Royals: Wonder as We Wander

Royals: Wonder as We Wander

Focus: The goal of God through his people is to revitalize the priority of worship in the earth through Jesus Christ.   

• I Wonder As I Wander

• Worship As a Priority

• The Wonder of Jesus

I Wonder As I Wander

We wander and go astray when we think God has given us this life solely for personal pleasure, achievement and gain.  

The Israelites returning to Jerusalem would have had to sort through this as they sought to  reestablish their identity and purpose on their return from Babylon.  

When we arrive at this place in history, we know that Israel was once a great nation so revered that the surrounding peoples would send delegates like Queen Sheba from modern day Yemen to marvel at the glory of God within Israel’s borders.  

Yet this would pose the challenge of orientation - was God and his purposes the focus of worship or were the people to simply be cul de sacs of Yahweh’s blessings?

Prior to the deportation, in King Hezekiah’s time, envoys came to inquire of the miraculous hand of God at work in his land.  

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭20‬:‭12‬-‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

Rather than use that fame to give glory to Yahweh, King Hezekiah used the opportunity to boast concerning his personal treasures and possessions.  

It was a reflection of the pride that is in the heart of every man and woman - to turn what was meant to evoke praise, testimony and service to God into an opportunity for mere self-centered living.  

Hezekiah had forgotten the meaning of worship and was being driven by self-indulgent pride. 

“Pride is essentially competitive. It gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”

-CS Lewis 

We are all tempted to become a cul de sac for God’s blessings rather than using God’s blessings to worship.  

Even as Isaiah the prophet spoke about the impending judgment and exile to the very same Babylon to whom Hezekiah had boasted, Hezekiah reflected the unregenerate heart that was satisfied with the discipline as long as it affected future generations and not his own. 

Return from the deportation 

We then fast forward to Cyrus. 

By the time we get to the Persian empire, which would conquer Babylon, Israel was a shadow of the people they used to be.  

Though their homeland was plundered by the Babylonians, by God’s miraculous hand, even in the midst of the exile, they were able to maintain their national and spiritual identity.  

Returning to their homeland, without the prominence of the days of King David, Solomon or the following kings of Judah or Israel, the people of Israel would have to reestablish their sense of identity and purpose.  

Zerubbabel was to be their leader.  

Zerubbabel would have to reestablish a sense of identity and purpose. 

Our challenge living as aliens and strangers in this world is answering the question of the ambiguous existence - “What are we really doing here?”

God takes what is ambiguous and makes both our identity and purpose clear in him.   

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Ezra‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”

*So it is ironic that King Cyrus who did not know the Lord had a better understanding of his purpose in establishing God-centered worship than the kings of Israel who went before him. 

God would reestablish this life of focus on worship through Zerubabbel. 

Who was Zerubbabel?

Born from the line of King David, Zerubbabel was one of the Israelites born in Babylonian captivity who was appointed to lead a wave of Israelites back to Jerusalem after King Cyrus’ decree. 

He was the grandson of King Jehaoichin, the second to last king of Judah before the Babylonian conquest and Israeli exile.

King Cyrus II appointed him to be governor of those returning to Jerusalem. 

‭‭Ezra‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:”

The Israelites had lived off of their hopes of a better day that would be ushered in through their prophesied Messiah. 

After the return from exile, would Zerubbabel be the promised Messianic king from the line of David?

Though he did not turn out to be the Messiah, Zerubbabel was a descendent in the direct line of the true Savior, Jesus.  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬-‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

Zerubbabel’s name meant “planted in Babylon”. 

He was a man who had been defined by his people’s exile in Babylon. 

He was now called to return and make a difference in a world that neither remembered nor respected the former glory of the dynasty from which he had come.  

Yet because God had moved on the heart of Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild, Zerubbabel was given a life of purpose again. 

His identity was restored as a chosen son of the most High God to reestablish worship in the land.  

Zerrubabel would have to rethink the importance of his identity in the Lord and how he spent his days. 

In Babylon, he could find himself obscured in the midst of “good enough” living.  

He could plant vineyards, build houses and settle down as Jeremiah had instructed in Jeremiah 29 without any direct connection to worship. 

But now, Zerubbabel had a commission from God to reestablish worship in the land. 

Are we that different?

*How often do we try to fly under the radar of life undetected?

What happens when it is not as obvious in the eyes of the world that you are part of the royal line of Christ and should have his prescribed impact on the world? 

Why does God intend on making worship the mark of our existence?  

It is because true Biblical worship is the basis for our reconciliation with God through Christ and the avenue to all human flourishing in life. 

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him (Jesus) then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

We will come back to this. 

Worship As a Priority

Worship is not just about song or, though important, simply maintaining a set of doctrinal beliefs - rather it is building Christ and his kingdom into the place of priority in your life.  

This affects your pursuits, how you spend your time, talents and resources. 

As God reestablishes the priority of worship in our lives, all other tasks, commitments and opportunities make sense in the light of Christ. 

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Ezra‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.”

The returning Israelites had to ask this question as they followed Zerubbabel: 

What do you do when it is not as obvious what God is doing in and through your life?

Answer: You build the place of worship

Why the focus on rebuilding the temple?

God understood that worship is the foundation of our lives. 

God was intent on resuming worship. 

Worship is the rudder of our lives - not just in song, but in life, sacrifice and service.  

Whatever we intentionally choose to sacrifice for and serve will determine the trajectory of our lives - it is where our heart, energy, sense of significance and purpose will be.  

