November 21, 2021 “God’s Books” – Daniel 7:1, 9-14

Daniel 7:1, 9-14 (Chronicles p. 172)
“God’s Books”
November 21, 2021 – Christ the King Sunday

“Got the big fish!” Cathy wrote that on July 21, 1951. She wrote it in an old log book with wooden covers, yellow pages, and the words “Our Guests” carved on the front. Cathy, whoever she is, is the first entry in the book. For my whole life that book has been in our family cabin in Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona.

My great aunt and uncle built the little cottage in the late 40s. This was the record of their guests, who came from California, Oklahoma, Illinois, Colorado—and one couple from Sussex, England. I don’t recognize most of the names. But on October 3, 1960 there appears in rough block letters of varying size, slanting down the page, “STEPHEN.” I was not quite five. My three-year old sister Helen is there too, with my grandmother’s note to identify her scrawl.

That record of names goes on into the mid 70s. My sister and I wrote thank you several times and how many fish we caught. The same for my younger cousins Deb and her brother, who signed “Jimmy,” then “James,” finally “Jim.” Other names are only vaguely familiar: Pintarell, Miller, Watson, Garrison, Cox. People connected with our family, now lost to my memory, but remembered in the book. They write about sharing good food, seeing beautiful scenery, swimming in the creek, enjoying good conversation, my aunt’s and grandmother’s hospitality, and over and over, the fish. Big, little, a limit worth or maybe one or two, but they and we were so often there to fish. And we’re all in it, in that old book.

There’s another Book which is much, much bigger. It’s alluded to in today’s text from Daniel 7 in our final week of Immerse reading, page 172. In verse 9, God sits on a flaming throne, with a fiery river flowing out before him. Verse 10 continues, “Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.”

God’s “books” show up throughout Scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New. Sometimes they appear to be what they are here, a record of human deeds to be read off in a heavenly court, where judgment will be made. These “books” contain a far better record than any of the video that was and is being shown in high profile trials recently and currently happening in our country.

In Daniel’s vision the focus is on judgment of the “little horn.” He is historically identified with the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes who made war on Jerusalem and desecrated the Temple in 168 B.C. There are four other creatures who represent great empires which ruled over Jewish people, like Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. In those opened books, which we should understand to be God’s infinite and perfect memory, are all the terrible deeds those empires, their leaders, and their people did to God’s people.

In these days of social media and cell phones, it may not be so hard to imagine a divine eternal record of everything that has happened on earth. As many, many people have discovered later when applying for a job or seeking public office, what is said or filmed being done on-line can go on and on to haunt you forever. I was dismayed this past week that a data aggregating site has a fairly complete record of Beth and me, including our addresses clear back to Nebraska, my mother’s name, our children’s names and more. The Bible suggests that God has better records than any of that.

So think of every last unguarded thought and action, whether picking your nose in private or silently cursing in your mind someone you’re supposed to love. It’s written there, in God’s books, which will be opened. Jesus said in Matthew 10:26, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, nothing hidden that will not be revealed.”

One of our readings today was John’s vision in Revelation 1:7 of Jesus returning. “Look! He is coming with the clouds.” It matches Daniel’s vision at the bottom of page 172, verse 13 “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.” John went on to say, “and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.” That probably has something to do with those books being opened.

Over in Revelation 20:12 John had another vision which is like Daniel’s: “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.” He goes on, “The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” No wonder “all the tribes of the earth will wail.” What a prospect! What terror. Everything you and I, and everyone on earth, ever did is going to be read off and weighed in the balance of divine justice when Jesus comes again.

There is, perhaps, some comfort in the promise of such revelations, of books which will be opened at the return of Christ to bring justice to the earth. As we look at current events, even actual trials, where we believe human justice has failed, when justice has not been done, we may be somewhat comforted by the prospect that, in the end, it will be. Both Daniel and John say that God is going to hold court, the books will be opened, and justice will happen, like it or not.

It might be darkly satisfying to contemplate that this person or that person, maybe even a person who is a judge on earth, is going to get what he or she truly deserves someday. But if we are honest with ourselves, we will recognize, as I’ve already suggested, that none of us will fare too well if that’s the end of the story.

The awesomely beautiful story of the Bible, of Jesus, is that the great King coming with His books, holding court, and meting out justice is only one part of the picture. In our Gospel reading today, we saw that very same divine King standing and being subjected to injustice Himself in a human court. The Roman governor Pilate asked Jesus about being King of the Jews. Jesus told him that His kingdom was bigger than that, that it was a kingdom not from this world. When Pilate concludes, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered in a way to indicate that it was so. Then Jesus said, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

There it is again. God in Jesus Christ comes to tell the truth. Part of that truth is truth about us. Jesus comes to judge us according to that truth. Pilate thought he was judging Jesus, but Jesus was judging Pilate. Like Pilate, you and I might think that we get to decide the truth about Jesus, whether He is really God, whether He actually loves us, whether we’re going to believe in Him. But in the end it is Jesus who testifies to the truth, Jesus who opens the books which tell the truth about us. But there on that day in Jerusalem the great Judge, the great Truth Himself, let Himself be unjustly tried and judged on our behalf. He took our judgment upon Himself and carried it for us.

