Gooding, David: 7 - Man's Law and God's Law

We now resume our studies in the prophecy of Daniel. So let us look again at the map briefly so that we can remind ourselves what's where we are and where we have arrived. Contents of Daniel's prophecy can be put out very simply. It falls into two halves. In group one, the story of Daniels and his colleagues in the University of Babylon, and on principle refusing the food from the king and taking their stand for the biblical ideas of cleanliness and holiness. Vindicated by the mercies of the, uh, steward in charge and vindicated so that instead of working against them, it worked towards their promotion in the civil service. Then chapters two and three, two images. In chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar's dream image. God telling Nebuchadnezzar about the succession of empires that were to arrive, rise after him. Nebuchadnezzar, like many an ancient emperor, would have hoped that his great empire would have lasted forever. When I was a boy, most of the world was painted pink in the geography books that we used at school, and most people thought that the world would remain that way forever, do see? What a lot of time I wasted in the geography and history lessons at school, because thereafter it was all changed, do you see? No empire will be permanent except the empire of our blessed Lord. The second image was Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, his attempt to keep the loyalty of his governors and satraps in the provinces by making them worship the state. Nebuchadnezzar's God. A good enough substitute for Nebuchadnezzar himself. Many emperors of empires have sought the same technique. It cost Daniel's three friends a great deal of courage to stand against it. They were thrown into the furnace of fire. But there in the furnace, there came another like unto the Son of the gods, the blessed holy Lord, second person of the Trinity, and in his mercy and protection, the fire rid them not of their lives, but of the bondage and the chains with which their feet had been bound. Then we have two chapters of God's discipline upon two kings. They deal not with the politics of Babylon, as chapter two and three had. They deal with what you might call the culture of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, the great beautifier and rebuilding of Neo-Babylon, was moved to excessive pride and got his proportions wrong in the state budget that had spent so much on the beautifying of Babylon that the poor had been neglected. God gave him warning and called on him to repent, but he failed to repent. And as you remember, as a discipline upon him, he fell into the look and habit and practice of a wild animal and ate grass like an ox. Until his sense returned, he reached out his hand to the God of heaven and found the God of heaven to be a reality that brought him out of his temporary mental aberration back into his honor. Reminding us of the goodness of culture as God has given it. From the time of Eden onward, beautiful trees, good to look at, as well as providing fruit for our stomachs. But you see, culture can go wrong, very wrong. Witness some programs on BBC Radio 4 and other such channels. We need to be careful lest we be infected by culture gone wrong. And then, in spite of the warning that God issued in the case of Nebuchadnezzar and the whole case of his conversion, Belshazzar, the regent in the place of his father Nabonides, held his great party. Culture, I suppose, in one way, but a rather, uh, downmarket version of culture. Do you see? Eating themselves sick and drinking the wine and praising the gods of silver and iron and stone, do you see? In spite of the warning that God had given him through Nebuchadnezzar, his grandfather and predecessor. This king, Belshazzar, took of the golden vessels that had been in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem and were sacred to the service of God. He took them and drank of them himself and encouraged all his wives and courtesans and so forth to drink of them as they praised the gods of silver and of iron. In that night, you remember, the hand came out and wrote upon the wall. Belshazzar had devalued God, and now God set up his scales to measure the value of Belshazzar and set those scales up in his very banqueting house. And found him to be inadequate, of inadequate weight, come short. For the glory of God, that night Belshazzar lay dead. And with that, we come to the second half of the book. For this first half has been about Babylon, from the golden vessels which were told in chapter one that were taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar's God, to the golden vessels here taken out of the temple and misused by Belshazzar, bringing Babylon to its end. Now we turn over in the second half, and the first incident in chapter six happens under the empire of the Persians. Now, some of these visions that are then recorded were in fact given to Daniel in the time of Babylon, but we have now gone in history to the time of the Persians, and as we, God willing, in coming weeks, come towards the end of the book, we shall find ourselves gone beyond the Persians to the Greeks, and in particular to Alexander's successors. And indeed, both the, uh, chapter two and chapter seven will take our minds beyond the Greeks even, down to the power of Rome. So we come to chapter six, and we can leave for the moment the two visions of the beasts corresponding to the two images and the two writings explicated. So now, um, let's notice one common theme to this second section. In the first, great emphasis was laid on comparative values. So in Nebuchadnezzar's dream image, the successive empires of the world were represented by different value metals. Gold, silver, copper, iron, and iron mixed with clay. Some were glorious, but not so strong. Some were strong, but not so glorious. Different