The Vengeance of God

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. In the name of Jesus, hear the words of the prophet

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Isaiah again from our Old Testament reading. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, behold your

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God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God and he will come to save you.

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I don't know if any of you have been watching the Supreme Court hearings and what somebody has described as performance wokeness, the protests going on outside the

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Congress as a result of the hearings for the new Supreme Court justice nominee. And have any of you considered literally that people in their protests are lauding and glorifying sin, demanding that sin be protected and acknowledged and that if some of these people who are doing this performance wokeness got into power just how difficult it would be for us

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Christians. I think back to Nazi occupied Europe.

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That wasn't any fun for anybody who was living in occupied Europe. The Jews were gathered up, put into gas chambers and murdered in the different concentration camps and those, even though they were not

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Jews, living under the oppression of the Nazis, would find themselves randomly arrested, tortured, beaten, maimed, killed.

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It was just loads of fun if you think about it. And then not to mention all of the men that we had to send in order to free

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Europe from the oppression of the Nazis and the men who came back with physical wounds, emotional, psychological wounds.

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I don't know if you've noticed but this world seems to do a very good job of breaking people and leaving them broken.

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And then of course we all die. But we must understand this, that all of this that I'm describing, these are manifestations of the actual state that we find ourselves in.

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We are in satanically occupied earth. The despot of the ages rules the hearts and minds of humanity.

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And each and every one of us, we were born dead in trespasses and sins.

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And I love what James wrote in his epistle that so strongly reminds us that anybody who has broken even one of the commandments, whoever fails to keep the whole law but fails even in one point, has become accountable and guilty for all of it.

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And so this world we live in is full of anxiety. The world we live in is full of pain, bitterness, brokenness.

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And of course I keep reminding you all that we all together seem to be aging at the same rate.

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Yeah, that was fun. I got to see a friend of mine this week who commented, Pastor Rose, bro, there's a lot of gray in your beard.

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Well, yeah, you know, I'm heading towards the grave, you know, it's coming up, it's in the front view at this point.

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It's a way off, I think, I hope, but it's coming, you know, it's coming for all of us.

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And so Isaiah says, say to those who have an anxious heart, and think about this, think about all the anxiety that we experience as a result of our own sin, our own ailments, our own problems, our own psychological shortcomings, our own just name it.

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And of course we cry out, Lord, save us. And the prophet Isaiah comforts us with these words, say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong.

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Fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, he will come to save you.

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I'd like to take a look at two examples of the vengeance of God. One we kind of will get, but the other comes out of left field, the gospel left field, if you would.

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But let's first take a look at a story that never really makes a good appearance in the three -year lectionary, and that's

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Daniel chapter 6, the story of Daniel and the lion's den. Keep in mind that Daniel was a fellow who was forced to live in Babylon against his will.

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Nebuchadnezzar came and sacked Jerusalem, plundered Judea. 90 % of everybody who was alive in Judea died in that campaign.

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Only a remnant survived, and then they were forced to go and live in Babylon under pagan rule.

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And in the time of Daniel, Daniel who was a prophet and one of the men who wrote scripture, he literally did his work under multiple kings, one of them

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Nebuchadnezzar, and in this one, the Persian king Darius, one of the successors of Nebuchadnezzar.

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And this story is just so wonderful in so many ways, and Daniel gets to play type and shadow of Christ, but also gives us a little bit of an understanding of how we are to conduct ourselves in the midst of the anxiety of the persecutions and sufferings that we suffer as a result of living in a satanically occupied earth.

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We ourselves are in exile right now, sojourning, heading back towards the promised land, if you would.

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But Daniel 6, it says this starting at verse 1, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom.

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Now I'm not exactly sure what a satrap is or what today's equivalent would be. I don't know if they're mayors or governors or provincial rulers.

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I'm not exactly sure how that all works out. Over them, though, were three high officials, of whom

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Daniel was one, in whom these satraps would give an account so that the king might suffer no loss.

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So you can kind of see the pecking order. It's the king, these three fellows, one of which is Daniel, and then underneath them all of these satraps.

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This is how the Persian Empire is governed. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and the satraps, because in excellent spirit was in him.

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Remember, he's a prophet, so that excellent spirit clearly is the Holy Spirit working repentance and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance and the fruit of the

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Spirit in Daniel. So good spirit was found in him and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.

