Daniel 2:20,21 – “The Most High Rules”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰Daniel answering and saying,

Blessed be the name of the God from the ages upon the ages,

because the wisdom and the power are to Him.

²¹And He [is] the One changing the seasons and the times,

One taking away kings and One setting up kings,

One giving the wisdom to the wise ones

And the understanding to ones knowing insight.

The Most High rules.

Daniel trusted in the God of Israel and found Him faithful. Surrounded by the worship of a pantheon of gods and himself trained in the “wisdom” of Babylon, Daniel chose in spite of it all to believe that only the Most High could grant to him the true wisdom which would save him and his friends and the other “wise” men. And even the dream itself only further confirmed for Daniel what he had chosen to believe: The Most Rules.

Before Daniel goes to reveal the dream and its meaning to Nebuchadnezzar, he pauses to revel in the wonder of this amazing God. He has just seen for himself in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream the very rise and fall of the great civilizations of human history. As we have noted before, Daniel lived in a time of great political upheaval. His very captivity is the result of these shifting political fortunes. Yet what does the dream tell him? The Most High Rules. In his own life and throughout human history. The Most High Rules.

Daniel notes He is “the One changing the seasons and the times, One taking away kings and One setting up kings.”   My wife and I often say to each other, “Nothing stays the same.” The older we get, the more we realize it is true: “Nothing stays the same.” Time and again we get comfortable with everything from our church, to our pharmacy, to the operating system on our computer, to every other detail of our lives … only to suddenly find it has changed. Nothing stays the same. Except God! He is of course the same yesterday, today, and forever, which is a great comfort in the swirl of this shifting shadow life. But it is even more encouraging to know that it is this very Unchanging One who rules over all the changes! “He changes seasons and times.” The Most High Rules.

And of course the political fortunes of our world are equally liquid. Even within our own lifetimes we watch the political landscape of our world in constant upheaval. Nations literally rise and fall before our very eyes. I grew up in the Cold War and actually saw the Iron Curtain fall. We saw the mighty Soviet Union fall, then have watched as once sleepy China rose to be a new world power. And here at home, we had to suffer through eight years of the Obama administration, wondering if our nation would even survive, only to see God raise up Donald Trump to re-establish the rule of law our country was built on. We hope and pray in fact God is preserving our nation. He Himself said He wants rulers to provide a world where people can live “peaceful, quiet lives,” and that for the very reason that He wants “all men to be saved.” I sincerely hope that will be the outcome of this most recent political upheaval.

But regardless of which way the world’s kingdoms blow, we, with Daniel, can worship at the feel of Him who controls it all. The Most High Rules.

It looks arbitrary.  As wars rage, no one knows who will be the victor. Even war itself seems sometimes to be a matter of pure chance. Elections come and go and it seems as if the results are driven by campaigns and promises and advertising gimmicks. No wonder the people who do not know God freak out. No wonder the whole world seems to be locked in a constant battle for power, and for the money they think buys them that power.

But we can rest assured the real power behind it all is the God of Daniel. He is “the One changing the seasons and the times, One taking away kings and One setting up kings.”

And then as we hear people say, “Knowledge is power.” And it is. But where does it come from? Well, obviously, it comes from studying and thinking and doing research and going to school, right? Sort of. Those may be the normal means from which we gain knowledge but, as Daniel says, our God is “One giving the wisdom to the wise ones, and the understanding to ones knowing insight.” We can “study” all we want, but who lights the spark of understanding within us? Who takes those studies and suddenly “turns on the lights?” Once again, it is our great God. I often marvel at Albert Einstein. How could any man figure out that time is curved? How could anyone ever really figure out our world is made of unseeable atoms and molecules? How did anyone ever figure out how to turn iron into steel? How can people sit down and right music which isn’t just “nice,” but literally classic? “The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov 2:6). As He said of the Tabernacle in Exodus 31:6, “I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you.” It all comes from Him. The Most High Rules.

