ANGELS AS WATCHERS

*17/05/2020*

THIRD SUNDAY SERMON

THEME: *ANGELS: MESSENGERS OF GOD.*

TOPIC: *WHO ARE ANGELS?*

SUB-TOPIC: *ANGELS AS WATCHERS.*

Daniel 4:13
Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt of an enormous tree that provided food and shelter for all.
In his dream, he saw a *divine messenger* issuing a command for the tree to be cut down, its branches trimmed, its leaves stripped and its fruit scattered.

Daniel 4:17
The point of Nebuchadnezzar's dream is that *the Most High rules* supreme in the world.

Daniel 2:21
*Seasons* here refers to the events of history.

Daniel 4:25
The tree represented Nebuchadnezzar at the height of his glory.
The Most High had issued a decree that Nebuchadnezzar would be insane for seven years until he acknowledged God as the sovereign Lord.

Daniel 4:32
*until you know:* Nebuchadnezzar would become insane, animal-like in his habits and senses. Yet in that condition he would learn more of God than he ever had before. In fact, the purpose of the judgment was that Nebuchadnezzar might know who God is and how He sovereignly creates kingdoms and distributes them to whom He wills. Nebuchadnezzar had to be humbled before he could be exalted again. The chastisement of God is always for a holy and helpful purpose.

Psalms 9:16
*The LORD judges, His angels watches over His judgments and execution.*

Psalms 83:18
*Shame* is the opposite of dignity, an attribute of the righteous.
*seek Your name:* Asaph's first call for God to shame Israel's enemies is redemptive - that the nations might hear, feel shame, repent and seek the face of the Lord. Yet if they continued in their wicked path, they would face further confounding and would one day face God in judgment.

Jeremiah 27:5-7
The foreign ambassadors were to announce to their *masters* that the God of Israel is the true sovereign Lord over creation and the affairs of humans. The whole of creation is summed up in the triad *earth ...man ...beast.*
Unlike the gods of the nations, whose power was often believed to be geographically limited, the God of Israel reigned over all the earth, granting territorial rights and power to nations and Kings as *it seemed proper* to Him.
*My servant:* With all of his military might and conquests, the King of Babylon was still a servant of the God of Israel, carrying out the Lord's purposes - namely the judgment of Judah.
*son's son ... time of his land:* Following the death of Nebuchadnezzar in 562 B.C., his heirs and successors retained control of Babylon for only 24 years. Babylon fell without a battle to Cyrus and the Persian armies in 539 B.C., and later to Alexander the Great of Greece.

1 Samuel 2:8
Given that God is the one who gives people their positions, even setting some *among princes*, we should not enviously scheme to get ahead and be grudge any brother or sister his or her position. Rather we must patiently and faithfully carry out the work he has given us, using the gifts he has given us. Wherever he has put us in life and in ministry, this particular place has been given to us by God.

Daniel 4:23
*Watcher* means "a waking one", one who is constantly alert.

*Confession*
I command the holy angels of God to watch over me and my household.
I command holy angels of God to watch over God's word and promises to bring them to physical manifestation.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.

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