Remain Faithful to the Lord (Daniel 6:1-28)

July 22, 2011

Preached as Daniel

Dear friends in Christ.

If you’ll permit me, I’d like to tell you a story this morning.  It is a story filled with danger, struggles, hardships, and yes, even a little adventure.  It is a story with which you are very familiar, because it is a story that you learned when you were just little children, and it is a true story, which makes it all the better.  For the story I want to share with you this morning is the my story—my story of the things I endured as I sought to remain faithful to the Lord my God.

The year was 605 BC (roughly 400 years before the Savior would be born) and the time for Israel’s captivity was at hand.  The captivity which the Lord had promised through prophets like Jeremiah, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah began as King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land of Israel, bound King Jehoiakim with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.  (2 Kings 23:36-24:7; 2 Chronicles 34:5-8)  But not only did he take the king into custody, but he also took gold and silver articles from the Temple of the Lord, along with some of the young men from the royal family and nobility; “young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.” (Daniel 1:4, NIV84)

I was one of those men brought to Babylon where I was trained for three years before I entered the King’s service, and where, from the moment I arrived in Babylon, I was challenged as to how I was going to remain faithful to the Lord.  For you see, Babylon was the city that Nimrod had founded some years after the flood.  It was a great city in the very area where the Lord had confused the languages of the people after they had tried to build a tower to their glory so that they would not have to follow the Lord’s decree to spread out over the earth.  It was a city and an empire filled with all sorts of wealth and riches, peoples and nations, pleasures and diversions, and even though the name Babylon carries the meaning of “gate of god” it was clear that the Lord God was not worshiped in this city.  Rather people were “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  (2 Timothy 3:2-5 NIV84) 

Interesting, isn’t it that the people of my day fit the very description of people that Paul spoke about in his letter to Timothy.  Yet the truth is, the people of my day were no different than the people of Paul’s Day nor than the people of your day.  It was because of this that I determined that I would do everything within my power to remain faithful to the Lord my God, and from the very moment that I determined to remain faithful to the Lord, I faced one challenge after another.  If I had time today I could take you through each one of them and show you just how the Lord blessed me as a struggled to remain faithful to him.  But since we don’t, let me take you through the story that has so often been called, Daniel and the Lion’s Den.

The year was 539 BC.  66 years had passed since I entered into the service of the Babylonian government.  The Babylonian empire had recently been taken over by the Medes and the Persians, who quickly set about establishing their empire in the place that the Babylonians so recently ruled, and it pleased King Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was [me]. The satraps were made accountable to [the administrators] so that the king might not suffer loss. Now [I] so distinguished [myself] among the administrators and the satraps by [my] exceptional qualities that the king planned to set [me] over the whole kingdom. (See: Daniel 6:1-3, NIV84)

This was something that just stuck in the craw of the other satraps and administrators.  They couldn’t stomach the idea that a foreigner, a Jew, no less, someone who did not worship their god Bel or any of the other gods of the Babylonian Pantheon, could possibly be placed in a position of authority over them.  They plotted and the schemed, and finally they came up with the plan to trap me in my faithfulness to the Lord.  They persuaded the King to sign a decree, a law if you will, stating that no one could pray to any god other than the king for the next 30 days.  They did this because they knew my heart, and they knew that I would not listen to the decree or pray to the king let alone other gods. They knew that I would remain faithful to the Lord.  Now, I cannot say that I wasn’t tempted to stop praying in my normal way, when I learned of the decree.  After all, the punishment was death by lions.  But even though I was tempted to be less than faithful to the Lord, the Lord gave me strength and the ability to remain faithful.    So, I simply did what I had always done.  I went upstairs to my room where the windows faced east toward Jerusalem, and I got down and prayed like I always did.  This time, as I expected, I was “discovered” by the others and tossed to the Lions.

