values, our house will be built way off kilter. Then things won’t work right, the roof will leak, the lights won’t light, the plumbing won’t plumb, and the electric won’t elect. We can choose to continue on that same path, to keep on getting what we’ve been getting, and it won’t be what Jesus calls “the Abundant life,” or we can choose to tear things down and rebuild according to code. The two kingdoms can be thought of as the two competing forces, one that demands we continue on the path to building a house that will be destroyed when the first good gale hits it, or one that will give us power and honor and result in a leak-proof life; a house that has a foundation that will not crumble when the storms of life crash in on it.
There is a huge difference between these kingdoms. Man’s kingdom typically insists that everybody kowtow to whoever happens to be in charge at the time, that everyone marches with military precision to the beat of the Main Man in Charge’s drummer. Ultimately this leads to military conquest, because most human beings I know aren’t much into being ordered around like that. We typically would rather do it ourselves, thank you very much. (“Please mother, I’d rather do it myself.”) But tyrants and oppressors are not much into considering human needs or wants, no matter how legitimate. And here is where we are at the beginning of the book of Daniel. (Thought I’d never get there, huh?) The nation of Judah has been taken into captivity by the nation of Babylon, with King Nebuchadnezzar as the Main Man in Charge. He’s at the controls, the one to whom everyone has to kowtow. And King Neb is a very smart man, who knows just what he wants to do to control and subjugate his new slaves.
So here’s Judah, who at one time was submitted to God and His ways, and here’s Babylon, who never submitted to anyone except their own human King (at least to this point.) They are involved in a struggle that continues even after Judah’s fall, and there are five elements1 in that spiritual struggle as well as ours:
1. Who is sovereign? That is, who’s in charge? There are only two choices, God or Man. (Of course, Satan will let us think its man in charge, as long as we don’t follow God.)
2. Who represents the Sovereign? We will all represent one Kingdom or the other. So we fight over who represents the true Sovereign.
3. What are the laws of the sovereign?
4. What are the sanctions for breaking the laws?
5. Who inherits?
It’s interesting to note that Daniel never capitulates, even in his submission to the authority of Babylon. Even in his youth, he stood firm for God. And in the end, Daniel was awarded dominion. All the kings died, but Daniel survived them all.
No, Daniel never capitulated, but he suffered intense oppression. It began with King Nebuchadnezzar re-naming Daniel and his friends. So here was the frontal attack on the first question, “Who is Sovereign?” Who’s in charge here? Re-naming them was an act of ownership. King Nebuchadnezzar was saying, “I am Sovereign. You are no longer your own, nor do you belong to whatever God you worshipped. I am your sovereign. You belong to me.” And so he usurped the power of God by changing their names. But in the English we miss what was going on there, because we can’t know what the names meant.
Daniel means “God is my judge.” Dan is judge, and the El on the end refers to Elohim, which means God.
But King Neb. gave him the name “Belteshazzar,” which means “May Bel protect his life.” Bel was one of the Babylonian gods.
And Daniel’s three friends suffered similarly. “Hananiah” means “God is gracious,” but his name was changed to Shadrack, which means “Aku is exalted.” Again, Aku was one of the Babylonian gods.
Mishael means “Who is what God is?” But his name was changed to Meshack – “Who is what Aku is?”
And Azariah means “God is my helper”; his name was changed to “Abednego,” or “Servant of Nebo.” Bet you can’t guess who Nebo was.
So we see the military conquest of Judah wasn’t the end of the story. King Nebuchadnezzar in his tyrannical oppression forced these young men to go by different names, names that profaned the name of God and their culture, that were intended to force these young men to begin to accept the Babylonian culture. This is always the ultimate fight – Who is sovereign? Whose culture is going to be in charge? We call it “pluralism” or “multiculturalism” now, as we try to do the impossible and lead a multiple life. A nation divided against itself cannot stand. That is the fight we wage today in the U.S. Who’s in charge, God or Man? Names are important. They identify who is in charge. In the Bible, the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. But our leaders now say, “America is no longer a Christian nation.” Do you see what that does? It changes our leader from God to someone else. “Christian” has always been our heritage, the Name we called ourselves by, the Name we went into the world with when we fought for human rights against such political nightmares as the Nazis and the Communists. And if we are no longer a Christian nation, then just who IS in charge??
This is the fight we are waging here in America right now. The first question that must be decided is always, “Who is in charge?” We had this decided for two hundred years – well, really for four hundred years, way before nationhood – but while we were asleep an enemy came in and planted tares in our fields, and now the question “Who’s in charge?” must be decided once again.
