We worked through the second half of Daniel 1. We see here how Daniel and his three friends remain faithful to God as they are carried off into Babylonian captivity. This story really echoes the story of Joseph in many ways. They are both sent to bear witness before kings and princes. They remain undefiled when they are faced with temptation and worldly solutions. They both depend on God in the midst of situations which could cost them their lives. They are both preserved by God and both come to interpret dreams through the power of God’s revelation. They are both exulted to positions of power next to the king. They both foreshadow Jesus who was sent from heaven to earth to bear witness of the one true God before kings and princes. Jesus entered into a fallen sin soaked world without ever defiling Himself. Like Daniel and Joseph He found favor with God and man. Teachers were amazed at His understanding even at 12 years old. Jesus is the manifestation of all the wisdom of God. He is the greater and better Daniel. He refused to compromise when the ruler of this world offered him bread, fame, and rulership if He would only depend on something other than God alone. Because of all this Jesus could stand in our place as the substitute we all needed. He could satisfy God’s wrath and bear our penalty. In His death burial and resurrection He has established His kingdom and has defeated Satan. He is now the ruler of this world and has been exalted to a position next to God the Father. Jesus kingdom is a kingdom which will never end and will one day be the only kingdom of God and man.

We really dove into the background of what happened to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They were most likely from the royal family or from the nobility. They were also considered pleasing to look at and educated. These young men experienced a radically dramatic shift in their lives. They were taken from lives of privilege to the life of servitude in a foreign kings court. Daniel and his friends would never again see their families or their country. On top of the radical change the king had a plan to integrate the captured young leaders into the Babylonian culture. There was a three year reeducation program in place. They changed their names from God exulting Yahweh honoring names to names which pointed to Chaldean gods.

We did an overview of the book of Daniel focusing on the historical context, some questions about the authorship, and the structure of the book.

We will continue to explore this concept of how our whole life is to be lived to the glory of God. We strive to sacrifice for the glory of God. We strive to love others and the Lord. And these things will drive unity and fellowship in the body of Christ. These things are connected to being renewed in our minds. It starts in our head and heart and moves out into our actions. This is what presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice will start to look like. As our minds are renewed we will be able to test and discern what the will of God is. What is good and acceptable and perfect.

Relying on God and His love for us is needed in our war against the powers of darkness. We cannot fight alone, and we are not alone. God, in His abundant love, will uphold and defend us as we get to learn to trust in Him.

We ended on verse eighteen and this time we will be starting there. This verse wraps up the section we were exploring about the armor of God. The section on armor really sets a great final theme for wrapping up this letter. Paul encourages us to put on this armor to stand against the devil. We are not in a battle against flesh and blood. It may feel like it at times but everyone you encounter who is not a Christian is also hated by Satan. To the devil and all the spiritual forces at work in the world the very existence of man reminds them of their defeat at the cross through the work of Jesus. He was the new Adam and He did what Adam could not do. He conquered the fallen kingdom as the new and perfect representative of man. His favorite term for Himself was Son of Man. This is because His intention was not just to be the messiah of the Jews but to be the redeemer of all creation. Through His work on the cross He would make a way for all men who repent and put their faith in Jesus as Lord to be rescued from sin and death. Instead they are made new and righteous members of the kingdom of God filled with hope and peace with the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul is then telling us to put on this armor because this battle is an already won battle. The armor of God gives us the strength to stand the onslaught of the devil. Even men who oppose us don’t usually realize their being driven by spiritual forces go against us. Fallen men are not our enemies. They are pawns of our enemy and we should have compassion on them and pray for them. As we examined the armor it is clearly God working to strengthen us for the battle we face. We put on the belt of truth, because it is truth which holds everything together. The breastplate of righteousness protects us from the evil things in this world Satan would use to harm us. By living righteously in Jesus we will be rescued from the evil which could destroy us. Our shoes are shod with the gospel of peace. We stand in the gospel and it is not something to trample other men with but it is the good news which will bring them peace with God if they repent and follow Jesus as Lord. We are then called to take up the shield of faith which doesn’t only block the enemies attack but it extinguishes their fiery darts. Paul then calls us to put on the helmet of salvation. One of the ideas here would be our minds are protected but in addition our lives show everyone we are saved. It becomes evident to everyone that we are followers of our Lord Jesus. The final piece is the sword of the Spirit this is the word of God. We see this used so effectively by Jesus all the time. He used it in His battle with Satan during his temptation. He used it again and again in His conflict with the pharisees and Sanhedrin as they came against Him. We should all be preparing for conflict by memorizing God’s word and meditating on it. Paul really is calling on us to immerse ourselves in the relationship with God we have been called to. To live out of this relationship and depend on it to the glory of God.

