The God of Daniel!!!
Finishing up our Vacation Bible School this week, I was reminded just how much our God desires to magnify Himself through His people. Have you ever thought why God would wait until His people are cooperative before He reveals Himself in miraculous ways?
There was nothing special about Daniel except His faith and confidence in God. Daniel had the amazing ability to realize that “things are not as they seem”, something we have been learning in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Daniel’s faith allowed him to faithfully endure the disciplinary hand of God that was the direct result of another generation’s failure to obey! Daniel had the faith to see things as they really are.
Consider the context in which Daniel found himself:
1) Israel was being disciplined by God for not allowing the land to rest every seventh year. God warned Israel long ago, that if they did not heed His command (Leviticus 25:1-7), they would experience God’s chastisement (2 Chronicles 36:21, Jeremiah 25:11, 25:12). Daniel was now enduring the chastisement in which others provoked. Yet even in this situation, Daniel recognized God’s sovereignty, trusted in His goodness, and rested in His presence and provision, His words and promises.
2) Daniel was literally stripped from his family, home, and of his very own name (now Belteshazzaar). Yet even when everything changed around him, Daniel remained faithful to his unchanging uncompromising God. As a result, Daniel experienced great security, rest and confidence in God’s power words and promises.
3) When Daniel was faced with trial after trial, his faith in God only strengthened:
- When asked to disobey his God and eat food that an Israelite was forbidden to eat, Daniel refused. Even when it “looked like” King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon’s gods were more powerful than his God; even though Daniel lost everything and was now forced to learn a new language, culture, and way of life; even though it could have cost him his life, Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself (Daniel 1:8).
- When asked to do the impossible, and tell the king what he dreamt and then interpret it, Daniel sought God. God miraculously provided Daniel with the answer, and as a result, spared the lives of all of the king’s “wisemen” (Daniel 2). Daniel and his three friends were then promoted.
- When asked to compromise his faith for a mere thirty days, and pray only to the earthly king Darius or be thrown to the lion’s den, Daniel stayed consistent, praying his regular three times a day in front of the same window, and only to his God (Daniel 6).
Daniel not only knew and believed that it was his Sovereign God allowing Babylon to overthrow his people (Daniel 1:3), but he also embraced God’s seventy years of discipline as righteously just, absolutely necessary, and graciously executed! Just read Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9 to appreciate Daniel’s perspective during this time. In fact, it becomes increasingly clearer why God gave Daniel the great prophecies that would accurately predict the unfolding events of mankind’s future and world end (Chapters 2, 7-8, 10-12). Daniel’s trust in God allowed him to see things as they really are (Daniel 2:20-22 below)!
One final note: Daniel seemed ever so willing to embrace the trials and suffering that seemed to be the result of another person’s disobedience and neglect (this is how we would perceive it from our fleshly mind)! But instead, Daniel seems to embrace all his trials as though they were from the very hand of God Himself, because in fact, they were! As a result, the purpose in Daniel’s life was to continually entrust (hand over) himself to the true King, cooperate with His divine plan and will, until He sets up His Eternal Kingdom. No wonder the Apostles James and Peter focus so much on our joyful cooperation in trials (James 1:1-3, 1 Peter 1:6-8, 2:18-25).
Putting myself in Daniel’s shoes for the week of VBS reminded me that nothing is wasted in life. If we, His people, will submit and entrust ourselves to Him, if we will truly believe that He orchestrates the affairs in our lives, if we will dare to obey Him without compromise, then we will experience the same rest, peace, and power that Daniel’s life portrayed! Why does God wait for our cooperation? Simply this… He waits for us to respond to His initiation. In the creation of the universe, God speaks, His creation obeys. In our original design and purpose, we were not created to rebel and resist Him… we were created to respond faithfully to His voice. As new creations in Christ, we were given another chance to know Him, to love, obey, and glorify Him. Therefore, since all the suffering, pain and trials in life are the direct result of someone (including ourselves) not listening and heeding the voice of God, we who possess God’s Spirit within now have new incentives, motives, power and ability to respond faithfully to our Eternal Creator King. God will only reign in the hearts of those who respond to His invitation to be King. Those who have responded to His invitation are given the ability to see things as they really are, which allows them to faithfully endure through any trial in life, and come through the fire as purified gold (1 Peter 1:6-9).
Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.” (Daniel 2:20–22)
Serving the Sovereign Eternal King with you,
Pastor Dan