You know how it happened.  You know how the Lord sent his angel to close the mouths of the lions and protect me, but the truth is, it could have gone the other way.  The Lord could have decided to let me be devoured by those lions, and allowed me to die in his name.  If he would have allowed me to die there, I was ready to go because I trusted in the Lord my God and knew that the Lord my God had the power to rescue me from the lions, and even if he didn’t I would remain faithful to him because I knew that he would carry me to his side where I would live with him forever.  Though the lions were not able to make a meal out of me, they made a very delicious meal out of those who sought to be rid of me when the King ordered that they take my place in the den and before they even reached the ground they were overcome by the lions. 

Now, why am I telling you all of this?  I am telling this to you because my story is not all that different than your story.  Just like me, you live in a great city and a great nation filled with all sorts of wealth and riches.  You live in a nation filled with all sorts of pleasures and diversions.  You live in a nation that though it was founded on Christian principles and values, it is quickly becoming more and more godless.  You live in a nation where shrines and temples to false gods cover the landscape. I’m not just talking about those religions that are obviously false and have absolutely no connection to the true God; I’m also talking about those churches that are supposed to be Christian, but no longer teach a Christ centered message.  You live in a nation where Atheism, which is the belief that there is no god, and Agnosticism, the belief that one cannot truly know if god exists, are becoming more and more popular.  You live in a nation that has blessed you with the freedom of religion, but certain groups are working very hard to make sure that this becomes a nation that establishes the freedom from religion.  You are living in a nation that is not that much different from ancient Babylon and the Lord your God is calling on you to remain faithful to him. 

But how do we do that?  The answer is simple!  We remain faithful to the Lord by remaining in his Word, for it is only through the Word of God that our faith is strengthened and our faith grows.  Just think about how your faith grows when you are regularly in church and you are regularly hearing the Word of God.  Just think about how your faith grows and how it is easier to avoid certain temptations when you are regularly partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  Just think about how your faith grows and how you are better prepared to remain faithful to the Lord when you are reading his Word for yourselves on a regular basis.  Just think about how your faith grows when you do these things, because you are convicted of your sins, and assured forgiveness from Jesus Christ your Savior.  Just think about how the Lord works in your hearts and how the Holy Spirit strengthens your faith and gives you that stronger conviction to live for your Savior, simply because you have been in the word. 

These are but a few of the blessings that the Lord gives when we remain faithful to him.  He blesses us with the assurance of the forgiveness of sins.  He blesses us with the assurance of life and salvation. He blesses us with the assurance that not only are our prayers heard, but they are also answered.  He blesses us with the power for Christian living.  He blesses us with the association of fellow Christians who are facing similar struggles so that we can encourage each other and build each other up as we remain faithful to the Lord.  He gives us the ability to stand up against temptations through Jesus Christ our Savior, and when we feel that we cannot stand up he assures us that we can hide ourselves in our Savior who will fight for us.  Though there are times when we do fail to remain faithful to the Lord and we fall into sin that one sin is never the end, because when we turn to the Lord in repentance, he forgives us.  He washes us clean.  He lavishes his grace on us, and he enables us to stand faithful once again.

Though remaining faithful to the Lord was not the easiest thing to do in Babylon, it was a very important thing for me to do.  Not only was it important for my own salvation, but it was also important that I remained faithful to the Lord to encourage my fellow Israelites who had also been brought to Babylon.  The same thing is true for you today.  Because you are living in a world where your Christian beliefs are being challenged, it is all the more important that you remain faithful to the Lord.  Because you are living in a land where Atheism is becoming more popular, where sexual sins are becoming normalized, where sexual perversions are thought of as alternate lifestyles, and where certain groups are seeking to do all they can to legislate Christianity to the point of nonexistence, it is all the more important for you to remain faithful to the Lord your God.  Though you may not have been threatened with lions because of your faith, we all face different kinds of persecutions because of our beliefs.  Yet, it is the Lord who delivers us from those persecutions. Though sometimes he uses them to help us grow in our trust of him and someday he might allow those persecutions to take our lives as he did with so many of the heroes of faith in his Word, we know that when we remain faithful to the Lord it is the Lord who blesses us.  We know that no matter what we face in this life, heaven is waiting for us.  We know that no matter what hardships the Lord brings into our lives, he is the one who will deliver us from them, either in this life or in the life to come by his side forever.