We explored the section where Paul addresses slaves and masters. It is interesting historically because the roles of slaves and masters at this point in Roman history was much closer to the modern roles of employees and employers. Because of the slave uprisings and because it is estimated that two-thirds of the population of Rome were slaves, they were treated generally pretty well. Slaves had more legal rights then free laborers did. So when Paul addresses  slaves and masters we should be thinking of employees and employers. In a nutshell the goal of Paul’s teaching is for slaves to serve their masters or employees to serve their employers as if they were serving Jesus. The opposite is also true employers should be treating their employees as if the employee was Jesus. Ultimately this approach to the relationship between employees and employers is going to be concerned with the relationship itself, and in this there is going to be a lot of depending on Jesus to help us. The hope for the Christian employer or employee should be the eternal state of the person they are working with.

We are looking at what God calls us to consider as we think about worshipping Him. 

We have looked at the fact that all of life is really to be lived in worship of God. Yet how important do we hold worship to be? It is such a core element of seeking God that it would not be overstating it to say worship to the most crucial component of the Christian life. We fail to think properly about worship when we associate it with one element of our lives. When we identify worship as praise and adoration of God we are correct, but when worship is only thought of in relation to singing we have missed the broader picture painted for us in God’s word.

As we considered the first four verses of Ephesians 6 we continued to deal with the topic of roles and responsibilities which was introduced with the topic of marriage in chapter 5. What Paul addressed in those 4 verses was the roles of children and parents. These roles are critical and important. Paul is laying a solid groundwork for what is the core unit of the church; the family. What he shows us in this passage is how Christianity is a faith for families. All members of the family are called to engage and to respond to the direction God has given. Children are addressed as being capable of engaging in a relationship with God which drives their actions. They are called to obey their parents in the Lord. They are also called to honor their father and mother. Children are promised their obedience and honor of their parents will result in a long life and things going well with them. Fathers and by extension mothers are called to not provoke their children to anger but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This essentially lays the responsibility for Jesus focused living and instruction squarely at the feet of parents. These are important roles and responsibilities which have far reaching impact for the church.

We worked through the last part of the section on the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives. The picture the text paints is majestic in how it points us to the person and work of Jesus for the church, as the model for married couples to look to. Wives can think of their role as mirroring the role of the church in its relationship to Jesus. Men can think of their role as mirroring the role of Jesus in how He leads as a servant and lays down His life for the church. Paul even points us back to the creation of Eve for Adam as a foreshadowing or a picture of Jesus relationship to His bride. Paul goes so far as to say the mystery of marriage is it’s creation is a picture of Jesus and His bride. In other words the greater and better reality of marriage is found in Jesus and the church. One of the most beautiful pictures of this is found in how when Eve is created even her creation is a mirror of how the church will be created by God for Jesus through His work on the cross. God put Adam to sleep as if in death and took a piece of his side as if it was pierced and He fashioned from this a bride for Adam because God was thinking of the future death of Jesus and how His side would be pierced and from Jesus shed blood God planned to fashion a bride for His Son. So marriage is this amazing picture we have been entrusted with. It is important for us to see it in this light and value it as the foreshadowing it is. This just raises the bar on how important it is for husbands to love their wives like Jesus loves the church and gives Himself up for it. It also provides a clear reference for how submission and respect of the church to Jesus is a guide for the wife to submit to and respect her husband. The thing which is really clear from the passage is how both of the spousal roles are ones which they are called to take upon themselves. It is not the husbands job to force the wife to submit and it is not the wives job to demand the husbands love. Both of them are called to enter into this because of their relationship with Jesus. In fact if you look at the curse as we did two weeks ago you will see how the roles the Christian is called to in marriage are really commands to overcome as much as possible the curse against men and women in the garden after the fall.