It all comes from Him.

“Every good and perfect gift comes down from above …” (James 1:17).

When Jesus returns He will have written on His robe and on His thigh the name, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 19:16).

The Most High Rules.

For us who know Him, who know He is not only powerful but good, we live in a world of blessed assurance. We often forget it, we often struggle to see it, even to believe it, but regardless of it all, we have a Rock to trust in.

The Most High Rules.

God, help me every day to see You behind the swirl of life and to rest in that truth. May I be free from the power struggle, free from the love of money, free to love and give because I know Him who rules it all.

Daniel 2:19,20 – “Blessed Be the Name”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹Then to Daniel in the vision of the night a mystery was revealed. Then he blessed the God of the heavens. ²⁰Daniel answering and saying,

Blessed be the name of the God from the ages upon the ages,

because the wisdom and the power are to Him.

Answered prayer. How amazing is it when we pray and get to see God answer? In v18, we just read, “Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of Heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” The young men together turned to God and prayed.

Think for a minute what they were doing. Here are young men in a foreign land. The greatest king on earth has decreed they are to be executed. There is no “sanctuary” where they can hide. They can’t escape. There is no appellate court or any constitutional right to fair trial. They have at most a few hours to live.

Because they’re human, they had to be in great fear. Yet, in their fear, they turned to God for mercy. “… he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6).

What they needed and what they’re asking for is impossible. Humanly speaking there is no way we can know what someone else dreamed, much less what it meant. And to be unable to do so meant they were about to be executed, and again, they have absolutely no escape. Humanly speaking, they are about to die. Period.

Yet they have a God to whom “impossible” means nothing. “With God all things are possible.” And so with David they pray, “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in Thee: yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, ’til these calamities be passed by. I will cry unto God Most High; unto God who performeth all things for me” (Ps 57:1,2).

I’m not facing anything so serious as my impending execution, but I certainly know how these guys feel. As I sit here early on a Monday morning, I’m headed into work where there are a number of situations which are very frightening to me. Some are more serious than others, but all remind me that I’m living at the end of myself. My son and his wife just gave us a new grand-daughter, but there are uncertainties all around her health. Whether at work or at home, I need to and want to get results that in many ways I simply don’t have the power or perhaps the wisdom to secure. My grand daughter’s health hangs in the balance. At work, people are depending on me. What to do? Well, obviously, we’ll all keep praying for our little girl and I’m confident my son and his wife will get the best medical care available. I’ll head in to work and make the phone calls, do the calculations, do everything that is within my wisdom and power, and then I must trust this God who does in fact “dwell among men.” I must go on trying to be kind, trying to treat other people with respect, and, rather than turning on them, I need to turn to the God of Heaven and believe that He will in fact work all things together for my good. Then, like the guys here, it is, of course, wonderful when we actually get to see the answer to those prayers right before our eyes!

But whether we do or don’t, Daniel’s response is still true: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are His.” This God who does in fact “dwell among men” is worthy of our praises and our deepest trust. Daniel and his friends turned to this God and He delivered them. He did for them what was impossible. And I love the first thing Daniel says, “Wisdom and power are His.” The two things we all lack – wisdom and power – actually belong to our God! It wouldn’t be enough if He had wisdom but then lacked the power to use it. But it would be a sad thing indeed if He had power but lacked the wisdom to use it benevolently. To our God belong both!

This is precisely why the psalmist can say of the godly man, “Surely he will never be shaken … He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, confident in the Lord” (112:6,7). The more we know our God, the more we can walk confident in Him. The more we know Him, the more we learn that in fact “wisdom and power are His.” Faith very often ends up a matter of believing this in spite of our fears. I often (usually) don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to make things turn out “right.” And even if I think I know, I most of the time live keenly aware that too many things seem out of my control. I don’t have the power. But God does. “Wisdom and power are His.” And so we pray. And so we invite others to pray with us. And sometimes we get to see those prayers answered right before our eyes. And sometimes we don’t.

