Daniel 2: Out on a Limb? Don’t cut it off!

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….