These are meant to be found in God, and through gathered, intentional, ritual worship, he forms and shapes our hearts for his glory, ours and humanity’s good.  

Why was it important for Zerubbabel to rebuild the altar and the temple?

As the Gospel Coalition recounts:

The physical restoration of the city was a crucial component in the development of God’s unfailing purpose of redemption in preparing the way for the coming Christ. According to prophecy, there had to be a Jerusalem and temple in place when the Messiah came (Mal 3:1). Therefore, the first order of business for Zerubbabel and the hopeful remnant was to rebuild the fallen temple. The book of Ezra records that at first progress on the project was good. The people were excited, unified, and hopeful. But soon there was external opposition, beginning with misunderstandings, and escalating to rumors, accusations, and threats. The opposition became so intense that the work ceased. That led to internal problems as apathy and carelessness replaced the initial enthusiasm and diligence. The work had ceased, and worse yet, nobody seemed to care. Involvement with the issues of life took precedence over work for God’s kingdom.

*When we are discouraged by the inevitable spiritual pushback, it is easy to want to resign to the way things used to be.  

It is easy to begin living like everyone else - living for the weekend, excursions and an existence wrapped around pleasure.  

And the things that begin to mark our identity, happiness and pursuits outside of God begin to come with a cost.  

Even the unbelieving philosopher David Foster Wallace, who met a tragic end, had an understanding of the importance of worship, though not the right foundation for it - which is the truth found in Jesus Christ. 

What happens when we don’t worship the right thing?

"Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."

-David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest in his 2005 Kenyon College address entitled This is Water 

What is it that you’ve been giving yourself to outside of God that has been trying to “eat you alive”?

Again, building had stopped on the temple, on cultivating the priority of worship, and this is when God sent the prophet Haggai to remind Zerubbabel and the people of their purpose. 

Haggai 1:1-16

“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”

The lesson: Build God’s house before your own 

“A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.”

Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society 

We need to understand in the present why the life of worship and sacrifice is better. 

People say, “I don’t want to be bound by the constraints of faith and religion.”

Yet as Timothy Keller would recognize:

“You are always bound to something.  Freedom is not the absence or presence of restrictions, but the presence of the right restrictions.”

-Timothy Keller

And again being driven by pride outside of the worship of God, Keller further elaborated upon CS Lewis’ earlier thoughts regarding the emptiness of that to which we give ourselves in worship other than God:

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others.”

-Timothy Keller 

And thus, this is how pride disorients us. 

And it is why only through the recalibration of worship do we once again come into contact with God’s plumbline of righteousness that leads to true freedom and peace in Christ. 

But we need to understand that worship is not touch and go.  

It is a life of daily devotion and ongoing consistency in Christ.  

This is that to which the prophet Zechariah spoke to Zerubbabel in his attempt to build the place of worship.

Construction began on the temple around 536 BC. 

Yet opposition came to the work and caused it to stall. 

Understand that opposition always comes to the work of God:

‭‭Ezra‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.”

Seventeen years after Zerubbabel began the work, it was unfinished and God gave this word through the prophet Zechariah:

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Zechariah‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my Lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.””

The temple was completed twenty years after its beginning in 516 BC. 

God intends to complete the work he has started in and through us. 

He does not intend for our life and work in God to be left unfinished. 

To what has God called you to give yourself over a similar period of time and what has it produced?

Was there a place where you quit in the middle because of opposition, accusations, discouragements or misunderstandings?

For example:

What relationships in your life have been neglected or are deteriorating? 

Is it your marriage?

Have you slipped in your childrearing?

What aspect of ministry to which you were called have you laid down?

What do you need to pick back up to complete by the Word of the Lord? 

These are all important considerations as we walk with Jesus.  

But some would say, “I don’t really have a heart for worship.”

Regarding this, God also wants to set us free. 

He wants to do a supernatural work in our affections as we yield to Jesus, by the person and filling of the Holy Spirit.  

And once he’s done so, he matures us through a pragmatic reality: 

“We live in what one writer has called the "age of sensation."' We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”

-Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society 

*How do we build these altars to God in our life today?

*We make a log of where we place our affections, where we spend our time, talent and treasure - to offer on the altar that which belongs to God and sacrifice anything that comes before him.  

What is it that needs to be offered by you today?

What wasn’t completed by Zerubbabel in the Second Temple was completed by the true returning king, Jesus Christ.  

The Wonder of Christ

As the light of the world, Jesus takes those who are lost, confused and tormented, and gives them meaning, purpose and most importantly, salvation, through worship.  

Sin is defined as missing the mark. 

One of the fruits of the flesh Paul described in Galatians 5 in which if we choose to live, the Holy Spirit had Paul indicate that we would not inherit the kingdom of God, is selfish ambition. 

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

It is interesting that in the NIV the sin is translated as selfish ambition and in the ESV the word rivalries was utilized.  

We saw so much of this in Luxembourg and it fills our culture in Chicago. 

Whenever we live according to the selfish ambition of the flesh, we are disorienting our person and purpose. 

Jesus did things differently. 

He lived a life focused on glorifying and fulfilling the purpose of his Heavenly Father.  

Jesus knew who he was.  

Jesus knew what he was sent to do.  

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”

Jesus anticipated the trials, opposition and betrayals. 

Jesus knew how to persevere because he remained in unbroken fellowship with the Father and worked by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Jesus did this because he was on an undeterred mission to seek and save the lost. 

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Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭31‬-‭35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Like Zerubbabel, we too are called to do a work reestablishing worship to God.  

