Wednesday of Lent 5
His Kingdom Will Never Be Destroyed Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. King Darius wrote the decree, “*The God of Daniel is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed and His dominion shall be to the end*.” Dear Christian friends: When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced the furnace because they refused idolatry, they had no idea how things would turn out for them. They knew only the promise of God, and that was enough: Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up (Daniel 3:17-18). Daniel likewise had no way of knowing whether he could survive the den of lions. Like his friends, Daniel had only the promise of God. The promise allowed Daniel to remain stably on his feet, even though the entire kingdom of Babylon had shifted underneath him. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. This was something more than an act of defiance against the decree of Darius, “*which cannot be revoked*.” There was no chance for mercy at the hands of the king. There was no room for compromise. There was no protection to be gained by an amendment to the state constitution. There was not even any sense to Daniel’s act, because Daniel could have elected simply to remain silent for those thirty days, praying only in his closet. Thus Daniel’s public act of worship was his act of defiance against Daniel’s own sense of reason and self-preservation. Daniel’s enemies had worked carefully. They tied the king’s hands by enticing him to pass that could not be revoked, but that was not the real genius of their plan. The real genius was the fact that they knew Daniel and they could bank on his faithfulness. Daniel’s his openly defiant faith shows us that, even when we are out-maneuvered and victimized by the enemies of the cross, they nevertheless have no power over us. We have God’s double-edged promise, which is strong to save: · The first edge of God’s promise is the future hope of the resurrection, which God has promised on an oath to all the baptized of Christ. “*For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His*” (Romans 6:5). The resurrection was Daniel’s hope. The resurrection was the hope of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The resurrection was Abraham’s hope before them (Hebrews 11:19). The resurrection is our hope. · But our hope does not merely wait for the future. Our hope is a present reality. The second edge of God’s promise is the kingdom in which we now stand. When we were baptized into Christ, God the Father delivered His eternal and unassailable kingdom to us—the same kingdom He gave to His servant Daniel. The heights of God’s kingdom are now the heights to which you now have the right and the freedom and the power to climb. The impenetrable walls of God’s kingdom are now the walls that surround you with eternal security, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail (Matthew 16:18).The foundation of God’s kingdom is now the foundation upon which God Himself has now built your eternal life. “*And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock*” (Matthew 7:25). King Darius saw the kingdom of God, but only through Daniel’s open and public act of defiant faith. Who shall get to see the kingdom through ours?
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