Daniel; When You Hit the Wall (26-Feb-06)
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Daniel 5, When you hit the wall (or When the wall hits you) February 26, 2006
Victor Frankl, was a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who was interned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
In his powerful book based on his experiences in the concentrations camps, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankly talked about how he assumed Nazi guards would consistently be brutal and that Jewish captors would become noble and heroic under the weight of unjust suffering.
He found things weren’t quite so simple.
He discovered Nazi many guards were often cruel and merciless, but that some guards could be surprisingly compassionate and generous.
He found among his Jewish captors, some in the face of terrible, hardship and stress, would become small hearted, selfish, and claw for the last scrap of bread…
Others would become incredibly generous and heroically noble…
In concentration camp, people when faced with suffering and the real possibility of soon death, responded very differently…
Most of us here are not in a situation where were we are facing imminent death…
But we are all on a kind of death row, we are all on a kind of Green mile…
In California, I met someone who said, I though my calling was to work with the dying and for a while, was working in a hospice, and she said now I work with regular adults, but I suppose they’re also dying like everyone else…
This morning as we’re going to look at Daniel 5 (parts of the Daniel 4) and we are going to look at two people facing death and how they respond in very different ways…
King Belshazzar is King of Babylon (actually co-Regent with a King named Nabonidus).
King Belshazzar knows that his Empire of Babylon is coming under siege by Cyrus, a leader of the Persian Empire.
Just a few days earlier Cyrus the Persian had defeated King Naboddtus the co leader of Babylon and Babylonian army, near Sippar about 50 miles from Babylon.
They are making their way toward King Belshazzar in the city of the Babylon.
So, King Belshazzar knows that he will soon, be will be attacked by the Medo-Persian empire.
(He does not know this, but he’ll be slain that night as we’ll see in Daniel 5)
The secular historian Herodotus, corroborates this account by telling us the final raid of Babylon took place during a night time banquet…)
What does King Belshazzar do in face of impending military defeat and possibly death?
He throws a wild party for 1000 guests, in a room as about half the size of a football field (this room btw that was restored by Saddam Hussein and part of the original plastered walls have been persevered).
No one knows exactly the King is throwing this party… with defeat and death so close.
It maybe that he was trying to foster the morale of his leaders who would have been discouraged by the news that their army had been defeated by the Persians or maybe sensing he was going to die, he said, “What the hell…” let’s just eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die….
Let’s read what is going on at the party in Daniel 5…
What are some of the key word(s) in this passage?
1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
(brief open discussion)
The people at this party are drinking heavily (in vss. 1-4 the verb drink is used 5 times).
The Bible doesn’t categorically condemn drinking per se. Jesus actually turned water into wine-during a wedding.
But the Bible does condemning drunkenness and speaks against the kind of drinking here, intended to dull their awareness of reality.
When a person is stressed out and says I need a drink to take the edge off that’s not a healthy way to deal with stress.
A second thing that may not be immediately obvious as being unusual at this party is there are women at the party… This is a very patriarchal, male dominant culture and so at this kind of party it would be unusual to have women. You might have the queen, but that would be about it, but the king’s wives are here and his concubines.
So, there evidence that is not just party where the alcohol is flowing freely, but where every sensual/sexual appetite is being encouraged.
Then they break out the goblets, that had been taken as booty by the temple of God in Jerusalem, by Belshazzar’s “father” (we know that “father” in his does not mean biological father, but a predecessor), King Nebuchadnazzer when he placed Jerusalem under siege.
When the Babylonians invaded Judah in 605 b.c. they not only deported Hebrews to Babylon 605, but also a carried sacred articles from the temple of God.
And we see in the text vs. 4 we see that the Babylonians are they are drinking from the sacred goblets of gold and silver…
What’s going on here? They’re facing defeat and likely death, and they’re partying!
Ernest Becker late professor at Berkeley and our own SFU, an agonistic, gives insight into what’s going on here in his Pulitzer prize winning book the Denial of Death.