values of different empires. No one political system is of absolute value. That ought to be a lesson written on all politicians' hearts, you'll see. No one political system is of absolute value. Uh, Uh, Nebuchadnezzar's dream image, Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, his supreme value, the state. And then, of course, here, the golden vessels once more, taken on the temple and desecrated by being applied by Belshazzar to his own satisfaction in defiance of God. Values then. This second half of the book is going to deal not so much with values, but with laws, L-A-W-S, laws, that laws, you see. God's laws and man's laws. Law, of course, is a very important thing in any state, isn't it? We must be grateful to God for decent laws where they exist. Laws then. And so in chapter six that we are about to read, we shall fi- find reference to the law of the Medes and Persians, which changes not. That is chapter six and verse eight. We'll read the whole chapter in a moment. We shall find that phrase repeated throughout chapter six. The law of the Medes and Persians, once written and signed by the king, cannot be changed. For a while at any rate. In chapter seven and verse ten, against the background vision of the wild beasts, now representing the governments of the Gentile world, wild beasts, power blocks, amoral power blocks. Against the destructiveness of the last beast, fearful destructiveness, we are told in chapter seven verse ten: a fiery stream issued and came forth from before God and from his throne. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. There are books being kept as God descends to our, uh, uh, human ideas. He has his records. Don't ask me how. The books. Now you'll notice that animals don't read books. Well, not many, at any rate. They don't, do they? Don't make a habit of it. It's human beings that make books and read books. And as distinct from the destructiveness then of the beasts, the books were opened. And the dead, of course, will be judged out of the things written in the books, says the revelation towards its end. God keeps his records. They are intelligent. They are all wise. They will pronounce altogether just judgment. Look at chapter nine verse two. And this is Daniel talking to us. He says in chapter nine verse two. in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem, even seventy years. And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication and fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed to the Lord, namely that the Lord would be pleased now to fulfill his prophecy. That ought to be the result of our studying prophecy, didn't it? That we come to understand God's word and God's purpose for this world, and pray to the end that that purpose be graciously accomplished. The study of prophecy is not merely a study of a sort of a crossword puzzle so that we can skillfully get the pieces together, though we need a lot of skill in understanding. It is a matter eventually for the heart, that we shall respond to what God has told us in his prophetic word, given us that we might have hope, says the New Testament, and pray to the end that God's purposes shall be fulfilled. For Jerusalem, of course, still the center of world politics, the burdensome stone among the nations, praying that God's promised restoration will one day come. Look at chapter ten verse twenty one. Well, we better read in verse twenty to start with. Then said he, that is the angel, knowest thou wherefore I am come unto thee? And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I go forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come. But I will tell thee that which is inscribed in the writing of truth. There is none that holdeth with me against them, but Michael your prince. Lovely to read that, isn't it? We began by reading about the writing of the law of the Medes and Persians that once written and signed cannot be changed, even the king's subject to it. Man's law. Here, do you see, in the final chapter of that section, the writing of truth. That is God's predetermined plans, God's mind for the future. And as Daniel set himself to pray in chapter nine, so now in chapter ten comes an angel to let him know what is written in the writing of truth, indicating that there is a battle going on in the heavenly places, and therefore we need to pray. For we wrestle not, as Paul would say, against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, the world rulers of this darkness in heavenly places. So that even in the preaching of the gospel and the pastoring of the Lord's people, it is on times of battle. And we need to be encouraged by the word of truth. For our Lord has said, I haven't called you slaves, I've called you friends. For a slave doesn't know what his lord does, but I have told you, and I've told you things to come. And finally, in chapter twelve, verse one, At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy peoples, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And in that time shall thy people be delivered, everyone that is written in the book. Verse four, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, seal the book even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. My point is simply that in this second section we are thinking now about laws and writings, the laws of men, but way and beyond it, the laws of God, partly revealed to us in his word and in his prophetic word for our praying, and partly revealed that we might know the future as and when it is appropriate for us to know it. Now let's look immediately at one little feature of the story. We shall have met it before, we meet it now again. That is the theme of man and the animals. It's a recurrent theme in the symbolism of, of Daniel, isn't it? Remember Nebuchadnezzar's experience? That great genius of an artist and architect that had so beautified Babylon. When