Mission Impossible Daniel (Chapter 2)
(By Ben Fronczek)
In our last lesson I talked a little about
how and why Daniel and a few other Jews were in Babylon. The Jewish
nation had turned their back on God and the covenant they had made with
Him during the time of Moses. In that covenant God had told them that He
would greatly bless them for their faithfulness, but if they turned
their back on Him and the covenant they had made they would eventually
suffer dire consequences. As far back as the time of Moses God predicted
that the Jews would one day do just this and so God told them that one
day He would allow a king and a kingdom they did not know to come in and
destroy their nation and all but a few would survive. God also told
them that some of the survivors would even be carried off and they would
serve the king that captured them. All this took place about 587BC as
predicted..
As we looked at Daniel chapter 1 last time,
we read where the king ordered his servant to choose some of the finest
young men, who had been captured, who were somewhat wise and showed a
aptitude to learn so that they could be trained to serve in the royal
palace. Daniel and is 3 companions were chosen and they were given new
Babylonian names. The king also provided them with food from his own
table. This may have seem like a blessing to those who had just come out
of a city that was besieged and nearly starved out during a time of
war, but for Daniel and his companions they just could not eat the kings
food. Daniel and his companions were obviously young men that had a
good upbringing and were some of the few that remained faithful to the
Lord. So they made a decision not to defile themselves by eating the
kings food. As the story goes God honors their loyalty and commitment to
Him and the Mosaic covenant and blessed them with good health and more
wisdom than any in Babylon. That leads us to chapter 2. Read 2:1-13 (click on and read)
It seems to me that king Nebuchadnezzar was
no fool. He had all these magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and
astrologers in his service (on the pay role as it were) and so after
having this disturbing dream he tests to see if they were scamming him
and playing him for a fool. After calling them in he demands that they
not only tell him what he dreamt but also what it meant. If they didn’t
he’d have them torn limb from limb for being phonies.
Well these guys were frantic, and they even
admitted that there was no way that they could tell the king what he
dreamt. They said no king ever made such a request.
At that point the king sees them for who
and what they really were… a bunch of phony charlatans who were mooching
off him. So in anger he sends the order out to have all these so called
‘wise men’ executed in Babylon. Read 2:14-24 (click on verse and read)
Being in the company of the wise men,
Daniel and his 3 companions were to be rounded up with the others to be
executed. The text goes on to say that Daniel spoke to this commander
with wisdom and tact. – I think its important how we talk to others… The
NASB says that he spoke with discretion and discernment. The KJV says the he answered with counsel and wisdom.
How we speak to another can make all the
difference in a stressful, difficult time of peril. All too often we
are quick with our tongue and shoot our self in the foot when we need to
be careful and think before we speak.
Proverbs 13:3 says, “Proud fools talk too much; the words of the wise protect them.”
Even at a young age Daniel was wise enough
to see this. I wonder if he memorized some of those proverbs written by
Solomon? Maybe he did!
After finding out what was going on, Daniel
goes to the king and asks for a little bit of time so that he could
come back with an answer. Here we see Daniel stepping out on faith. Not
only is he bold enough to confront this powerful king who was obviously
upset with all the wise men, we also see that Daniel believed that the
Lord would help him with this problem.
Where the other magicians, enchanters,
sorcerers and astrologers said that it was impossible, Daniel said ‘give
me a chance.’ Why and how could Daniel believe that he had such a
chance to do this? Because Daniel knew the scriptures, and Daniel knew
that his God and our God can do amazing things, and will bless those who
are truly faithful to Him as He had already done for Daniel and his
companions and for others throughout the Bible (e.g.).
So Daniel returns home and tells his three
friends what’s going and asks them to pray. And what happens? God shows
Daniel what the kings saw in his dream and what it meant. After thanking
and praising God he returns to the king and tells him that there is a
God in Heaven who knows all and has revealed to him what the king saw in
his vision. Read 2:25-49 (click on and read verse)
So what did the King see in his vision?
He saw a great statue with a head of gold, with a chest and arms of
silver, with a belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet part
iron and part clay, and then he saw a stone smash it all to bits. That
stone became a mountain and would last forever.
What does the image of this great statue represent?
Well Daniel lets the king know that the God of heaven had revealed the
future to him in that vision. Each section represented a different
kingdom or empire. The gold head represented him, this king and the
Babylonian empire. The empire to follow depicted as silver would be a
little inferior representing the Medo-Persian Empire. This would be
followed by the Greek empire seen as the bronze section, followed by the
Roman Empire first depicted by the iron legs and then the feet of iron
and clay as the Roman Empire as it deteriorated. And finally the empire
that would outlive them all and last forever (that is the church and the
kingdom of God) that was the stone that would strike them all down and
grow into an everlasting mountain.
At this explanation Nebuchadnezzar is not
only awed and blown away, this great and powerful king humbles himself
and falls prostrate before this young man Daniel.
As I said earlier, this king was no fool,
Daniel had produced the goods. Because Daniel gave God the glory and
credit right from the beginning, rather than himself, Nebuchadnezzar
recognized God for who He is; the God of gods, and Lord of Kings and
praised Him as such.
Daniel is promoted to rule over the entire
province of Babylon and was placed in charge of all its wise men. Sounds
a little like the story of Joseph to me.
So what lesson can we take away from this story today?
I believe we can learn some principles that
can help us handle predicaments which seem way beyond our own ability.
You may not have a king demanding you to tell him what he dreamt last
night and what it means but we all face our own crisis that seem beyond
our ability to solve on our own. Maybe it’s a health issue you or a
loved one has, maybe it’s your marriage, or a financial problem, maybe a
disastrous relationship problem, or a habitual sin problem and you
can’t seem to fix yourself or stop on your own.
#1. I believe God’s work is most
obvious when it our situation becomes humanly impossible. All too often
we take God’s involvement and blessings for granted.
But when we’ve done all that we can do or
we are face with what may seem like an impossible situation, we have a
heavenly Father who loves us who we can turn to.
Daniel understood that a humanly
impossible situation can only be resolved with divine help. The Apostle
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the trials he faced he wrote,
“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed,
we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that
we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He
has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us
again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us… “
2 Cor. 8-10
No matter how impossible a situation may seem it is important for us to turn to God for help.
In Mark 10:27 Jesus said, “All things are possible with GOD!”
#2. When you don’t know what to do
or how to do it, PRAY! Ask others to pray for you as well. Over and over
when in difficult situations we see men and women of God praying for
themselves and for one another. James wrote that if we lack knowledge or
wisdom we should pray for it. But he also goes on to say,
“6 But
when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
#3. God wants us to believe and
trust in Him, even if we don’t understand how He can fix things. That’s
what we call faith. And that kind of faithful prayer will see results.
Such prayers of faith will eventually produce praise. Praise from you
and praise from others.
#4. When things like this happen
when we see God resolving great problems, our faith grows. Our faith
grows from trial to trail, from faith to faith. I believe Daniel and his
3 friends grew stronger with each passing trial, and they needed to
because they would have more trials to come. Likewise we are to grow
stronger from trial to trail, from faith to faith. I believe sometimes
God may allow certain things to happen in our life hoping that our faith
will grow stronger.
#5. Miracles like this not only
build our faith, it opens eyes of others as well, just like it opened
the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar who praise our Lord in Heaven. Sometimes it’s
not all about you.
So whatever you face you need to remember that there is a God in Heaven and He is able.
Eph 3:20
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
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