Psalm 25; Dan.4:19-27; 1 John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30
Initially, Daniel expresses the desire that the dream apply not to the king but to his enemies even though he knew it did not. Afterwards, Daniel had to have been concerned at some level about the king’s reaction to the interpretation. The word was certainly a powerful prophecy against Nebuchadnezzar, that he would lose his mind and act as a beast for a season of time. Nonetheless, Daniel shared the vision and then a word of conviction concerning sin. It is almost inconceivable that anyone would have said to the king, “break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed…” No one spoke in such a way to the king and expected to live. Remember that Nehemiah tells us that he had never been sad in the presence of the king because that would have been a serious breach of etiquette and protocol which could cost your job and possibly your life. Daniel, however, trusts God, just as his friends had done.
Jesus didn’t exactly set out to win popularity contests. In just a few verses here we go from, “all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” to “all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.” He didn’t receive their praise and then seek to please them. When He promised the wonderful things from Isaiah’s prophecy they loved Him but when He questioned their sincerity and reminded them that God used Elijah to do great things for a foreign widow because His people were submitted to Baal worship, they no longer cared for his gracious words. Conviction of sin is never a way to win a crowd to your cause.
God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. John seems to be suggesting that our hearts aren’t completely in the know. We know in our hearts about sin and yet there are some things even our hearts don’t know about our sin. We have fallen and the indwelling of the Spirit remains an incomplete work in us so long as we inhabit this body. John, however, is reassuring us in that God knows more than we do about ourselves and yet we can have confidence before Him if we believe in the Son. We need not fear judgment if we are in Him and the way we know we are in Him is if we keep the commandments. We can have assurance if we see Him being formed in us and living through us. If conviction of sin brings a desire for repentance we can see the Spirit of God working in us, if it makes us angry, perhaps we should ask for more of the Spirit.
We have been crucified with Christ
Now we shall live forever
God has proclaimed the just reward
Life for all men, alleluia!
Come let us praise the living God
Joyfully sing to our Saviour
Alleluia, Alleluia
Give thanks to the risen Lord
Alleluia, alleluia, give praise to His name
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