There is a story of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. According to one prophecy of Daniel the Kingdom of Babylon is described as gold and also in another prophecy as a lion with an eagle’s wings. All these images were used to represent the glory and the power of the kingdom. And the bible actually says that God allowed great glory and power to the Kingdom of Babylon.
Daniel 2:37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
King Nebuchadnezzar-the king of kings chosen by God, after conquering all the nations, became proud and said that it was he himself who accomplished all the great things for the kingdom.
Daniel 4:28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
Due to his pride and arrogance he was punished by God to be like one of livestock grazing on the field and lived like one for seven years. When he acknowledged God for the great works he had done, his sanity got restored and could receive his kingdom back.
Lesson From the Story
This story of King Nebuchadnezzar teaches us many things. Especially, we can learn the importance of humility and realization that everything comes from God. We have to remember that it is only God who allows to us whatever good thing we might have.
Deuteronomy 8:17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Sometimes when we achieve something, people might think that he or she has done the work with his wisdom and knowledge. But we have to know better than that. We have to remember that there is God who achieves the great plan he made through us. We are just His messengers and tools.
Get Rid Of Arrogance
We all are tools and instruments used by God to do the work of God.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
And without God we are nothing. Only in and through God we can live our life. When he gave all the glory and honor to God, King Nebuchadnezzar could have his right mind and freed from the madness caused by his arrogance. We also should look into us to find out whether or not we are enslaved by our pride and arrogance. Then we have to remember that everything comes from God and make ourselves humble in front of God.
To meet someone the very first thing that we have to know is the place he resides in. We can visit there and we can have a chance to meet him. It is same with God. For God’s people to meet God we have to know the dwelling of God. By visiting there, we can meet God and be blessed by God.
God’s Dwelling in the Old Testament
Moses Tabernacle
Then what is the dwelling of God? In the Old Testament, the dwelling of God was the temple. God said that He would come to his people to the place where He chose to cause his name to be honored.
Exodus 20:24 “‘Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.
Solomon Temple
This was fulfilled by the sanctuary in the time of Moses and the temple in the time of Solomon. When Solomon built temple to honor the name of God, it became the dwelling of God since then. God put His Spirit in it and He dwelled among his people.
1 King 8:6 The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. 8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. 10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple. 12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”
The Reality of God’s Dwelling in the New Testament
Zion the Dwelling of God
The bible says that the Old Testament was given as copy and shadow for the reality which was to be fulfilled in the New Testament by Christ. Then what is the reality of the temple that we should come to meet God?
Prophets of the bible teaches that Zion is the dwelling of God. And God would put his name in Zion that He would be honored by His people.
Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.
And the bible teaches that Zion is the dwelling of God where we must go to meet God and be blessed by God.
Psalm 132:13 For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, 14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. 15 I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor I will satisfy with food. 16 I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.
Blessing for God’s People Who Dwell in Zion
Also, the bible teaches that as God’s people we must come to Zion the dwelling of God for the blessings of eternal life.
Isaiah 51:16 I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand—I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’
The people who are in Zion is the people of God and they can receive the blessings of eternal life and salvation. (Psalm 133:3) Therefore, through the prophecies of the bible we can see that Zion is the dwelling of God and we must come to Zion to meet God.
The True Zion
Zion the City of God’s Festivals
Then what is the Zion? We have to ask the way to Zion as Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 50:5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
Now let us find out where Zion is through the prophecies of the bible. According to the bible, Zion is the place where God’s people gather together to keep the festivals of God. It is the house of God where God proclaims feasts for his people.
Isaiah 33:20 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals
And through the festivals, God grants the blessings of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. (Isaiah 33:24) In this sense, Zion is the church today where God’s people gather to keep the festivals of God. But the problem arises when we think about the festivals of God.
