Daniel 2:24 – “Like Jesus”

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

²⁴Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babel. He went and thus he said to him, “Do not destroy the wise men of Babel. Bring me in before the king and the interpretation I will declare to the king.”

This is one of those verses which could be passed over as “simply telling the story.” There are people who honestly think you can’t learn anything from a simple verse like this. I heartily disagree. The Bible is a book of discipleship. It is the very breath of God and every page, every word is in some way or another a picture of Jesus. Every word helps us understand the mind of God. Every person in the Bible shows us what godliness either is or isn’t.

In this case, if we’ll but pause a minute and think, Daniel is setting before us a monumental model of what faith should look like in a real world.

If one pauses to think, Daniel’s words border on the amazing: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.”

Notice he did not say, “Do not destroy us wise men.” He is at this very moment standing under a sentence of death. At any second the sword can swing, he and his friends will be dead, and no one will so much as notice. Yet, even in this, our amazingly humble friend isn’t thinking of himself. His heart immediately goes out to the wise men. Kind of reminds us of Someone who once said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

It should be noted at this point that, back in Israel, such men were not even allowed to live. “A person who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them …” (Lev 20:27). Daniel grew up utterly despising “wise men” and “astrologers” and “magicians.” They deserved to die. And not only that, but no doubt by this time, Daniel has already seen and perhaps suffered under their meanness – in the very next chapter, they are the people who accuse Daniel’s friends and get them thrown into the fiery furnace. In chapter 6, it is probably these very men who get Daniel thrown in the lions’ den. They are a very jealous, mean-spirited bunch of people.

Yet the first words out of our Daniel’s mouth are, “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.”

Daniel is living out in his workplace, in his real world, the very spirit of Jesus. His God “makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good” and so does our Daniel. And so should we. Our disposition at work and in our world should never come across as “Off with their heads!” even if we think they deserve it and especially if we find them personally hateful and mean to us. The Bible says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly” (I Pet 2:21-23).

The spirit of a Christian ought to be the spirit of Christ – ready to love, ready to forgive. I love how we see that heart in II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is patient with you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The “that all should come to repentance” actually could be translated, “that all would have room for repentance.” That all would have room. That everyone might have a chance. That is the spirit of our saving God and it ought to be ours too. Daniel is modeling it for us even in the Old Testament. How much more, this side of the Cross, ought we to be modeling it before our world?

Talk about “different!” You can bet these people think they’ve never seen anyone like this Daniel. In their world, heads roll. People fight and maneuver and promote themselves. People kill their enemies. And suddenly they are working beside this Daniel fellow who doesn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body. He actually cares about other people! Even when his own life is in danger, even when he himself is about to get fired, he’s still thinking first about everyone else.

The thought brings me back to Jesus’ charge to us to be “in the world, but not of it.” I fear for most Christians, when they think of “not of it,” their list of rules comes up. But what makes our Daniel different is that he actually lives the spirit of Jesus. He’s “different” because he’s like Christ. And so should we be. And can I add, the workplace inserts believers into the bowels of the real world, the very place where people are hating and hurting, and gives us a chance to shine for Jesus – to show people there is another way, to show them there is world where love wins. In this one little verse before us, we see the difference that Jesus makes when people truly love Him.

I need to address the issue that these guys “deserve to die.” As mentioned above, it was very clear in the Old Testament that divination and spiritism were absolutely forbidden. “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them …” (Leve 20:27). Some of the older commentators even posed the question whether Daniel should or should not have “interfered” with the execution of the wise men. Certainly the people of the Massachusetts colony thought it their civil duty to identify witches and burn them at the stake. So shouldn’t Daniel do everything he could to see that magicians and soothsayers and astrologers get put to death? I believe the fundamental error underneath this thinking is a complete misunderstanding of the Old Testament. Just briefly let me say people should realize that, in a large sense, the OT is a national constitution. It is a document specifically applicable to the nation of Israel, which was fully intended to be a theocracy. Within the borders of Israel, you could prescribe all kinds of rules and laws and standards – even something as simple as observing a Sabbath.

The problem is, when believers leave that kind of isolated world, and go out to live and work in the real world, they don’t get to make the rules. It’s great if the country you live in basically observes a Sabbath and you get Sunday off – but what if you don’t? It’s great if the world you live in doesn’t take the Lord’s name in vain and use four-letter words, but what if even the bosses at your job do? My point is that, outside of Israel, you cannot go around thinking OT law should be enforced. In the real world, you’ll live under whatever rules there are and you’ll have little to no ability to change them. That brings us back to the spirit of Jesus. We go out into a world that may have no respect at all for anything you and I think is important. But rather than insisting our rules should be followed, we need to show the heart of Jesus, even in a world where good is evil and evil is good.

Daniel is modeling that heart for us and we ought to be like him. Like Jesus.