Nebachudnezzar

Let's jump right in here and state the whole premise of this entry:  The Word of God must correct us as much as it encourages us.  Let me state that again:  God's Word contained in the pages of Scripture must correct us at least as much as we take encouragement from it.  And honestly, the fundamental problem with today's Christian church is that it fails to either see this or put it to practice. If God's Word (and the church's proclamation of it) fails to bring about that correction and amendment of our ways at all, then we've done nothing more than resort to the "I'm OK/You're OK" mentality of feel-good religion.  

Our 6 AM Wednesday Men's Bible Study is currently studying the book of Daniel.  Daniel is a fascinating book, and I will admit it is one that, until we began regular "Bible in 90 Days" campaigns each year, I often ignored it.  But over the last 3 years, being "forced" to read it while reading the entire Bible through, I came to have a profound respect and admiration for what it teaches.

Now I'm not going to get into any of the so-called "historical-critical" thinking on Daniel.  There is no point in discussing progressive views on it as far as date, authorship, reality-vs-symbolism and the like.  Suffice to say it is enough to take the book at face value, and especially to look at one of it's primary characters: King Nebachudnezzar of the Babylonian Empire.  Nebachudnezzar on multiple occasions acknowledges the sovereignty of the God of Israel, and yet it doesn't seem to cause any real amendment in his life or behaviors.  In other words, he pays lip service to God, but it ends there.  There is no change, no correction, and no amendment to his life based on the multiple encounters he has with God:  The telling AND interpretation of his dream (chapter 2), the fiery furnace (chapter 3), the restoration of Nebachudnezzar's sanity (chapter 4), all end with this lip service being paid, and yet life continues on unchecked and unbridled for him.  No correction to his life occurs.  In fact just the opposite:  that we have these 3 encounters in a row demonstrates that for Nebachudnezzar to acknowledge the sovereignty of God time and again shows that is all it is: lip service and nothing more.  There was no subservience on his part.  In fact with the fiery furnace, he has set himself up as a god, even after acknowledging the power of the God of Israel from the dream of chapter 2.

Israel's problem was the same:  throughout the Old Testament, they were great at paying lip service to God, but what got them into trouble was that it meant nothing more in the end.  They continued to set up other gods and idols - all of whom made salvation dependent on human action, much the way every other religion on the face of the earth today makes individual salvation dependent on our ratio of goodness to bad-ness.  Christianity is the only one that leaves the business of saving up to God in the end, simply because we can never be good enough to save ourselves.  That said, it doesn't let us off the hook in seeking to "be better."  The universal call, like to Nebachudnezzar, is to be corrected by the Word of God as much as we take encouragement from it.

This failure at amendment of life permeates our society as well.  The complete lack of common sense and morality today (either intentional or through complete ignorance) is at the core of the increasing lawlessness seen, either through the looting, destruction, and murder in the aftermath of police shootings, or through politicians who skirt above the law with their lies and deception.

If the church wishes to be relevant from here on, it is beyond time to start emphasizing the corrective aspect of the Scriptures once again.  Mega church models and the Joel Osteen mentality of feel good Christianity can only take us so far.  If we go no further, we run off the rails.   This is the proper balance of Law and Gospel.  It was, after all, not all that long ago that the church's confession and absolution contained within it that we were also given "time for the amendment of life."  I've got a long way to go in that process.  As do we all.  So let's get busy.