Mike
Scriptures:
Daniel 2: 31-45 Daniel 3: 1-7 Romans 1: 21-25
Over the last several weeks Annie has spoken to us about walking humbly before God, how we read in Genesis that God created Adam and Eve and delighted to walk with them in the cool of the day.
As we know, it wasn’t long before the serpent turned up and destroyed the relationship that God had with man. God created man to worship Him, but it was man that created idols for himself to worship. This is plainly depicted for us during the time of Moses who, having led the children of Israel to the wilderness and spent a long time on the mountain, returned to find the golden calf that man had created as a replacement for the One True God to worship.
Sadly, man has been creating and walking with idols ever since, and taking the glory from the One with whom we should be humbly walking. Paul in his letter to the Romans teaches us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men: Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
One of the best examples in scripture of man knowingly worshipping an idol was during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and was troubled by it, he called all his magicians, astrologers and sorcerers not only to interpret his dream, but to also to tell him what his dream was. Although the consequences for not complying were dire, the Chaldeans told the king that there was nobody that would be able to fulfil his wishes.
The King’s guard were sent to round up all the wise men including Daniel. Daniel enquired of the King’s guard as to the reason for the arrest and, when it was made known to him, he asked the king for time to gain understanding of the king’s request and then he would reveal the dream and the interpretation. God revealed the dream and the interpretation to Daniel, who went to Nebuchadnezzar and told him he had seen a great image. The image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay. Then Daniel said to the king: You watched until a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the brass, the silver, and the gold also broken in pieces and became like the chaff which the wind carried away, and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.Thou O King are this head of gold, and after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and a third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth, a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, and in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom cut out of the mountain without hands, which shall never be destroyed, will never be left to another, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
In response to this, Nebuchadnezzar confesses that the God of Daniel was a “God of gods”; but sadly, he still saw God as one of many gods to worship. He was just adding another “god” to his list, although, at this point, he could have chosen to walk humbly before the God who had revealed the impossible.
Nebuchadnezzar proceeded to build a statue some 90 feet high and about 9 feet wide. He was not content that he was just the head of gold, he made the entire statue of gold, defiantly saying that there would be no other kingdoms after this and foolishly saying, “God, you are wrong! My kingdom will last forever”. Once the statue of gold was built, Nebuchadnezzar then called many of his government officials out to worship this colossal statue. Like many people, the king was not content to worship his idol alone, he demanded others join him.
The contrast is so dramatic between Daniel, who humbly gave all the glory to God, who sought no worship for himself, and Nebuchadnezzar who wanted all the glory and worship to go only to himself. We now have a choice, do we create our own gods to worship and glorify, or do we walk humbly with our God for now and all eternity?
Prayer: Father God, give us all the desire and determination to walk only with You, to worship only You, and to humbly give all the glory to You and You alone. Amen
Comments