Have you ever been so far out on a limb that even the sight of your enemy brought a sense of hope and the possibility of deliverance? That is exactly where King Nebuchadnezzar had his “wise men”. This was not a normal Day. It was not “business as usual” for them. They had developed a level of expectation in the king that gave them a sense of comfort in their own positions. Now, the king had set them on their heels. He had pushed them so far out on their own limb that they were nearly ready to cut it off themselves.
If you don’t really understand how far out on the limb they were; if you don’t comprehend the terror that they were feeling; look at verse 11 of Daniel 2. They finally admitted to the king that they were mere mortals, in spite of the expectation that they had created in him of something more. Now that he was expecting more than they were able to provide to him, they said, “What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.” (Daniel 2:11, NIV)
We really need to understand why the king pushed his famous band of advisors to such a point of desperation. It is because this story comes from the Bible; and, since it comes from the Bible it is really not a story about Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel or his friends. This is a story about the God of Creation, the God of the Bible. He claims, in the pages of Scripture, to be a sovereign God who is in control of all things and for whom all things are done. In that light, God was orchestrating this situation, through the will and wisdom of the king, to bring to light the true nature of God and His wisdom. He had already put Daniel and his friends in place because He knew that they would be faithful to Him and take no glory or other recognition for themselves.
When the pagan “wise men” said that the gods do not live among men, they were implying that the gods do not even affect things on earth. However, the God of the Bible wanted Nebuchadnezzar, wants us, to know that He is intimately involved in the everyday affairs of men. Therefore, in steps Daniel. He has confidence in the God that he serves, unlike the other “wise men” and their pagan gods.
If you’ve followed the story to this point, and you read ahead just a few more verses, you know that Daniel had been left out of the situation so far. This doesn’t mean that he was any less liable for the fate that the king had commanded but he didn’t know that the king needed anything or that his peers had failed to meet his requirements. He also didn’t know that they had declared the gods to be unreachable. When the soldiers came to take him away, he asked, “Why?” and was told the whole story.
So we come to the part of the story where the king’s wise men are up in the tree, out on the limb, the limb is bending and cracking and threatening to break when Daniel appears under the tree and says, “Hey! What’s up?” Next week we’ll find out how and why this greeting from a young Jewish upstart brought a sense of relief and hope to these godless pagan men.
Thought: We are often caught in situations that seem hopeless and we are tempted to despair. We ought to breathe deeply of the strength and comfort of our God in these times because He may have brought us here for the deliverance of those who don’t know Him, to bring hope to the hopeless and faith to the faithless. Our God is great so our confidence in Him ought to be great as well. Have confidence in Him today!
By His grace, there is more to come….
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Daniel 2: Not Stupid – Just a healthy dose of skepticism!
At first glance, King Nebuchadnezzar seems like he’s lost his mind. It’s a tall order to ask someone to give you an accurate interpretation of a dream that you may have had. To ask that they first tell you the dream (for verification) and THEN to give its interpretation seems like a set-up. This goes way beyond mind-reading, doesn’t it?
In this case, the king was so adamant about his command that he started out telling his “wise” men what the penalty for failure would be. It was no small thing, since the king promised that they would die and even their houses would be destroyed. Wow! How terrible is this, and the only way to avoid it was to first tell the king what he dreamed and then to give an accurate interpretation. It is almost as though the king had got tired of hearing silly things from his supposed “wise” men, as though he had received poor advice one too many times. He told them that he had already made up his mind, that there was no avoiding what he had already determined.
Apparently, the “wise” men didn’t quite “get it.” They really thought that this was going to be business as usual. They must have thought that this was one of the king’s jokes because they certainly did not take him seriously. Instead, the merely asked him a second time to tell them the dream and offered to give an interpretation of whatever dream he laid out before them. But this made the king angry. I think maybe he was becoming tired of being taken for granted by some of his top advisors. So, when they asked him the second time, he replied by accusing them of trying to buy additional time.
What kind of a man (because the king was first a man and only second was he a king) asks ANYONE to reveal out loud what he only knew from the recesses of his mind, and then in a dream while he was sleeping? What kind of a man makes this kind of a demand of his most faithful, his most trusted and closest advisors? What kind of a man uses this demand as a set-up, already believing that these men were in their positions more for their own good than for his?
This was not a righteous man, but he exhibited some of the qualities that God calls His people to have. In this case, the king exhibited a gift of discernment in that he was skeptical about the motivations and even the wisdom or abilities of the “wise” men who had been called to serve him and he was not about to put them in a place of power and then just take whatever they might dish out. He was going to make them accountable, in a verifiable sort of way, for their actions. In the end, the king’s skepticism served to work the will of the Lord God of Heaven, as he revealed both the dream and its interpretation through Daniel.
