Living in an Alien Culture: Daniel 4

Living in an Alien Culture

Daniel 4

·     Some Summary Thoughts on Daniel 1-3

o   Public faith and theology—not merely a privatized faith

"Daniel's story is one of extraordinary faith in God lived out at the pinnacle of executive power in the full glare of public life.  It relates pivotal events in the lives of four friends--Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah--who were born in the tiny state of Judah in the Middle East around two-and-a-half thousand years ago.  As young members of the nobility, probably still teenagers, they were taken captive by the empereor Nebuchadnezzar and transported to his capital city Babylon in order to be trained in Babylonian administration.  Daniel tells us how they eventually rose to the top echelons of power not only in the world empire of Babylon but also in the Medo-Persian empire that succeeded it....

"What makes the story of their faith remarkable is that they did not simply continue the private devotion to God that they had developed in their homeland; they maintained a high-profile public witness in a pluralistic society that became increasingly antagonistic to their faith. That is why their story has such a powerful message for us today.  Strong currents of pluralism and secularism in contemporary Western society, reinforced by a paralysing political correctness, increasingly push expression of faith in God to the margins, confining it if possible to the private sphere.  It is becoming less and less the done thing to mention God in public, let alone to confess to believing in anything exclusive and absolute, such as the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Saviour.  Society tolerates the practice of the Christian faith in private devotions and in church services, but it increasingly deprecates public witness.  To the relativist and secularist, public witness to faith in God smacks too much of proselytizing and fundamentalist extremism.  They therefore regard it more and more as a threat to social stability and human freedom.

"The story of Daniel and his friends is a clarion call to our generation to be courageous; not to lose our nerve and allow the expression of our faith to be diluted and squeezed out of the public space and thus rendered spineless and ineffective. Their story will also tell us that this objective is not likely to be achieved without cost."[1]

o   Bringing value to an alien culture andchallenging idolatry 

o   Creative resistance for the honor of God

o   Focus, Dependence, and Worship in regards to the Sovereignty of God

o   Both daily faithfulness over years andmoments of public confrontation and manifestation of God’s power

o   Prayer: a great view of God should lead to great, empire-shaking prayers

Daniel 4

·     Sovereignty of God

o   Book-ends the chapter: vv 1-3 and vv 34-37

o   Deep theology expressed by a pagan ruler

o   “Nothing is more important, especially at this point in the history of theology, than for God’s people to be firmly convinced that Scripture teaches God’s universal control over the world, and teaches it over and over again.”[2]

·     v. 8: “… Belteshazzar according to the name of my God…”

o   “Nebuchadnezzar’s polytheism is still not far from the surface.  He is a man on a journey: still confused, but wishing nevertheless to testify to what Daniel’s God has done for him.”[3]

·     Imagery of the tree: vv. 10-12, 20-22

o   Imagery of kingdom 

§ See also: Ezekiel 17.22-24; Matthew 13.31-32

·     God’s action against Nebuchadnezzar: to humble and instruct him

o   v. 17: “… in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.”

§ “in order that” speaks of purpose; the reason why God does this

§ “know” speaks of knowledge; God wants to impart an accurate knowledge of himself and reality

§ “ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes”

·     God is powerful

·     God is active in human history (not Deism!)

§ “the lowliest of men”—even the greatest of rulers are considered lowly in light of God!

·     Isaiah 40.23-24  ²³He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.  ²⁴Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble.

·     v. 19—Daniel is disturbed; not rejoicing at the news of Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment 

o   “The dynamic between Daniel and the king is a remarkable one, considering that this is the king who destroyed Jerusalem, but God’s prophet shows concern for the well-being of the king, not vindictiveness.”[4]

o   Q: Why does Daniel respond this way?    

·     Judgment pronounced on Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 23-25, 32-33)

o   Becomes like an animal—not fit to rule (cf. Genesis 1.26-28; Psalm 8.5-8)

§ Something distinctive about humanity in comparison to animals[5]

§ Some comments from Wesley Smith’s book A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement (New York: Encounter, 2010).  

