We will continue to look at some fundamental aspects of God’s nature because as worshippers we must know some of these things in order to be able to worship Him properly. Let’s begin by looking at what David told his son Solomon about God right after telling him God was going to use him to lead the people and build the temple. The reason David says this is important is because the Lord God searches the hearts of men and He understands all their plans and thoughts. What goes on in your mind and heart is known by God. God is with all His people at once and we can worship Him knowing that He is here with us. 

We worked through the beginning of chapter 9. Most of it is a prayer recorded by Daniel. The prayer is prompted by the prophecy of Jeremiah. He had declared their exile was going to last 70 years. Daniel knew they were coming up on the time predicted and Daniel also knew the people were still not in a state of repentance. Daniel turns to God and intercedes on his own behalf and on behalf of the people. He makes confession and calls on God for mercy. He is acting as a representative of the people and in this way points forward to how Jesus stands in our place before God and bears His wrath against our sin on our behalf. He is our great High Priest and the best hope we have. Daniel demonstrates this by starting his prayer with a verse focused on adoration of God. Pointing to God’s great promise keeping nature and the way he demonstrates love to those who love Him and are His. He then goes on to ask God for show mercy for His own name sake. The point Daniel is making is how they do not deserve God’s mercy but since God made promises the reason to remain faithful to those promises rest completely in God consistency and faithfulness to His promises for His own names sake. This is something we would do well to remember. God is good to us and merciful because of Jesus not because we have somehow appeared on His radar as an especially good person. Our relationship with God is not a transaction where we do good and God blesses us. Our relationship with God exists because God was merciful to us and because God is a good Father to His children. If we could only view ourselves from the perspective of Isaiah we would declare with him how all our righteousness is as filthy rags in comparison to the righteousness of God. We would see how radically corrupt our sin has made us. How almost everything we do even the good things are tainted by pride and impure motivations. We are an extremely selfish and self centered people. This is why it is so important for us to cultivate a hope in God which rests in the finished work of Jesus alone. Having our hope in Jesus alone is difficult. For instance, when we feel like we are more qualified or equipped to enter into devotions or come to church because we have had a good day or week we are in essence reveling in our self-righteousness. Or if we feel like we cannot enter into our time of devotions or church because we have really struggled all day or week, we are again looking at our lack of self-righteousness. The reason any of us can come before God at any time is only because of the righteousness of Jesus alone. And yet that reliance on self keeps creeping into our thoughts. Our hope is in God and His faithfulness to His promises for Jesus sake and His sake alone. This does not mean we pursue sin or disregard doing good. It simply means our motivation to do good is not to merit favor but because we are coming to love Jesus more and more and because of this we desire to become more like Him. The motivation which drives our action needs to be a love for God.

We worked through the prophecies of chapter 8. It is a remarkable chapter because in it Daniel not only has a vision but an angel tells him what the vision means and gives the names of the countries the animals in the vision represent. The vision also included a specific king who would be serious source of oppression for Israel. There are 10 things prophesied specifically about this king. 
• His power will be great
• It will not be his power alone
• He will cause destruction
• He will succeed in what he does
• He will destroy mighty men and God’s saints
• He will make deceit prosper by cunning
• He will be a great in his own eyes (He will be a legend in his own mind.)
• He will destroy many without warning
• He will rise up against the Prince of princes
• He will be broken but not by human hands
Antiochus Epiphanes fits this description exactly. He had great power. He claimed to be the incarnation of Zeus. He set up an idol to Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem. He sacrificed pigs on the altar and forced the Jewish people to eat pork. He killed thousands for no reason. He ended up dying of a bowel disease which drove him mad. The prophecies in this chapter are so specific and so accurate that many have suggested Daniel was written by someone else using Daniel’s name after the events took place. But the point of giving this detailed of a prophecy is to reveal our God is the author of history. He raises up kings and he casts them down. He is the great God who brings justice. Chapters like this should encourage us to trust Him. There is nothing which escapes Him or is beyond His power. He is trust worthy. 

