Psalm 40:1-3 (NASB)

I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He pulled me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay.

And He set my feet upon a rock, and held my footsteps firm.

And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear, and will put their trust in the Lord.

WAITING PATIENTLY

Notice that the psalmist waited patiently for the LORD. This is because the disciple is in a dependent relationship with the LORD. The disciple must wait for the LORD. She must wait for the King to come to her. Here is one of the mysteries of our relationship with God: that we know that He hears our cries and that He is eager to have fellowship with us and that He loves us and has sent His Son to die for us, and yet He is also sometimes slow to appear in our presence. He is the King and He comes when He, in His divine and perfect wisdom, knows that the time is right. And so in faithfulness and obedience, the disciple waits for her King. She cries out . . . and waits for the King to choose the time when He will come to her. The LORD is the sovereign one. He is the Master and we are the servants. And so we wait patiently, knowing that our loving King is coming soon and that He is never far away.

THE LORD HEARS OUR CRY AND ACTS POWERFULLY ON OUR BEHALF

As the psalmist continues to cry out, the LORD inclines His ear and hears the cry of His children. “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ear is open to their cry.” (Psalm 34:15) When the LORD deems that all is ready, He acts in a way that only God can act. The LORD answers prayers in a way that declares that it was Him that answered. He uses answered prayer to declare His power and His presence. And so here He pulls David out of the pit of destruction and sets his feet on a rock and then holds his feet firmly in place. Not only is this David’s physical deliverance, but it is also an obvious picture of what Christ has done for every believer. The LORD has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

A NEW SONG SO THAT WE CAN BE HIS WITNESSES

Once the psalmist has been delivered and has been set in safety out of reach of his enemies, he feels like singing and praising the One who delivered him. The LORD has delivered David and He will deliver you. And when the victory comes, we are to sing praises to our great Savior. A song of praise should flow from our lips as we “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) Our God is great and He has promised to never leave us and He is with us like a dread Champion (Jeremiah 20:11), and so we praise Him and let the world know that He is to be feared above all gods (Psalm 96:4). “You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.” (Psalm 86:10) As we declare His glory among the nations, many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD.

Application: The applications are straight-forward. Wait patiently for the LORD as you pray persistently, knowing that His ear is bent toward you and that He loves you and that He will answer when the time is right. Meanwhile, persevere and be steadfast and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus as you continue to live for Him. The LORD will act on your behalf.

SDG   rmb   6/6/2016

“The sower went out to sow.” Thus begins one of Jesus’ most famous parables. This is the story of a man who scatters seed liberally and randomly and about four different types of soil which yield four different harvests. My intention here is not, however, to explain the full parable and its meaning, but is only to consider this short opening sentence and see how the word of God speaks to us through this sentence. I believe there is rich instruction for us related to evangelism. Let’s explore this short sentence phrase by phrase.

THE SOWER went out to sow. First, we read of the sower. Who is the sower? I believe this is a description of the disciple of Jesus Christ, because every disciple of Jesus is to scatter the seed of the word. In Mark’s version of this parable, it is said, “The sower sows the word (4:14).” So the disciple sows the word of God. Notice that the sower is defined by what he does. The fundamental task of a sower is to scatter seed, or to sow. A sower who does not scatter seed reveals that he is not truly a sower. And what is the seed? According to Luke 8:11, “The seed is the word of God.”

A primary task of the disciple is to proclaim the gospel, the word of God. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said that His disciples would be fishers of men. Now He is saying that His disciples will be sowers of the word of God. So one of the distinguishing marks of the disciple of Jesus is that he or she is a sower of the word of God, whether that means the whole Bible or it means the gospel of Christ.

The sower WENT OUT to sow. In order to perform the task required by his title, the sower must go out. He must grab his seed and he must leave where he is and go out and find someplace to throw his seed. The sower must physically leave the comfortable and the familiar and go out in search of soil that may receive the seed and may produce a harvest.

Just so, the disciple grabs the seed of the word of God and goes out to find a place to throw that seed. He goes out to the field of his workplace and scatters the seed. She goes out to her daughter’s soccer team and scatters the seed. The point is that the disciple grabs the seed and GOES OUT. The field will not come to them, so they go out to the field. The disciple is sent out by his Lord (Matthew 28:19; John 20:21) and so he GOES OUT.

