Wednesday of Lent 4
The Most High Rules the Kingdom of Mankind Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Seeing the writing on the wall, Daniel reminded the new king, King Belshazzar, how Belshazzar’s father Nebuchadnezzar had lost his mind in last week’s chapter: Nebuchadnezzar was fed grass like and ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will. Dear Christian friends: The civil government—that is to say, the government of our state, our nation and the entire world—the civil government is God’s gift for His Christians. The civil government is God’s gift to you. · Of course, it is equally true that all people—including all unbelievers—enjoy a certain amount of safety and stability from God’s gift of government. All people get certain gifts from God the heavenly Father, whether or not they will believe it or thank Him for it. · Still, you Christians get to enjoy the government in a manner that no unbeliever can even touch. You have been given the gift of *knowing* the government is a gift from God. God has allowed you to know that, no matter what shenanigans the government might pull, God the Father remains greater than the government. As Daniel said to Belshazzar: “*The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will*.” “*The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will*.” God has written immense gifts into these Words for you! · First, think of the security of your salvation, which God has given you in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The civil government is not able to give you forgiveness of sins, or eternal life, or a resurrected body. The government has no power and no authority to give such things. Why is that important? Because the civil government cannot take away things that it has no power to give. “*The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will*.” You have the forgiveness of sins and that forgiveness will not change, no matter who gets elected president or named a judge. · What if a disastrous person manages elected president, or a dingbat gets seated in the Supreme Court? We Christians have nothing to fear, even if such a person should immediately set to work dismantling our nation. God establishes some governments for our blessing. He sets up other governments as a call to repentance. Either way, “*the Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will*.” That means no one ever shakes the collar or escapes the leash. Belshazzar made a mockery of the things of God, commanding the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Such mockery of God only seemed like a good idea at the time. As you heard from the reading, God managed to change Belshazzar’s mind. Before that, Belshazzar’s father Nebuchadnezzar had sentenced Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to the furnace because they refused to participate in idolatry. Look at that! “*I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the four is like a son of the gods*” (Daniel 3:25). Next week, Daniel will face the lions’ den because he dared to practice the faith and let others know about it. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego all considered it better to risk the loss of their bodies, rather than the loss of their faith and salvation. In each case, the Lord Most High drew a line that no ruler was able to cross. These things were written for our comfort. Supreme Court nominations have grown into circuses and elections might compare to freak shows. But the eternal Word will not change: “*The Most High rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom He will*.”
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