Our God Isn’t Made of Clay and Bronze...Our God is the Living God

Verses: Bel and the Dragon 1 : 1 - 22

My thoughts about the verses:

Today there are so many that worship things that are not living.  We treat our houses like they are fortresses in which support and sustain us.  We treat our cars we reverence and respect.  We have o many things in our life that we give homage to.

Think on this a moment what is your one prized possession.  Do you treat that possession with higher regard than you do God?  Many people had to admit that they do have one or more things that they put before they put God in the equation.  Our world has become a materialistic society.  Yet, this isn’t a new phenomenon this has been going on for centuries.

We forget that our God is living amongst us.  We see the things that we have as sacred and desire to have more things.  Yet, we often forget to praise God.  We put our desires before worshiping God.  We spend a lot of our time on Earth working and trying to get more things.

It is amazing how many rich people are unhappy.  They are unhappy because the things that they have are not enough.  They get bigger and better things.  Yet, the newness wears off and they are back to square one.  They are looking for something that will last and fulfill their lives.  Yet, often times they look pass the love of God.

This is where Cyrus was in his journey.  He had created an image of clay and bronze that he worshiped to.  He would come each day bringing it sacrifices of abundance of food.  He had accepted that it was a true god because each morning the food was gone.  He assumed that only a true god could do this.

Daniel on the other hand knew that his God was not made of clay and bronze.  He knew that his God had given breath and life to all things.  He knew that his God would sustain him and that his sacrifices were just one more way to worship God.  The sacrifices were never meant to feed God.  They were meant to honor God for the multitude of gifts that God had given to the people.

There they stand in a great debate.  Cyrus who had trusted Daniel as a true friend confronts him because of his lack of trust in the god bel.  The god in whom Cyrus had built because he thought it was better than anything else in the world. Daniel on the other hand worshiped the living God.  Cyrus asked why he didn’t serve Bel and Daniel said my God is not made of clay and bronze my God is the living God.  This angered Cyrus and he wanted to kill Daniel on the spot.

Cyrus pointed out that Bel would eat and they proved he was also alive.  Daniel said that it was something was afoot there was no way that Bel was eating the food.  Angered Cyrus calls the priest of the temple and asked about the food.  They stated to the King that if he placed the food on the altar and sealed the door that he would see that the food would be eaten and it would prove the power of Bel.

Right before the door closes Daniel tells his servants to spread ashes on the floor before the door is sealed.  Only they and Daniel and the King knew that this had occurred.  The next morning the King and Daniel go to the temple.  Cyrus sees that the door has not been tampered with and when he opens the door all the food is gone.  He immediate thinks that Bel had eaten the food.  Yet, Daniel through laughter has him look at the floor.  There were the foot prints of the priest and their families. 

Cyrus at this point realizes that he has been fooled and kills the priest and their families.  Yet, what I see is more important is the fact that he turns from the god that he believed in because of the fact that he had been fooled by his priest.  He turns the statue over to Daniel.  It is at this moment Daniel destroys the temple and this God of clay and bronze.

I want us to realize that the only true God that we need to serve and worship is the Creator of this Earth.  God breathed the breath in our life.  God gives us all that we need to live.  God gives us comfort and love.  Our God is living and is in the heart of all that believe.  God wants us to turn our life over to the Savior.  God loves us just the way we are.  We need to accept that God is our salvation and our peacemaker.  We need to turn our lives over to God so that we can live a fulfilled life.

Prayer:

We praise you God for you are the only true living God.  We worship you for your love and salvation.  We thank you for never walking away from us.  Help us put the things of the world after you.  Help us praise you all the days of our life.  In the name of the Living God we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Is there something that you put before God?  Are you willing to open your heart to God?  Are you willing to love God?  Are you willing to accept the salvation of God?  Do you see today that the only Living God is the Creator of the world?  What do you need to do today to walk closer to the God of life and salvations?