A Tale of Two Kings

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PRAYING TOGETHER:

Consider focusing opening prayer on VCC and/or community needs such as:

• Pray for our faith to endure this COVID challenge, and pray for God to have mercy on our country and state.

• The spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being of the VCC congregation during this time of isolation

• Pray for the upcoming elections, that God would accomplish his sovereign purposes and that God’s name would be glorified, his kingdom come, and his will be done.

REVIEW QUESTION

How would you describe the qualities of Nebuchadnezzar’s demeanor at the end of Daniel 4? To what extent can you see yourself adopting the attitude of Daniel toward the trouble that awaited Nebuchadnezzar?

LEADER STUDY NOTES:

Daniel 5 Background

“In response to Belshazzar’s defiant sacrilege, God pronounces his judgment on the king and has him killed. But the narrator is even more concerned to point out that in judging the king, God judges the Babylonian kingdom ... With his repetition of “the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines,” the narrator underscores that the ruling class was involved in this sacrilege: “... So they brought in the vessels of gold and silver, ... and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (vv. 2-4; cf. v. 23). This broader concern about the Babylonian kingdom is also brought out in God’s judgment. Notice, “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end... Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (vv. 26, 28). In distinction from chapter 4 where God judged and deposed King Nebuchadnezzar while the Babylonian kingdom continued, God’s judgment on the king here results in the collapse of the Babylonian Empire and God’s giving the kingdom to the Medes and Persians.” [Greidanus]

God of Justice & Mercy - Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In this passage Paul describes how only through the gospel can God be “both just AND the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” One writer describes this truth--”justice meets mercy at the cross.” In speaking about God’s judgment of sinners, Heath referenced this passage from the New Testament and poignantly reminded us, “The gavel is held by a nail-pierced hand … a Savior who knows we need everything.” Passages like this one in Romans remind us that God’s justice is enduring from the Old to New Testament and beyond. The major difference is that in the OT everything pointed us towards the need for a Savior as we are reminded of the weight of sin in judgment for our souls, while the NT presents Christ offering himself to bear that weight on our behalf.

What are expiation and propitiation?

“Terms used in Christian theology that directly correlate and define the nature and effect of the atonement in relation to God and believers. The two terms have somewhat different meanings and are sometimes placed in opposition to each other by theologians, though it is also possible to see them as complementary. Expiation speaks of the process by which sins are nullified or covered. Propitiation, taking a personal object, speaks of the appeasement of an offended party—specifically the Christian God—from wrath or anger. Expiation falls under the concept of propitiation. In Scripture it cannot exist without propitiation. Other terms used for propitiation are appeasement and placation.”

• Jeremiah H. Russell, “Expiation, Propitiation,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 533.

Understanding these terms is key to the way we relate to unbelievers especially as we consider the judgment and wrath of God, especially in light of the words in Romans 3:21-26. They reframe the way for us to view the legal nature of judgment (sin is wrongdoing, which has consequences that merit punishment) and the emotional dimension it fills (sin elicits wrath/anger from God). Seeing Jesus’ satisfaction of both to God the Father is nothing short of “amazing grace” to the individual who understands the full weight of their sinfulness.