he lost his true attitude to God that would have kept him human, truly human, he had a breakdown and lost his humanity and lived and behaved like an animal. It's a sobering thought, isn't it, that we human beings have a lot in common with animals. Where lies the separating mark, so to speak, between us and the animals? Because it is all too evident that sometimes we human beings can behave in a fashion that's more like the animals than it is human. So we meet the story, uh, the theme now again here in chapter six, man and the animals. A question of Daniel and the lions in their den, though they were not the only animals on the stage at the time. With that in mind, let's begin to think about Persia. It was a brilliant civilization, and it was marked by it res- its respect for law. We read it many times, didn't we? The law of the Medes and Persians, that doesn't change. Once it is signed and decreed by the king and signed, then everybody has to be subject to it, the king included. Rule of the law. Do you see? Well, once again, of course, animals don't invent codes of rules, do they, and laws? Not even an a lion's den will you find laws written up on the wall. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. No? Do you see? Animals do have their instincts, don't they, and their behaviors. In Northumberland in England, there is a herd of wild white cattle. They are in some lordship's estate, and he's had them walled around, you see. That goes back for centuries to the times when the wicked Scots oppressed the English. Well, they still do, of course. It gives a prime minister, but, uh, in the days when they persecuted the, uh, and oppressed the, the English, you see, they would come across the border and drive the cattle over the border back to Scotland. And so this lordship, he got these wild white cattle and he put a wall all around them, and I'm told you can't drive them. They're not so used to being driven. No one has ever touched them for centuries. They're not used for meat or anything, they just exist. And they have very, very interesting codes of behavior as to what to do if a human touches any one of them, the rest of the herd will kill it. When mama has a a a calf, she will go off, do you see, and when the calf is born at an appropriate time, she'll come back and present the calf to the rest of the herd to see whether it is accepted or not, and so forth and so on. And should any enterprising young bullock think he's going to take over all the ladies, well, the chief bullock disputes it, of course. It's against the law, well, against the rules, against instinct. Animals do have instincts and what you might call a sort of codes of behavior, but they're not laws in our sense, are they? They don't sit round and debate them in parliament, and so forth and so on. Law is a particular feature of human beings. And of course, while it's not true to say that Persia at this stage in history was a democracy, they were beginning on their way to take the first step towards democracy, weren't they? In having a law that once signed and sealed, everybody had to be subject to it, the king included. Everybody under the law. Now, the Greeks eventually defeated the Persians, and in Athens they had the first known de- democracy in, uh, Europe. And the Greeks' word for democracy, well, you could say demokratia, but you normally saw expressed it as isonomia, which means equality under the law. Everybody under the law, everybody equal under the law. That is democracy. So the Greeks thought, you see. And here were the Persians, not yet a democracy, of course, far from it, but taking the first step in the direction of democracy. Wonderful, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I'm grateful that I live in a democracy and not under, say, Hitler or Stalin, for instance, still less Mugabe. Mm-hmm. Thank God for democracy. Is it the final hope for this world? If only we perfect democracy, if only we can enforce democracy on the rest of the world, will the world find peace? No, Daniel is telling us, and telling us out of his own experience, that even democracy is not the answer to the world's problems. Only the coming of the Savior is the answer to the world's problems. Do you see? And here's an example of why democracy itself and the laws of democracy won't eventually be the salvation of the world. For these laws are invented by men. And the laws which men invent, men can pervert them to their own interests and hidden motifs. Who is not aware of it? So it was with Daniel and the two other presidents. Darius had a very large empire. He had the various provinces, and over each province was a satrap, but it was a question of getting those satraps and keeping them in order, and over them, responsible for them, were three presidents, of whom Daniel was one. And Daniel was the chief of the three, head of the imperial civil service in Persia. And the two other satraps were jealous. That is a feature not unknown in politics, isn't it? And they were jealous because he held the position, and they were jealous on racial grounds, because when they spoke eventually to the king about Daniel, they said, he of the captivity of Judah. Do you see? He was a Jew when all is said and done, and these Gentiles resented a Jew being in the highest office and above them. So they thought up a scheme to get rid of him. But it was a very sophisticated scheme, wasn't it? Wasn't nothing crude like taking out a revolver and shooting him or something, nothing like that, do you see? They thought up a beautiful scheme, and they informed the king that all the satraps were in favor of it. There'd been a lot of backroom counseling, hadn't there, and parties going on. Mm-hmm. And it was this. They came to the king and they put it to him, Your Majesty, you see, you have our, our emperor over a very large empire, full of different kinds of people, each