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I don't know if you've noticed this about the corporate world and the political world. There is so much rivalry, so much ambition, so much desire and seeking for power, that when somebody else is succeeding and you're not, jealousy has a way of rearing its head.

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Covetousness is always the door, the gateway into murder, if you would.

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Coveting somebody else's success, coveting their power, coveting their money, their car, name it.

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And so these fellows are jealous beyond all reason. Who is this foreigner?

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He's not even one of us. And Darius is gonna make him the head of us all?

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You've got to be kidding me. And so unregenerate pagan sinners under the dominion of darkness, doing what they do, they concoct a plan.

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It's a wonderful plan. It's flawless, if you think about it, at least on the surface.

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And so the king planned to set him over the whole king and the high officials and the satraps. They then sought a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful.

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No error or fault was found in him. What are we gonna do? This guy is like living out the

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Ten Commandments. So then these men said, well, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this

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Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. So then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him,

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Oh Darius, may you live forever. So note here, satraps show up, two of the three rulers show up.

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Guess who wasn't invited to the meeting? Yeah, nothing ever good comes of these types of meetings, if you would.

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And now they're going to play to Darius' ego. Remember back in sixth grade when you had to learn about the

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Fertile Crescent? You know, back in the ancient world, in the Fertile Crescent, kings were considered living deities on earth.

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That's the same with Pharaoh and Darius. And so Darius is considered to be a god king.

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And so they're gonna play into his idolatrous ego here, and they're gonna butter him up, and he's gonna fall for this like you wouldn't believe, which means he's guilty and culpable just as much as they are.

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And so they say, Oh King Darius, may you live forever. And all the high officials of the kingdoms and the prefects and the satraps and the councils and the governors, there are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for the next 30 days, except for to you,

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O King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Does anyone see a problem with this here?

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I mean, Darius is a miserable king, by the way. I mean, miserable god. Think of it this way. I mean, do you think he could possibly hear any of these prayers?

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Right? No, of course not. He's a creature. He's a man. He dies like men.

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He cannot hear prayers, but he bites on this. He goes for it. So now,

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O King, establish the injunction. Sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the

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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius, sign the document and the injunction.

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I mean, it's only for the next 30 days. What can possibly go wrong? And plus, after all, Darius thinks he's a great king, you know.

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But little did he know that this whole thing was a murderous plot.

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He fell for it with his own sin perfectly. So what do you do in a situation like this?

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Well, watch what Daniel does. So when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went up to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber, opened toward Jerusalem, and he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his

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God as he has done previously. Daniel didn't even close his windows.

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He continued on the way he had continued on because he knows perfectly well that no king can force him to pray to him, that he will pray only to the true and living

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God, and he made no effort whatsoever to hide it.

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And you'll notice that there's no anxiety here. He knows perfectly well this could result in his death, and rather than cower, rather than be anxious, rather than bring his hands and go, oh no, what am

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I gonna do? He just basically throws open the windows and he prays to God just like he had always done.

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So then these men, of course, they came by agreement and they found Daniel making petition and plea before his

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God, and then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, and watch this question, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any

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God or man within the next 30 days except for to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?

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And the king answered and said, well the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.

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And then they answered and said before the king, well Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, he pays no attention to you,

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O king, or the injunction that you have signed, but he makes his petition three times a day.

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And note something here, that unlike Nebuchadnezzar, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bend the knee to the golden idol,

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Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind, went into a towering rage. Darius here now sees the trap sprung and he realizes his own guilt in this plot and he doesn't want to have anything to do with it.

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And he says, then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and he set his mind to deliver

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Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.

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And then the men came by agreement to the king and they said to the king, no, O king, that it is a law of the

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Medes and the Persians that no injunction and ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.

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Heartless, ruthless is the sinful nature, seeking its own at the expense of its neighbor.

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Thou shalt not kill is clearly not in play. Murder is got to be done here.

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And you're going to note now that now comes the parallel between Daniel and Christ. Daniel, who was blameless before Darius, blameless before these men, has done nothing deserving of death.

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What they're doing is an injustice and they know it full well. But just like Daniel was schemed against and plotted against and murdered or attempted to be murdered in this particular case, so was

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Christ, the truly spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Nothing that Jesus ever did required him to offer a sacrifice in the temple for his sin.