We need to first repent of our sins and be reconciled to God through the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. 

We then need to choose to build a life of worship.  

We need to stop defining the wins by how many moments of self-indulgent pleasure we can attain and instead become ambitious towards the sacrifices we’re offering to bring worship in the earth. 

We too can face discouragements and a temptation to resign to “good enough living”.

Yet God calls us to more. 

He calls us to relationship with himself and to live lives of worship.  

Jesus went to the cross to pay for our sins, to reconcile us to God and reestablish worship in our hearts and in the places in which we live.    

Jesus left nothing undone, but at the cross, with his dying breath said, 

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John‬ ‭19‬:‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

There is nothing more we need to do to be reconciled to God.  

Jesus has fulfilled Yahweh’s covenant promises by making a way for us to have a new heart and a new spirit, truly becoming a temple of worship in Christ.  

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Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭24‬-‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

We experience this individually, but only walk in it fully as we are an active participant amongst  God’s people of worship - the church. 

As the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul write:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

What we need to do is repent of our sins, put our faith in the love of God poured out for us at the cross and complete the altars in our lives that are meant to be our daily orientation in Jesus. 

This is what Zerubbabel was charged to do.  

It is how we are to live by the power of the Holy Spirit today!  

It is how we are useful in the hand of God in establishing worship of Jesus in our city and in the nations.  

I Wonder As I Wander by John Jacob Niles

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die

For poor on'ry people, like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

When mary birthed Jesus, t'was in a cow's stall

With wisemen and farmers and shepherds and all,

But high in god's heaven a star's light did fall,

And the promise of ages, it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing

A star in the sky or a bird on the wing

Or all of god's angels in heaven for to sing

He surely could have it, for he was the king!

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die

For poor on'ry people like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Royals: Cyrus, Exile and Longing for Home

Cyrus, Exile and Longing for Home

There are some characters in the Bible who appear for only a moment, but when they appear, the whole story turns.

Cyrus is one of them.

He is not a prophet. He is not a priest. He is not a son of David. He is not even part of Israel. He is a Persian king, a ruler of nations, a man of empire. Historically, he is remembered as Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire and the conqueror of Babylon. But Scripture remembers him for something even more surprising: Cyrus is the king God used to bring His people home.

Cyrus’ story tells us something about God’s sovereignty. But his appearance also becomes the crux, if not the defining moment, of something even larger: the theme of exile.

So our word today has two parts:

1. Who was Cyrus? What can we learn about his role in God moving the plot forward?

2. What does it mean to be an elect exile? Was it just one theme of this plot or is it actually the bigger picture that we Christians share with the Israelites as we await the final enthronement of Jesus our King on earth?

   1. The Theme

   2. The Experience

   3. The Instruction

Part 1: Who is Cyrus

1.1 Overview

Cyrus the Great was the Persian king whom God raised up to conquer Babylon and bring an end to the Jewish exile, fulfilling prophecies spoken through Isaiah more than a century before Cyrus was born. Though he did not know the God of Israel, and worshipped several pagan gods, Scripture uniquely calls him God's "shepherd" and "anointed," highlighting God's sovereignty over nations and rulers. 

After capturing Babylon in 539 B.C., Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, and restore covenant worship. His life demonstrates God's faithfulness to His promises in Isaiah 40–45 and serves as a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ—the greater Deliverer who would lead God's people out of spiritual exile and into ultimate redemption.

—

Why do you say, O Jacob,

    and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

    and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

    his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

    and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

    they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:27-31 ESV

—

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

    whose right hand I have grasped,

to subdue nations before him

    and to loose the belts of kings,

to open doors before him

    that gates may not be closed:

“I will go before you

    and level the exalted places,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

    and cut through the bars of iron, 

I will give you the treasures of darkness

    and the hoards in secret places,

that you may know that it is I, the Lord,

    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For the sake of my servant Jacob,

    and Israel my chosen,

I call you by your name,

    I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

    besides me there is no God;

    I equip you, though you do not know me,

that people may know, from the rising of the sun

    and from the west, that there is none besides me;

    I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness;

    I make well-being and create calamity;

    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:1-7 ESV

—

1.2 Timeline Snapshot

The timeline between the reign of King Solomon and the Babylonian Exile spans roughly 350 years, transitioning from Israel’s golden age of unity to a devastating national fracture and eventual conquest. Key milestones in this history include:

• c. 970–931 BC: Reign of King Solomon
  Israel reaches its peak wealth and power. Solomon builds the First Temple in Jerusalem.

• c. 931 BC: The Divided Kingdom
  Following Solomon's death, the nation splits into two:

  • The Northern Kingdom (Israel): 10 tribes, capital initially in Samaria.

  • The Southern Kingdom (Judah): 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin), capital in Jerusalem.

• c. 875–797 BC: Ministries of Elijah and Elisha
  Prophets emerge in the Northern Kingdom to combat idolatry and call the nation back to the covenant.

• 722 BC: Fall of the Northern Kingdom
  The Assyrian Empire conquers Israel, exiling the 10 tribes (often called the "Lost Tribes") and resettling the area with foreigners.

• 605–586 BC: The Fall of Judah and the Exile
  The Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar II, conquers the Southern Kingdom in stages:

  • 605 BC: First wave of exiles is taken, including Daniel.

  • 597 BC: Second wave of exiles is taken, including King Jehoiachin and Ezekiel.

