Sunday 15 April 2018

God's Peace with His Faithful (BD11)

Dan 3:24-25 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said to the king, "True, O king." "Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
    When God told the Israelites to surrender and serve Babylon, He promised them that they would live in peace there. So when King Nebuchadnezzar demanded them to worship the golden idol (causing them to disobey God's commandments and sin), God stepped in to deliver them miraculously and gave them peace.
   Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

Dan 3:26-27 Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here. " Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.
    This miraculous deliverance of the 3 Jews was witnessed by all the top officials from throughout the Babylonian Empire, therefore the whole Empire had heard of the great power of Yahweh, the living God of the Jews.

Dan 3:28-29 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this."
    The confounding deliverance and the subsequent declaration of King Nebuchadnezzar exhibited the great wisdom of God in ushering the whole empire unto Him. This allowed the Jews to live in peace throughout the land during their exile because the people respected and feared the Jews whose Yahweh is the Almighty God.
    Similarly, if we obey and keep His words, our Lord Jesus ensures us that His peace will be with us.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.