The sower went out TO SOW. This verb gives the purpose of the activity. Why did the sower go out? What is his goal, his motivation, his intent? The sower did not go out to aimlessly wander and to conserve his seed. No! He went out for an express purpose, and that purpose was to take his seed and scatter as much as possible to attain the hoped-for result of a harvest. The sower went out TO SOW. (Consider Isaiah 55:10-11, where the LORD says that His word will not return to Him empty without accomplishing all His desire.)

In the same way, the disciple fills his heart and his mouth with the seed of the word of God, the gospel, and then goes out with the express purpose of proclaiming the word to bring in a harvest of souls. There is a compelling reason why the disciple risks going out and sowing the word, and that reason is to “turn men from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God (Acts 26:18).” The sower went out to sow, because it is only when the disciple of Jesus Christ goes out into the darkness and sows the gospel of salvation that men and women will be reaped as a harvest for Jesus Christ.

So can it be said of you, “The sower went out to sow”?   SDG   rmb   4/27/2016

On this occasion, Simon the Pharisee had invited the upstart Rabbi into his house for dinner. He did not really want to invite Him, but common courtesy and religious decorum required that one teacher invite another teacher into their house, and Simon was not one to be rude to an up and coming religious peer. So he invited this Jesus to come to his house to dine.

As dinner progressed, Simon was probably bored and fairly indifferent toward his guest. “He doesn’t seem very impressive to me,” he probably thought to himself. “I don’t see what the big deal is about Him. He’s perfectly ordinary as far as I can tell and His teaching is good, but unremarkable. In fact, He doesn’t even seem to know much about the latest rabbinic ideas at all. Yes, very ordinary, indeed.” Simon has made up his mind about this Jesus, and he sees Him as over-rated and forgettable, and certainly the farthest thing from the Messiah.

As Simon is thinking these thoughts and making up his own judgment about this Rabbi, suddenly the proper and reserved atmosphere of the dinner is disturbed, for a “sinner” has somehow entered the house. Certainly uninvited, this immoral woman has discovered that Jesus is nearby and she has grabbed an alabaster vial of perfume, the most expensive thing that she owns, and pushed her way past the dignified guests to take her place at the dusty feet of the Lord of the universe. It is there at Jesus’ feet that this woman will worship Him. For she, like Simon, has made her own judgment about Jesus, but her conclusion is very different from Simon’s. She has concluded that He is the promised Messiah and that He is the sovereign Lord and that He can forgive her sin. And so this woman, this “sinner” worships the Lord Jesus with reckless abandon. In pure humility and adoration she showers affection on Him, utterly unconcerned about herself or her reputation or what other people may think of her. Her only desire is to worship this holy man, Jesus, with her whole being and with everything in her, kissing His feet and wetting His feet with her tears and wiping His feet with her hair. All the while she is pouring expensive perfume out on His dusty feet. Her worship of Jesus is extravagant and unrestrained, and because of her evident love for Jesus and because of her demonstrated faith in Him, Jesus forgives her sins. Yes, by her faith she is washed clean from all her sins and walks away a forgiven woman.

Luke often contrasts the Pharisees and the “sinners” (5:31-32; 7:36-50; 15:1-32; 18:9-14; etc.), showing that the stoic and strict religion of the Pharisees bears no resemblance to the robust, vigorous new life of the true disciple, while also showing that “sinners” often demonstrated saving faith and were more willing to repent than their religious counterparts. Religious people believe they are good enough to deserve entrance into heaven on their own merits, while sinners are eager to hear of a God who is merciful and gracious and who will forgive the sins of everyone who places his faith in Jesus.

And here Luke also shows that where there is a difference in faith toward Jesus, there is also a difference in worship. So here he contrasts the sort of bored and indifferent treatment that Simon the Pharisee gives Jesus with the unrestrained and reckless adoration given to Him by the “sinner.”

Every one of us must reach his or her own conclusion about who Jesus is, and what we conclude will manifest itself in how we relate to Jesus. In other words, my opinion of Jesus will manifest itself in my worship of Jesus. Do I relate to Jesus with unselfconscious joy and heartfelt worship or do I relate to Him with bored indifference, staying detached and distant and cold? If someone looks at how I worship Him, would they conclude that I love Him with all my heart?