  • 586 BC: Jerusalem is besieged, the First Temple is destroyed, and a final wave of captives is deported to Babylon, fulfilling the 70-year exile. 

1.3 Setting Up the Big Picture: Key Moments and Lessons

Warnings of exile in Isaiah and Jeremiah point to the people’s empty religiosity: their hearts were ultimately not turned to God completely. Isaiah ministered during the Assyrian crisis, but he prophetically saw beyond his own generation. He warned that Judah’s sin would eventually lead to Babylonian exile. 

Isaiah confronts the heart of Judah’s problem: they still practiced religion outwardly, but inwardly had abandoned God.

Isaiah 1:4 (ESV)

“Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.”

More than a century later, Jeremiah ministers during Judah’s final decline as Babylon begins rising to power. He warns that Judah’s greatest danger is not Babylon — it is their refusal to repent.

 

Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)

“for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Jeremiah especially attacks Judah’s false confidence in the Temple itself:

Jeremiah 7:4 (ESV)

“Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’”

The people believed Jerusalem could never fall because God’s Temple was there. Jeremiah warns that covenant disobedience has made judgment inevitable.

Jeremiah 25:11 (ESV)

“This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

—

Although we will never fully know why God chose exile as His verdict for His people then, we also know that as much as it was a prophesied “punishment” we can’t say it was all bad. 

God’s admonishment is always for our good. And we’ll see this even more in part 2.

Walter Breggueman in his book, “Out of Babylon” further elaborates, as he cites numerous renowned scholars of Judaism that…

“Within the Old Testament, Babylon occupies a central position in what it means to be Jewish. In the Old Testament, the imagining of Babylon is inescapably from the perspective of Jewishness. To start with, Jews perceive Babylon as threat, but then Babylon is also recognized as a viable venue for faithfulness over a long period of time.”

More than a decade before the Temple was destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar deported about 10,000 of Judah’s leaders to Babylon to weaken the nation and prevent rebellion. But God used even this painful exile to preserve His people and prepare their future through leaders like Ezekiel and Daniel. Jewish scholars even note that their traditions and ways of life were codified and preserved under the resources that the Babylonian empire provide.

Part 2: Elect Exiles

We contemporary Christians experience a spiritual exile that mirrors biblical patterns before Cyrus came into the scene. The entire biblical narrative from Genesis 3 through Revelation 21 unfolds within exile—humanity’s alienation from God—until God’s reconciliation restores the original creation design. 

Modern believers, like our spiritual ancestors Abraham, Noah, Jacob…all occupy the status of strangers and exiles in this world—the true diaspora scattered among the nations. 

C.S. Lewis famously put words to something every Christian has experienced.

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

2.1 The Theme: Exile didn’t begin in Babylon

Exile began in Eden.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were sent out from the garden. Humanity was driven from the place of God’s presence. The world became, in the deepest sense, a place away from home. From that moment forward, the Bible becomes the story of God pursuing His people in the far country.

That is why exile keeps appearing throughout Scripture. 

We repeatedly understand God’s people as pilgrims and sojourners. Abraham wandered in tents. Moses named his son Gershom:

“I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
— Exodus 18:3 (ESV)

David confessed:

“For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.”

1 Chronicles 29:15 (ESV)

Even Israel’s memory of Egypt shaped their ethics:

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 22:21 (ESV)

“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 23:9 (ESV)

Again and again, God’s people know what it means to be displaced.

Do you  feel this yourself? In a big city like Chicago, it’s almost natural to start out feeling disconnected as you get established. But perhaps this theme for Christians runs much deeper.

Exile is never only geographical. It is spiritual. It is theological. It is the condition of being made for God and yet living in a world estranged from Him. It is the ache of being created for communion and yet experiencing distance, loss, judgment, and longing.

That is why even after Cyrus allows the people to return, the story still feels unfinished. The people come back to the land. The temple was rebuilt. Jerusalem begins to rise from the ruins. But something is still missing. The glory has not fully returned. The throne of David is not restored in its fullness. The people are back in the land, but they are still under the shadow of foreign powers. They have returned from Babylon, but the deeper exile remains.

And this is where the story of Israel becomes the story of all of us.

The New Testament does not treat exile as a theme that ended when the Jews returned from Babylon. It takes up the language of exile and applies it to the Church. Peter writes to believers and calls them “elect exiles.” That phrase is both beautiful and unsettling:

Elect exiles.

Chosen, yet scattered.

2.2 Jesus as Our Final Liberator King

The story of Israel’s exile becomes one of the clearest biblical pictures for understanding the Christian life. After Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried Judah into Babylon, Israel came to understand exile not merely as political defeat, but as God’s verdict against generations of covenant compromise and divided worship. 

The New Testament takes this exile language and applies it directly to Christians. The church is presented as the continuation of the covenant people of God—the “New Israel”—not defined by ethnicity or geography, but by faith in Christ. 

Peter opens his letter:

“To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion…”

 1 Peter 1:1 (ESV)

And later:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” 

1 Peter 2:11 (ESV)

The language is unmistakable. Christians are now described using Israel’s exile identity. Believers live in the world, but do not ultimately belong to it. The church exists spiritually where Israel once existed primarily geographically: dwelling among foreign powers while awaiting full restoration.

This theme stretches across the New Testament. Paul writes:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews says of the faithful:

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar… having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Hebrews 11:13 (ESV)

And again:

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

Hebrews 13:14 (ESV)

Cyrus brought the exiles back to Jerusalem, but he could not end the deeper exile. He could send people home to the land, but he could not bring humanity home to God. He could issue a decree, but he could not cleanse the human heart. He could overthrow Babylon, but he could not overthrow sin and death.

