Episode Transcript
People sinned. As a result, the ground was cursed and people now had to die. God promised to deliver people from their sin, the curse, and death. We have seen God building up His people and teaching them justice and mercy so that the ground would prosper, undoing the curse, and eventually death would be no more. God even prepared a throne for His Messiah to sit on and reign as the federal head of creation in Adam’s place. Now, the story takes an unexpected turn. God has been conquering and building up His chosen nation. Then, God’s prophets, including Jeremiah and Isaiah, begin foretelling the destruction of Israel and Judah. The Babylonians come in and dismantle Israel and Judah, carrying off many of the people into exile—including key leaders. The trajectory of the story seems to indicate that God is building something. We expect every step God takes to be successful. Why permit the destruction of His people, the people through whom God has promised to save the whole world?
Remember what we saw with Egypt. God has always been interested in saving the whole world, not merely Israel. Israel is simply the nation through which all the families of the earth will be blessed and the curse will be extinguished. I want to look at two accounts today. The first may be familiar to you. There were three men exiled to Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Nebuchadnezzar required all his subjects to worship a false idol. These three men refused and, instead, chose only to worship Yahweh. As punishment for their faith in God, whom the Babylonians did not recognize, these three men were thrown into a furnace to burn to death. They survived. Some saw a fourth man in the furnace with them. When they came out of the furnace, they did not even smell like smoke.
Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way” (Daniel 3:28-29).
Nebuchadnezzar blessed God as a result, making it law in Babylon that people could not say anything offensive against God. He recognized God as the only one able to deliver people the way He did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
Similarly, Daniel was exiled. A man named Darius, under the advisement of his council, signed an edict making it unlawful for anyone to pray to God. Daniel prayed anyway. Even though Darius like him, he broke the law. He was throne into a lion’s den to be eaten. The lions did not eat Daniel. When Darius discovered that God had saved Daniel, he responded with another decree.
Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language who were living in all the land: “May your peace abound! I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel; For He is the living God and enduring forever, And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, And His dominion will be forever. He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has also delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 9:25-27).
Darius actually went further than Nebuchadnezzar by commanding that all people fear and tremble before God. He praised God as the one who endures forever, the rightful forever king with a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, the one who rescues and performs signs and wonders, and who delivered Daniel from the lions. Darius recognizes that God’s kingdom is not bound by borders. He recognizes that, even though Babylon has defeated Israel and Judah, God’s kingdom cannot be defeated. It transcends national boundaries.
Let’s look at another map together. This map shows where God is known and feared prior to the Babylonian Exile:
The next map show the expansion of the boundless kingdom of God because Israel was exiled:
Babylon though it was conquering the kingdom of God. Instead, the kingdom of God invaded and expanded through Babylon. What Babylon meant for evil, God meant for good. I notice two things. 1) God always uses persecution to advance His kingdom. Whatever persecution there is in the world, God is using it to advance His own kingdom. The persecution is temporary. The kingdom of God is forever. Even when we experience defeat in this world, God is yet undefeated. 2) Because God invaded Babylon, His territory in the hearts of people has expanded and will continue to expand throughout the story. God has not lost a battle yet. Though Israel is small, God is impacting a large portion of the world through the small nation He has chosen through which to bless the whole world—every family on the earth.