Thought: As professing Christians, we should be more careful to “test” the things that we hear. If even pagans can benefit from discernment and God uses it in their lives, how much more should we be discerning if only as an act of honor and obedience to Him? Will He not also bless and benefit us if we heed His word and cultivate an attitude and habits of discernment?
I challenge you, this week, to challenge the things that you hear, not merely to be a skeptic but to practice discernment as all godly people are instructed to do. And remember to be always on your guard. Nebuchadnezzar listened to his advisors later when he should have been more discerning. Daniel ended up sleeping with lions.
By His grace, there is more to come….
In this case, the king was so adamant about his command that he started out telling his “wise” men what the penalty for failure would be. It was no small thing, since the king promised that they would die and even their houses would be destroyed. Wow! How terrible is this, and the only way to avoid it was to first tell the king what he dreamed and then to give an accurate interpretation. It is almost as though the king had got tired of hearing silly things from his supposed “wise” men, as though he had received poor advice one too many times. He told them that he had already made up his mind, that there was no avoiding what he had already determined.
Apparently, the “wise” men didn’t quite “get it.” They really thought that this was going to be business as usual. They must have thought that this was one of the king’s jokes because they certainly did not take him seriously. Instead, the merely asked him a second time to tell them the dream and offered to give an interpretation of whatever dream he laid out before them. But this made the king angry. I think maybe he was becoming tired of being taken for granted by some of his top advisors. So, when they asked him the second time, he replied by accusing them of trying to buy additional time.
What kind of a man (because the king was first a man and only second was he a king) asks ANYONE to reveal out loud what he only knew from the recesses of his mind, and then in a dream while he was sleeping? What kind of a man makes this kind of a demand of his most faithful, his most trusted and closest advisors? What kind of a man uses this demand as a set-up, already believing that these men were in their positions more for their own good than for his?
This was not a righteous man, but he exhibited some of the qualities that God calls His people to have. In this case, the king exhibited a gift of discernment in that he was skeptical about the motivations and even the wisdom or abilities of the “wise” men who had been called to serve him and he was not about to put them in a place of power and then just take whatever they might dish out. He was going to make them accountable, in a verifiable sort of way, for their actions. In the end, the king’s skepticism served to work the will of the Lord God of Heaven, as he revealed both the dream and its interpretation through Daniel.
Thought: As professing Christians, we should be more careful to “test” the things that we hear. If even pagans can benefit from discernment and God uses it in their lives, how much more should we be discerning if only as an act of honor and obedience to Him? Will He not also bless and benefit us if we heed His word and cultivate an attitude and habits of discernment?
I challenge you, this week, to challenge the things that you hear, not merely to be a skeptic but to practice discernment as all godly people are instructed to do. And remember to be always on your guard. Nebuchadnezzar listened to his advisors later when he should have been more discerning. Daniel ended up sleeping with lions.
By His grace, there is more to come….
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Daniel 1: Part 3 of 3
Sometimes we look at the characters of the Bible as though they were old and out of touch with reality, especially out of touch with the reality of our day. However, I wonder how many of us today would find ourselves fitting in comfortably with the conditions we read of in Scripture. Lion’s dens do not sound like comfortable overnight accommodations and fiery furnaces do not sound like the saunas of our time.
The characters that are presented for our consideration in Daniel are extraordinary human beings. We are even amazed at the decisions and actions of some of the pagans who came in contact with Daniel and his friends. Think for a moment of the incredible impression Daniel and his friends must have made on the guard that the king had assigned to their care as well as their security. He did not “do his job” without regard for the lives entrusted to his care. He apparently watched them and got to know their characters because he responded with both fear and trust when Daniel asked him to ignore the king’s orders in favor of their own proposal.
This guy could easily have put the king’s food in front of them and forced them to either eat or go hungry. That would certainly have been a different story, but God apparently moved the heart of this guard to listen to the pleas and proposals of Daniel and his friends. There is no indication that Daniel or his friends begged, pleaded, cajoled, or manipulated their way into getting the food that they requested, the food that was approved by the God of Heaven. They merely laid out a plan which they knew would honor God, a plan which God could honor in and through them. This plan did not involve ignoring the king’s commands altogether because they did not advocate or insist on a hunger strike. They did not try to anger the king whom they were now honor-bound to serve as though he were their own king.