For that, we need a greater King.

Jesus is the greater Cyrus.

Cyrus was called God’s anointed in a limited and temporary sense. Jesus is the true Anointed One, the Christ. Cyrus opened the way for captives to return from Babylon. Jesus opens the way for sinners to return to God. Cyrus helped rebuild a temple made with stones. Jesus builds a people in whom God’s Spirit dwells. Cyrus defeated an earthly empire. Jesus defeats the powers of sin, death, and the devil.

And the power of the gospel: God doesn't merely send a deliverer. He enters exile Himself. Jesus ends our exile by entering it Himself.

The Son of God left the glory of heaven and came into the far country. He took on flesh. He entered our sorrow, our weakness, our grief, and our alienation. He was rejected by His own. He was cast outside the city. He bore the judgment we deserved. On the cross, He experienced the ultimate exile so that we could be brought home.

And then He rose.

The resurrection is the beginning of the new creation. It is the declaration that death will not have the last word, that exile will not be permanent, that the King has been enthroned and His kingdom is coming in fullness.

But we still wait.

2.3 The Experience: “No Place Like Home”

So what does this feel like existentially?

We are home, and we are not home yet.

We belong to God, but we live as strangers.

We have hope, but we still lament.

We are citizens of heaven, but we seek the good of the city where God has placed us.

We are elect exiles.

That is the Christian life in two words. 

We are elect because God has set His love on us in Christ. We belong to Him. We have been chosen by grace, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and born again to a living hope. But we are also exiles because we still live in a world that does not fully recognize the King we serve.

“Exiles means we are not home. We are on our way home, but we are not home. And this is extraordinarily important for you to know, because it is right of us to stress the great things that happen when you become a Christian. The minute you become a Christian, you know that you are wholly pardoned, completely accepted and loved. But once you become a Christian, ultimately you haven’t arrived. You have just begun. The Christian life, when we talk about Christians being exiles, means your Christian life will never be all that completely satisfying. Things will never be just right. There will be struggles all during your Christian life. You know why? Because even though you’re a Christian, even though you’re loved, you are not home.”

- Tim Keller

Psalm 90:1 (ESV)

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does home feel like to you? It bears the weight of who we fully are: furniture arranged to how we live, memories all over the walls and shelves, our deepest secrets (not to mention actual dirt and mess and filth!) all around…

We know that our longing for physical homes is matchless. So our longing for our spiritual homes- our souls’ final home- is ever deeper.

2.4 The Instruction: Live with Intention, In Tension

So the Christian life is a life of holy tension. We are not home yet, but this does not mean Christians should despise the world or withdraw from it. 

Jeremiah told the exiles:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

Jeremiah 29:4-7

Peter therefore calls believers not to assimilate into the surrounding culture:

“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable…”

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

The church’s task mirrors Israel’s task in Babylon:

• preserve holiness,

• resist assimilation,

• seek the welfare of the surrounding city,

• and remain faithful while awaiting restoration.

—

If Christians forget the theme of exile, we lose the framework that helps us understand where we are in the story.

We begin to expect the world to feel like our final home.

And when the world does not feel like home, we either grow bitter toward it, or we start bending ourselves to fit inside it.

That is the danger.

The exile theme teaches Christians that we are not abandoned, but we are also not home yet. We are “elect exiles”—chosen by God, loved in Christ, filled with the Spirit, but still living in a world that has not yet been fully renewed. If we forget that, several things happen.

First, we mistake comfort for faithfulness.

We begin to assume that the Christian life should be easy, secure, respected, and upwardly mobile. We expect obedience to produce immediate visible blessing. So when suffering comes, or when faithfulness makes us feel strange, costly, or misunderstood, we feel shocked. We think something has gone wrong.

But exile tells us: this tension is normal.

It is not strange that Christians feel out of place. It is strange when Christians feel too at home in Babylon.

Second, we become vulnerable to assimilation.

Babylon rarely begins by asking God’s people to stop believing. It simply asks them to belong somewhere else first.

It gives them new names, new ambitions, new measures of success, new stories of identity, new definitions of the good life. And slowly, without realizing it, Christians can begin to measure their lives by the same standards as everyone else: comfort, status, influence, romance, wealth, security, achievement, self-expression.

We may still believe Christian truths, but our imagination becomes Babylonian.

We still confess Jesus as Lord, but we live as if Babylon gets to define what matters.

Third, we lose our ability to lament.

If we forget exile, we will not know what to do with sorrow. We will either deny it with shallow optimism or drown in it with despair.

But exile gives Christians a language for grief. It lets us say, “This is not how the world is supposed to be,” without concluding, “God has failed.” It teaches us to weep over sin, death, injustice, and loss while still believing that God is moving the plot forward.

Without exile, suffering feels like a contradiction.

With exile, suffering becomes part of the waiting.

Fourth, we confuse America, success, family, career, or cultural influence with the kingdom of God.

This is one of the greatest dangers.

When Christians forget that they are exiles, they can start trying to make a permanent home out of temporary things. Even good things become ultimate things. A nation becomes Zion. A political movement becomes salvation. A career becomes identity. A family becomes heaven. A church platform becomes the kingdom.

But exile keeps us sober.

It reminds us that no earthly city, no earthly ruler, no earthly success, and no earthly belonging can bear the weight of our final hope.

We seek the good of the city, but we do not worship the city.