This is why it is so important for us to remain faithful to the Lord our God, because the Lord is our salvation.  Though I know you know my story so well because you learned it as little children, I hope that it has been a blessing to you.  I hope it has been a blessing to you and an encouragement to you to remain faithful to the Lord who always remains faithful to you.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Marvel at the Lord's Deliverance (1 Samuel 17:1-58)

July 17, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Today we’re making a little bit of a change in the lineup when it comes to our windows.  Though the roster of our windows has been printed in such a dramatic way for us, it was only a few days ago that I realized that the next two windows in our series are out of place, at least according to the narrative of the Biblical account.  Though there is no problem with the window of Daniel in the Lion’s Den following after the window of Joseph, when it comes to the pattern of the Bible, it is the account of David and Goliath that takes place between these two.  So today, even though our roster suggested that we would marvel at the Lord’s deliverance as we studied the account of Daniel in the Lion’s Den, instead, we will marvel at the Lord’s deliverance through the account of David and Goliath.

Now, I don’t know about you, but of all the Bible history lessons I learned in Sunday School and Lutheran Elementary School, David and Goliath was one of my favorites.  Though you might think the whole reason I loved this lesson was because of the amazing similarity between my name and the main character’s name; the real reason I loved the account of David and Goliath is because even as a little child I was amazed and I marveled at how the Lord delivered a young boy from so many things.  I marveled at how the Lord had delivered David from both the lion and the bear, not when they had attacked David, but when he had gone after them, grabbing them by the hair and killing them in order to rescue the sheep they had stolen!  That always amazed me!  Yet the thing that caused me to marvel all the more was how the Lord delivered David from the hand of the Philistine with a single rock to the forehead. 

As it is, the story of David and Goliath is one with which we are all very familiar, because it is one of those Bible history lessons that has caused us to marvel at the Lord’s deliverance in one way or another.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that if I asked you to, each and every one of you could recount the majority of what happened when David took on Goliath.  But, instead of me asking you to take turns to recount different portions of our lesson today, I invite you to take a look at it with me in 1 Samuel 17.  If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17 and we will take a look at exactly how the Lord delivered David from the hand of his enemy.  As you are turning to 1 Samuel 17, let me give you a little history to get you up to speed with what is happening here.  It wasn’t all that long before chapter 17 that the Lord sent Samuel to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of his seven sons to be the next king. Though Samuel anointed David on that day, it seems that he never told David, his brothers, or even his Father of the anointing.  Shortly after that David was brought into the service of Saul to play for him when he was tormented by an evil spirit from the Lord.  Now, as Chapter 17 begins, Israel is at war with Philistia.  They had camped on opposite sides of the valley of Elah and had drawn up the battle lines to meet the Philistines.  But it was Goliath whom they had not expected.  Take a look at verse 4:  “A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” (1 Samuel 17:4–11, NIV84)

What a sight it must have been to see a giant coming forward from the camp of the Philistines.  How terrifying it must have been for a man who was nearly twice the size of an average man, challenging just one man to step forward, to be the champion, and to meet him in single combat in order to decide the outcome of the entire war.  How would you have reacted?  Would you have stood up to fight without hesitation?  Or would you have cowered with the rest of the Israelites who were trembling in fear?  Though right here, right now, in the safety of this church it is easy to feel the passion of righteous anger coursing through our veins moving us to stand up against this unbelieving giant who is defying the Lord our God who saves us, watches over us, cares for us, and delivers us; once we actually pass through those doors to the outside, or sometimes even as stand up, fear begins to overtake us, and we run, trembling, to hide ourselves with the rest of Israel’s army.  Just think about the last spiritual battle you were in and the last time an unbelieving “giant” caused you to run and hide.  Was it the last time someone asked you about your faith or the church to which you belong?  Was it perhaps the last time someone complained to you about how strict your church is and how your church doesn’t allow you to do this or to do that?  Was it perhaps a time when a classmate, or a co-worker, or even a family member decided that it was time to argue with you about religion and you chose to go the other way?  What happened the last time that a Goliath entered your life and defied the Lord your God?  Did your faith prevail as you stood up for your faith?  Or did fear reign in your hearts like it did in the hearts of the Israelites?