Becker says human beings cannot live in the full awareness of our mortality. We can look at right in the face…
He’s says our culture tries to stave off the idea…
Gail Sheehy author of passages and new passages, says we used face our mortality at age 40, now according her the new 40 is now 50 we can put thinking our mortality till 50…
We seem to be unable to really look at our mortality full in the face…
Becker say we can’t face our mortality head, we try to divert from the ourselves from the thought of death in 3 ways…
One way is through romance and sex…
In the face of military defeat and death, we see Belshazzar breaking the rules of their own culture… there are women here vs. 2… and they are encouraging sexual diversions…
It’s interesting that many men, at middle age, when faces mortality…and anxieties about their manhood and sexual attractiveness and prowess, will often have (or try to have) an affair with some exotic woman or divorce the mother of his children, and marry a younger “testimonial wife” as if to say, I may have grey hair, but I am still sexually compelling and virile…
Many seek overcome their sense of being mortal, by seeking a transcendent, spiritual experience through a romantic adventure.
Are we trying to overcome sense of finiteness and mortality, through a real or imagined romantic relationship?
When faced with our mortality, Becker says we may be driven to achieve in an attempt to deny our mortality.
It interesting that though Belshazzar he is far inferior to his predecessor the great King Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar brings out the sacred golden and silver goblets that have been taken as booty from the temple of Jerusalem so guest can drink from them vss 2-3. This sacrilegious act is that not even something that the arrogant King Nebuchadnezzar dared do. Those goblets were holy, set apart worship of God.
Commentators point out the reason that King Belshazzar brings out the Holy Goblets for ordinary drinking use, is to show that he is greater than Nechadnazzar who was not man enough to use them…
When I was a kid there a TV show based on a movie, called Fame… about these dancers in New York and the theme song went Fame I want to live forever…
Whether through dance, the arts, sport, the Olympics, education, business, or ministry some seek to achieve something great that will help us overcome our sense finiteness and mortality.
Becker says the third way we deny our mortality is that we turn to religion…
Here vs. 4 we see Belshazzar and his guests toasting and praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, wood, and stone…
We turn to seek find meaning through religious ritual or some some of “god” or “god substitute to help overcome our fear of finiteness, the fear that we will one day die.
That god may be some overtly religious or spiritual, that god may be a relationship or achievement that as we’ve talked about, it may be some role we play: needing to be needed, it may the way we look, a recreational pursuit, it may be the attaining a certain standard of living…
We may turn to an idol in an attempt to get sense of meaning and deny our mortality…
Are we using any of these means to deny our mortality, relationship, achievement, religion or a god-substitute?
How God guides us to live in the face of our mortality and death?
Let’s pick up the text again.
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.
(Rembrandt piece?)
The story tells us that during the party the King sees this handwriting on the wall…
And the astrologers and magicians and the wise men are brought in but none can read the scripture.
The Queen mother suggests bringing in a forgotten older man, now about 80, named Daniel. A man who helped the King Belshazzar’s predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar recount and interpret dreams. The Queen says he’s a man of wisdom in whom the Spirit of the gods dwell.
Daniel is brought out…as old, discarded man… perhaps purposely ignored by the King Belshazzar because people would have associate him with a King greater than Belshazzar, King Nebuchadnezzar…
Daniel comes in and his heart must sink as he sees the sacred golden goblet that he hasn’t seen since he was a boy used in temple worship, now being used so that this King and his friends can get drunk…
Daniel interprets the handing writing on the wall…
25 "This is the inscription that was written:
Mene , Mene , Tekel , Parsin
26 "This is what these words mean:
Mene [f] : God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27 Tekel [g] : You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
28 Peres [h] : Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
As Belshazzar faces military defeat and death God brings his word to him.
One of the ways we are to face our mortality and death is to allow God’s word to speak us…. God’s Word in Scripture…
The word that King Belshazzar gets this very disturbing from God: your days are numbered, you’re lacking, your Kingdom will not last…
God’s Word can disturb us when we are too comfortable
It causes to realize our days are numbered and at some that that we are lacking in some ways.
Painful. But that awareness can lead us to God. Like a doctor who to painful reality who we can become physically well, so God’s can word lead show us a painful reality, so we can become whole.
God’s word can disturb us when we are comfortable and can comfort us when we are disturbed.
God’s word comfort us in our sorrow, like nothing else.
I was a woman young with cancer recently. She said many things have brought her comfort, her husband, her young children, and her friends, but what gave most comfort was the Word of God.
