The Lord of History (Daniel 2)

Who has the power? 

I recently read the highly acclaimed novel Purple Hibiscus.  In it, Kambili, a teenaged girl in a wealthy Nigerian family knows that all the power is in the hands of her father, Eugene Achike.  The novel is the story of this quiet, insightful girl discovering her own soul as she navigates the scary world of her oppressive dad’s abuse and benevolence.  He can be either, abusive or benevolent, because he has all the power. 

Look around your life.  At work; at home; out and about, around town; at extended family gatherings; in dealing with public officials; who holds the power in your life?  Are those who hold power heavy handed?  Do you feel pushed?  Do you have the power to push back?  Are the powerful generous?  Do they empower you, or keep you down?  If they keep you down, is there anything you can do? 

What is our understanding of power? 

In the book of Daniel, we find young Jews, forced into exile in Babylon.  They are subject to the whims of the mighty Babylonian king.  Remember, this story happens away from the land of Israel.  The Babylonians, intended to transform these Jewish they had taken into the way of Babylonian nobility.  Among the exiles were four friends, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  These four were exceptional intellects and fiercely loyal to God.

As we enter the story, imagine the power holders in your life.  When you think ‘power,’ do you envision President Trump?  Does a bully from school who has lorded over you come to mind?  Do you think of your mom or dad, or an authoritative grandparent, someone to whom your entire family defers?  As we step into Daniel keep in your mind, your own sense of who holds the power.   

            It begins,

2 ^1-3 In the second year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar started having dreams that disturbed him deeply. He called in all the Babylonian magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and fortunetellers to interpret his dreams for him. When they lined up before the king, he said, “I had a dream that I can’t get out of my mind. I can’t sleep until I know what it means.”

⁴ The fortunetellers, speaking in the Aramaic language, said, “Long live the king! Tell us the dream and we will interpret it.”

^5-6 The king answered the fortunetellers, “This is my decree: If you can’t tell me both the dream itself and its interpretation, I’ll have you ripped to pieces, limb from limb, and your homes torn down. But if you tell me both the dream and its interpretation, I’ll lavish you with gifts and honors. So go to it: Tell me the dream and its interpretation.”

⁷ They answered, “If it please your majesty, tell us the dream. We’ll give the interpretation.”

^8-9 But the king said, “You’re wasting time. You know that if you can’t tell me my dream, you’re doomed. I see right through you—you’re going to make up stories and confuse the issue until I change my mind. Nothing doing! First tell me the dream, then I’ll know that you’re legit with your interpretation.”

^10-11 The fortunetellers said, “Nobody anywhere can do what you ask. And no king, great or small, has ever demanded anything like this from any magician, enchanter, or fortuneteller. What you’re asking is impossible unless some god or goddess should reveal it—and they don’t hang around with people like us.”

            Now, note this!  The fortune tellers may be frauds when it comes to actual spiritual insight, total charlatans; snake-oil salesmen.  However, what they tell the king here is completely true.  There’s no way they could look into his head and know his dreams

^12-13 Their frank admission of their own limitations set the king off. He lost his temper and ordered the whole company of Babylonian wise men killed. When the death warrant was issued, Daniel and his companions were included. They also were marked for execution.

^14-15 When Arioch, chief of the royal guards, was making arrangements for the execution, Daniel wisely took him aside and quietly asked what was going on: “Why this all of a sudden?”

^15-16 After Arioch filled in the background, Daniel went to the king and asked for a little time so that he could interpret the dream.

^17-18 Daniel then went home and told his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what was going on. He asked them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy in solving this mystery so that the four of them wouldn’t be killed along with the whole company of Babylonian wise men.

            Daniel’s first act was to pray and to invite the community of the faithful to join him in prayer.  When we come up against the power holders in our lives, how much time do we spend worrying and how much time do we spend praying?  You can do both.  We can pray while carrying burdensome worries. And we should.  But how much time do we spend just worrying without even give a bit of attention to the power held by the creator of the universe who, in the Holy Spirit, is with us all the time?  God is real, is present, loves us, wants to help, and is able to help?  Do we trust God or simply surrender to the powers around us that would control us for their purposes, not for our good?

^19-23 That night the answer to the mystery was given to Daniel in a vision. Daniel blessed the God of heaven, saying,

“Blessed be the name of God,
    forever and ever.
He knows all, does all:
    He changes the seasons and guides history,
He raises up kings and also brings them down,
    he provides both intelligence and discernment,
He opens up the depths, tells secrets,
    sees in the dark—light spills out of him!
God of all my ancestors, all thanks! all praise!
    You made me wise and strong.
And now you’ve shown us what we asked for.
    You’ve solved the king’s mystery.”

            We need to know the King’s dream so Daniel can interpret it and avoid a violent, painful death.  But, the writers of Daniel don’t think that’s the most important thing.  Before telling us how Daniel avoids suffering and destruction, they tell us how Daniel praised God.  Praise of God is more important than easing the anxiety of a pagan king.

            Daniel said of God. “He knows all and does all.  He changes the seasons and guides history.”  Anything King Nebuchadnezzar has, he has because God allows it.  That king was evil and did evil things.  God did not cause him to do evil things.  There are evil power holders in the world today and when they say stupid, racist things and do evil things, they are not speaking and acting on God’s will.  But, they are only able to act on the evil in them because God allows it.  In God’s perfect timing, the powers in the world are toppled. 