1.     “…the term ‘animal rights’ actually denotes a belief system, an ideology, even a quasi religion, which both implicitly and explicitly seeks to create a moral equivalence between the value of human lives and those of animals.” (p. 3)

2.     Ingrid Newkirk (the head of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA) in 1986: “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.  They are all mammals.” (p. 3)

3.     Alex Pacheco (cofounder with Newkirk of PETA): “The time will come when we will look upon the murder of animals as we now look on the murder of men.” (p. 36)

                  

4.     Peter Singer in his 1976 book Animal Liberation speaks of “speciesism” as: “a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species.” (p. 19)

5.     “To avoid speciesism we must allow that beings who are similar in all relevant respects have a similar right to life—and mere membership in our own biological species cannot be a morally relevant criterion for this right…. We may legitimately hold that there are some features of certain beings that make their lives more valuable than those of other beings; but there will surely be some nonhuman animals, whose lives, by any standards, are more valuable than the lives of some humans.  A chimpanzee, dog, or pig, for instance, will have a higher degree of self-awareness and a greater capacity for meaningful relations with others than a severely retarded infant or someone in a state of senility.  So, if we base the right to life on these characteristics we must grant these animals a right to life as good as, or better than, such retarded or senile human beings.”  Peter Singer (p. 27)

6.     R. G. Frey (bioethicist at Bowling Green University):

“I know of nothing that cedes human life of any quality, however low, greater value than animal life of any quality, however high.  If, therefore, we are going to justify medical/scientific uses of animals by appeal to the value of their lives, we open up directly the possibility of our having to envisage the use of humans of lower quality of life in preference to animals of higher quality of life.” (p. 29)

“If ... not all human life has the same value, then the possibility arises that the quality of life of a perfectly healthy baboon can exceed that of a human.  So, if one is going to appeal to human benefit to justify animal research, and if the benefit in this case can be realized either through experimenting on the baboon or the human, then why use the baboon in preference to the human?  A quality-of-life view of the value of a life gives a consistent answer over taking a life and saving a life; so, if either the baboon or the human has to be used in order to realize the benefit, the human must, all other things being equal, be used.  Clearly, my view on the value of life is not speciesist.” (p. 30)

7.     “[I]n 1991, David Larson, the co-director of the Center for Christian Ethics at Loma Linda University, suggested taking the hearts of disabled children to keep monkeys alive.  Asked about the ethics of the Baby Fae case, the first human to receive a heart transplant from a baboon, Larson replied, ‘If a primate’s capability was higher than that of the human—say a severely mentally handicapped child—I think it would be appropriate to support the opposite approach of a Baby Fae, a transplant from a child to save the life of a healthy baboon or chimpanzee.’”  (p. 30)

o   New Testament: 2 Peter 2.12, 16, 22; Jude 10

·     v. 27—Daniel’s counsel to Nebuchadnezzar in light of the coming judgment

o   Break away from sins and iniquities (negative)

o   Do righteousness and show mercy to the poor (positive) 

o   Issue of pride

§ Daniel 4

·     v. 26—“after you recognize that it is heaven that rules”

·     v. 30—“Is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”

·     v. 37—“… and he (God) is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

§ Nations and national leaders

·     Obadiah 2-4

·     Acts 12.20-23

o   v. 23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

§ Individual life

·     1 Peter 5.5 (quoting Proverbs 3.34)

·     James 4.6 (quoting Proverbs 3.34)

·     1 Corinthians 4.7

·     vv. 34-37

o   “my reason returned to me” (vv. 34, 36)

§ Living with the grain of God’s reality: Proverbs 1.7; 9.10; 21.30; 28.4-5

§ Living against God and his reality brings intellectual darkness: Romans 1.21-25; Ephesians 4.17-19

o   Sovereignty of God

§ Q: How does the sovereignty of God affect our view of our nation and its political rulers?

§ Q: How does the sovereignty of God affect our prayer lives?  Does it dampen it or enflame it with passion?

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     [1]John C. Lennox, Against the Flow: The Inspiration of Daniel in an Age of Relativism(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Monarch Books, 2015), 1-2—emphasis added.  Also see my essay “Courts and the Cause of Christ: Why Christians Need to Care”—online: https://www.academia.edu/37984947/Courts_and_the_Cause_of_Christ_Why_Christians_Need_to_Care.

          [2]John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God(Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2002), 76.  For a listing out of some of the biblical material on the sovereignty of God see my blog post “God’s Comprehensive Control” White Rose Review(December 8, 2015)—online: https://whiterosereview.blogspot.com/2015/12/gods-comprehensive-control.html.

     [3]John C. Lennox, Against the Flow: The Inspiration of Daniel in an Age of Relativism(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Monarch Books, 2015), 154.

     [4]Tremper Longman III, Daniel—NIVAC (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1999), 120.