Sadly, the reason that fear reigned in the hearts of the Israel was because their King did not fully trust that the Lord would deliver them.  Their King did not remind the Israelites of how the Lord had delivered them in the past, nor how the Lord delivered the Promised Land to them only a few generations earlier.  Instead, the King cowered in fear until after 40 days of Goliath’s defiance, the Lord sent David to deliver the Israelites.  Take a look at verse 17: “Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them… 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear. 25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel.” 26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” …31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.” (1 Samuel 17:17-18, 22-26, 31-37, NIV84)

The fear in the camp of the Israelites was so palpable that when the Lord brought David in to step up and conquer Goliath even the King himself sought to stop him.  But David would not be stopped because he knew that the Lord would deliver him.  He knew that in the same way that the Lord had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he knew and believed that the Lord would deliver him from this Philistine as well; and that is what the Lord did, he delivered David without sword or spear or javelin, because the battle was not David’s. The battle was not David’s because it belonged to the Lord.  (See 1 Samuel 17:45-52)

It is for this very reason that the Lord included the account of David and Goliath in his Word.  He included it in his word because it is through the account of David and Goliath that the Lord teaches us that no matter what battles we might face in this life those battles belong to the Lord and he is the one who delivers us from the hands of our enemy.  Let me say that again: it is through the account of David and Goliath that the Lord teaches us that no matter what battles we might face in this life those battles belong to the Lord and he is the one who delivers us from the hands of our enemy.  Though we have all cowered in our tents as the Israelites did, it is the Lord our God who has already delivered us from it by forgiving us all our sins.  It is the Lord our God who has assured us again and again that we are his dearly loved children through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.  It is the Lord our God who has taught us that in the same way that the rains and the street sweepers have cleaned away from the streets all the debris from last week’s storms, so also has the blood of our Savior cleaned away even all the fear and the guilt from those times we have hidden.  But not only has the blood of our Savior cleaned our hearts, it has filled our hearts with the gift of the Holy Spirit who now lives in us and encourages and strengthens us through his Word.  It is the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, and uses accounts of the Lord’s great deliverance of David from Goliath to help us to recognize and understand how the Lord will also deliver us when we face our own Goliaths in this life.

In fact, just think about how the Lord has delivered you when a Goliath entered your life and defied the Lord your God.  How did if feel when someone asked you about your faith or about the church to which you belong, and you took the opportunity to confess your faith and to tell a little bit about your church?  How did you feel the last time you took a stand on God’s Word about what you believe when someone else came at you complaining or even blaming you because your church doesn’t allow this or that?  How did you feel the last time you stood your ground and confessed your faith even when a friend, a relative, or a co-worker decided that it was time to argue religion with you?  How did you feel the last time you stood up like David did and marveled at how the Lord delivered you just as he delivered David?  I know if felt good, because I’ve been through those same kinds of situation and found myself simply marveling at how the Lord has delivered me through a battle that never actually belonged to me. Rather, it was a battle that belonged to the Lord, in which he simply asked me to participate so that he could deliver me and so that I could marvel at that deliverance.

This is why the Lord has included the account of David and Goliath in our Bibles!  He has included it so that he might teach us that no matter what battle you might be fighting, the battle belongs to the Lord and he will deliver you so that you can continually marvel at him.  No matter what battle you might be fighting! Though you might be battling with health issues right now, and don’t see exactly how you are going to go through, remember, the Lord has promised to deliver you.  If you are battling with financial issues and you find that you are being standing at a fork in the road and neither option in front of you is a good option, remember, the Lord will bring you through even this; he will deliver you.  If your battle is with your family, with your friends, with your employer, with your vehicle, with _____________ (fill in the blank)  remember what the Lord is teaching us today.  He is teaching us that no matter what battles we might face, he will deliver us.  He has already proven that by delivering David from the hands of Goliath.  He has proven it by delivering us from our sin by the death and resurrection of his Son, and he will prove it again on the day he finally delivers us from this life to the life that is to come.