We worked our way through the vision of Daniel in chapter 7. This is the last part of the book written in Aramaic. This simply points to how this vision was intended to be widely available to the people of the day, even those they lived among in exile. Daniel has a dream of 4 beasts. This dream seems to have many parallels to Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream of the statue with 4 sections. It starts with the lion that has eagle’s wings. This beast has its wings ripped off and it is given the mind of a man and stands on 2 feet. In a variety of ways this points to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. This beast is followed by a bear with ribs in its mouth. It has one side larger than the other. This is a reference to the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. The Persians were stronger than the Medes which explains the different sizes of the bear sides. After this there arose a leopard with 4 heads. The leopard most likely points to Alexander the great who conquered the known world swiftly and died young. His kingdom was divided between four generals of his army which gives a good reason he had 4 heads. The final beast was unlike anything Daniel had ever seen. It had teeth of iron and claws of bronze. It had ten horns and another horn came up and three of the horns fell before it. This new horn had eyes and a mouth which spoke great things. This horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them until the ancient of days came in judgment. This is a vision of devastation as these kingdoms act like beast bringing pain and suffering to many. But this is also a reminder as well of how God will bring justice, which culminates in the establishment of God’s eternal kingdom.

We continued to look at how knowing about God is critical for us to be able to worship God. This has been a critical theme to the topic of worship. What I have discovered in studying this subject has been how clearly the Bible points to what we need to know about God. There are certain aspects to God’s nature which the Bible itself declares as critical to knowing and worshipping God. There are some fundamental things about God we must understand to properly conceive of who we are engaging with. First and foremost the Bible presents us with a God who is a person or probably is better stated as having personhood. This is part of what being created in the image of God is about. We are people and have personhood because God has personhood and we are made in his image. This means simply we can relate to God and engage with God as a person because we understand personhood. Secondly and fundamentally God is a trinity and has eternally existed as a trinity. This means one of the fundamental aspects of God is relationship. He has always existed in relationship and always will exist in relationship. It explains why relationships are fundamentally important to us. It also tells us we can engage with God in relationship. This could cause us to begin to think about God in human terms but the Bible corrects us there calling us to think of God as not only having personhood and loving relationships but to remember He is a Spirit. As a Spirit God is immortal and invisible. Both of those things affect other aspects of who He is and how we think of Him. We cannot make an image of God not only because it breaks one of the ten commandments but because He is invisible. Because He is immortal He cannot die and death is not part of His nature. But even though these things seem to separate us from God He clearly calls on His people throughout the Bible to enter into relationship with Him. He wants us to know and love Him because He loves us and gave Himself up for us to bring us back to Him. The Bible talks about the unchanging nature of God. He never grows old. He never gets tired. His power is never diminished. He is unchangeable. We call this aspect of God His immutability. In addition to this God is also all powerful. There is simply nothing God is not capable of doing. We call this God’s omnipotence. He never gets tired. He simply cannot get tired because He is all powerful. It is important for worshippers of God to understand God never changes and He is all powerful because we can trust the promises He made thousands of years ago are still true because God is still the same. We can also trust God will do what He has promised and said because He is all powerful and He can accomplish whatever He sets out to do. 

We worked our way through the last narrative section in the book of Daniel. It is the majestic and familiar story of Daniel and his night spent in the lion’s den. The story is driven by men jealous of the power and favor God had granted Daniel. He has taken on a new role advising Darius, the new ruler of Babylon. Darius was planning to place Daniel over all the wise men and this did not sit well with some of them. Since they couldn’t seem to establish any dirt on Daniel they resorted to lawfare. They knew Daniel prayed to his God three times a day. They suggested to Darius, he should issue a decree for all men to make their prayers and petitions to him alone for the next 30 days. If they petitioned anyone but the king they would be thrown into the lion’s den. Darius was a new king and thought this was a good idea, probably seeing it as a way of establishing his authority over the newly conquered territory. Since this was a law of the Medes and Persians it could not be changed. Upon learning the document had been signed by Darius, Daniel went to his house and prayed to Yahweh. This violation of the new law was reported to Darius who became distressed over this new development and labored to rescue Daniel until the sun went down. He was unable to circumvent the new law and eventually called for Daniel to be cast into the lion’s den. Before he was cast in Darius declared, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Daniel was cast in, a stone was laid over the opening and Darius sealed it with his ring. Darius did not sleep but spent the night fasting. At daybreak he went to the den and cried out to Daniel asking in anguish if his God was able to deliver him. To Darius surprise and delight Daniel answered, God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths. He commanded Daniel be taken out of the den and the men who had tricked him into signing this new law be brought and cast into the den with their wives and children. He then issued a new decree to all the people to stand in fear and trembling before the God of Daniel because He is the living God. Daniel was faithful and trusted God and God delivered Him. 