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He never sinned against God in thought, word, or deed by anything that he had done or left undone.

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As we heard at the end of our gospel text, Jesus has done everything well and done it well for us.

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And so now Daniel and Jesus kind of come together for just a little bit in type and shadow.

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And it says this, the king commanded that Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.

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And so note, Pilate also tried to keep Jesus from being killed and he was unsuccessful. Darius was unsuccessful in keeping

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Daniel from being thrown into the lion's den. So then the king commanded Daniel was brought, cast into the den of lions, and it should at this point read, and thus perished

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Daniel. Usually human beings in a lion's den, especially during feeding time, doesn't usually end up well for the human being.

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And then pay attention to these details and ask yourself if this sounds a lot like Jesus' tomb, because that's the point.

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So the king declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually deliver you. And then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet, with the signet of his

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Lord's, and that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. You see, when Christ was laid into the tomb, they rolled a stone over it and the

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Roman guards, they sealed the tomb with the imperial signet, basically saying no touchy, right, so that nobody would steal the body.

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And you can see the type and shadow working perfectly here. And then the king went to his palace and he spent the night fasting.

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Fasting is a repentance practice. Notice that Darius now is repenting before God for his own culpability in this plan.

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He is not guiltless and he is fasting. No diversions were brought to him. Sleep fled from him.

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And then at daybreak, the king arose and went in haste to the den of the lions. And he came near to the den where Daniel was.

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And what a strange thing he does next. He cried out in a tone of anguish, which is very unkingly like, if you think about it, kings are not supposed to behave this way.

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As we say it, it's not very presidential. He cries out in a tone of anguish and the king declared to Daniel, Oh, Daniel, servant of the living

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God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions and through the darkness of the lion's den.

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Daniel said to the king, Oh, King, may you live forever.

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This is a great story. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths.

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They have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you, oh,

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King, I have I have done no harm. And this is the exact same theology as to the reason why death was not able to hold on to Christ and why he was set free from death, because he was faultless and blameless and sinless and death could not hold him.

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And in type and shadow that Daniel in the lion's den, he went into the tomb. If you would hear his death and resurrection, of course,

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Daniel didn't die. It's there in type and shadow. And the same reason why he was alive is the same reason why

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Christ rose from the grave, and then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

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So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because and here's the reason why he had trusted in his

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God. Daniel trusted in his God when he left the windows open and he prayed.

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Daniel trusted in his God when he offered no defense for himself, but willingly went to the lion's den.

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Daniel trusted in his God and his faith would have vindicated him on the last day, even if those lions had eaten him alive.

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And Hebrews 11 says, by faith, people shut the mouths of the lions.

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And so he did. Salvation is by grace through faith. And now here comes the vengeance of God.

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And take note. This is what we all have earned and deserve because of our sin, because of our participation in the dominion of darkness.

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And we would be wise to follow the example of Darius here, who recognized his own culpability and spent the night in repentant fasting and praying for Daniel.

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The king commanded that those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions.

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They, their children and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

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And then Darius wrote, and now this is kind of an important little note here. You're going to note that in the book of Daniel, there are two letters written to you, one by Nebuchadnezzar.

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You can find it in Daniel 4. And here is a small letter written to you by King Darius. Both Nebuchadnezzar and Darius are authors of scripture.

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Have you considered this? They truly are. And so note, note on the address who it's labeled to.

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King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, languages that dwell on all the earth.

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That would include 21st century Minnesotans and North Dakotans.

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You know what I mean? You betcha. And here's what Darius has written to you. Peace be multiplied to you.

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And so I make a decree that in all of my royal dominion, people are to tremble and to fear before the

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God of Daniel for he is the living God enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed.

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His dominion shall be to the end. And then these words, he delivers and he rescues.

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He works signs and wonders in heaven on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

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Oh, so amazing here. So we see the vengeance of God, but we also see the deliverance of God.

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On the opposite side of God's vengeance is deliverance. Each and every one of us in our sin has earned his vengeance.

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But we who are in Christ, who have been united with him in his death and his resurrection, who have fed on his body and blood have been absolved and forgiven of our sins, who have our trust in him.

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On the opposite side of vengeance is deliverance and salvation. And so remember this, then, that King David, before he was king, but he was anointed, but not yet reigning at the

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Goliath incident in 1st Samuel chapter 17, when Saul confronted him and said to young David, you can't go against Goliath.