O, that I would worship as this woman worshiped, and not remain trapped in my safe and sedate and refined expressions of love for Him! O, that we would worship the Lord Jesus with the reckless abandon of a sinner who has been forgiven of many sins and adore the One who has told us, “Your sins have been forgiven.”   SDG   rmb  4/25/2016

In the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, we frequently see the Lord performing astounding miracles of healing or acts of power without the slightest effort or fanfare. What is almost as remarkable is the matter-of-fact tone with which these astonishing acts are related by the gospel writers. What do you think? Does stopping a hurricane with the sound of your voice warrant at least a little notice and maybe a headline? But for Jesus, this was completely routine. When you are the Creator God, there is no act that requires effort.

In the seventh chapter of Luke, there is another such miracle that occurs, this one in the midst of a funeral procession. As we set the scene, we see that Jesus is entering the town called Nain. He is followed by His disciples and also by a large crowd. As this huge entourage enters the city, they are met by a funeral procession coming out of the town. You can imagine what kind of a hush falls over the crowd traveling with Jesus as they meet this funeral procession. Here is a sad and hopeless situation. The only son of a widow is being carried out of the city to be buried. The widow has lost her husband and now has lost her son. Thus she is left with no real hope for the future. How is she going to survive when her husband and her only son have died? The path ahead is black indeed.

But there is no situation that is hopeless when Jesus Christ is there. What happens in Nain? First, Jesus sees the situation and has compassion on the woman. Imagine this, that we have a God who is compassionate toward hurting, desperate people. Jesus not only sees the situation, but He also decides to do something about the situation. But what can be done? The son of the widow has died and no one but God alone can overcome death. There is no human who can overcome the finality of death.

Instead of sadly walking away, however, and showing respect for the dead and the grieving, in the presence of the entire funeral procession and His own large entourage, Jesus walks up to the coffin and stops the funeral procession. The people must have wondered what Jesus was going to do. “Jesus, the guy is dead. Please don’t do anything embarrassing or silly. Let’s just go on and let’s not bother this poor widow.” At this point there is no one in the funeral procession or in the large crowd following Jesus who is not perfectly aware that the young man on the coffin is dead. After all, that’s why they are going in the funeral, to bury this dead young man. “It’s over. Let them grieve and let’s move on.”

What happens next is beyond remarkable and beyond astonishing. In the presence of all these people, with them all hearing His every word, Jesus speaks to the corpse and commands the corpse to get up. Try to grasp what is going on. A flesh-and-blood human being is standing there and is speaking to a corpse, telling the dead man to get up, much like you would tell your sleeping son to get up on a Saturday morning. All the people, who know with absolute certainty that the young man is dead, hear Jesus speak to the corpse. “Is He out of His mind? The boy is dead. There is nothing that You can do, Jesus.”

Instead of submitting to hopelessness, Jesus Christ assumes control of the situation. “Young man, I say to you, ARISE!” The Lord of the universe speaks and none can resist. The One who rules over all and who is sovereign over life and death, commands the boy to get up. Death must yield its grip. His spirit returns to him and the corpse sits up and begins to speak.

How do the people respond when they realize that God is in their midst? They are filled with fear and begin glorifying God saying, “God has visited His people!” Jesus has performed yet another miracle.

LESSONS:

1. Jesus has compassion on those who are desperate and grieving. He calls those who mourn ‘blessed.’ (Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:21) We have a Savior who is compassionate toward ordinary people. “He knows our frame and He is mindful that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14).” Jesus has suffered, so He can understand how painful it is when His people also suffer (Hebrews 4:15; 2:18).
2. Jesus Christ is more powerful than death. Death is subject to the commands of Jesus. Just as He raised the son of the widow of Nain, and just as He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43ff), even so He will raise us from the dead when He returns. Because of Jesus Christ, death has no victory and the grave has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55). The power of death has been broken by Jesus’ death on the cross (Hebrews 2:14-15).
3. The proper response to Jesus Christ is to fear Him with a reverent fear and to glorify Him as our great God.