Each chapter we have worked through so far has given us different aspects of God’s nature and work. 
• In chapter 1 - Daniel and his 3 friends were made healthy and strong on a vegetarian diet. This was clearly a work of God and it communicates to us how God remembers His people and sustains them. The message is about how God never forgets His own people even when things seem to be going really wrong.
• In chapter 2 - Nebuchadnezzar is troubled by a dream and demands his wise men tell him both the dream and its meaning or die. God gives the dream and its meaning to Daniel and rescues him and his friends from death. 
• In chapter 3 - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow to an idol and are thrown into an extremely hot furnace. Nebuchadnezzar sees a fourth man like a son of the God’s walking in the fire with them. He calls them to come out and declares how their God is the true God. This points to how God is with His people in all circumstances.
• In chapter 4 - Nebuchadnezzar gives his testimony of how God cast him down from his pride to live like an animal for 7 periods of time. After he comes to acknowledge and honor God, God restores him and makes him greater than before. The big message here especially for people in exile is, “God restores the humble.”
• In chapter 5 - We see a stark contrast with the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4. Here in chapter 5 an arrogant king Belteshazzar exercises rebellion against God and God brings judgement against Belteshazzar. This chapter declares how God is a just God and will judge the unrepentant prideful heart.

We heard the final part of what I call Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony. It is the only chapter in Daniel which appears to be the dictated words of someone else and in this case it is Nebuchadnezzar asking Daniel to write down these things. It is the greatest king of that day bearing witness to the greatness of the God of Daniel. He bears testimony to this by pointing out how he had a dream which troubled him. He called on many wise men to tell him the dream but it was finally Daniel who was able to interpret it. It is a dream about a great tree which reached to the heavens was visible everywhere on earth and was the sustainer of all the birds and beasts. In the dream a watcher from heaven comes and declares the tree should be cut down but a band of iron and bronze are to be put around the stump until 7 times pass by. Daniel was hesitant to give the king what amounted to bad news. The king saw this and told Daniel not to fear. So Daniel tells the king how he is the tree and he is going to be cut down and driven into a state of madness for 7 periods of time. Once the king comes to recognize the greatness of God his sanity and kingdom will be restored. One year later Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his royal palace and as he looked on Babylon he began to declare his own greatness. As he was making much of himself a voice came from heaven telling him the kingdom has departed from him and he will be driven from among men and will dwell with the beasts. He ate grass like an ox and lived like and animal until 7 periods of time passed over him, and he came to realize the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will. This happened and at the end of 7 periods of time Nebuchadnezzar said he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “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?’” Upon coming to recognize the greatness of God and that all glory belongs to Him, Nebuchadnezzar’s reason returned to him. God established him in his kingdom and gave him even more greatness. Nebuchadnezzar’s story is an incredible story of God pursuing a pagan man and bringing him to himself. It shows us God will do whatever is necessary in order to bring a person to repentance. God is able to save anyone He has set His love upon. He is the great and glorious God who has sent His Son to seek and to save those who are lost and in rebellion against Him.

We will continue our study of worship by the content of our worship according to scripture. To put it a little more clearly what dose the Bible indicate we are required to know in order to worship. This becomes vitally important when we consider how salvation is primarily about creating worshippers of God. It then makes sense God would communicate to us through His word how our worship should be shaped. For instance those who are followers of Islam do not believe Jesus is a member of the trinity. They do not believe Jesus is God in the flesh. Because of this no matter how much worship they offer they are creating a false god who falls short of the God of the Bible. What you believe matters when is comes to worship. 

We worked through the first part of Daniel 4. In this chapter we have Nebuchadnezzar having another dream. The chapter starts out with this appearing to be a dictation from Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar starts out by giving glory to the most high God. The God who has shown His power to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Because this story starts out this way and because of the way it ends this appears to be Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony and confession of faith in this God he is giving glory to. Nebuchadnezzar is a prospering in his palace and at ease when he is troubled by a dream which alarmed him. It is a cryptic dream and he calls on all his wise men to come and none of them could interpret the dream. Finally Daniel comes before him and he tells him the dream. He saw a tree which grew and became great and its height reached to heaven. You could see it from anywhere on earth. It provided food and shade for all the beast and birds. Everything was fed from it. A holy one from heaven came down and proclaimed it should be cut down, but the stump should be left and bound with a band of iron and bronze. The holy one or watcher begins speaking of the tree using personal pronouns. The watcher says that he should be given the mind of a beast and 7 periods of time should pass over him. Then the vision ends with a declaration of how the holy ones have decided this, “...to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” Daniel was said to be alarmed by the dream and the king told Daniel not to be alarmed by it. Daniel then goes on to tell the king how the tree is him and his kingdom.