The Festivals of God
Are all the churchs Zion? The answer is in this question: “Do they keep the festivals of God?” Since Zion is the city of God’s festivals, the people in Zion must keep the festivals of God. Today many churches claim that they keep the festivals of God such as Sunday worship, Christmas, Thanks-giving Day, etc..
If they are the festivals of God, then they are in Zion and they can be blessed by God. However, the problem is that the festivals they claim to keep as festivals of God are actually not festivals of God. Rather they are the traditions originated from man and they are only man’s customs.
The true festivals of God are recorded all throughout the bible, especially in Leviticus 23. In Leviticus, God proclaims the festivals that the people of God must keep as everlasting covenant. First, there is the Sabbath as weekly festival. And there are seven festivals of three times as annual festivals. They are the Passover, the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. And these are the festivals of God we have to keep.
Conclusion
Today, there is only one church which keeps the festivals of God according to all the laws and regulations of the new covenant following the teachings of Jesus and disciples: World Mission Society Church of God, or WMSCOG in short. The Church of God is Zion the dwelling of God. Come to Zion and keep the festivals of God. Then you can meet God and be blessed by God.
It is agreed by most people, whether they are believers or not, that the bible is the best-selling book ever written in the world. Why is the bible so popular among people? It is because the bible contains the many prophecies about the world and human beings in it.
God’s Plan for the End of the Age
The End of Age Hidden in the Creation of the World
The bible is the book of prophecies. Also, as we can see through the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, those prophecies have come true. And that is why we should believe the words of God in the bible. God teaches us that all the words in the bible are prophecies of God.
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
The Plan of God and the Plan of Man
This means that God already planned the end of the world even when he created this world. And he recorded his plan in the bible in the form of prophecies. Some might say that we can make a plan and make it come true. Then are we God too? There is essential differences between the plan of God and that of man. The plan of man can change as time goes by. But the plan of God never changes. I will be surely done as he has planned without any fail.
Isaiah 14:24 The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
When we look back on the prophecies of the bible, we can confirm that the word of God are absolute prophecies that are being fulfilled at God’s appointed time. God make it sure that he would fulfill everything according to the words of God in the bible.
Matthew 5:18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
God’s Intention Contained in the Prophecies
Discerning God and Idols Through the Prophecies
There are a couple of things that God intends to achieve Through the fulfillment of the prophecies of the bible. First, God wants us to distinguish what is true and what is false. Today, people believe in so many different things. It is mainly because they do not know how to distinguish truth from falsehood.
God gave us the prophecies that we may know the true God through the prophecies and their fulfillment.
Isaiah 41:21 “Present your case,” says the Lord. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. “Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable.
As we can see through the examples of mediums, spiritists, sorcerers, etc. in the bible, there are many people who claim to believe in gods and tell prophecies given by those gods. However, the difference between those gods and God the Almighty is that the words of God are absolute and be fulfilled surely at God’s appointed time. The words of the prophets of the idols are not. God is giving the signs and prophecies that we recognize who the true God is.
Faith in God Through the Prophecies
Second, God gives us prophecies that we may have faith in God. Some people think that God performs miraculous things and tells prophecies to reveal the power and authority of God. However, this is not the essential reason for prophecies. What God really wants to teach us through the prophecies is our faith to God.
God wants us to have absolute faith in God. To instill the faith in us God chose prophecies and the words of God.
John 14:29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
The glory of God and the salvation of God is in the words. God created the heavens and earth through His Word and the same Word of God accomplishes the last purpose of God, salvation of souls. Therefore, without absolute faith in the words of God, we cannot be saved. That is why to give us complete faith in the words God gave us prophecies. We can trust the words of God and obey them when we see the prophecies and the fulfillment.
Conclusion
Now has come the end of the six thousand years of God’s salvation work. God has appeared as the Spirit and the Bride and seeking those who have faith in the words of God. We should diligently study the words of God in the bible that we can have firm faith in the Spirit and the Bride who fulfilled all the prophecies of the bible.