SDG    rmb   4/18/2016

Unlike every other religious book, the Bible is rock-solidly based on historical facts, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Luke’s writing. In both the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts there are many historical facts that crowd the chapters of those narratives. Luke writes of real, historical people and even tells about details of their lives and the specific dates when they lived. He also writes of real historical places which either still exist today or have been found in archaeological digs. And it must be remembered that Luke’s gospel was in circulation when the people he mentions were still known. In other words, if these were not real people, then the ones hearing the gospel account or reading the gospel record would know that the names were fictional people and thus the entire account would also be suspect.

This means that Luke’s gospel can be shown to be either truth or fiction. The facts could be validated by those early readers or hearers and they would also be denied if they were false. And the facts prove to be true in every case. Why is this important? It is important because if every historical fact in the gospel account proves to be true, it means that what Luke writes about Jesus is also true. Luke proves himself to be a trustworthy and accurate historian so that his readers will trust what he writes about Jesus. This is Luke’s goal, to arrange his gospel account in such a way that the truth of Jesus, of what He said and did, will be understood and believed (Luke 1:1-4).

As an example of Luke’s meticulous attention to historical detail, read Luke 3:1-2 carefully. Luke gives us at least eight verifiable historical facts of real people to establish the precise time when John the Baptist preached in the wilderness. The timing of this is important because Jesus immediately follows John. Thus Luke establishes the timing of the baptism, temptation and initial ministry of Jesus the Messiah, but more than that, by giving a host of historical facts that prove to be true, Luke is giving no reason to doubt the rest of what he writes.

So what are these historical facts? First, Luke mentions that these events took place during the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. Not merely sometime during the reign of one of the Caesars, but in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius is when these events take place. Next we read of Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea. Here is a name that would have been unknown to history except for his meeting with Jesus. So Luke mentions Pilate. Then Herod, the wicked and sensual ruler of Galilee is mentioned, to further establish the historical setting. Herod’s brother Philip is another historical figure, as is the otherwise unknown Lysanias. Further pinpointing the exact time of these events is “the priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” This is especially noteworthy, since it speaks of an unusual joint high priesthood, which may have been unique in Israel’s history. By including this minute detail, Luke not only shows an intimate knowledge of the state of Judaism at that specific time, but he also further showcases the painstaking efforts he has taken to capture with precise accuracy the historical context of the events he is going to describe. It is as if he is shouting, “These events really happened. There is nothing that is even slightly fictional about these accounts. There is no way I made this stuff up!” Real names; real dates; real places; thus, real events.

Finally, Luke re-introduces John the Baptist, the son of Zachariah as his last historical marker. John was well-known during his ministry and also after his ministry and his life ended. He thus serves as an historical figure and as the forerunner to the Messiah.

Again, all this verifiable, reliable historical information established Luke as a completely credible writer and witness. His testimony is true and the events he describes really happened. Yes, the Jesus he describes is the Jesus who lived. Jesus taught with authority, He called sinners to Himself, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross and He rose from the dead. And one day He will return. Will you be ready?  SDG  rmb  4/17/2016

With the death of Christ, the sinless Son of God, death itself became subject to death, for in the death of Christ, death became a transgressor. How did this come about?

From the beginning, our holy God has had a settled hatred of all sin. Sin, all sin, is an offense against the holiness of God and represents cosmic treason against the Holy One, the Creator God. Thus in the beginning, the LORD God appointed death as the appropriate end of all who sinned. In this sense, death became the obedient servant of the LORD, because the LORD demanded death as punishment for sin and death dutifully obeyed. As such, death could make a legal claim on any and every human being who sinned. In fact, death was appointed by God to carry out that role. God had told Adam, “The day you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), you SHALL SURELY DIE.” When Adam and Eve sinned, therefore, according to God’s command and according to His word, death staked its claim on the first two humans. “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin . . . (Romans 5:12).” Because of God’s decree and Adam’s sin, death entered the world. “Death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam (Romans 5:14).” And death reigned because all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). As soon as any human being transgressed for the first time in their life, they became subject to death and death could legally claim that person. When death claimed anyone who sinned, death was, in essence, being obedient to the role for which God had appointed it. “The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4).” “The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).” “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness . . . (Romans 1:18).” “Transgressors will be altogether destroyed (Psalm 37:38).” Yes, death had a divine command from God to take all who sinned. As such, death was the dreaded, faithful servant of the LORD God, obediently taking away all sinners in death.