Which all means the story does not need to end for anyone in crushing shame and wailing brought on by the opening of books and an absolutely true and complete judgment. Jesus the Judge let Himself also be Jesus the judged, judged in our place. So anyone may find forgiveness in Jesus for all those sins which will be read off when He comes again.

Yet our sins are written down until the end comes. Over on page 175, chapter 9 in Daniel, he prays a long prayer confessing not only his own sins but the many terrible sins of his fellow Jewish people. He acknowledges that all their troubles are because of their sins, the sins written in those eternal books of God.

So both Daniel and John tell us there is another book to be opened. At the end of his prophecies, on the bottom of page 180, chapter 12 verse 1, he says, “there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence.” Then the angel talking to Daniel says, “But at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued.” It’s a different book. It’s not a record of deeds, but a record of names.

Again like Daniel, John mentions a different book in the middle of Revelation 20:12 while talking about books of judgment. He says, “Another book was opened, which is the book of life.” It’s a Book of names. It doesn’t log what we’ve done. It’s not a compilation of all our sins, but the Story of God’s grace toward those He loves. In Scripture it appears first in Exodus 32 as Moses pled for the forgiveness of his people, for them not to be blotted out of the Book. Jesus mentioned it in Luke 10:20 telling His disciples not to rejoice in miracles they’ve done but in the fact their names are written in heaven. Paul mentions it briefly in Philippians 4:3, saying two Christian women at odds with each other are in the Book along with everyone else. And Revelation 21:27 calls it “the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

It’s a Book of grace, not judgment. It’s a book of life, not death. When I read through that guest book in our cabin, I am filled with all kinds of emotion. Many of the people named there are dead. My great aunt, my grandmother, my mother, who recorded celebrating her fiftieth birthday at the cabin. I ache with memory when I read their names. But there are names there that make me ache in another way. My great aunt’s friend who didn’t like children and told me when I was ten that I had body odor. And an old girl friend who dumped me wrote her name there. They’re all in there. They’re all part of that book.

Everyone saved by the Judge who was judged for us is in His Book. Many of them are dead and some of those names, even as we said them on All Saints Sunday, bring tears of loss to our eyes. Other names bring tears for the pain they’ve caused us or unjustly caused others. But the dead in the Lamb’s Book are not dead, and the hurtful in His Book will one day hurt us no more. If they come to Jesus in faith, they too will join us in that great crowd of millions and millions around the Throne. All that will matter is that Jesus died and rose for each of us, and wrote our names in His Book. We will be brought together and made one, even as we are already together in that great Book of Life.

I invite you to open your heart and mind to the vista described by Daniel, that huge gathering together of everyone loved and saved by the Lamb who is the King, who will open the books when He comes again. Consider whether you will only appear in those frightening record books of what we did. Or have you placed your faith and your hope in the King whose justice is also full of mercy? Do that now if you haven’t yet. Do it once again in your heart and mind, even if you’ve known and loved Jesus nearly all your life. And rejoice that your name is written in that Book.

Then remember that so many around you right now, whether they are alive or dead, whether you like them or not, whether they’ve loved you or hurt you, are there with you, written in the Book where your name is written too. Then consider how you might, here and now, make ready to have your name alongside theirs for eternity. What reconciliation and healing might be good to begin now if our names will be together in that Book forever?

And, don’t forget those other books, the books by which our Lord will do justice upon the earth. The Bible says both things will happen. The dead, including you and I, will be raised and judged by the King’s books for what we have done. Yet those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be rescued, will be saved by the grace of that same King. That’s why He gave His life over to human judgment on our behalf. I don’t quite understand how both can happen, how both books can be opened and read out, how both justice and mercy will be handed down. But they will.

Let us live then in such a way that we will be ready for that day, that day when the Ancient One sits down to judge, when “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds to set up His kingdom which will never be destroyed and whose rule will never end. In the books of that kingdom perfect justice will be done and perfect mercy offered to everyone who will receive it. So let us love and seek justice now, while at the same time loving and offering mercy both to the those who are unjust and to those whom human justice has failed.

What is written about you and me in those books by Jesus our King is true and good, even if some of it will make us terribly ashamed. Let us then seek to be written in the Book of Life, so that the Mercy overcomes the shame.

Amen.