     [5]See my blog post “Animal Rights: Some Quotations and Resources” White Rose Review(January 7, 2014)—online: https://whiterosereview.blogspot.com/2014/01/animal-rights-some-quotations-and.html.

On the Benediction: Reflections on 2 Corinthians 13.14

* One of the occasional meditations I write for our church bulletin...

Sometimes it is good to start at the end.  At the end of our worship service there is a “benediction.”  A benediction is simply a prayerful blessing.  As the service is ended and we are about to go out into the rest of life we receive this prayerful blessing.  I have grown to love and use the words of 2 Corinthians 13.14—“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”  Here a few things I love about this passage:

It is Trinitarian—all the members of the Trinity are mentioned.  This reminds me that no aspect of God is withheld from blessing his people.  God in the fullness of who he is blesses his people.  There is no competition or disagreement in the Godhead.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all committed to the gospel grace of his people.

It is focused on gospel grace.  The blessing speaks of grace, love, and fellowship—all of this flowing from God to us!  We are a people of the gospel and these gospel realities are not just for the beginning of the Christian life.  They are needed to live the Christian life—everyday and always!  This blessing is one way we keep the gospel central in our lives and in the life of our church.

May I suggest a simple way to receive this benediction?  Whenever I am on the receiving end of the benediction from a minister I simply extend my hands outward in a posture of receiving a gift.  As the words are spoken I receive the words, often silently saying “thank you” to God.  In this way I affirm the gospel and receive it afresh.

I have grown to love this benediction.  It is short but powerful.  It can be spoken in a few seconds but the truths are majestic enough to meditate upon for a lifetime.  Grace, love, and fellowship from the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit—blessings indeed!

Bodily Postures in the Worship Service

The following is an essay I wrote over a year ago regarding the use of our bodies in worship.  I publish it here now mainly for its scriptural data on bodily posture in worship.

Why Do We Do What We Do? –Raising Hands and Kneeling

All throughout our worship service we are doing things with our bodies.  We use our ears to hear, our tongues and mouths to sing and speak, our eyes to see, our hands to pass the bread and wine, our feet to stand, etc.  Included in this list is also the use of our legs to kneel in prayer and the use of our hands as we lift them up in a raised position to sing.  I wanted to address again why we do these things in the worship service so that we can better understand the reasons we engage in worship the way that we do.

The Body: Matter Matters!

God created the world of material things and he likes it!  We have a body created by God in which to glorify him.  We need to remember that what we do with our bodies is a reflection of our souls.  C. S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters has the senior devil Screwtape instructing the junior tempter Wormwood in the way of subverting the faith of a Christian.  Everything in the book is topsy-turvy (for example, the Enemy is God himself, as seen from the demonic perspective) but Lewis is a master at exposing the subtle movements of sin.  In discussing prayer Screwtape encourages Wormword with the following words:

One of their poets, Coleridge, has recorded that he did not pray “with moving lips and bended knees” but merely “composed his spirit to love” and indulged “ a sense of supplication.”  That is exactly the sort of prayer we want; and since it bears a superficial resemblance to the prayer of silence as practiced by those who are very far advanced in the Enemy’s service, a clever and lazy patient can be taken in by it for quite a long time.  At the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls.[1]

We are not mere minds or disembodied spirits.  We are embodied souls whose bodies are meant to be the vehicles through which and in which God’s glory and kingdom is manifest.  When we bow our knees before God we are acknowledging with our whole being—body and soul—that we are in the presence of our sovereign God.  When we lift our hands our entire being—heart and body—is lifted up to God. 

What About the Heart?

Jesus very clearly taught (and he got this from the Scriptures) that it is possible to draw near to God with one’s tongue (words) but have one’s heart captive to another love.  Jesus said:

Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me.”  Mark 7.6[2]

So it is possible to bow the knees and raise the hands in a worship service and yet have one’s heart a million miles away.  The heart is central.  We live out of our heart and we should watch over our heart with all diligence so as to keep an eye on its loves and interests (Proverbs 4.23).  But just because the heart is central is no reason to despise the body.  Our bodily movements—whether lips, knees, or hands—should reflect our hearts.  Our bodily movements in worship should all be aligned with our hearts.  Consider these words from Lamentations 3.41:

            We lift up our heart and hands toward God in heaven.

This is where I draw the language that I often use in preface to the Doxology when I say, “Let us lift our heart and hands toward God in heaven as we sing.”  Notice, both heart and hands are to be lifted up.  Both together are used to seek the Lord. 