But there came a day when death overstepped its bounds and did that which it had no divine command to do. For when Christ came, He lived a sinless life. The Lord Jesus Christ never transgressed the Law of God even one time. He perfectly obeyed the Law of the Lord in His every thought, word and deed. The word of God testifies to the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. “He (God the Father) made Him WHO KNEW NO SIN (Jesus) to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).” Peter declares that Jesus was the One “WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, nor was any deceit found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22).” The author of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN (Heb. 4:15).” Of course Jesus Himself was aware of His own perfect obedience, for in a dialog with His adversaries (John 8:46) He said, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” After this question there was no response, because Jesus had no sin of which He could be convicted. In his first epistle, the apostle John says, “And you know that He appeared to take away sins; AND IN HIM THERE IS NO SIN (1 John 3:5).” The conclusive witness of Scripture is that Jesus Christ had no sin.

So “the wages of sin is death” and “the soul that sins, it shall die,” but what is to be done with this Jesus Christ, for He has no sin? The theological fact is that, since Jesus was not a sinner and had lived a sinless life of perfect obedience, death had no claim on Jesus. God had commanded death to take all sinners, but God had given death absolutely no right to claim a man who had never sinned. For death to take a sinner was for death to be obedient to its divinely appointed role, but for death to take a sinless man was for death to transgress. And so when death claimed the sinless Son of God, death overstepped its divinely ordained bounds. Thus in the moment that death took Jesus Christ away, in that exact moment death became a transgressor. Death sinned in taking away a sinless, innocent Man, and so death, as a sinner, became unrighteous and thus was subject to God’s wrath (Romans 1:18). In the death of Christ, death itself became subject to death, for “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)” and “transgressors will be altogether destroyed (Psalm 37:38).” Do you see what Christ has accomplished? He fulfilled the Law of God perfectly and thus became our source of imputed righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Jeremiah 23:6). He died on the cross to pay the death penalty (Romans 3:25) for all who would believe on Him. He destroyed the works of the devil by robbing death of any fear (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14-15). But here in this study we have also seen that by allowing death to take Him, He condemned death to death. Now because of the death of Jesus, death must surely die. And we see this brought to pass at the end of time: “And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).” Death will be thrown into the lake of fire because of the sinless life and the death of Jesus Christ. SDG   rmb   4/12/2016

Jeremiah 13:23 – “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” Here Jeremiah speaks to one of the most profound conditions of fallen man. Can anyone really change? O, this is a question that deserves some thought.

First it must be acknowledged that the natural man cannot change. We will forget for the moment the fact that he does not desire to change and we will ignore the fact that he loves his evil practices and his lusts and he eagerly wants to continue in them. For now I just want to talk about the natural man’s complete inability to change. The unbeliever cannot change anything about himself. O yes, a person can change locations and they can change their hair color and their style of running shoes, but the natural man is powerless to change anything within himself, anything of substance. He is trapped in the Cage, the place where his experiences, his environment, and his natural genetic makeup have put him. Thus “the Ethiopian” cannot change his skin, and everyone is born “an Ethiopian,” trapped in his skin. Everyone is born in a cage and is unable to change his behavior. So the first answer to Jeremiah’s question is: “No, the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, the leopard cannot change his spots, and the one who does evil is unable to do good.”

But what happens when God changes the Ethiopian’s skin? The Ethiopian cannot change his own skin, but God can change his skin and can make him new (2 Cor. 5:17). Thus God does the impossible every time a person comes to faith in Christ. The “Ethiopian” (that’s everyone of us) has been changed and thus he can now be transformed, because the Ethiopian has new skin. The Cage that contained and constrained him has been shattered and the chains have been loosed. When Christ sets you free (John 8:34-36), you become free to change and you also receive with your new skin a deep desire to be holy. Thus the believer begins to change from the first moments of their reborn life and he continues to grow and change as he draws closer to Christ. Therefore the believer can change and he or she will change, because the Cage has been shattered and because they have been born again to a living hope, which will certainly result in a changed life. Now, after God has changed his skin, the Ethiopian can begin to do good. SDG  rmb  4/9/2016

In the opening chapter of the book of Daniel we find Daniel and his three companions in Babylon in the midst of a pagan culture with pagan religion and pagan practices. So what is a devout Hebrew to do in this situation? We can learn from Daniel here, because we live in a similar situation. Let’s see what Daniel chose to do and what the results were of his decision. We will see that Daniel had a strategy in mind and the LORD also was going to use Daniel and his three friends to work a great work in the life of Nebuchadnezzar.

