29Then Belshazzar said and they clothed to Daniel [with] purple and the necklace of the gold upon his neck and they proclaimed about him that he was the third ruler in the kingdom. 30In that the night Belshazzar was slain, the king of the Chaldeans, 31and Darius the Mede received the kingdom as a son of sixty and two years.
At this point I find that these closing verses and perhaps the entire chapter invite some careful pondering. Way back in the opening verses of the book itself, we noted that Daniel was born into a world of rapidly changing political landscape. There I said,
“The year is about 605 BC. For centuries Egypt has been a dominant power in the Middle East. For at least a couple of hundred years, that power has been challenged by the kings of Assyria, but a new power has risen in the east, the kingdom of Babylon. In this year of 605 BC, young Nebuchadnezzar has fought a decisive battle in Carchemish, north of Palestine, and forever broken the power of Assyria and Egypt…So, the world is in violent convulsions politically. No matter who you side with, you may end up dead.”
That was in 605 BC. Having survived through the reigns of six or seven kings of Babylon (with all the usual attendant murders), Daniel is now, in 539 BC, again caught in the political convulsions of the ancient world. As he had prophesied through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2, the Medo-Persian empire has arisen and on this night the head of gold falls to the chest and arms of silver, and, once again, our Daniel is caught in the middle of it all.
One wonders what he thought, how he felt. This is at least the 7th, if not 8th time he has lived through a complete change of power and government. It is probably the 4th or 5th time that change has come about violently--through the murder of whomever happened to be the king at the time. Of course, when there is a change of power, it usually isn’t just the old king who gets murdered. Almost without exception in human history, there is an attendant execution of many of the king’s closest advisors. Somehow Daniel has survived them all and, as we’ll see in the next chapter, he survives this time too.
Again, one can only wonder what he thought, how he felt. Political convulsions are very scary, unsettling times. Once again, “No matter who you side with, you may end up dead.” For ourselves, I fear, in very short order, there will be some kind of massive political changes in our own world. The tyrants and crooks who are now in power will only tolerate the opposition of thinking Americans for so long. At some point, they’ll tire of us. We’d all like to believe our government could never actually murder us or lock us in concentration camps, but the history of the world would advise us otherwise. I wish my children and grandchildren could live out their lives in the same (basically) peaceful and prosperous America I got to grow up in, but I fear those days are now gone forever. Political convulsions. Daniel lived in them. We live in them.
For us, what is going on? Sooner of later, this world has to merge into the one-world government of the Anti-Christ. In that world, there can be no place for an independent America, a country filled with armed, thinking, proudly independent people. Even our America must become a nation of brainless, compliant citizens whose lives are completely regulated by a tyrannically controlling government. They’ll say then, “Worship the image of the Beast, or die!” We should all realize that’s only a small step from our current, “Do it or be fired!”
As I survey it all, I find it deeply unsettling. I feel we have every reason to be very fearful for how well we and our families may survive these convulsions of our own changing political landscape. However, our friend Daniel and the very chapter before us, would give us hope. Though unsettling to us, political convulsions matter nothing to God. He raises up kings and He casts them down. One of the very lessons Belshazzar had failed to learn was that “the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone He wishes” (v.21). As we know from Rom. 13:1, “There is no authority except what God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” When Pilate thought he could intimidate Jesus with his authority, he said to Him, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus’ answer was, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above” (John 18:10,11). Human governments may rise and fall, but our God reigns over it all.
I should inject that this applies to companies as well, along with school administrations, and any other form of human government. Right now, the place where I work is wonderful. I have great people to work for and great people to work with. The principals actually take very good care of us. It really is a dream job. However, I’ve lived long enough to know that can change in an instant. I could walk into the office tomorrow only to hear that we’ve been sold and some new company will run things now. In the course of my lifetime, that has rarely been good news. In the same way, we can have a great boss, only to walk in and find out someone else is in charge who turns out to be a complete jerk. As my wife and I often say to each other, “Nothing stays the same.”
How are we believers to live in such a world?
You and I can read the book of Daniel and realize that, in a sense, this is exactly what he was born for—to live through the rise and fall of the Babylonian Empire and even into the beginnings of Medo-Persia’s rule. It was no accident that Daniel was a promising young man, just as Nebuchadnezzar conquered his nation then wished to gather bright young fellows to serve in his court. It was no accident that his life spanned the 70 years of Babylon’s rule, which meant, as we said above, living through at least seven or eight complete changes of power, many of them violent. He was there because the Lord had a mission for him. He survived all the political convulsions, why? Because his God was reigning over it all. Because our God reigns, even a raging fire couldn’t harm Daniel’s friends! And look what happens in the chapter before us: Belshazzar dies while Daniel is honored!
Why do you and I live when we live? Are we really any different than Daniel? I don’t interpret dreams or serve in a royal court, but am I not here precisely when and where I am by my God’s design? Then, can we say that, not only do we need not fear the political convulsions, but that we can actually embrace them as our opportunity to live Jesus before our world? Daniel had his time. We have ours. Our God is busily carrying out His grand design—clearly prophesied already. He can handle it all. It is a fearful world only when we forget Who is in charge.
May the book of Daniel teach us all that we need not live in fear, that, even in our convulsing world, we can be people who remain faithful to our posts, loyal and loving to those around us, resting in the assurance that our God put us here at this very time to live for Him in whatever sort of world we find ourselves.
Daniel gets clothed in purple. That night Belshazzar is slain. Our God reigns.
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