We love our neighbors, but we do not need their approval to know who we are.

We work for justice, beauty, and mercy, but we know the final restoration comes only when the King returns.

This brings us to the fifth danger: we forget how to hope.

Exile is not only about displacement. It is about longing. Hope, through this lens, is rooted in knowing all of this isn’t final.

Christians are not merely people who believe the right things. We are people waiting for a home. We are waiting for the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the renewal of creation, and the day when God dwells with His people forever.

If we forget exile, our hope shrinks.

We stop longing for the new creation and settle for a manageable life now. We stop praying “Your kingdom come” with urgency. We stop aching for the final enthronement of Jesus our King on earth.

And when hope shrinks, discipleship shrinks with it.

So the danger is not merely that Christians misunderstand one biblical theme.

The danger is that we misunderstand our entire location in the story.

We will either over-love the world because we think it is home, or over-hate the world because we forget God still loves it.

But the exile theme keeps us faithful.

It tells us: you are chosen, but you are scattered. You are loved, but you are waiting. You are not home, but you are not lost. Babylon is real, but it is not final. The King has come, and the King is coming again.

So we live with patience, courage, holiness, and hope.

We seek the good of the city.

But we keep our hearts set on the city that is to come.

Conclusion:

The Bible ultimately ends where exile ends. Revelation portrays “Babylon” not simply as an ancient empire, but as the symbol of the world’s rebellion against God. Yet Babylon finally falls, and the people of God receive a greater homeland:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.”
— Revelation 21:3 (ESV)

This is the final restoration Israel’s exile always pointed toward. Cyrus was a shadow. Jesus is the substance. Cyrus opened the road back to Jerusalem; Christ opens the way into the New Creation. And so Christians live now as exiles with hope—already rescued by the greater Cyrus, yet still awaiting the day when heavenly citizenship becomes eternal reality

Let’s pray through Jesus’ own words:

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

 — John 17 (ESV)

Royals: Always Give Up, Always Surrender to the King of Kings

Royals: Always Give Up, Always Surrender to the King of Kings

Focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late. 

Setting the Scene:

The Israelites have been exiled to Babylon! After the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Northern Kingdom (Israel) split due to dueling factions of King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam, the kingdoms each experienced a series of kings (and one queen) that led them down a path of self-destruction. Israel had all bad kings, but Judah (whose kingdom we will focus on today) had a few kings who did right in the sight of the LORD. However, this ebb and flow of evil, somewhat compromised, and good kings could not stop Judah’s steady drift towards judgment. When King Jehoiakim takes the throne, he is besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire and Judah is taken into captivity. This is where our story begins.

We will now shift our focus from Kings of Judah to the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s story is covered in the first four chapters of Daniel and it will mirror many of the themes of the Kings of Judah. In his story we will see that he consistently acknowledges God but also consistently lives in the way he wants to live and rebels against God’s sovereignty. It is not until he is forcefully humbled and broken that he truly turns to God at the end of his story.

We will consider his story and our focus statement in four sections: The Diet, the Dream, the Furnace, and the Beast.

The Diet:

In the beginning of the Israelites’ captivity four faithful characters emerge: Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar) and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom were called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). They are brought into the king’s palace along with others to be educated about the kingdom’s culture and laws and will eventually stand before the king.

These four young men refuse to eat the king’s food because it is against the law of God. They strike a deal with the steward of the king to eat the food sanctioned by God for 10 days and then they will compare with the other men. At the end of the 10 days, they are proven to be in far better condition than their counterparts and the steward orders their diet to replace the king’s. Finally, they are brought before the king and are found to be 10 times better than all of the king’s current advisors and are raised up to prominent positions in the kingdom. (Daniel 1:8-21)

Through this story, King Nebuchadnezzar is given a taste of this fact: God’s ways are better. It is his first of many encounters with this truth.

The Dream:

In Daniel 2:1-16, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him and keeps him up at night. He summons his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans and commands them not only to interpret his dream, but he challenges them to reveal his dream without him telling them. They cannot do this and try to extrapolate the dream so they can make up an interpretation.

“Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.” (Daniel 2:4-5 ESV)

Seeing that their fate is all but decided, the wise men seek our Daniel, whom they know possesses the gift of interpretation. Daniel stops their execution and comes before the king. He then reveals the dream and interprets it thus: God has a plan to raise up kingdom after kingdom, all of them rising and falling until a kingdom rises up that is not made by human hands that will rule supreme over all of the previous kingdoms. 

(Daniel 2:24-45)

The dream is an illustration of God’s sovereignty to all kingdoms and kings, including the kingdom of Babylon and the great king Nebuchadnezzar. It is a stark statement that God is ultimately in control despite the successes of Babylon over Judah.

To this, King Nebuchadnezzar falls on his face and declares a seemingly complete acknowledgment of Daniel’s God, our God:

The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court. (Daniel 2:47-49)

It would seem that Nebuchadnezzar has learned and retained a valuable lesson. But the very next verse in chapter 3 tells a different story, which emphasizes the first part of our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully.

The Furnace:

Daniel 3:1a opens with this statement:

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold…

But the king had acknowledged God fully in the previous story, didn’t he? And yet, he constructs an image of gold for all to bow down to and worship in complete contradiction with the laws of the “God of gods and Lord of kings.”

Ultimately, an acknowledgment of the One True God is meaningless if it does not result in full submission to Him.