Whether the word of God disturbs us or comforts us the word can humble us.
We’re waiting for King Belshazzar in the face Daniel interpreting the words on the wall, to totally humble himself before God’s but he does not… he shakes, he falls to the ground, but he does not humble himself before God…
And Daniel in the chapter 5 vss. 18 and following contrast Belshazzar to his predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar who humbles himself before God’s in Daniel 4…
King Nebuchadnezzar had been the most powerful person in his world and arguably one the most powerful people of all time… people would die and live at snap of his fingers…
He was builder of the great Babylon and the hanging gardens considered by many as greatest wonder of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
But he was proud and one day as we walking the roof of his palace he surveyed his Kingdom and said, is this not the great Babylon I have built? He assuming his talent and effort has created all the glories of Babylon and he does not acknowledge the fact that God has given all his position and gifts and powers… Nebuchadnezzar claims credit for the great achievements of Babylon. He engages in what Tim Keller calls cosmic plagiarism…
So, God sends his word to him through Daniel and then fulfills by causing the King to lose his mind and live like a wild animal for 7 seasons or years and the King Nebuchadnezzar ends up humbling himself before God and acknowledging God is God and God shows mercy upon and restores him.
God hates pride, pride has traditionally considered the worst of the 7 deadly sins.
God hates it, when in our pride we commit cosmic plagiarism, taking credit for things he has graciously given us, but loves humility and repentance.
We tend to think that the good are in and bad out in so far as God is concerned.
The truth is the proud are out and the humble are in.
If our “goodness” leads us to believe that because we are good, God owes a certain kind of life, we’re out.
And if our sins, leads to realize we’re sinner, and cause humble ourselves before God, our sins can actually work for us…
This Jesus said to the good people, the religious and respected, the tax collectors (tantamount to drug dealers in that culture) and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God head you.
So we face our mortality and death by allowing the word to turn to God and humble us…
But how do we know we’re humbled ourselves before God and repented?
Is it remorse and tears?
Is it some intellectual, theological understanding we are turning away from sin to God?
Likely some of both, the most powerful way we demonstrate we’ve repented is by the way we live.
When King Nebuchadnezzar repents, God calls him to show his repentance in chapter 4 vs. 27 by renouncing your sins and doing what is right and showing kindness to the opressed, the idea in Hebrew can mean showing compassion through alms giving and economic means….
When we humble ourselves before God we realize that all that we have is a gift from God, so it a natural to be to generous, to others, particularly the oppressed and the poor.
If humble ourselves before and we realize that our gifts are from God, we’ll become generous with what we have our financial resources and talents.
If think we our finance our talent resources are our ours, if we give at all we’ll give either sense of resentment or pride, but if realize all we have given by God, our talents, our opportunities ability, we’ll be able to give with a sense of gratitude…
One of the ways we’re humbled ourselves before is that we can give freely and with joy.
If we think all our life as a gift from, we’ll give our lives generous to people as expression of gratitude to God…
Micah 6:8.. says thou has show me on man what is good and what the Lord requires of me to do justly and love mercy and to walk humble… with thy God…they’re all connected…
Walking humbly before God, living justly and mercifully are all connected…
One of ways we know humble is living we give to others, especially the oppressed.
One of the ways we know we’ve humbled ourselves before God is we like the God who gives.
Richard Rohr has said, people who haven’t lived life are most afraid to die.
That’s young why people often fear death most when faced it before its time.
But, it’s also true that those who have live God’s purpose for them fear death…
When turn to God’s word, and humble before and live his call to serve others and then we our time is up… we’ll ready to die and meet our maker and live onto eternity with him.
I may give an altar call or encourage people to pray in the pews:
Perhaps some of us here right now need to humble ourselves before God… some of us need to turn from a specific sin, some us need to “turn from our goodness,” in the sense of relying on our goodness to gain favor with God rather than his sheer mercy, and some of us need to turn from self-hatred… Henri Nouwen said the greatest temptation in the spiritual life is not seeking success or popularity, but self-rejection… because when reject ourselves, we contradict God’s voice that says we are beloved.
