Daniel 2: Getting the right perspective.

Before we go on, let’s make one thing perfectly clear. Before God can do the things that He desires to do, He has to be certain that we are in the right frame of mind. He has to make sure that we are listening. He ensures that the message He is sending will be perfectly clear (except for messages like parables, and Jesus addressed that issues in the Gospels).

This incident is just one more time that God had to make sure that “we” were listening. You see, God wanted to make sure that we could understand the difference between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God. He wanted us to know the difference between the voice of men and the voice of God. The “wise men” of Babylon weighed in on the dream subject at the beginning of Chapter 2 and concluded that no man could do what the king asked and no God would be interested enough to stoop to earth and get involved. Daniel then steps in, after all that we’ve considered the past couple of weeks, and makes a very different statement. He says in Daniel 2:27 and following that no man is capable of fulfilling the king’s request but that the God he served, the Creator of all that is, was very interested and had actually been the source of the “wisdom” he was about to share with the king. Not only was he giving credit where credit was due, he was making a very important statement about the God that we encounter in the pages of the Bible.

The statement he was making about God says that God is personal, intimate, and very interested in the details of our lives. This is not only true, it is a fundamental element of our Faith. If God were not all of these things (and so much more) then He would not have been interested in our plight and might have destroyed us all and started over (as many people suggest He should have.) It is precisely because He IS interested in us as individuals, in a very intimate way, that He provided a Savior that is sufficient to meet every detail of our needy souls.

But what does Daniel’s statement say about Daniel and how should we see his behavior in light of our own circumstances and culture? Turn for a moment to I Peter 2:9. The King James Version says it this way: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”. When I was a lot younger, I remember hearing people talk about what it meant to be peculiar. I remember thinking (as an impressionable teen who wanted desperately to belong) that we shouldn’t try to be different just for the sake of being different. In fact, it was exactly the “being different” that I was worried about. It’s is nearly impossible to fit in as a teen when you are very different from those that you want to be accepted by.

Now I realize that God has not called us to be peculiar for the sake of peculiarity; rather, He has called us to be peculiar because we will stand out as being very different if we just faithfully follow Him where He has called us to go. So, it is not for the sake of peculiarity but for the sake of Jesus Himself. Isn’t that the very focus of our study? Aren’t we seeking how to make it, “All About Him?”
In Daniel’s case, he was different. That was not the issue. The real issue was whether he would embrace the difference and the relationship with God which made him different, and BE different for God without apology. He stood tall before the king and explained, without apology, how and why he was different. More importantly, he explained to the Babylonian king how his God was different than all other gods and how He was interested even in the intimate details of our lives, even if those details were “just” a dream.

Thought: Jesus said that He would be ashamed of us before the Father if we were ashamed of Him (here on earth). Daniel certainly was not ashamed. He declared his purpose, his place, and his God with great boldness, even when his audience was the enemy king that had taken him captive and removed him from his home and family. I submit to you that this is the very essence of faithfulness. This is the kind of person, the kind of character, the kind of strength of will that God is looking for in us.

Daniel really did not more for God than we would expect our best friends to do for us if we found ourselves in a tight spot. If we are to be the true friends of God, we should not be surprised that He expects as much from us!

By His grace, there is more to come….