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine that he drank.” – Daniel 1:8

When Daniel comes to Babylon, he is brought into the court of the king of Babylon, to King Nebuchadnezzar. He has been brought into the highest court in Babylon because he had no defect, he was good-looking, was intelligent and had understanding and knowledge. The Hebrew youths with these qualities were hand-picked for an indoctrination program so that they could be taught the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The program almost certainly involved introducing the Hebrew youths to the pagan gods of the Chaldeans as well. Another part of this program was eating the choicest of the king’s food and the best of the king’s wine. Nebuchadnezzar planned to make these Hebrews into good Chaldeans to serve him in his court as prizes of his conquests. He would have the best and the brightest of the Hebrews in his service and he would gradually turn them into Chaldeans, with Chaldean thinking and with Chaldean gods.

It would be good to pause here and see that this is exactly what the world would have the follower of Jesus become. The world tries constantly to press us into its mold and to have us eat the choice food of this world. The world would have us lose all those things that make us distinct and set apart to the LORD and would have us instead compromise and blend in with the rest of the perishing. The believer must vigorously resist compromise and resist losing the distinctives that make us holy to the LORD, while at the same time we need to maintain our platform for witness and not be so distinct from the world that we lose touch with the world we are trying to reach with the gospel. It is this balancing act that Daniel performs brilliantly. Let’s see how Daniel does this.

Daniel and his friends are Hebrews, just like all the other hand-picked youths from Jerusalem, but they are not just ethnically Hebrew. They are true followers of the LORD and they intend to live as followers of Yahweh no matter where geographically they live. But also I believe that Daniel and his friends were aware that their lives were being ordained by the LORD and that ultimately it was Yahweh who had sent these young men to Babylon for His purposes. (See 1:2 – “The LORD gave Jehoiakim . . .”) Again offering my opinion, I believe that the LORD intended to make Nebuchadnezzar into one of His followers and He was going to use Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael to do it. These men had been sent to Babylon by the LORD as His ambassadors and, as wise ambassadors, it was their duty to determine how to make the wishes and the glory of their King known to the nation into which they were sent. So while Nebuchadnezzar had hand-picked these fine Hebrew youths for his service, the LORD had long before selected these young men for His service and for the service of His kingdom.

Once again it would be a good idea to pause here and consider what is going on. For just as these Hebrew youths were selected by Yahweh to be His ambassadors in this pagan place of Babylon, even so today He has selected you and me as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to be His ambassadors in the places where He sends us. And as Daniel and his friends considered how they could be effective ambassadors in pagan Babylon, so we need to seriously consider how we can be effective ambassadors in our own Babylon. Your workplace is one of your Babylons, for the LORD has placed you there to be His light in that dark place (Matthew 5:16). How can you be an effective ambassador there? Maybe your school is a place where you are maligned and maybe even persecuted for being a Christian. Take courage and begin to see your situation as your assignment as an ambassador. What is my strategic plan for reaching this school for Jesus or at least for reaching a few of the people in this school for Jesus? Begin to think strategically as an ambassador. “How do I begin in this place? How can I make sure that these people know that I am not just a nice guy/girl, but that I am a follower of Jesus? And once they know that, how can I use that as a platform for telling them about Jesus?” How can we make it clear that we are a Jesus-follower without making them think that we are some out-of-touch religious weirdo? And once we have raised the awareness that we are distinct because we follow Jesus, how do we then use that as an opportunity for the gospel? What we will see with Daniel is that he established the fact that he was not just a Hebrew, but he was a worshipper of Yahweh, and then, when the LORD acted in a mighty way (Daniel 2, 3, 6), Daniel could give all the glory to the Lord.