The Bible says humble under the mighty and allow him to be one to lift you up…
Daniel 5, When you hit the wall (or When the wall hits you) February 26, 2006
Victor Frankl, was a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who was interned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
In his powerful book based on his experiences in the concentrations camps, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankly talked about how he assumed Nazi guards would consistently be brutal and that Jewish captors would become noble and heroic under the weight of unjust suffering.
He found things weren’t quite so simple.
He discovered Nazi many guards were often cruel and merciless, but that some guards could be surprisingly compassionate and generous.
He found among his Jewish captors, some in the face of terrible, hardship and stress, would become small hearted, selfish, and claw for the last scrap of bread…
Others would become incredibly generous and heroically noble…
In concentration camp, people when faced with suffering and the real possibility of soon death, responded very differently…
Most of us here are not in a situation where were we are facing imminent death…
But we are all on a kind of death row, we are all on a kind of Green mile…
In California, I met someone who said, I though my calling was to work with the dying and for a while, was working in a hospice, and she said now I work with regular adults, but I suppose they’re also dying like everyone else…
This morning as we’re going to look at Daniel 5 (parts of the Daniel 4) and we are going to look at two people facing death and how they respond in very different ways…
King Belshazzar is King of Babylon (actually co-Regent with a King named Nabonidus).
King Belshazzar knows that his Empire of Babylon is coming under siege by Cyrus, a leader of the Persian Empire.
Just a few days earlier Cyrus the Persian had defeated King Naboddtus the co leader of Babylon and Babylonian army, near Sippar about 50 miles from Babylon.
They are making their way toward King Belshazzar in the city of the Babylon.
So, King Belshazzar knows that he will soon, be will be attacked by the Medo-Persian empire.
(He does not know this, but he’ll be slain that night as we’ll see in Daniel 5)
The secular historian Herodotus, corroborates this account by telling us the final raid of Babylon took place during a night time banquet…)
What does King Belshazzar do in face of impending military defeat and possibly death?
He throws a wild party for 1000 guests, in a room as about half the size of a football field (this room btw that was restored by Saddam Hussein and part of the original plastered walls have been persevered).
No one knows exactly the King is throwing this party… with defeat and death so close.
It maybe that he was trying to foster the morale of his leaders who would have been discouraged by the news that their army had been defeated by the Persians or maybe sensing he was going to die, he said, “What the hell…” let’s just eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die….
Let’s read what is going on at the party in Daniel 5…
What are some of the key word(s) in this passage?
1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
(brief open discussion)
The people at this party are drinking heavily (in vss. 1-4 the verb drink is used 5 times).
The Bible doesn’t categorically condemn drinking per se. Jesus actually turned water into wine-during a wedding.
But the Bible does condemning drunkenness and speaks against the kind of drinking here, intended to dull their awareness of reality.
When a person is stressed out and says I need a drink to take the edge off that’s not a healthy way to deal with stress.
A second thing that may not be immediately obvious as being unusual at this party is there are women at the party… This is a very patriarchal, male dominant culture and so at this kind of party it would be unusual to have women. You might have the queen, but that would be about it, but the king’s wives are here and his concubines.
So, there evidence that is not just party where the alcohol is flowing freely, but where every sensual/sexual appetite is being encouraged.
Then they break out the goblets, that had been taken as booty by the temple of God in Jerusalem, by Belshazzar’s “father” (we know that “father” in his does not mean biological father, but a predecessor), King Nebuchadnazzer when he placed Jerusalem under siege.
When the Babylonians invaded Judah in 605 b.c. they not only deported Hebrews to Babylon 605, but also a carried sacred articles from the temple of God.
And we see in the text vs. 4 we see that the Babylonians are they are drinking from the sacred goblets of gold and silver…
What’s going on here? They’re facing defeat and likely death, and they’re partying!
Ernest Becker late professor at Berkeley and our own SFU, an agonistic, gives insight into what’s going on here in his Pulitzer prize winning book the Denial of Death.
