Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Why would God allow a heathen king to be victorious over His own people, much less allow them to be exiled into a foreign land?

Why would He allow the sacred articles of the temple to be put into the treasury of a heathen god?

These questions aren’t insignificant questions for theologians to debate.

These questions get to the heart of who God is, and how He saves the world.

To find the answers we need to step back from Daniel’s time to the beginning of the nation of Israel when Moses was leading a rag-tag group through the wilderness with a portable sanctuary.

Covenant

It had only been a short time since God had freed the people from Egypt.

Camping near the Mountain where God gave the Ten Commandments, the Israelites still didn’t understand God.

They were afraid of Him.

They thought He must be a more powerful version of the gods of Egypt.

And so God told Moses:

Exodus 25:8 (NKJV)

And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

No, the God who orchestrated the Exodus was not like the gods of Egypt.

He wanted to be with Israel.

This is a God of communion and connection.

A God who LIVES with His people.

But this wasn’t just a God who was choosing favorites by being with the Israelites.

God Had told Abraham, the great-great-great-great grandfather of the people that were now wandering in the wilderness, that through His family all nations of the earth would be blessed.

And so God told the Israelites:

Exodus 19:5–6 (ESV)

‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

A whole nation dedicated to the service of God.

A kingdom of priests.

That was God’s plan.

In other nations the priests were a small group of elites that held coveted positions of power and influence.

They disseminated the edicts and doctrines of the gods.

But in Israel they were ALL suppose to be priests.

Which means they were intended to be the teachers and leaders of the WORLD.

But this goal of a nation of priests hinged on a very important qualification—“if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant…”

Throughout the rest of the Book of Exodus God gives Moses instructions and the people build the sanctuary.

Among these instructions is a command to “Remember the Sabbath” And a weekly miracle of manna that reminded them to rest from their work and let God provide for their every need.

The Sabbath was a sign of trust and allegiance, and a demonstration that the God of Israel was a saving God.

Back in Genesis 15, God had made a covenant with Abraham and it was super clear who was doing what.

God had promised to bless all the nations of the world through Abraham children who would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens.

To seal the deal He promised His own life as the surety for this covenant.

And he asked Abraham to simply follow Him into the land of Canaan where God would put his children.

He also asked Abraham to circumcise his children to show their allegiance to Him because it would be through Abraham’s “seed” that the Messiah would come.

They weren’t suppose to intermarry with the heathen, so this sign of the covenant was a very practical differentiation that said, “we are the Lord’s” and made them distinct from the world.

Honestly, what God had asked Abraham to do was super simple.

Go this direction.

Cut your foreskin.

Don’t marry the heathen.

It wasn’t hard stuff to do, but the significance was that each one of these things demonstrated allegiance.

Were they the children of God, or were they following the gods of this world?

While Abraham had the simple tasks of showing his allegiance, God promised that He would do all the hard stuff that Abraham couldn’t do.

Hard stuff:

When the Israelites were caught in captivity in Egypt it should not have been surprising that God came to their rescue and delivered them in a miraculous way.

God had promised to do all the hard stuff.

They just needed to follow Him.

While they were still in the wilderness God was preparing them for the work they would need to do to clean up the land and make it a place where God would reign supreme.

Notice how God makes it super clear who is doing the hard work of driving the rebellious heathen from the land:

Another time God told them not to raise up standing armies or build fleets of chariots for battle because God had promised to do the hard stuff and win their battles.

They just needed to follow Him.

So the covenant is pretty simple—Israel keeps their allegiance with God while God leads them, protects them, provides for them, grows them into a great nation, and ultimately blesses the world with Salvation through one of their children—the Messiah.

But as you and I know it didn’t end up being that simple.

Israel didn’t stay loyal to God.

They intermarried with the uncircumcised heathen

They worshiped the gods of the heathen

They abandoned God’s sanctuary and all the services that reminded them that HE Would be the one to give His life for the world

They even offered their children as burnt offerings to false gods, as though they could fix things by doing the hard stuff themselves

They established armies with chariots and horses — forgetting that God had promised to do the hard work of winning their battles

They broke the covenant by trying to do themselves all the things God had promised to do for them.

God’s Solution to Rebellion

The fate of the world was literally riding on the covenant God had made with Abraham.

What could He do if the Israelites didn’t want to participate?

How could God keep the promise of a Messiah that He had made to Adam and Abraham?

There is a solution, but it’s not a comfortable one.

Remember, God can’t force love.

It’s the central part of his being to love, but selfless love isn’t demanded or coerced or forced.

Love is attracted and won.

So what do you do when love is taken advantage of and all your best efforts end with your children rebelling against everything you’ve taught them is good and right?

While they were in the wilderness, God had told Israel exactly what would happen If they turned away from the covenant and from God.

He begins by reminding them that He would do the hard stuff:

Leviticus 26:3–7 (ESV)

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing.

And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.

I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.

And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Leviticus 26:11–12 (ESV)

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

But then he turns to the consequences of rebellion:

Leviticus 26:14–17 (ESV)

“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache.

And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies.

Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.

You don’t need to go very far forward in Israel’s history to see these results.

After the people settled in the land of Canaan, they rebelled against the covenant by forgetting the sanctuary and worshiping other Gods and doing whatever they wanted to.

They didn’t keep the weekly Sabbath much less the Sabbath’s of the land.

So God gave them over to the Philistines, and the Amorites and allowed famines to come to wipe out their crops.

You can read al about it in the book of judges.

Each time they faced hardships they would eventually cried out to God for help.

Right away God sent a judge or a prophet who would lead the people in obeying God’s commands and God would work a miracle to overthrow the heathen.

Deborah, Sampson, Gideon, and Samuel are just a few examples of God’s miraculous deliverance when the people turned their allegiance back to Him.

Obey God and He does the hard stuff.