So what does Daniel do first? He politely asks the commander of the officials if he can be excluded from the king’s choice food and from the wine the king drank. Why does he do this? Daniel does this so that he can make it very obvious to those who are watching that he is serious about obeying the God of the Hebrews. This does several things. First, it makes it relatively easy for Daniel and his friends, when the time comes, to declare that they must obey the LORD and cannot bow down to other gods (Daniel 3). The Chaldeans may object, but they should not be surprised. It also makes clear that not all ethnic Hebrews are true followers of Yahweh. Just because you dress like a Hebrew and talk like a Hebrew does not mean you are a true Hebrew. A true Hebrew is one who is holy and set apart to Yahweh. Thirdly and most importantly, it brings the LORD into the conversation, because it is the LORD that determines what Daniel and his friends will and won’t do. Because Daniel has established that he is a follower of the God of heaven, it is only natural that he is going to talk about that God.

Daniel and his friends, then, accomplish a lot just by refusing to eat the king’s food. The LORD sees to it that they remain healthy and so they are promoted to the personal service of King Nebuchadnezzar. Thus they have direct and personal access to the man they are seeking to win to Yahweh. They have established that they are serious about their service to their God and that they will not compromise and worship the Chaldean gods. This, however, is done in such a way that there is no offense given to the Chaldeans or to the king. Thus Daniel and his friends are in the royal palace as worshippers of the Hebrew God, but they are respected and accepted. They have laid the foundation for their evangelistic ministry to Nebuchadnezzar and have also opened the door wide for the LORD to move in this situation.

THE LESSON TO US: We also need to take this kind of a strategic approach. How can we raise the flag and make clear that I am a Jesus-follower without creating a wall between me and those I am trying to reach? One thing that we must do is live a holy and a righteous life before those who are watching, and we must be careful to do this all the time. We must establish that we are not just nice people, but that we are followers of Jesus and it is Him that we worship. Jesus is the one that changes lives. And once we have established the beach-head (so to speak) of our own personal holiness, we must then consider how the Lord will use this to further the gospel in our world. By following the strategy of Daniel and his three friends in their captivity in Babylon, we can be effective ambassadors for Jesus in our situation.  SDG  rmb  3/31/2016

The book of Leviticus is a treasure of what the LORD commanded to His people regarding sacrifices and offerings. The main theme of Leviticus is the holiness of God and much of the book conveys the clear message that the LORD is holy and anyone who would approach the LORD must come to Him on His terms. Leviticus also contains many pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in foreshadows and types. Since this is the case and since many believers are unfamiliar with Leviticus, I wanted to begin some blog posts that I am calling “Lessons from Leviticus.”

In chapter 17 the LORD again speaks to Moses and says, “This is what the LORD has commanded.” The LORD then gives commands about the slaughtering of sacrifices and describes what must be done for any sacrifice to be accepted. (Leviticus 17:1-9) Every sacrifice must be “brought to the doorway of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD” and the priest must approve the sacrifice and the priest must offer the sacrifice. If the exact procedure commanded by the LORD was not followed, “bloodguiltiness is to be reckoned to that man” who offered the sacrifice and the one making the sacrifice “shall be cut off from among his people.”

Several observations should be made here:

1. The sacrifices were governed by the LORD through His priest;
2. The LORD determined what was an acceptable sacrifice;
3. The worshipper can only bring an acceptable sacrifice or he will be cut off from his people.

In any case, it is obvious that the LORD takes these sacrifices very seriously. But here is the question: Why does the LORD make this a big deal? That is, why does the LORD command that all sacrifices must be approved? This is even more curious when we know that the blood of all these bulls and goats could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). So why did the LORD command that every one of these ineffective sacrifices; every bull and goat and lamb and ram and calf and pigeon has to be brought to the tent of meeting and had to be approved as an acceptable sacrifice?

The answer is that all the acceptable, approved sacrifices offered in the tabernacle and in the temple by all the priests pointed forward to the one perfect and final sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Every sacrifice had to be approved by the priest and then had to be offered to the LORD in the way that the LORD had prescribed because of the perfect sacrifice that was foreshadowed by every sacrifice. The cumulative blood of all the lambs, rams, bulls and goats slaughtered in the temple could not take away one single sin (Hebrews 10:4), but nevertheless the LORD required that every one of these imperfect and ineffective sacrifices be approved by Him through the priest, because each approved sacrifice pointed to the final perfect and supremely approved sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. SDG  rmb  3/20/2016