            At the end of history, the overthrow of evil happens permanently and the Kingdom of God, which began coming in Christ, comes in fully.  Why has this not come to fulfillment yet?  I don’t know God’s timing.  But I believe in God’s wisdom.  In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, Jesus tells a story of wheat growing alongside weeds.  The wheat is the fruit of the Kingdom of God and the weeds are the presence of evil in God’s good world.  Jesus says that for the time being, the evil and the Godly grow side-by-side, but at the last judgment, the wheat will be gathered into God’ “barn,” the New Heaven and New Earth joined in perfect harmony.  

            Until that time, the Lord of history, the true power in the world, our God, is with us in the form of Holy Spirit, guiding us as we live as His people, inviting the lost into his family.  That’s how Daniel navigated the paganism of King Nebuchadnezzar, as an enslaved exile.  He lived as God’s child in an evil environment by keeping his eyes on God, fully trusting in God’s presence and God’s power.

The story picks up in verse 24.

²⁴ Daniel went back to Arioch, who had been put in charge of the execution. He said, “Call off the execution! Take me to the king and I’ll interpret his dream.”

²⁵ Arioch didn’t lose a minute. He ran to the king, bringing Daniel with him, and said, “I’ve found a man from the exiles of Judah who can interpret the king’s dream!”

²⁶ The king asked Daniel (renamed in Babylonian, Belteshazzar), “Are you sure you can do this—tell me the dream I had and interpret it for me?”

Note that at this point, Daniel essentially tells the king the same thing all his magicians and soothsayers said when they failed to know the king’s dream.

^27-28 Daniel answered the king, “No mere human can solve the king’s mystery, I don’t care who it is—no wise man, enchanter, magician, diviner. But there is a God in heaven who solves mysteries, and he has solved this one. He is letting King Nebuchadnezzar in on what is going to happen in the days ahead. This is the dream you had when you were lying on your bed, the vision that filled your mind:

^29-30 “While you were stretched out on your bed, O king, thoughts came to you regarding what is coming in the days ahead. The Revealer of Mysteries showed you what will happen. But the interpretation is given through me, not because I’m any smarter than anyone else in the country, but so that you will know what it means, so that you will understand what you dreamed.

^31-36 “What you saw, O king, was a huge statue standing before you, striking in appearance. And terrifying. The head of the statue was pure gold, the chest and arms were silver, the belly and hips were bronze, the legs were iron, and the feet were an iron-ceramic mixture. While you were looking at this statue, a stone cut out of a mountain by an invisible hand hit the statue, smashing its iron-ceramic feet. Then the whole thing fell to pieces—iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold, smashed to bits. It was like scraps of old newspapers in a vacant lot in a hot dry summer, blown every which way by the wind, scattered to oblivion. But the stone that hit the statue became a huge mountain, dominating the horizon. This was your dream.

^36-40 “And now we’ll interpret it for the king. You, O king, are the most powerful king on earth. The God of heaven has given you everything: rule, power, strength, and glory. He has put you in charge of men and women, wild animals and birds, all over the world—you’re the head ruler, you are the head of gold. But your rule will be taken over by another kingdom, inferior to yours, and that one by a third, a bronze kingdom, but still ruling the whole land, and after that by a fourth kingdom, ironlike in strength. Just as iron smashes things to bits, breaking and pulverizing, it will bust up the previous kingdoms.

^41-43 “But then the feet and toes that ended up as a mixture of ceramic and iron will deteriorate into a mongrel kingdom with some remains of iron in it. Just as the toes of the feet were part ceramic and part iron, it will end up a mixed bag of the breakable and unbreakable. That kingdom won’t bond, won’t hold together any more than iron and clay hold together.

^44-45 “But throughout the history of these kingdoms, the God of heaven will be building a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom ever fall under the domination of another. In the end it will crush the other kingdoms and finish them off and come through it all standing strong and eternal. It will be like the stone cut from the mountain by the invisible hand that crushed the iron, the bronze, the ceramic, the silver, and the gold.

“The great God has let the king know what will happen in the years to come. This is an accurate telling of the dream, and the interpretation is also accurate.”

^46-47 When Daniel finished, King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face in awe before Daniel. He ordered the offering of sacrifices and burning of incense in Daniel’s honor. He said to Daniel, “Your God is beyond question the God of all gods, the Master of all kings. And he solves all mysteries, I know, because you’ve solved this mystery.”

^48-49 Then the king promoted Daniel to a high position in the kingdom, lavished him with gifts, and made him governor over the entire province of Babylon and the chief in charge of all the Babylonian wise men. At Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to administrative posts throughout Babylon, while Daniel governed from the royal headquarters.

            Living as a slave, forced to be in Babylon, Daniel rose to the top of the government.  He put all his trust in God as the overseer of all. 

Power has many faces in our time – the president; entertainment figures and business moguls.  In our town, powers appears to lie with the people who are bigwigs at the university or the leaders of the companies where we work.  In our social circles and in our own families, certain people seem to be the ones to whom everyone else defers. 

God is over all and God is with.  God may not elevate us to the top of government or the top of the company, but will elevate us.  God will comfort us, redeem us, and empower us.  As we are the voice of God’s compassion, insisting upon God’s truth, and speaking out in the face of oppressive powers, God walks with us, guiding us forward.  God will be faithful in meeting our needs as he was with Daniel.

“Truly, your God is a revealer of mysteries,” the king told Daniel. 

Daniel agreed saying of God, “He reveals deep and hidden things.” 

What will God the Revealer, reveal in our lives this week?  We find out as we look to Him in all things and in all places.  We don’t think as much about people around us, supposedly powerful people.  We don’t have the space.  Our brains and hearts are full of thought of God, love for God.  We turn to Him and He shows us the way.

AMEN