with their own different systems of religion. You know, now religion is very good, but, uh, you know, religion can become a source of, uh, social distraction and strife, and it can tear, uh, an empire to pieces, your majesty. So we have a suggestion, uh, uh, uh, we know not what you'll think of it, but we have a suggestion that in the interests of keeping the, the empire together, uh, you should, uh, pass a law that for at least a month, it shall be forbidden for any person in your wide empire to pray to any god except one. So that all the empire will be united in its religion. I mean, all religion is for the same thing, isn't it? Uh, I mean, it all leads to the same end. No? No, no, but you haven't listened to the politicians, you see. And, uh, uh, the king inquired, well, who will be the one god? Well, we were thinking, your majesty, that you would be the exact fit for that job, you see. Everybody respects you, and I mean, you, uh, represent the gods, don't you? And, uh, anybody ever praying to you would unite the empire. Emperor worship. And, uh, the emperor was taken in by it. And he signed the decree that for thirty days no one should be allowed to pray to any go- other god but the emperor. Mm. And when Daniel heard that the decree was signed, he went, as usual, three times a day to his room, where he had his study with its windows open to Jerusalem, and he kneeled down and prayed. Didn't even shut the window to hide what he was doing, but prayed, as usual. Knowing the seriousness of the law that had been passed, because if anybody broke it, he should be destroyed and his house be made a dunghill and all his family destroyed. Daniel prayed. Do you know what? So happened that the other two, presidents, they just happened to be walking, you know, very curious that was. They just happened to be walking around that part of the city, and they heard a strange noise and wondered what it was. And when they investigated, it was Daniel praying by his window. Yes. And they reported it to the emperor himself. And when the emperor heard it, he was greatly distressed, of course. For the emperor was in favor of Daniel and respected him and respected his God and respected his right of conscience. And he would have let Daniel go. No, they said, no, your majesty, you signed the intedite. Everybody has to be subject to the law here, do you see? Even your majesty. You can't change it. This is the constitution. And you mustn't break the constitution. And so Daniel was taken out to be thrown into the den of lions. And the king in great distress came and said, well, Daniel, your god will have to preserve you then. It had gone out of his power, and Daniel was put in the den of lions. This may sound to us a very ancient story, but you should watch modern trends. Even in Britain, we've gone a long way down the road of restricting religious liberty, haven't we? In the name of peace, of course. And in some parts of England, you mustn't now say that Jesus is the only way, at least you mustn't advertise it. You will offend other religions, and they mustn't be offended. And for the sake of social harmony, you mustn't preach your gospel as you used to. I read recently in a Christian magazine of men that were going to, uh, uh, bring books into a prison, and when the prison psychologist saw what was in the books, namely the Christian gospel, he was absolutely furious and banned it on the spot. There are countries where God's word must not be opened in state school. That kind of thing will go on, will it not? Until the time when the man of sin comes. Whatever ups and downs there are in politics, world history moves towards the man of sin, who will say there's no God out there, but command that everybody bows down and worships his image and takes the mark of the beast in hand or forehead. There could be tests ahead, couldn't there? Next morning, the king, the emperor came to the lion's den, and in a lamentable voice he inquired how Daniel was this morning, and was relieved to hear that Daniel was safe and well, thank the Lord. For, said Daniel, the Lord has sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions, do you see? Beautiful. Do you believe in angels? Yes. You do? Oh, good for you. They're a topic not talked about much, and yet perhaps we ought to talk about them a little bit more. They are sent forth as ministers to those that are heirs of salvation. Who knows how many angels have attended us this very day and guarded us from dangers that we didn't even realize were there. But belief in angels is very important. Let me show you that from the New Testament. You may care to look at it. Two Peter, second epistle by Peter, and chapter two, verses ten to twelve. Peter is denouncing false teachers in the church. Verse ten, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lusts of defilement and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities. Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord. But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters wherein they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed. Men gone wrong, very seriously wrong morally. But you notice the reference to angels. For man, watch this before, said Daniel down there in the lion's den. Man, one side, animals, the other side, an angel. Man is between the two, isn't he? Part animal, part spirit. And man needs to keep that balance, for if he doesn't, he will become perverse. Here, their perversity showed itself in their extreme sexual immorality, justified by their version of Christianity, if you please, so that in the end they behave like wild beasts. There's a difference, isn't there, between a human hand and an animal's claw? What would you say is the difference? A human uses his hand for many similar things as the animal uses its claw. Would you say they're both the same? And let me ask about, how shall I call it, the