But the people who know their God just keep on praying, keep on loving and giving, keep on trying. Sometimes they (we) fail, but no matter what, He goes on being worthy of praise, the God to whom belong wisdom and power.

All praise to Him who reigns above, in majesty supreme;

Who gave His Son for man to die, that He might man redeem.

Blessed be the Name.

Daniel 2:14-18 – “The People Who Know Their God”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴Then Daniel returned counsel and discernment to Arioch, the chief of the bodyguards of the king who had come to kill the wise men of Babel, ¹⁵anwering and speaking to Arioch the officer of the king, “Upon what a decree being harsh from before the king?” Then Arioch explained the matter to Daniel. ¹⁶And Daniel went in and sought from the king time he would give to him and the meaning to declare to the king. ¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and explained the matter to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹⁸and mercies to seek from before the God of the heavens about this mystery that they should not kill Daniel and his companions together with the rest of the wise men of Babel.

What a different story we read compared to the first thirteen verses! There we found a bunch of people utterly at the end of themselves, angry and turning on each other. Now what do we find? We find Daniel and his friends, probably rustled out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and informed they were about to be executed. And what did they do? They answered with “wisdom and tact,” they requested time with the expressed intention of giving the king what he was asking for, and, rather than turning on Arioch or each other, they together turned to God. What a difference.

That is “the people who know their God.”

The distraught wise men in verse 11 had exclaimed, “No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.!” They did not know the God of Heaven, so when suddenly their lives were imperiled, they had nowhere to turn. But Daniel and his friends live in a different world. They live in a world where there is a God who does in fact “dwell among men.” They worship a God who says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor Me” (Ps 50:15). They worship a God with whom they share a love relationship, as when He says of His people, “‘Because he loves Me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him’” (Ps. 91:14,15).

Daniel and his friends don’t have to turn on each other. They have a God to turn to.

And see what a difference it makes. Ever since we’ve met them, they’ve faced one painful trial after another. Yet in 1:8, Daniel “asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way …” and in 1:9, “God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel …” Then in 1:12, Daniel asked, “Please test your servants …” In 1:20, the king found them “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” Now again, they are faced with difficulty and Daniel speaks to Arioch, “with wisdom and tact.” And finally we see the source of all this apparent calmness -- they gather together “to plead for mercy from the God of Heaven.”

They are people “who know their God.”

They have a source of strength of which others know nothing. They have a refuge to run to when fear would drive them, like the others, to turn to lies and murder.

Now, in the real world, you can bet they are anything but calm inside. They are about to be murdered. You can bet they know the very depths of fear and trembling. They’re just people. “Terrified” is probably a fitting adjective at this point. But as they quake inside, they don’t explode on the outside. They continue to conduct themselves with “wisdom and tact.”

That’s what knowing God does for us. I would like to suggest we go through all the emotions any other human being goes through. We know fear and anger and hate. We know the same temptations to turn on others in our trials. And too often we do. But we don’t have to. We have a Rock, a Refuge, a Strong Defender, a Shield, a Savior, a Friend, a Hope. And so, in our hours of terror and trouble, we can turn to Him and not on each other.

“What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear …”

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

 Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.”

What a blessing it is to sit here some 2600 years later and be turning myself to this same God who in fact does “dwell among men.” What a blessing to be one of “the people who know their God!”