Becker says human beings cannot live in the full awareness of our mortality. We can look at right in the face…
He’s says our culture tries to stave off the idea…
Gail Sheehy author of passages and new passages, says we used face our mortality at age 40, now according her the new 40 is now 50 we can put thinking our mortality till 50…
We seem to be unable to really look at our mortality full in the face…
Becker say we can’t face our mortality head, we try to divert from the ourselves from the thought of death in 3 ways…
One way is through romance and sex…
In the face of military defeat and death, we see Belshazzar breaking the rules of their own culture… there are women here vs. 2… and they are encouraging sexual diversions…
It’s interesting that many men, at middle age, when faces mortality…and anxieties about their manhood and sexual attractiveness and prowess, will often have (or try to have) an affair with some exotic woman or divorce the mother of his children, and marry a younger “testimonial wife” as if to say, I may have grey hair, but I am still sexually compelling and virile…
Many seek overcome their sense of being mortal, by seeking a transcendent, spiritual experience through a romantic adventure.
Are we trying to overcome sense of finiteness and mortality, through a real or imagined romantic relationship?
When faced with our mortality, Becker says we may be driven to achieve in an attempt to deny our mortality.
It interesting that though Belshazzar he is far inferior to his predecessor the great King Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar brings out the sacred golden and silver goblets that have been taken as booty from the temple of Jerusalem so guest can drink from them vss 2-3. This sacrilegious act is that not even something that the arrogant King Nebuchadnezzar dared do. Those goblets were holy, set apart worship of God.
Commentators point out the reason that King Belshazzar brings out the Holy Goblets for ordinary drinking use, is to show that he is greater than Nechadnazzar who was not man enough to use them…
When I was a kid there a TV show based on a movie, called Fame… about these dancers in New York and the theme song went Fame I want to live forever…
Whether through dance, the arts, sport, the Olympics, education, business, or ministry some seek to achieve something great that will help us overcome our sense finiteness and mortality.
Becker says the third way we deny our mortality is that we turn to religion…
Here vs. 4 we see Belshazzar and his guests toasting and praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, wood, and stone…
We turn to seek find meaning through religious ritual or some some of “god” or “god substitute to help overcome our fear of finiteness, the fear that we will one day die.
That god may be some overtly religious or spiritual, that god may be a relationship or achievement that as we’ve talked about, it may be some role we play: needing to be needed, it may the way we look, a recreational pursuit, it may be the attaining a certain standard of living…
We may turn to an idol in an attempt to get sense of meaning and deny our mortality…
Are we using any of these means to deny our mortality, relationship, achievement, religion or a god-substitute?
How God guides us to live in the face of our mortality and death?
Let’s pick up the text again.
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. 6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.
(Rembrandt piece?)
The story tells us that during the party the King sees this handwriting on the wall…
And the astrologers and magicians and the wise men are brought in but none can read the scripture.
The Queen mother suggests bringing in a forgotten older man, now about 80, named Daniel. A man who helped the King Belshazzar’s predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar recount and interpret dreams. The Queen says he’s a man of wisdom in whom the Spirit of the gods dwell.
Daniel is brought out…as old, discarded man… perhaps purposely ignored by the King Belshazzar because people would have associate him with a King greater than Belshazzar, King Nebuchadnezzar…
Daniel comes in and his heart must sink as he sees the sacred golden goblet that he hasn’t seen since he was a boy used in temple worship, now being used so that this King and his friends can get drunk…
Daniel interprets the handing writing on the wall…
25 "This is the inscription that was written:
Mene , Mene , Tekel , Parsin
26 "This is what these words mean:
Mene [f] : God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
27 Tekel [g] : You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
28 Peres [h] : Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
As Belshazzar faces military defeat and death God brings his word to him.
One of the ways we are to face our mortality and death is to allow God’s word to speak us…. God’s Word in Scripture…
The word that King Belshazzar gets this very disturbing from God: your days are numbered, you’re lacking, your Kingdom will not last…
God’s Word can disturb us when we are too comfortable
It causes to realize our days are numbered and at some that that we are lacking in some ways.
Painful. But that awareness can lead us to God. Like a doctor who to painful reality who we can become physically well, so God’s can word lead show us a painful reality, so we can become whole.
God’s word can disturb us when we are comfortable and can comfort us when we are disturbed.
God’s word comfort us in our sorrow, like nothing else.
I was a woman young with cancer recently. She said many things have brought her comfort, her husband, her young children, and her friends, but what gave most comfort was the Word of God.