Kneeling in the Bible

Throughout the Bible we see example after example of people kneeling in the presence of God as they are in prayer.

Ezra            But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God.  (Ezra 9.5)[3]

Solomon            When Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward heaven.  (1 Kings 8.54)

All Israel            All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and glory of the LORD upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave praise to the LORD, saying, “Truly he is good, truly his lovingkindness is everlasting.”  (2 Chronicles 7.3)

Hezekiah            Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshipped.  (2 Chronicles 29.29)

Daniel            Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.  (Daniel 6.10)

Stephen            Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”  Having said this, he fell asleep.  (Acts 7.60)

Peter            But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.”  And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.  (Acts 9.40)

Paul            For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, … (Ephesians 3.14)[4]

Jesus            And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, …  (Luke 22.41)

When the end of all things has come there will come the time when all peoples will bow their knees before King Jesus.  Paul’s powerful words speak of this time:

For this reason also, God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  (Philippians 2.9-11)[5]

In reflecting on these words from Philippians 2, Ronald Allen and Gordon Borror accurately state:

In these words the biblical end of mankind is stated: the goal of the incarnation is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father.  And the end of man in this regard is public confession on bended knee.

You see, the question really is not “Shall we kneel or not in our worship of God and of His Christ?”  We shall one day all kneel.  The question is, rather, “Shall we who will kneel in the future, kneel now as well?”[6]

Kneeling is a God-ordained means of expressing our devotion and allegiance to our great God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  Kneeling expresses with our bodies the deepest longings of our heart—at least it should.  In our act of kneeling we are attempting to say, “the totality of who I am belongs to you, O God, and I am in glad subjection to you.”  So it is good and right that we would express ourselves in kneeling in our corporate worship service. 

Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.  For

 he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. 

Psalm 95.6-7a

Raising Hands in the Bible

The raising of hands before the Lord is often mentioned in Scripture.  In the above passages the raising of hands was done with kneeling (Nehemiah 8.6; Ezra 9.5; 1 Kings 8.54).  Also, Lamentations 3.41 was quoted (“We lift up our heart and hands toward God in heaven.”) in which the raising of hands was mentioned.  The Psalms are full of the raising of hands to the Lord:

            So I will bless you as long I live; I will lift up my hands in your name.  Psalm 63.4

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; in the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; my soul refused to be comforted.  Psalm 77.2

My eye has wasted away because of affliction; I have called upon you every day, O LORD; I have spread out my hands to you.  Psalm 88.9

Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD.  Psalm 134.2

May my prayer be counted as incense before you; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.  Psalm 141.2

I stretched out my hands to you; my soul longs for you, as a parched land.  Psalm 143.6

In the New Testament 1 Timothy 2.8 states:

Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Here there is the recognition of the common posture in prayer—the lifting of hands—with a call for holiness in action and motive.  John Calvin, in commenting on Psalm 134.2, states the matter well:

For why do men lift their hands when they pray?  Is it not that their hearts may be raised at the same time to God?

The raising of hands is not merely expressive of our heart but the action of raising our hands can help lead our heart into the appropriate responses to God.  This function is at work not only in prayer but also in the midst of song.  John Frame in his book Worship in Spirit and Truth speaks of how

[L]ifting the hands is a way of drawing toward God as the object of worship and the source of our blessing.[7]

In the act of raising our hands we are reaching out to our Father in heaven (Matthew 6.9).  We recognize and demonstrate with our very bodies that our Father is above us and we are like dependent children before him (Psalm 103.13).

Do I have to?  What if I don’t want to?

Let’s face the truth…there are times we don’t want to raise our hands or kneel before God.  What should we do then?  First, we need to be reminded of the biblical material on these bodily postures in worship.  Sometimes people think that it “feels weird” to lift their hands.  God’s word needs to be our standard of normalcy.  We saw that everyone from every place and age will kneel before Jesus someday.  This is good and “normal” to do now.

Sometimes people struggle with the idea of “having to” raise their hands or kneel even when they don’t feel like it.  “Perhaps,” they reason, “I should only do these activities if my heart is fully in it or else I’m just a hypocrite.”  Eugene Peterson has some profound thoughts in this regard:

We are invited to bless the Lord; we are commanded to bless the Lord.  And then someone says, “But I don’t feel like it.  And I won’t be a hypocrite.  I can’t bless the Lord if I don’t feel like blessing the Lord.  It wouldn’t be honest.”