Who’s in charge, here? That’s a question we are going to have to answer as a country. There are Federal judges who say, “The Constitution means whatever we say it means.” And Friday this past week, Federal Justice Judge Crabb ruled National Prayer Day UNCONSTITUTIONAL. If we can’t pray to God for guidance as a nation, who is in charge? Day by day, as we watch, more and more of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights are being taken away, by people who believe that they, not God, are in charge. Here’s what the United States will look like in the not too distant future, unless we can regain control of our “civil servants”: The Constitution will have been relegated to second class status, a relic of a bygone era, as Federal judges “decide” away its protective provisions. We will have no freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to peaceably assemble. There will be no states rights, no rights of any kind except the rights that our rulers condescendingly think is OK. Things that we have always taken for granted will no longer be accepted, like the freedom to speak our minds even when others didn’t particularly like it, and may even get one thrown in jail. You think that could never happen here? Already one is classified a “homophobe,” which implies mental disease, if one does not whole-heartedly embrace the homosexual lifestyle – not just keep quiet about what one may think, but whole-heartedly embrace it as normal and healthy. Soon, “hate crimes” legislation will be used to silence the pulpit, just as has already happened in Canada and England. The vote will be a joke, because there will be no way to find out what any opposition party thinks, no freedom of political expression, no way to hear anything on TV but the “party line.” That’s already the way it is since the eighties, and even before. The major “news” outlets only present one side of the story. This is what happens when sovereignty is given over to people, rather than God. Freedom of speech was put in place to allow for all sides of any question to be thoroughly investigated and discussed in public debate, so that an informed electorate could go to the polls with accurate and current information. Never mind that we have had the freedom to speak and VOTE our minds under a government that gave God the credit for all good and perfect gifts, for all our history; never mind that that history is one of unbelievable political stability and prosperity; never mind that the electorate was trusted to make good decisions in times past, or to correct bad ones. The time is coming when we will not be trusted to make the right decision without “guidance” from our “leadership.”
So again I ask – Who’s in charge here? We have to tear down our house far enough to replace that mislaid building block. Do we trust the Kingdom of Man enough to exchange our blood bought freedoms for government guaranteed security? Do you trust the people in government – ANY people, ANY government – to be able to perform what they promise, on the scale that they promise to perform it? Consider the history of Argentina, the second richest nation on earth a hundred years ago. In the late 1900’s, after pursing a socialist, man-centered philosophy of government for much of that time, Argentina suffered a staggering 3000% inflation rate, as well as political instability unheard of prior to this time here in America. I’m confident that the Argentinean people probably thought it couldn’t happen to them, either.
Who is in charge, here? Whose name do you carry? Does that Name change your life? That’s the only real, lasting change. That’s the only way to peace and prosperity. And the way to change a nation is to change its people, one at a time. The Kingdom of Man would accomplish their version of “change” through the imposition of laws; the Kingdom of God does it by changing the soul and spirit to be like that of God Himself. If you love, as Jesus said his followers do, you have no need of law to tell you to do good for others, or to refrain from doing evil. That transformation of the heart and mind is what results in true and lasting peace. If we impose ourselves on others by the imposition of laws designed to force people into submission, we are building a house with sandy foundations, just as King Nebuchadnezzar did in Babylon. But here in America we have already tried building our house on the Rock, and it resulted in years and years of increasing peace and prosperity, and political stability even when we were at war. But when we cast God out of public schools in 1962, that very year rates of teen pregnancies and drug abuse went through the roof, and SAT scores which measure how well students are doing in school fell through the floor, never to return to pre-1962 levels. What we are doing isn’t working. Our house has building blocks that are misplaced. We need to tear down and rebuild what has been built incorrectly. Jesus calls us to repentance, and it starts one person at a time.
How about you? Have you committed yourself to a better future, one in which you will work for God to establish true and lasting peace? Are you truly concerned about the betterment of mankind? Do you cherish the Name Christian which was placed on your heart and soul when you were born into His Kingdom? Is the Name Christian placed on your soul? If not, you need to make that right, right now. Jesus says that you must be reborn; you must be born of water and the Spirit into His Kingdom, the church, which is His body, over which He is reigning as King right now from the right hand of the Throne of God. Who’s in charge of your life? Will you make the decision to enter into His Kingdom? Will you come?
1 How to Take Dominion in a Hostile World, Gary DeMar. Downloaded from AmericanVision.com, April 7, 2010.