The story continues. Nebuchadnezzar constructs a 90ft golden idol that is placed in the middle of Dura, which was in the province of Babylon. He commands that whenever the residents of Babylon (including the captive Jews) hear the distinct sound of instruments, they are to respond by bowing down and worshiping the golden image. If they do not, they will be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. They are brought before the king and when asked to do it they respond thus:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” 

(Daniel 3:16-18)

The king then heats the furnace up 7x more than it was originally, to really make sure he takes care of these fools, and has some of the mighty men of his army bind the three men and throw them in. The fire is so hot that the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in die.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

 (Daniel 3:24-30)

Nebuchadnezzar not only saw this miracle but he saw the One who performed it in the fourth man of the fire. Many interpret this individual to be Jesus Christ Himself, standing with and protecting those who refused to bow down to anyone but Him. This is a stark exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar that the only One worthy of full submission, of worship, of bending the knee to is Jesus – the One True God. Not a golden idol, not himself, but only God deserves such praise and honor. The king proclaims:

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. 

How great are his signs,

    how mighty his wonders!

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

    and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

(Daniel 4:1-3)

Nebuchadnezzar has seen three wonders, each one better than the next, and he has acknowledged the superiority of God every time and especially this last time. But… our story will continue in Daniel 4:4-27.

The Beast:

After the story of the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar is given a second dream. When Daniel interprets it, it is found to be a warning to the king that if he does not break off from his sins by practicing righteousness and all of his iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, he will experience a humbling so harsh that he will literally live like a beast of the field. (Daniel 4:4-27)

Once again, Nebuchadnezzar receives a mercy from God in the form of a miracle and he chooses to acknowledge it, then ignore it. We see him walking on the roof of his palace and praising himself: 

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:29-30)

Let’s Talk About It!

Let’s revisit our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late.

Nebuchadnezzar over and over again pays grandiose lip service to God, statements that when read seem like he is turning the corner. He has fully acknowledged God and said all the right things one should say when encountering God’s wonders and God Himself, but ultimately his words are empty because they are followed by Nebuchadnezzar’s insistence to live the way he wants to live. His faith in God has stopped at mere acknowledgement and has not followed through with obedience and submission.

Have you ever done this? Do you know someone who has?

It is an all-too-common thing to customize our belief system to fit with our preferences. If you don’t like the idea that homosexual acts are sinful, you can find a belief system that doesn’t teach that. Don’t like the idea that some people go to hell? There are plenty of belief stystems that deny its existence.

Nebuchadnezzar essentially did this. He did not like that a belief in the Most High God would make him submit and obey God, so he decided he would praise God, yes, but then make a golden idol, attempt to kill the servants of God, and praise himself, his actual god, when observing his perceived greatness. It was a belief system that included the One True God but precluded any disruption in his preferred lifestyle. He made up his own belief system.

But we should not believe in Christianity simply because it is our preferred belief system. In fact, for anyone who is intellectually honest, Christianity is a harsh pill to swallow: loved ones will go to Hell if they do not repent and believe, we are called to lay down our lives and take up our crosses to follow Jesus, we are promised hate, persecution, and even death for our beliefs, it’s not all roses! 

But the reason we should believe in Christianity, in Christ, is because it is true.

It is a fact that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead on the third day. Since that is true, Jesus is who He said He is: He is God, the God of gods and Lord of kings. If we do not submit fully to that reality then we would deny reality itself.

But the reality of Jesus is also that Jesus is love, that He died for us so that we might live through Him, that He wants our best and desires to walk alongside us through this life and the next. It is a beautiful reality not just to be acknowledged, but to be submitted to fully. Don’t you want to place the outcome of your eternity on the truth?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

But, the wrath of God remains on those who do not submit to God:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

We don’t get to acknowledge reality without submitting to it and think that everything will work out in the end. If you believe in the reality of gravity yet deny it by jumping off the Sears Tower in attempts to fly, guess what will happen?

So here is the challenge: Seek that which is true.

Start with the empty tomb. Seek and find the truth as to why Jesus Christ’s tomb was empty. Every theory falls flat, like it leapt off the Sears Tower, except for the truth that Jesus Christ said He would rise from the dead and He did. Since that is true, what does it demand of your life? Will it be simply nodding to this truth or will it be a transformative recognition that Jesus loves you and that Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is the only one who can save you from the wrath of God?

So we need to make a decision. If Christ did not rise from the dead then Christianity is pure evil. It would demand complete submission and self-sacrifice for nothing and Christians will waste their life and are to be pitied among all (1 Corinthians 15:12-19) But if He did rise from the dead, He is worth it all.

The Beast (cont.)

Let’s finish our story. Remember the focus statement, especially the last part: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late. 

Nebuchadnezzar has received a warning from his second dream to break off from his sin, practice righteousness, and show mercy to the oppressed or he will become like a beast of the field.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. 

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

    and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

    and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

    or say to him, “What have you done?”

At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

(Daniel 4:28-37)

We see in this final passage that Nebuchadnezzar was able to “successfully” customize and limit his submission to God until God literally humbled him by making him a beast of the field. Then, and only then, did Nebuchadnezzar truly submit.

Jesus promises that this submission will happen within all of our lives, whether we like it or not.

By myself I have sworn;

    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness

    a word that shall not return:

‘To me every knee shall bow,

    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

(Isaiah 45:23)

…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

(Philippians 2:10b-11)

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

(Revelation 5:13)

So this is the truth: you will submit to Jesus and proclaim that He is Lord. But your choice is whether to do it on this side of glory or the next. Nebuchadnezzar was fortunate enough to have God intervene in his life and humble him to the point of submission before he died. That is not a promise God makes to all, but a merciful choice He makes to few. 