The biblical response to that is, “Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the LORD!” [Psalm 134.2]  You can lift up your hands regardless of how you feel; it is a simple motor movement.  You may not be able to command your heart, but you can command your arms.  Lift your arms in blessing, just maybe your heart will get the message and be lifted up also in praise.  We are psychosomatic beings; body and spirit are intricately interrelated.  Go through the motions of blessing God and your spirit will pick up the cue and follow along.[8]

So sometimes our heart will lead the way and we will express ourselves bodily.  Other times our hearts will lag behind and engaging our bodies in biblically prescribed ways will lift our heart to where it needs to be. 

For others the issue of not wanting to raise hands or kneel has to do with associations—raising hands seems “too charismatic” or kneeling feels “too Roman Catholic.”  In this regard Sam Storms has often mentioned that those evangelicals who hold seriously to the Bible often have an “eleventh commandment”:

            Thou shalt not do at all what others do poorly.

For various reasons these postures of raised hands and kneeling have become attached to these other traditions.  In seeking to distance ourselves from the perceived errors of these traditions we can erroneously throw out biblical practices.  That is why we stated with the biblical material on raising hands and kneeling.  If we are people committed to the Scriptures as our infallible rule of faith and practice then we must be willing to orient our practice around the word of God.  If other traditions have pursued these things in a less than ideal manner this is no excuse for us to fail to seek bring our practice into accordance with God’s word.

Form and Freedom

In our service we have implemented the corporate kneeling and the raising of hands at various spots.  When we engage the Confession of Sin we invite those who are able to kneel.  We recognize that for some there is a bodily limitation that makes it difficult to kneel (or stand back up!).  For those who cannot kneel they should feel no guilt or pressure.  God does indeed know your heart and the “bowing of heart” is what is central.  For the raising of the hands we have come to do this as an entire congregation for our singing of the Doxology after the Lord’s Table and for the second verse of the Gloria Patri to close the service.  You will also notice that some individuals raise their hands in other parts of the service.  For example, some raise their hands for the first verse of the Gloria Patri and others will raise their palms upward in a posture of “receiving” the Benediction.  Some people raise their hands in the midst of singing any of our other songs in the service.  This brings us to the issues of Form and Freedom.  By “form” we mean structure—the corporate time of raising hands.  By “freedom” we mean the freedom of the individual to raise hands as they desire.  We want to provide opportunity for both aspects—both form and freedom. 

As is often the case, there is always a tension between form and freedom.  There are those who like form—they like the corporate expression of raising hands.  For others this form seems stilted.  They feel that the raising of hands should be done only when the individual is personally moved to do so.  We value the form because it allows us to participate together in this biblical practice.  On the other hand, there are those feel that the freedom aspect isn’t quite right.  They tend to think that those who engage this way are “too individualistic.”  Sometimes a bit of judgmentalism is thrown in: “I think they’re just trying to draw attention to themselves!”  Again, we want to provide the opportunity for both form and freedom—especially in regards to the raising of hands in worship.  We would hope all would participate in the set congregational times of hand raising to our God.  We hope, as well, that we create an atmosphere of freedom so that those who wish to raise their hands as they feel led can do so in a worshipful manner.

The Sum of the Matter…

Our great God is seeking worshippers to worship him in Spirit and truth (John 4.23).  We are seeking to respond to him with our whole heart and our bodies.  The Lord has given us instruction in his Word—both by precept and example—of how to use our bodies in worshipful response to him.  Kneeling before our great God and raising our hands to our heavenly Father are good and appropriate acts of worship.  Let our focus be on him—the one to whom all our love and allegiance is due.

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[1] C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters (Macmillian, 1976), pp. 33-34.

[2] Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 29.13.

[3] See also Nehemiah 8.6.

[4] See also Acts 20.36 (“he knelt down and prayed with them all”) and 21.5 (“After kneeling down on the beach and praying…”) where Paul kneels with various churches as he says farewell to them on his journey.

[5] Paul is very clearly here quoting a portion of Isaiah 45.23 which in its original context refers to Yahweh. 

[6] Ronald Allen and Gordon Borror Worship: Rediscovering the Missing Jewel (Multnomah, 1982), p. 129.  Allen and Borror’s chapter eleven (“The Body of the Believer in Worship”) is very good at showing the scriptural teaching on the issues of kneeling and raising hands in worship.

[7] John Frame Worship in Spirit and Truth (P&R, 1996), p. 131.

[8] Quoted in Ronald Allen and Gordon Borror Worship: Rediscovering the Missing Jewel (Multnomah, 1982), p. 132.