September 16, 2024

Rēad to Read …Again

Daily Reading: Daniel 4-6

Daniel 4:27

Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.

He was warned. King Nebuchadnezzar was warned of God through Daniel. He did not hear. Oh, he heard the warning with his ears, but he did not hear it in his heart, in his soul. Therefore, he did not heed it which resulted in that which God warned of taking place in his life. The king was driven from his palace and lived with the beasts of the field, eating grass and in his wrong mind for seven periods of time. It didn’t have to be like that. He could have sidestepped that humbling experience by simply believing God. But he didn’t.

Daniel not only warned the king of his coming downfall, he gave him two things to do that perhaps would have turned away God’s judgment. One was to break off his sins by righteousness, and the other was to show mercy to the poor. This is interesting, one action was to cease to do evil, replacing it with righteousness, and the other was to begin to do good. One was putting away, one was putting in. This is the key, it’s called, at least by this preacher, the “doctrine of replacement.”  Meaning that when called upon to stop something, God replaces that something with something else.

Consider a parent that is concerned about how much time their child spends on electronic gaming or social media. They may warn their child to limit their time on the electronic gadgets, but unless the parent replaces that activity with ones they enjoy equally or better, their child will have a difficult time stopping the unwanted activity. A wise parent may replace the time their child spends on the gaming with a real game of catch, or fishing, or building something together, or any number of activities that their child would value, or enjoy, more than the electronic toys.  

The same with sin. It needs to be replaced by other actions that are approved of God and that the person enjoys. This is how wrong things are removed, by being replaced. Nebuchadnezzar was instructed to replace sin with righteousness. He was also instructed to add to his life the good works of a benevolent nature. To sum this up, God replaced one thing, sin, with two things righteousness and benevolence. But, evidently, the king did neither and he suffered for it greatly. But then, like the prodigal son of Luke 15, his reason was returned to him (verse 36). Notice the last words of this greatest of kings, King Nebuchadnezzar: Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. (verse 37) He learned this the hard way, through the school of hard knocks.

He could have obeyed thereby skipping the humiliating lesson. He could have replaced his wrong doings with right doings by stopping one thing and by starting another. I remember a precious Christian couple telling me one time that after they trusted Christ and started attending a Bible believing church they learned about tithing and they began to tithe. They said that tithing was a bargain because their tithe to their church was less than they had spent on alcohol prior to being saved. They practiced the doctrine of replacement and found it to be a better way of life and the living of it.

Dr. William T. Howe