It truly is amazing how the Lord assures us again and again that he will deliver us from every trouble in this amazing account of David and Goliath.  Though I don’t remember specifically catching that truth when I was in Sunday School or even Lutheran Elementary School, it is a truth that cannot be missed when we study this lesson.  For today we have seen just how the Lord does deliver us so that we can praise him, thank him, and marvel at his amazing deliverance.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Marvel at the Lord's Work in your Life! (Gensis 37, 39-50)

July 10, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Have you ever just sat back and marveled at how the Lord works in the lives of his people?  Have you ever considered just how the Lord has orchestrates the events of history so that all things do, indeed, work out for the good of those who love the Lord their God?  Though we may not always see it or understand exactly how the Lord does these things, we know that he is the one who is constantly working in the lives of his people.  He is the one who led the Israelites to the Promised Land and carried them on Eagles wings as he brought them to himself. (Exodus 19:3)  He is the one who saw to it that at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly so that we might be justified and declared not guilty by our God from whom we received reconciliation.  (Romans 5:6-11)  He is the one who provided the Apostles as his messengers and sent them out to proclaim the message of salvation (Matthew 10:1-8) Because they went preaching and teaching wherever Jesus sent them, that message of salvation was passed on from generation to generation until finally it came to you and you came to faith in the Lord your God who is constantly at work in your lives.

But the question still stands.  Have you ever just sat back and marveled at how the Lord works in your lives?  Though it is not always easy to see what the Lord is doing or what he is seeking to accomplish on a day to day basis, when we look back at our lives we can more easily see all that work that the Lord has done in our lives, and we can marvel at what he has done.  Take for example Joseph.  Though Joseph wasn’t able to see exactly how the Lord was working in his life until he hit certain milestones and looked back, from the Scriptures, we can see exactly how the Lord worked in Joseph’s life.  We can see just how the Lord orchestrated different events in his life that were designed to prepare him to be the second in command of all Egypt, the reigning super power of the day.  As Moses tells us in Genesis 41:44-44, “41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. 44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” (Genesis 41:41–44, NIV84)  But before we get too far ahead of ourselves this morning, lets take a few steps back and start at the beginning of the story, so to speak, so that we might more fully marvel at how the Lord was at work in Joseph’s life.

Now, you may or may not remember Joseph’s birth, but he was the first born son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. Of course he was born as the 11th of 12 sons.  Though Benjamin was born to Rachel as number 12 not long after Joseph, Joseph was his father’s favorite son, as Moses tells us in Genesis 37:3-4, “3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. (Genesis 37:3–4, NIV84)

Not only did they hate him because he was the favorite son of their father, they hated him for his dreams.  They hated him for his dreams of sheaves of grain; even the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him.  They hated him for his dreams.  They hated him for his robe. They hated him because he was the favored son. They hated him so much that when Joseph was 17 years old his brothers were willing to kill him, just to be rid of him.  I’m sure you remember how it was.  The brothers had taken the sheep up to Shechem and then up to Dothan (roughly 60 miles from home) for grazing and during the time they were away Joseph’s father decided to send Josef to check on them.  But, as Moses tells us verse 18, “18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” 21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father…25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. 28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:18-22, 25–28, NIV84)

Though the brothers intended to harm Joseph and take his life, the Lord worked in his life to spare him.  The Lord worked in his life through his brother Ruben and his brother Judah, to set in motion the events that would take place during the next 13 years; the events that would culminate in his becoming the second in command of all Egypt.  Jump with me to Genesis 39 where Moses tells us, “1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.” (Genesis 39:1–6, NIV84)