What if God had not responded to this gesture of faith? What if He had not blessed them with the tremendous health that he gave Daniel and his friends? They had agreed to eat the food provided by the king if God did not favor them in this plan. Would not God have been honored just as much by their message of faith and their obedient service to the new king without insisting on their adherence to dietary laws?
God softened the heart of the guard toward these young men of Israel. He made it possible for them to remain faithful to Him and obedient to His commands while still obtaining the king's favor. This reminds us of Luke 2:52 where it says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. (KJV) The Lord then favored them with better health than could be provided by the best nutritionists and dietitians at the king’s disposal, better health than the others who were attending the University and eating from the King's table. He not only blessed them with health but He also gifted them in extraordinary ways so that they could do incredible things (interpret dreams, etc.), further setting them apart from the king’s other experts. In this way, they proved that their service to the king would be most effective and most desirable if they remained faithful in their service to God first (see Daniel 1:17-20).
Thought: When God gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the first commandment that He gave was an instruction to put Him first. He said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3, KJV) Since that time, the enemy of our souls has tried to tempt us in many ways to ignore God’s commands and put our own needs or desires in front of His. So this is nothing new and yet we fall prey to the tactic on a daily basis. Jesus’ own response to such temptations was to quote Scripture and to stand firm in the face of the temptation and its consequences.
We often speak and sing of victory in Christ as we gather for worship. However, I wonder how often we are actually experiencing the kind of victory that Daniel and his friends experienced, victory over temptation and victory over sin by not yielding? Are you yielding to temptation today or are you standing firm. To stand fast, you may need to quote the Scripture to the enemy of your soul. I encourage you today to stand fast by knowing God, knowing the Scripture, and committing yourself to being true to your Saviour, regardless of the temptations that assail you.
By His grace, there is more to come…
The characters that are presented for our consideration in Daniel are extraordinary human beings. We are even amazed at the decisions and actions of some of the pagans who came in contact with Daniel and his friends. Think for a moment of the incredible impression Daniel and his friends must have made on the guard that the king had assigned to their care as well as their security. He did not “do his job” without regard for the lives entrusted to his care. He apparently watched them and got to know their characters because he responded with both fear and trust when Daniel asked him to ignore the king’s orders in favor of their own proposal.
This guy could easily have put the king’s food in front of them and forced them to either eat or go hungry. That would certainly have been a different story, but God apparently moved the heart of this guard to listen to the pleas and proposals of Daniel and his friends. There is no indication that Daniel or his friends begged, pleaded, cajoled, or manipulated their way into getting the food that they requested, the food that was approved by the God of Heaven. They merely laid out a plan which they knew would honor God, a plan which God could honor in and through them. This plan did not involve ignoring the king’s commands altogether because they did not advocate or insist on a hunger strike. They did not try to anger the king whom they were now honor-bound to serve as though he were their own king.
What if God had not responded to this gesture of faith? What if He had not blessed them with the tremendous health that he gave Daniel and his friends? They had agreed to eat the food provided by the king if God did not favor them in this plan. Would not God have been honored just as much by their message of faith and their obedient service to the new king without insisting on their adherence to dietary laws?
God softened the heart of the guard toward these young men of Israel. He made it possible for them to remain faithful to Him and obedient to His commands while still obtaining the king's favor. This reminds us of Luke 2:52 where it says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. (KJV) The Lord then favored them with better health than could be provided by the best nutritionists and dietitians at the king’s disposal, better health than the others who were attending the University and eating from the King's table. He not only blessed them with health but He also gifted them in extraordinary ways so that they could do incredible things (interpret dreams, etc.), further setting them apart from the king’s other experts. In this way, they proved that their service to the king would be most effective and most desirable if they remained faithful in their service to God first (see Daniel 1:17-20).
Thought: When God gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the first commandment that He gave was an instruction to put Him first. He said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3, KJV) Since that time, the enemy of our souls has tried to tempt us in many ways to ignore God’s commands and put our own needs or desires in front of His. So this is nothing new and yet we fall prey to the tactic on a daily basis. Jesus’ own response to such temptations was to quote Scripture and to stand firm in the face of the temptation and its consequences.
We often speak and sing of victory in Christ as we gather for worship. However, I wonder how often we are actually experiencing the kind of victory that Daniel and his friends experienced, victory over temptation and victory over sin by not yielding? Are you yielding to temptation today or are you standing firm. To stand fast, you may need to quote the Scripture to the enemy of your soul. I encourage you today to stand fast by knowing God, knowing the Scripture, and committing yourself to being true to your Saviour, regardless of the temptations that assail you.
