Jehovah is Gracious
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
8/21/2011 PM
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Text:
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Daniel 1:1-3
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Psalters: |
375, 379, 122, 354 |
Sacrament of Baptism |
- The difficult setting.
- It was a time of divine indignation (8:19) expressed on the disobedient church of God.
- Despite many warnings, Judah as a whole continued to rebel and doing evil in God s sight.
- God warned also by having the Babylonians comes once (when the princes taken, Isa. 39) and again.
- Even the faithful wondered if God s promises would fail.
- The faithful were stunned by the sinfulness of the nation and what they together deserved.
- While they were desperate to know whether God would deliberately forget His promises.
- Nebuchadnezzar took princes (sons and nephews of the royal family of David) in the first captivity.
- Nebechadnezzar s desire was to give them such a life that they would forget the nation of their birth.
- The answer of faith.
- Jeremiah assured them that God s relationship with them (covenant) was everlasting (Jer. 32:37-42)!
- The parents of these four young princes (likely 14 - 17 years old) had faith in Jehovah.
- The names their parents gave their sons indicate the faith of their fathers.
- Together their names signify parents who confess their faith in God as the God of their salvation.
- These four men kept their names in spite of Nebuchadnezzar changing them.
- These names are the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Old Dispensational church had it.
- God gathered these four men together in Babylon so their names would proclaim the gospel to the captives.