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David said, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear or took a lamb from the flock,

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I went after him and struck him and delivered him out of its mouth. What a great picture. And so when we get to our gospel text, think of that imagery.

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Jesus is now going after his sheep who have been taken by the demonic lion, the one who prowls around seeking to devour people.

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And he is going into literally no joke, pagan, non -Israel territory.

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Earlier in chapter 7, we see that Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon are outside of Israel.

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And then in our gospel text in Mark 7 30, it says Jesus returned from the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he went to the

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Sea of Galilee. And you would expect it says that he went to Capernaum, but it doesn't say that. He says that he went to the region of the

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Decapolis. Decapolis literally meaning the 10 cities. These 10 cities were not Jewish cities.

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These were 10 pagan, imperial, Roman cities with temples to Apollo, to Zeus, to Athena and all of the pantheon of the pagan gods.

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Jesus is in Gentile territory, and what he is doing is the exact vengeance that Isaiah wrote about.

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And if you've not don't see it, you've got to pay close attention. Jesus is coming in vengeance to save his sheep, and his vengeance is against the devil.

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The devil is the one who, through his despotic rule, causes us to be born blind, maimed, deaf, mute, to have autism, to have schizophrenia, to have all the different problems that we have.

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Physical, mental, spiritual. And Jesus now is going into enemy -occupied territory, and he is wreaking vengeance not against the occupants there, but against the devil who has done these things to them.

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So it says while Jesus is in enemy -occupied territory, they brought to him a man who was deaf, had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

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And so Jesus took him aside from the crowd privately. He put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.

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And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephethah.

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Just the word itself is so breathy. It reminds you of kind of this spiriting kind of word,

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Ephethah, be opened. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

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And Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

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Well, that makes perfect sense if you think about it. Here's a fellow who couldn't speak, who couldn't hear, and now

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Christ has opened his ears and opened his mouth. What does the psalmist say in Psalm 51?

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Oh, Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

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And so Christ has opened the lips of this man who was destroyed and broken by the devil.

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And the first words out of his mouth is, oh, Lord, I praise you. And Jesus says, no,

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I've got to tell everybody I couldn't speak. And now I've got to tell you about this.

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Jesus, you can't make me be quiet. Look at what he has done for me.

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He has come and he has saved me. You see it.

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How could he be quiet? He can now speak. And the words that come out of his mouth are praise and proclamation of the

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Christ who has come and set his free. So say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong.

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Fear not. Behold, your God comes with vengeance, vengeance against the devil with recompense of God.

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He's come to save you. And watch what Isaiah then says. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.

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That doesn't sound like vengeance against the blind. It sounds like vengeance against the devil. The ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

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Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for waters break forth in the wilderness, streams in the desert.

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No more deserts. Eden, paradise is coming back.

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The burning sand shall become a pool. The thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

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It sounds like a good kind of global warming if you ask me. The return of paradise.

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And all of that is under the category of what? Vengeance.

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Vengeance against whom? Well, we don't battle against flesh and blood, but against every principality of this present darkness.

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This is vengeance against the devil. This is setting the captives free. This is

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Christ landing in Normandy and pushing through Europe and pushing the

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Nazis out and freeing everybody. And even more than that, healing them all, giving him back what has been taken from them in body, soul and whatever else the devil has stolen.

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This is the vengeance of God. And what a beautiful vengeance it is. Because on the opposite side of the vengeance that God wreaks against the devil and those who partner with him.

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Is the deliverance of those who trust in him. This is why it's so important that we never lose sight of the hope that we have in Christ and that when we confess during the creed,

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I believe that he will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, that on the opposite end of that judgment, because you have already had your sins judged in Christ, on him was laid your iniquity.

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God found him guilty for you so that when that day of judgment comes, you stand before him.

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The only thing left are your good works. Even your smallest, most feeble, sin stained good works will be rewarded.

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New heavens, new earth, nobody sick, nobody blind, nobody lame, no more of these torn apart relationships.

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True love for God face to face, true love for neighbor in a world without end, without sickness and disease and poverty and the glory of God will be our light.

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We don't even need the sun. This is the vengeance of God.

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Lord, please send your vengeance and save us in the name of Jesus.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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