Though the Lord had given Joseph success in everything that he did, sadly, his position in Potiphar’s house was not to last, for we all remember the accusation that Potiphar’s wife made against him.  We remember how Potiphar burned with anger when he heard the story his wife had told him of how Joseph was supposed to have tried to seduce her.  Yet, here again we marvel at how the Lord worked in Joseph’s life.  Though we know that Potiphar was angry, we are not told exactly why.  It is possible that he was angry because he suspected that his wife was not telling him the truth and her lie was going to cost him an amazingly gifted, competent and conscientious business manager.  A clue to this is the fact that in the ancient world for a slave to make such advances toward his master’s wife that slave would almost certainly find himself facing the death penalty.  Yet this is not where Joseph found himself.  It seems that because Potiphar could not publically humiliate his wife by ignoring her accusation, Potiphar led Joseph off to the King’s prison.  Not a cell where he would await death nor a dungeon where he would simply be forgotten.  Rather he was led off to the King’s prison—a prison where the king’s prisoners were confined; prisoners such as the chief baker and the chief cup bearer.  Yet even in prison, the Lord was working in Joseph’s life.  Take a look at the middle of verse 20: “But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (Genesis 39:20–23, NIV84)

Instead of being in solitary confinement, Joseph was put in charge of the other prisoners, he had access to all the prisoners, and when the time was right the Lord introduced Joseph to the prisoner who would change his life as the Lord allowed Joseph to correctly interpret the dreams of the chief baker and the chief cup bearer.  Though Joseph would have to wait in prison for two more years, when the time was right, the Lord brought Joseph before Pharaoh, the Lord allowed Joseph to correctly interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, and when Pharaoh heard Joseph’s solution to the coming famine, the Lord placed Joseph in charge of all Egypt as Pharaoh’s vizier; Pharaoh’s right hand man.  Though the brothers intended to harm Joseph when they sold him into slavery, “it was to save lives that God sent [Joseph] ahead of [his brothers]” (Genesis 45:5, NIV 84)

Now, just think about this for a moment.  Just think about how the Lord worked in the life of his servant Joseph.  For 13 years Joseph dealt with all sorts of situations that were designed to prepare him for what the Lord had in store for him to do.  But while Joseph was living it, he wasn’t able to see how the Lord was working in his life to prepare him for the future.  He wasn’t able to see it until after he had passed through it.  Only then was he able to look back and marvel at how the Lord had worked in his life.  Sound familiar?  How often hasn’t it happened that you have passed through some frustrating hardship, only to discover after it was over just how the Lord was at work in your life even in the midst of that hardship?  How often haven’t you looked back on your life and recognized just how the Lord was working in your life as he moved you through one struggle or another, helping you to grow and stretch, as he prepared you for the next phase of your life?  

Just think back to those days when you were teenagers.  Do you remember that feeling that your life would never start?  Do you remember that feeling that you would never get your shot?  Do you remember wondering what the future would hold for you and how the Lord would work in your life?  Though you really didn’t know exactly what the Lord had in store for you then, you can look back now and see just how the Lord was at work in your life.  Even if you are currently a teenager or a young child, the same thing is as true for you.  Though you may be wondering what the Lord has in store for your future, you can still look back and see just how the Lord has been at work in your life up to this very day.  You can see how the Lord has led you through your lives so that you arrived at this very point at this very time.  No matter what age you are at, you can do that very thing.  You can look backward and marvel at how the Lord has been at work in your life leading you to this very point.  Though you may even now be at a sort of cross roads in your life, or may find yourself facing struggles or hardships, you can take comfort in the fact that the Lord your God is at work in your life even now. 