Daniel 2:4-13 – “Turning to God”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴And the Chaldeans said to the king [in] Aramaic, “O king, live to ages. Tell the dream to your servants and we will declare the interpretation.” ⁵The king answering said to the Chaldeans, “The word/thing from me is gone/assured. If you do not make known the dream and its interpretation, you will be taken [by] limbs and your houses will be made a dunghill. ⁶And if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive gifts and a present and great honor from before me. Therefore, declare [to] me the dream and its interpretation.” ⁷They answered again and saying, “O king, tell the dream to your servants and we will declare its interpretation.” ⁸Answering and saying the king, “From certain I knowing that the time you buying because you see that assured/departed from me the word/thing. ⁹But if the dream you will not make known to me, one [is] your law and lying and corrupted words you have conspired together to say before me until the time be changed. Therefore, the dream tell to me and I will know that its interpretation you declare to me. ¹⁰The Chaldeans answered before the king and saying, “There is not a man upon the earth who the matter of the king is able to declare because every king, chief, and lord a matter like this not has he asked to any of magician and astrologer and Chaldean. ¹¹And the matter which the king asking [is] difficult and other not there is who can declare it before the king except gods whose dwelling, it is not with flesh.” ¹²Therefore was the king angry and very enraged. He was saying to destroy to the all of the wise men of Babel. ¹³And the law proceeded and the wise men [were] being killed and they sought Daniel and his friends to be killed.

There is so much that could be noted in these verses. However, what strikes me most is what a common but sad picture it is -- people living in a world without God.

Here is Nebuchadnezzar, trying to be a king over a vast empire. He has this dream and knows it needs to be interpreted, but he cannot do that himself, so he calls for the people he thinks should be able to help him – but they can’t. Then there are the wise men. Like Daniel, they’ve been through extensive training and now depend on their “skills” to provide themselves and their families a living. Suddenly the king is demanding of them things they cannot do and threatening to murder them if they do not.

Right in the middle of it all, the wise men lament, “No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.”

Therein is the problem with it all. The true and living God does “live among men!” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory …” (John 1:14). Jesus Himself is the very embodiment of God’s personal presence among us. He is our “very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1). But not to know Him, not to know He is present, leaves us humans cast upon an ocean too wide and mountains too high.

Now, it is true that to some extent we can “make things work.” People all over the world do it all day every day. But we also face too many situations where we simply do not have the power to do what we want to do or get what we want to get or achieve whatever is expected of us. And that is when things get ugly. Nebuchadnezzar is a very powerful king. But he can’t interpret his own dream. So how does he respond when the guys can’t help him? He flies into a violent murderous rage. He has come to the end of himself and finds himself powerless to get what he wants. So he makes unreasonable demands on the people around him, only to find they can’t do what he wants either.

I would suggest he isn’t so different from the rest of us. Yes, he is a raging, cruel, and totally unreasonable tyrant, and it seems almost unbelievable he could actually murder an entire people-group because they can’t meet his unreasonable demands. But I fear most of us are only restrained from such cruelty by the fact we don’t possess his power. I have to sadly admit if I had the power to “right click delete,” there are a lot of people who might not live very long. But I don’t. So what do I do when I come to the end of myself? What do I do when the doctor can’t cure my problem? When the mechanic can’t fix my car? When the IT guy can’t fix my computer? When I’m looking for solace and my spouse doesn’t seem to “be there” for me? When I need a raise and the company won’t give me one? When the lawn mower won’t start? What do I do?

And think about the wise men. If they had the power to know the king’s dream, they would certainly do it. But they don’t. They too have come to the end of themselves. And what does it mean? That they are about to be murdered. One item of exegetical interest is the statement in v13, “So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death.” I translated it, “And the law proceeded and the wise men [were] being killed.” There is room for debate whether we should understand the words to imply the decree was simply issued “to put the wise men to death” (leaving the possibility no one had yet died when Daniel steps in) or whether “the wise men were being killed” (that Daniel actually stayed the executions which were already in progress). The Aramaic will allow either understanding, but I would suggest the most natural translation is that, in fact, “they were being killed.” In support of that, the Septuagint translated it with a Greek imperfect, which also would be most naturally translated, “they were being killed.” I would suggest too that in light of the violent rage Nebuchadnezzar was in, the executioners would jump on the task, fearing they themselves might incur his murderous wrath. Probably the group of men standing before the king were executed immediately – perhaps right in front of Nebuchadnezzar’s eyes – then the executioners headed out to round up and murder the others.