What he promises is that if you bow to him now, He has a way that is better for you as exemplified in Daniel’s diet, He has truth and revelation for you in His Word as modeled in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and that He will protect and walk alongside you as shown in the fiery furnace. 

Don’t be like Nebuchadnezzar and pick, choose, and customize your relationship with God’s truth until God humbles you, likely when it is too late. Instead, choose Jesus. Choose truth. Bask in the security that His death, burial, and resurrection provide to your eternal soul and live a life dedicated to honoring Him and leading others home. It is the best God has for you in this life.

So if you do not yet believe or if you have lived your life on the fence, come home. Come home to Jesus. He is true, He is the God of gods and Lord of kings, He is so, so good.

Royals: Raising the Next Generation

Royals: Raising the Next Generation

Happy Mother’s Day! 

Focus: Natural and spiritual are appointed by God to help form the next generation for Christ.  

• Project Hail Mary

• Prophetess and a King 

• Our Passover Lamb

Project Hail Jesus

Mothers are appointed by God to help call out the purposes of God. 

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭1‬-10 ‭ESV‬‬

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.” And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.”

God already has in his heart and mind what he desires for each person to be and do.  

King David would have this revelation when he said:

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139‬:‭13‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”

Josiah and who he would be in the Lord was spoken about generations before. 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’”

Project Hail Mary told the story the story that is true of all of our lives:

We are trying to figure out who we are 

When called to mission we think, “It can’t be me!”

Natural mothers and spiritual mothers in the faith help call the purposes of God out of people. 

Natural and spiritual mothers help us remember that life isn’t just about us, but it’s about Christ, his gospel and his Kingdom.  

“Family is a gift to enjoy, but it makes a terrible god. And it can become a god whether one is married with kids, married and childless, or single. The church itself is rightly family-oriented, and the desire to have a family is a wonderful, God-given desire, but family does not belong on the throne of our hearts. The throne of our heart is reserved for Christ alone. The family is not the good news we need; it is not our gospel message, however many put all their hope in parents, grandparents, siblings, and children. 

If we aren’t careful, family can impede the gospel, instead of drawing us further into the gospel. The family was designed by God to reflect him and the love within the Trinity, the love we are brought into through the good news. Family must point us to God and his gospel. We must love our family through Christ, and for Christ. 

The family is God’s means for us to drive upward into a far more important relationship and a far greater love. As Paul says in Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things,” so the family obviously falls inside these lines. 

Family is from him, family is through him, and family is to him.”

….

“The alternative to worshiping family as god is to worship God through our family. Family is not meant to impede the gospel, but to further it — to secure our hearts for God, not distract us from him.”

-Liz Wann.  She is the author of The End of Me: Finding Resurrection Life in the Daily Sacrifices of Motherhood.

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2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.””

*Natural and spiritual mothers help our worldview be shaped by the word of God. 

Prophetess and a King 

Mothers are appointed by God to help affirm the word of God. 

Huldah the prophetess helped shape King Josiah’s worldview with the word of the Lord.  

‭‭

2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭14‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.”

Both natural and spiritual mothers in the Lord are important for helping build lives on the word of God.  

As Josiah was influenced by natural and spiritual mothers, he rose up to be a national reformer, notable in the eyes of the Lord.  

“NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE THAN BEING ONE OF GOD'S TOOLS TO FORM A HUMAN SOUL.”

-Paul David Tripp

What were Josiah’s reforms when he heard the Book of the Law (I Kings 23)?

• No more privatized spirituality - Josiah brought worship back to the Temple in Jerusalem 

• An outright attack on idolatry - Josiah burned the items devoted to the false gods Baal, Asherah and astral deities found in Yahweh’s Temple, and destroyed those used for child sacrifice.

• Went to the root - Josiah ventured into the former Northern Kingdom and destroyed the altar at Bethel built by Jeroboam. 

• According to his Word - Following the discovery of the Law, Josiah would have the people of God renew their covenant with Yahweh. 

All of Josiah’s reforms culminated with the restoration of the Passover celebration - the first since the time of Judges. 

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭23‬:‭21‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”

*Scholars estimate this would have been 300 to over 400 years where a central festival and expectation of worship that Yahweh ordained was unseen amongst the people of God. 

What things are we neglecting in Scripture because it has been generations since these truths have been upheld?

i.e. - the person and power of the Holy Spirit was unfamiliar to me until I read I Corinthians 12-14. 

*This implies how long elements of Scripture can remain neglected, yet still important to God, while we suffer all the while because of our willful ignorance and disobedience.   

Our Passover Lamb

Mothers are appointed by God to help lead us to the Lamb of God. 

Jesus is our Passover lamb that is central to all of our worship. 

Whereas Josiah’s reforms were built on the word of God, that word all leads to Jesus, the Lamb of God and the truth found in his gospel.  

So what should a mother let their natural and spiritual children know to call out the truths and purposes of God in their lives?

Paul would later say in the New Testament to the people of God:

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Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Christ our sinless, unblemished Passover lamb was sacrificed on the cross to take the punishment for our sins.  

Jesus died but rose three days later so that as we turn from our willful ignorance and disobedience, we might not only see Jesus reform our lives, but our families, our cities and the nations in which we live. 

Just as we celebrate mothers today, let’s even more importantly celebrate Jesus who came to redeem all of our broken lives from Hell.