Though we may find ourselves like Joseph did, unable to understand why all these things were happening to him, we know that through the Lord’s work in our lives he is drawing us closer to himself, he is strengthening our faith, and he is preparing us for what is next to come.  Just think about the work he has already accomplished in your life.  He is the one who called you to faith through the waters of baptism.  He is the one who taught you the precious truths of salvation through your parents, through your Pastor, through your Sunday School Teachers, and if you had the privilege, through your Lutheran Elementary School teachers.  He is the one who has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts who constantly reminds us of all that Jesus did for us and how he freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.  He is the one who shaped every single experience of our lives as he molded us and prepared us for the situation in which we find ourselves. Though we may not be able to see exactly how the Lord is using our present situation, be it the sluggish economy, the scarcity of the job market, the constantly changing gas prices, debts, payments, or whatever it is. Though we may not be able to see exactly how the Lord is using our present situation for our good, soon we will be able to sit back and marvel at what the Lord has accomplished in our lives, just as Joseph was able to do.

Though it is always difficult to see what the Lord is working to accomplish in our lives on a day to day basis, whenever we look backwards we are able to marvel at all that he has done.  After all, he is the one who led the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land carrying them on wings like an eagle.  He is the one who went to work while we were still powerless and brought us to faith in the one who saved us.  He is the one who prepared the Apostles and sent them out proclaiming the message of salvation.  He is the one who orchestrated the events of Joseph’s life, preparing him for his position of power, and he is the one who causes us to marvel every time we consider just how the Lord has been at work in our lives.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Marvel at the Lord's Mercy (Genesis 6:1 - 8:22)

July 3, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

The story has been told about a mother who once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. When she asked, the emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. To which she responded, "But I don't ask for justice, I plead for mercy." "But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied. "Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." "Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son.[1]  In so many ways stories like this cause us to recognize and marvel at the mercy the Lord has bestowed upon us.  Though we’ve done nothing to deserve it, the Lord has acted in his mercy in our lives, time and time again.  In his mercy he sent his Son to free us from our sins.  In his mercy he works things out for the good of those who love him.  In his mercy he has called us to faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  In his mercy he continues to guard and protect us each and every day of our lives.  In his mercy he has recorded in his word all that he has done for us so that we might grow in our faith and knowledge, as we marvel at the mercy the Lord our God continues to pour out on us and all his faithful people.

Take for example the account of the flood.  The year was roughly 1536.  1536 years since the beginning of creation.  Mankind had increased in number, filling the earth and subduing it.  In those years since the beginning of creation, the sons of God—the believers—had begun to intermarry with the daughters of men—the unbelievers—and before long the light of faith in the hearts of the believers had begun to dwindle, flicker, and finally go out.  As the faith of those believers who had intermarried with unbelievers began to faith, so also the world began to grow darker, more evil, more violent, and much more and more wicked.  So when 1536 years passed after the Lord had created the heavens and the earth, Moses tells us: “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:3, 5–8, NIV84)

Now, just think about what the Lord is telling us.  Nearly the enter world, not just a nation, nearly the entire world had stopped believing in the Lord God.  They had refused to listen to him, saw no reason to worship him, and were completely disregarding his existence.  Yet, even though the majority of the world had turned against the Lord, mercifully the Lord granted the entire world 120 years as their time of grace.  120 years for them to turn from their evil ways!  120 years for them to turn back to the Lord.  120 years to listen to Noah, a preacher of Righteousness (2 peter 2:5).  120 years to listen to Noah’s father Lamech and Noah’s grandfather Methuselah—two men who were born before Adam died; two men who may well have known Adam personally as Lemech was born 56 years before Adam died and Methuselah was born 243 years before Adam died.  120 years to let the message of the coming destruction sink in as they saw Noah and his family building the biggest barge anyone had probably ever seen; according to the Lord’s command.  120 years of the Lord’s marvelous mercy delivered to probably millions, if not billions of people in the world who had turned their backs on the Lord their God. Yet only 8 people benefitted from the Lord’s marvelous mercy.  Only 8 people believed the Lord, listened to the Lord, followed the Lord and were saved by the Lord in the ark he commanded them to build.  Only 8 because the Lord had called both Lamech and Methuselah, and probably any other believers, home to heaven before the flood destroyed the earth.