Whether the word of God disturbs us or comforts us the word can humble us.
We’re waiting for King Belshazzar in the face Daniel interpreting the words on the wall, to totally humble himself before God’s but he does not… he shakes, he falls to the ground, but he does not humble himself before God…
And Daniel in the chapter 5 vss. 18 and following contrast Belshazzar to his predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar who humbles himself before God’s in Daniel 4…
King Nebuchadnezzar had been the most powerful person in his world and arguably one the most powerful people of all time… people would die and live at snap of his fingers…
He was builder of the great Babylon and the hanging gardens considered by many as greatest wonder of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
But he was proud and one day as we walking the roof of his palace he surveyed his Kingdom and said, is this not the great Babylon I have built? He assuming his talent and effort has created all the glories of Babylon and he does not acknowledge the fact that God has given all his position and gifts and powers… Nebuchadnezzar claims credit for the great achievements of Babylon. He engages in what Tim Keller calls cosmic plagiarism…
So, God sends his word to him through Daniel and then fulfills by causing the King to lose his mind and live like a wild animal for 7 seasons or years and the King Nebuchadnezzar ends up humbling himself before God and acknowledging God is God and God shows mercy upon and restores him.
God hates pride, pride has traditionally considered the worst of the 7 deadly sins.
God hates it, when in our pride we commit cosmic plagiarism, taking credit for things he has graciously given us, but loves humility and repentance.
We tend to think that the good are in and bad out in so far as God is concerned.
The truth is the proud are out and the humble are in.
If our “goodness” leads us to believe that because we are good, God owes a certain kind of life, we’re out.
And if our sins, leads to realize we’re sinner, and cause humble ourselves before God, our sins can actually work for us…
This Jesus said to the good people, the religious and respected, the tax collectors (tantamount to drug dealers in that culture) and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God head you.
So we face our mortality and death by allowing the word to turn to God and humble us…
But how do we know we’re humbled ourselves before God and repented?
Is it remorse and tears?
Is it some intellectual, theological understanding we are turning away from sin to God?
Likely some of both, the most powerful way we demonstrate we’ve repented is by the way we live.
When King Nebuchadnezzar repents, God calls him to show his repentance in chapter 4 vs. 27 by renouncing your sins and doing what is right and showing kindness to the opressed, the idea in Hebrew can mean showing compassion through alms giving and economic means….
When we humble ourselves before God we realize that all that we have is a gift from God, so it a natural to be to generous, to others, particularly the oppressed and the poor.
If humble ourselves before and we realize that our gifts are from God, we’ll become generous with what we have our financial resources and talents.
If think we our finance our talent resources are our ours, if we give at all we’ll give either sense of resentment or pride, but if realize all we have given by God, our talents, our opportunities ability, we’ll be able to give with a sense of gratitude…
One of the ways we’re humbled ourselves before is that we can give freely and with joy.
If we think all our life as a gift from, we’ll give our lives generous to people as expression of gratitude to God…
Micah 6:8.. says thou has show me on man what is good and what the Lord requires of me to do justly and love mercy and to walk humble… with thy God…they’re all connected…
Walking humbly before God, living justly and mercifully are all connected…
One of ways we know humble is living we give to others, especially the oppressed.
One of the ways we know we’ve humbled ourselves before God is we like the God who gives.
Richard Rohr has said, people who haven’t lived life are most afraid to die.
That’s young why people often fear death most when faced it before its time.
But, it’s also true that those who have live God’s purpose for them fear death…
When turn to God’s word, and humble before and live his call to serve others and then we our time is up… we’ll ready to die and meet our maker and live onto eternity with him.
I may give an altar call or encourage people to pray in the pews:
Perhaps some of us here right now need to humble ourselves before God… some of us need to turn from a specific sin, some us need to “turn from our goodness,” in the sense of relying on our goodness to gain favor with God rather than his sheer mercy, and some of us need to turn from self-hatred… Henri Nouwen said the greatest temptation in the spiritual life is not seeking success or popularity, but self-rejection… because when reject ourselves, we contradict God’s voice that says we are beloved.
The Bible says humble under the mighty and allow him to be one to lift you up…
posted by Shigematsu at 11:08 AM
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