July 3, 2010

Our God Controls All Things!

Patriotic Festival, 7/4/10
Daniel 10:18-21a


Our God Controls All Things!
I. He battles demonic forces.
II. He uses government to bless us.


The headlines in last Friday’s edition of the Dayton Daily News declared: “Fear of Another Recession Grows.” Another recession?! It makes you wonder if things can get any worse. We’ve got an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that has been gushing oil for months and it may not be stopped for another 6 weeks or so. Then we hear that unemployment rates aren’t going to get any better soon. It seems about once a week that we hear about another casualty or a setback in the war in Afghanistan. Each day it’s more bad news and we begin to wonder if this is the worst it’s ever been.

Really? The worst? What we’re facing now is worse than what our country faced during the Civil War when we were killing untold thousands of our own men? This is worse than what our country faced during each of the World Wars? This is worse than the Great Depression when so many people lost everything they owned?

That puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? But it only helps us a little to remind us that things now aren’t the worst that we’ve faced. It may help the way we feel but it still doesn’t solve the problems we’re currently facing, nationally or personally.

And the fact that so many things seem to be wrong in our lives and in our country raises another good question: Where is our God in all of this? After all, doesn’t he care? And if he does care, what’s he doing about it?

The Old Testament prophet Daniel may have had similar questions. Daniel lived his life under three different governments in two different areas of the world. But he served the Lord whole-heartedly. And what did he get for it? Visions of more trouble to come.

That’s what had just happened here in Daniel 10. The Lord showed him a vision of the future for the Jews and it was so horrifying that Daniel fainted. But the Lord wanted Daniel to know that he was still in control. Listen to the words of our text, (Read text).

Even though on this Sunday we’re thanking our God for his many blessings on our nation and imploring him to continue blessing us, we may be more than a little unsettled about the future. We may be disillusioned or even angry with our government and those who are supposed to be leading us. We may be wondering what disaster is going to hit us next. And above all, we may be wondering what our God is doing about it. If those are your concerns, then our God tells you just what you need to hear. This portion of God’s word declares firmly and loudly, “Our God controls all things.” As we study these words together may our God convince us of that comforting truth!

Part I.

What do you recall about the Book of Daniel? Well, you might remember the story of his three friends—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—in the fiery furnace and how the Lord delivered them. You might also recall the story of Daniel in the lions’ den and how the Lord delivered him. But what else do you recall?

Let me help you. A good portion of Daniel’s prophecy is the reporting of the content of the visions that he received from the Lord. Chapter 2 revealed the succession of four great kingdoms—Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. Chapter 7 is a vision of four beasts which supplied more future information about these four kingdoms. In chapters 10 and 11 Daniel receives some very detailed information about the Greeks and what they would do to the Jews more than 200 years into the future. The carnage would last for decades and, worst of all, the Temple in Jerusalem would be defiled and the worship of the only true God would be forbidden.

So, what was the Lord going to do about all this? First, he reassured Daniel. The almighty God told him, “Do not be afraid. Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” He didn’t eliminate the problem; he strengthened Daniel to face it.

Next, he assured Daniel, “Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia.” The word “prince” here is best understood as a demonic force that was trying to use the Persians to destroy God’s people. During the time of Daniel, Satan was fighting night and day against God’s plan to send a Savior into the world. One way of accomplishing that was to wipe out all Jewish people. Satan was influencing Persian government officials to do that for him. The Lord also told Daniel that one of Satan’s demons would use the kingdom of Greece to do the same. But the Lord would fight for his people.

And yet terrible things would still happen to God’s people. As I mentioned, under the Greeks countless Jews were slaughtered. Endless military battles made life miserable. And worst of all, the temple was defiled and no longer usable for Jewish worship.

So why did the Lord share all this information with Daniel if he wasn’t going to stop the calamities from happening? He wanted Daniel and all of his people to know that he was still in control. He was going to use these future hardships to refine the Jews so that when the time came for him to send the Savior into the world, there would

be godly people among the Jews such as Zechariah and Elizabeth—the parents of John the Baptist, and Mary—the mother of our Lord, and her husband—Joseph.

Our God controls all things! He even battles demonic forces that would destroy us.

What will be the next great crisis to strike America? A devastating hurricane? An energy crisis? Another banking crisis? A Wall Street scandal? An assassination attempt on a high-ranking government official? Another terrorist attack? I don’t know what it will be. But our God does. And it’s a good bet that somehow Satan himself will be behind all of it. He uses his power to influence people and events to bring chaos, dismay and destruction into the lives of people so that they despair and shake their angry fist at God. So what’s a beleaguered Christian like yourself to do? Do what Luther encouraged in his great Reformation hymn. “One little word can fell him.” That word is “Jesus.” That word sends Satan back to hell. That word brings us the comfort of our forgiveness and eternal life because of his victory over Satan on the cross. His resurrection from the dead assures us of it. Indeed our God controls all things!


Part II.

Today we pause to thank our God for the freedoms we have in the United States of America. Our government exists to protect those freedoms. But what is God’s part in all of that? What’s the relationship between government and God? God alludes to the answer in his words to Daniel. He wasn’t going to destroy these governments; he was going to use them. He was going to use them to bless his people.

You see, government is one of God’s representatives here on earth. God has placed his representatives over us in three areas: the home, the church and the government. He uses those three representatives to bless us.

That means that government—every government—is God’s representative. We heard St. Paul make that very point in our Second Lesson. He wrote, “The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Rom. 13:1). Paul urged obedience to governing authorities because they are God’s representatives. And recall that he didn’t exclude the Roman government which would eventually murder him for preaching about Jesus.

And just because every government is sinful doesn’t give us the right to despise and malign it. Since every government is comprised of sinful people, no perfect government exists. Even if government were entirely comprised of your fellow church members, it would be no more perfect than this congregation. It would still have its problems. It would still make mistakes. Sins would still occur.

So what should we do as Christian citizens? Realize that even if our government leaders are rank unbelievers or amoral thugs, they are still God’s representatives. We should be vigilant and informed. We should point out sin in a loving way when we see it. We should call them to repentance. We should exercise our right to vote. But we should always bear in mind that our God is in control of all things.

And then we should be thankful. Even if our government should fail us miserably and God would allow every earthly blessing to be taken from us, we should still be thankful. For more than 230 years God has blessed the citizens of our country abundantly. We still lead the world in guarding human freedom and maintaining peace and order. We’re one of the richest nations on earth. If it were all gone tomorrow, we should still thank God that we had all those blessings for these many years.

But we can be most thankful that for all that time and for all of the foreseeable future, we have the freedom to worship our God as we please. Our government protects that right. We can read and hear his word whenever we want. That’s not true in every nation. We can share the good news of Jesus with others. In some countries that will get you killed. We’re free to baptize our children, educate them in God’s saving truths and then have them join us at the Lord’s Supper which is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet Jesus has prepared for us.

Our God controls all things. He uses government to bless us.

I hope and pray you don’t have a hard time finding reasons to be thankful for our nation and the freedoms we enjoy. It may seem like things are getting worse, not better. But know this: our God controls all things. He will continue to bless us by fighting evil forces for us and by using government to maintain peace and order so that we can enjoy the blessings of God’s word and sacraments. God has richly blessed America! May he continue to bless America as he sees fit! Amen.