But before we go any further, let me ask you an obvious question, “Is our world any different today than it was in Noah’s day?”  Oh sure we have faster cars, bigger boats, better technology, more incredible industries and yes, smellier air, but if you really think about it our world isn’t that much different.  We have all seen the sons of God intermarry with the daughters of men.  We have watched as the light of faith in the hearts of believers has begun to dwindle, flicker, and even go out; sometimes because of an unbelieving spouse or spouse of another faith, other times because even believers can be sucked into the non-religious, secular, scientific world in which we live today. Though the word of God has had a great deal of free reign over the centuries since our Savior walked the earth, it seems that the gospel is being hindered or ignored all the more in our day and age.  Yet, in his great mercy, the Lord has called each and every one of us to faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior.  The Lord has given us this time of grace for us to grow in our faith and our trust.  He has given us this time of grace to share our faith, like Noah did, with those who do not yet know their Savior. In his mercy, the Lord has given us this time as we draw near the Day of Judgment as Noah did.  And in his mercy, the Lord has given us this account of the flood to help us to prepare ourselves for his coming, just as Jesus tells us, “37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; (Matthew 24:37–38, NIV84)

Well, this is the same mercy that the Lord poured out on Noah and his family as Moses tells us in Genesis 6:  “9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. (Genesis 6:9–15, NIV84)

Now, for a moment, let’s talk about the dimensions of the ark, because even though we know it was big, it is very seldom that we are able to conceive of scope of its size. Now, if the wall to my right, your left, was one side of the ark, the width of the ark would stretch from that wall over the top of the stairwell, by my office, in the fellowship hall.  That top step over by my office is roughly 75 feet away from this wall to my right.  If the back of the ark were lined up with the back wall of the narthex, the outside wall of our church with the windows; if that were the back of the ark then the ark would stretch from that wall to, at the very least, the other side of 112, if not all the way to the back yards of the houses on the other side of 112.  Finally, if we were sitting inside the ark right now, we would, of course, be on the lowest deck.  By the time we climbed to the top deck and looked out the window we would find that we would be about even with the bell tower, only about five feet lower than the roof of the tower where the base of the spire which holds up the cross, is anchored. 

Why do I tell you this?  Because it was in this enormous barge that the Lord displayed his mercy as he provided for the continuation of the line of the Savior.  It was in this big boat that the Lord mercifully spared 8 people and all the kinds of the animals from the destruction of the unbelieving, wicked, and evil world.  The ark is an amazing picture of God’s marvelous mercy in the face of his just judgment for as we know, after all the animals had entered the ark, Noah and his family went in and the Lord closed the door behind them.  There in that ark they were saved as the floodwaters of the earth burst forth from the earth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened and the rains fell for forty days and nights.  There in the ark Moses and his family were safe during the 375 days that passed from the time they entered the ark until the time that the Lord said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.” 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Genesis 8:16–22, NIV84)

In so many ways the Lord displayed his mercy in the lives of Noah and his family, and this is what the Lord continues to do for each and every one of us today.  In his mercy he has placed the rainbow in the sky to remind us of how he provided not only for Noah, but for the entire human race.  In his mercy he chose us to be his children.  He called us to faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.  He assured us that Jesus has indeed freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection, and he now calls us to proclaim the message of salvation with those who do not yet know him.  This is the mercy that the Lord has bestowed upon us. Though we did not deserve it he has made us his own.  Though we had committed the same offence not merely two times but, in reality, millions of times, the Lord bestowed upon us his mercy when he forgave us and spared us from the eternal death we deserved.  Now, just as Noah did, we live in that mercy.  We live in that time of grace that he has given us.  We grow in the faith that the Lord has bestowed in our hearts.  We grow in our knowledge of our Savior who loved us, and we are always ready to share our faith with those who do not yet know.  This is the marvelous mercy of the Lord our God.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

<a href=http://www.grace-lesueur.org>Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church</a> -Le Sueur, MN

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[1] Originally from: Luis Palau, Experiencing God's Forgiveness, Multnomah Press, 1984.  Copied from: http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/m/mercy.htm Accessed July 1, 2011