By His grace, there is more to come…
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Daniel 1 (continued)
Isn’t it odd that Nebuchadnezzar picks from among his captives, his new slaves, to send some to “Nebuchadnezzar University of Babylon” (so to speak)? There is no indication that any tuition would charged of them. However, he did not pick just any slaves for this assignment. He had his men pick from among the Israelites the best of the very best. These were men who were young both in mind and body. This would ordinarily mean that they would be impressionable and quick learners. Those qualities would seem quite desirable for a King who was about to send his enemies back to school. Further, it was his stated intention, from the beginning, that these young men would be trained so that they would eventually be qualified to serve him, in his palace.
In today’s world, this would be looked on as a great privilege indeed. Most Americans today, especially in our current economic condition, would immediately accept an offer like this and would be willing to abandon all that they have and, in many cases, all that they believe so that they could succeed in their new position. After all, they would be in a position of tremendous influence in an empire that was already very influential for its day and time. This is an opportunity for power as well as for great wealth!
The king, being accustomed to having nothing but the best, especially at his table, made arrangements for these young men to eat food prepared for him. This would have been some of the best cuisine of the day, prepared by some of the best chefs of the day. It would have been an envious position indeed for any young man just beginning his career. We’re not talking cafeteria food but haute cuisine! Wow!
They turned it down. That’s right. It would have violated the dietary laws set down for them by God if they had eaten the food the king had selected. Surely, God wouldn’t argue about eating whatever was set before them would He? Is He such a difficult task master that He would regulate the daily ration while in captivity?
In this case, that is not the issue. God might very well have forgiven them for eating what the king set before them. Rather, this is an issue of a deliberate decision to be faithful, obedient to the God whose they were. They did not make excuses or ask for permission (of God) to deviate from His prescribed plan. It might have made more sense (and would certainly have been more desirable) to just go along with the plan set forth by their captors but these were no ordinary men. If they had been, they would not have been selected for these positions (see vv 3-4).
Thought: Over the past several years, I have frequently heard the sentiment, “It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.” While the factual truth of this statement may seem obvious on the surface, our actions always have consequences and we need to think about those consequences before taking any action. In Psalm 106:15 it says, “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” (KJV) We sometimes make better choices when we know in advance what the price of our actions will be.
The question we must ask ourselves in the abundant activity of daily life is whether we are being true to His calling on our lives. If He has not called you to a vocation, you can be assured through Scripture that He has called you to holiness. As we examine our lives to determine where we stand with Him, we ought to ask ourselves whether our thoughts and actions bring Him honor. If they do not seem to be immoral but they fail to honor the One who gave His all for us, we give Him less than our best and much less than He deserves.
By His grace, there is more to come…
In today’s world, this would be looked on as a great privilege indeed. Most Americans today, especially in our current economic condition, would immediately accept an offer like this and would be willing to abandon all that they have and, in many cases, all that they believe so that they could succeed in their new position. After all, they would be in a position of tremendous influence in an empire that was already very influential for its day and time. This is an opportunity for power as well as for great wealth!
The king, being accustomed to having nothing but the best, especially at his table, made arrangements for these young men to eat food prepared for him. This would have been some of the best cuisine of the day, prepared by some of the best chefs of the day. It would have been an envious position indeed for any young man just beginning his career. We’re not talking cafeteria food but haute cuisine! Wow!
They turned it down. That’s right. It would have violated the dietary laws set down for them by God if they had eaten the food the king had selected. Surely, God wouldn’t argue about eating whatever was set before them would He? Is He such a difficult task master that He would regulate the daily ration while in captivity?
In this case, that is not the issue. God might very well have forgiven them for eating what the king set before them. Rather, this is an issue of a deliberate decision to be faithful, obedient to the God whose they were. They did not make excuses or ask for permission (of God) to deviate from His prescribed plan. It might have made more sense (and would certainly have been more desirable) to just go along with the plan set forth by their captors but these were no ordinary men. If they had been, they would not have been selected for these positions (see vv 3-4).
Thought: Over the past several years, I have frequently heard the sentiment, “It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.” While the factual truth of this statement may seem obvious on the surface, our actions always have consequences and we need to think about those consequences before taking any action. In Psalm 106:15 it says, “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” (KJV) We sometimes make better choices when we know in advance what the price of our actions will be.
The question we must ask ourselves in the abundant activity of daily life is whether we are being true to His calling on our lives. If He has not called you to a vocation, you can be assured through Scripture that He has called you to holiness. As we examine our lives to determine where we stand with Him, we ought to ask ourselves whether our thoughts and actions bring Him honor. If they do not seem to be immoral but they fail to honor the One who gave His all for us, we give Him less than our best and much less than He deserves.
By His grace, there is more to come…
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