poetry of the human hand? Is it nothing but a claw, an efficient claw? Or is a human hand qualitatively far superior to an animal's claw. It goes for the rest of our bodies, doesn't it? Human behavior is meant to be different from mere animal behavior. Said Daniel, in touch with God, he sent his angel, he stopped the mouth of the lions, and uh, forthwith the emperor commanded that he be taken out of the lion's den, restored to his office, and his God advertised round the empire as worthy of respect and honor. Then came the other two satraps. They were thrown into the den of lions. They didn't believe in angels. There's one lot of animals against the other, and the biggest animal won. Thereby hangs a parable, doesn't it? What a comment on world history that is. So we have learned a lesson about politics in a pagan world. The blessings of law, a society run by law, where everybody is equal under the law. Where even the government has to be subject to the law. Except, of course, in the case of bribery to the Saudi Arabians, Arabians, but that's beside the point. Normally subject to the law. Thank God for it. But it's not the final answer, is it? Not the final hope for the world. Our hope is in the coming of the Son of Man. When the animal as such will be destroyed, and he shall govern. It's sorry to see the civil servants under the Persian emperor acting as they did, but then perhaps the animal of jealousy still can infect civil service. But as we cease tonight, let's take a general lesson, shall we? Let's forget the politics of it, important as they are, and think about the law ourselves and our own relation to the law. And for that we turn to Romans chapter seven, Lest in criticizing others, we should forget ourselves. And in Romans chapter seven, as you know, Paul confesses his failure. In spite of his ardent desire and determination to keep God's law, he senses he comes short of it. So let us look at chapter seven and verse fifteen, for instance. For that which I do, I know not, for not what I would, that do I practice, but what I hate, that I do. Do you see? Romans seven fifteen. Paul is talking about his will. And though he wills to do good, with all the force and power of his will, he finds he comes short and sometimes does the very opposite of what he would do. Then in verse twenty two, let's read verse twenty two. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Do you see? Delight? This is his emotions, isn't it? Not only his will, he's not only telling himself, now Paul, you jolly well are going to do this, as though it were some stern, uh, painful duty. No, he says, I, I delight to do the will of God. It's a, it's a beautiful thing, is the will of God. But mere delight is not enough. And then he says in verse twenty five, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. We had will, we had emotion, now we've got intellect. And Paul says, you see, with my intellect I serve the law of God, for it's the only sensible way to live. It's the only rational way to live. And with my intellect I approve of it. But then confesses that will and emotion and intellect all on the side of doing the law, then he comes short. That, I think, is our experience of us all from time to time. And what's God answer to it? Will not now an angel come? But let's read on into chapter eight and verse 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. God's gracious empowerment for us, with our cooperation, of course, to provide the necessary power and strength to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. It's good to be grateful to the Lord for our conversion and forgiveness, isn't it? And gratitude to him will help. It won't in the end be enough. And sheer man, manful courage, determined to do it, is good, but it won't be enough. And mere intellectual understanding of the law is good. It isn't enough. There is only one answer, being regenerate to the Holy Spirit and the gracious Holy Spirit within, being our power as well as our counselor and our intercessor, and leading us in the paths of righteousness for God's name's sake. We've gone a long way from Daniel six, haven't we? But who could, uh, refrain from seeing the connection? And while we think about the inadequacy of law among the nations, though we thank God for it, and for democracy, and for the concept of all being equal under the law, the government included. That at least is the theory. It's not enough. We see examples around us every day. It won't be the way to the great, glorious, millennial time of peace and bliss. Only the coming of Christ will do it. But until he comes, we fight that same battle against the mere animal within us, with all its lusts and desires and perversities. There's only one power that can keep us. That is the gracious power of God's Holy Spirit. So may the Lord bless his word for his name's sake. Shall we pray? We thank thee, Father, for thy word, for the story of thy servant Daniel so many long centuries ago. We bless thee that he was a real man who lived in a real world and took his part therein manfully for thee. We thank thee for the example of the way thou did strengthen him and cause him to stand. And we bless thee for sending thine angel to preserve him at that stage, that he might be a testimony to the emperor and round the empire. Then we think tonight, Lord, even as we have met in peace and quiet and under favorable government, of many of thy people who have met, if they've met at all, in secret and in in fear of death. Lord, in thy mercy, look upon thy people, we pray, and strengthen us for whatever may lie in wait for us in the days to come, that we may glorify thee, reliant upon the grace and strength of thy Holy Spirit. So we thank thee for thy word, and we thank thee now for the food and refreshment to be provided. Bless our fellowship together, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.