So, when these wise men come to the end of themselves, it is not just an unfortunate inconvenience. It’s the end of their lives! Is that not often how we feel? To come to the end of myself isn’t just unfortunate. There’s always something at stake, something I want or need very badly (at least in my own mind). But I can’t get it. I can’t make it happen. In this case, one could suggest the wise men got themselves into this – claiming to be able to discern the will of the gods, to foretell the future – and building an entire occupation on this deception. But we often “get ourselves” into a lot of trouble too. What matters at that point is that we have, in fact, come to the end of ourselves.

But what does all of this prove? What does it mean when we “come to the end of ourselves?” It tells us we need God. We need a power that rises above our problem, that rises above the people who can’t (or don’t care to) help us, that rises above people who have the power to hurt us. We need God and we need Him to be a God who does in fact “dwell among men.”

Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men have come to the end of themselves but they don’t know the God who “dwells among men.”

In this case, sadly, they turn on each other. It is interesting to note how in verse 8, the king says, “From certain I knowing that the time you buying …” The reason why I underline the “I” and “you” is because, in Aramaic (as in Hebrew and Greek), they don’t normally actually state the pronouns. The “I” and “you” are usually part of the verb – unless they want to emphasize them. In the Aramaic they are in fact stated. The conversation has clearly turned adversarial at this point and even the original language tells us it has come down to “me against you.” Both sides have come to the end of themselves and what do they do? Turn on each other.

But stop for a minute and think it is actually good to come to the end of yourself(!). If I get to that point and, like these guys, turn to lies and murder, that’s bad – but, if at that point, I do in fact turn to this God who dwells among men, then the end accomplished is the best of all. Rather than turning on each other, we need to turn to God. Without a doubt, I can say that’s what brought me to the Lord to begin with – as a young man, I thought I had it all figured out, that I knew what I wanted and needed, but the longer I lived the more I realized it wasn’t working. I was headed for some kind of desperate conclusion when one day the Lord turned on the lights and I knew it was Him I needed. Jesus stepped into my life to be my God who “dwells among men.” And since then it has been a daily experience of constantly coming to the end of myself and turning to Him. At present I can actually say I am learning to embrace this reality all day every day – that I exist “at the end of myself,” that all day every day I need Him to do what I cannot. Everything I need to do, everything I need to accomplish, everything I need to be, is somehow beyond me. There is much I can do, but I already know it isn’t enough – and that’s actually how it is supposed to be. I need God. To exist as a human being is actually to live my life doing all I can do, while depending on God to do what I cannot. That is life. We live it “at the end of ourselves.”

Here’s a quote from the Southern Pulpit that expresses this same thought:

“What a striking picture is here presented us of Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men trying, by human devices, to arrive at the mind of God! How we yearn for man when we behold his boundless aspirations confronted by his impotent nothingness! But it was well that human skill should first exhaust its resources in endeavouring to know the mind of God. It was a proper prelude to God’s revelation, this confession of impotence: ‘There is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.’ It is a law of God’s providence that He will not intervene until man has discovered his own absolute inability, and felt his imperative need.”

Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men have come to the end of themselves. And so they turn on each other. They should have turned to the true and living God, but they don’t know Him. But Daniel does. Fortunately for them, it is also not true that “There is not a man upon the earth who the matter of the king is able to declare …” Yes, there is a man. But not because the man is able, but because he knows the God who is able, because he knows how, when he comes to the end of himself, to turn to the God who can do what he cannot.

May we all embrace the fact that our very existence is “at the end of ourselves,” that we need God all day every day. And rather than turning on each other, may we turn to Him. “Seeing we have such a High Priest, Jesus, … let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16).

I can’t resist closing with the words of the old hymn:

I need Thee every hour,

Most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine

Can peace afford.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;

Every hour I need Thee;

Oh, bless me now, my Savior!

I come to Thee.