4and I prayed to the LORD my God, and I confessed, and I said, “O Lord, the God the great, One being feared, keeping the Covenant and the lovingkindness to ones loving Him and keeping His commands…”
In these few short words, Daniel tells us a lot of what he believed to be true of God. If we would learn from him, that is no small consideration. We all can admire the faith of Daniel and wish to be more like him, and I can say, from the very beginning, I have enjoyed studying this book precisely because Daniel is such a great example. I feel what I’ve learned from him and his friends has profoundly impacted my own faith and life. However, all that said, I would maintain that if anyone truly wants to live Daniel’s faith, we must begin by understanding his theology.
What I mean by that is we must look closely at what Daniel believed about God. In II Cor. 3:18, we learn that, “…we, as we behold the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory…” As we behold His image, we’re changed into that image. As A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”
Beholding His image, we’re changed into that image. To see God, to clearly see Jesus, is to be profoundly changed forever. Martha was busy serving. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Martha got tired. Mary could never be the same. Our friend Daniel is a Bible student. He, like Mary, has sat long at Jesus’ feet and therein lies the true explanation for who he was and what moved him to do what he did, to be the person he was. Here in this one simple verse, we can learn much of what Daniel saw when, in his mind, he saw God.
Note Daniel says, “I prayed to the LORD, my God.” Whenever, in the English Bible, you see God’s name translated as “LORD,” that is the Hebrew name “Yahveh,” which means “I am that I am.” It is the same name we call “Jehovah.” In Exodus 3, when Moses asked, “Who should I say sent me?” the Lord answers, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you…The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you” (vv.14,15). The “I AM” is the Hebrew “Yahveh.” It is considered specifically the name of Israel’s God. Daniel then is very specifically calling on the God of Israel and that is notable when everyone else around is praying to Bel and Marduk and a host of other “gods.”
Then let’s not run past the simple little epitaph, “my God.” To Daniel, this is all very personal. The Lord is to Daniel “my God.” He is certainly the God of the Jewish people as a nation, He is the great Sovereign of all the Universe, yet He is a God who would have a relationship with each one of us personally. The greatest single possession of our human existence is to be able to look up to the Lord and address Him as “my God.” To have Him as my God means I have a Rock, a Fortress, a Shield and Defender, a Strong Deliverer, a Redeemer, Savior, Friend, Father, and King. Without Him, I’m just on my own. In a sense, this little truth is the reason why Daniel was everything he was – he was a man with a God. The wonderful news is realizing that same relationship is wide open and available to each and every one of us. Jesus said, “Whosoever will may come,” and “This is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God…”
Daniel then addresses Him as “O Lord.” As we noted above, when in our English Bibles, you see the name “LORD,” you know that is actually the “I AM” of Hebrew. Here it appears as simply “Lord.” In this case, you can know that the actual Hebrew name of God being so translated is “Adonai,” which means “Master.” Here Daniel first addresses his prayer to “O Adonai,” “O Master.” Once again, what is Daniel’s constant theme throughout this book? “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” As Daniel looked out at his world, as he looked up to heaven, he saw our God as “the Master.”
Is that not, in a sense, the fundamental question before every human soul? Who is “the Master?” Satan couldn’t figure that out and got himself cast down from heaven. Adam and Eve got it wrong and were cast out of Eden. The whole human race gets it wrong and continually self-destructs until it finally would drag us all down to hell. Romans 10:9 would tell us, “That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Salvation itself comes down to first of all recognizing that, in fact, Jesus is Lord (Master) and accepting that the only answer for the cosmic rebellion I’ve lived to this day is His all-sufficient sacrifice in my place. There it is in plain English: Jesus is Lord and Savior. We each individually must address this question of who will be “the Lord, the Master” – me or God?
Daniel had it figured out and, even as he would open this most heartfelt and ardent prayer, he looks up to God and sees Him as Master. He carries this further as he then addresses Him as “the great and awesome God.” “Great” may have expressed many thoughts in Daniel’s mind, but it does us all well to stop and ponder exactly that – God’s greatness. Our God is infinite. He is not, like Marvel comics’ superheroes, simply a very, very great man. No. He is not a creature. He is God. He inhabits eternity. He exists entirely above this universe in which we live. He created it. He created us. He created time and space for us to live in, while He Himself exists entirely independent of it all. That is why we can observe of Him that He is all those things – omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and infinitely Sovereign. As we, like Daniel, would come to Him in prayer, we come to the One who in fact exercises absolute control over this universe in which we live. He rules in infinite wisdom, infinite power, infinite goodness, infinite love and invites us to come before Him in prayer. He is Great.
Then Daniel addresses Him as “awesome.” In Hebrew it means literally “One to be feared.” As we learn in Proverbs, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10). Today, everyone tries to downplay the “fear” factor and we opt for words like “respect,” but the Hebrew word means “fear.” Even from heaven itself, the Tribulation saints ask, “Who will not fear You, O Lord?” (Rev. 15:4). I’ve elaborated on this before, but, for me, it comes down to this: The fear of the Lord is, in fact, the beginning of wisdom. Any sane person should bow to Him even if for no other reason than just plain fear. “Our God is a consuming fire.” I believe there have been many people saved first of all simply out of fear of hell. That, we can all see is a good thing. Now, as a Christian, although I’m 100% assured of His unending love, yet I know He is my Father. He loves me too much to just let me sin and self-destruct. It is a scary thought to realize the power He has to bring me to my knees and get me back on the right course.
All of that said, His laws become like guardrails in my life. I fear to step over them. However, that fear itself is actually an expression of love to Him. Remember, although the fear of the Lord may be the beginning of wisdom, it is not the end. What is the end of wisdom? Is it not, “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind?” Even those believers who came to Him first of all only out of fear soon learn to embrace His love. Now what I try to say is that I don’t want to be sitting in His lap and then spitting in His face. That is now my life all day every day – to sit in my Father’s lap and enjoy His love – but, if I’m there, how can I let myself think thoughts or say things or do things I know grieve His heart? I guess the bottom line of what I’m saying is that, as Daniel realized, the fear of the Lord is something very real and should, in fact, be present in our hearts, but for us believers it is just another reality that drives us deeper into His big loving lap.
I want to think deeply about what
else we can learn from Daniel’s theology in this verse, but I think I’ll close
this post and continue in the next.
All praise to Him who reigns above in majesty supreme!
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