Daniel 2:23 – “Humility”

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

²³To the God of my fathers, giving thanks and praising You, I [am];

   because You have given to me the wisdom and the power,

   and now You have made known to me what we asked from You.

   You have made known to us the matter of the king.

As I said before, this one verse might take several posts.

In regards to it, the next thought I’d like to ponder is Daniel’s humility, but, before I consider how we see it, I want to ponder why this humility is so important. Once again, where is he? He is not some monk cloistered away in a cave or even a pastor or missionary in their office. He’s not just a believer having his devotions at home. Daniel is a man who lives and works in the real world, at a secular job, under a tyrant boss, in a office full of charlatans and useless sycophants. Because he’s “in the world” he suffers the same way they do. When the king is on the warpath, Daniel’s head goes on the block, just like everyone else’s. There is no question, Daniel is “in the world,” – and that is right where Jesus wants him. As I noted before, he is literally swimming in a sea of unbelievers, of people who desperately need to know the grace and love and redemption of his God.

But Daniel is not “of the world.” He’s different. And how is he different? Can I say, one of the most important ways in which he is different is his humility? The Lord Himself says, “God resists the proud; He gives His grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5). One of the most important ways in which believers ought to be very different in the workplace is their humility. We could talk about genuine love, about being dependable, about doing quality work, etc., but underneath it all, there had better be a genuine and growing humility. It is one of the major ways we ought to be “different.”

I need to belabor this point for just a second, because I do not believe this is at all what modern American evangelical Christianity teaches. What does it mean to be “different?” It’s all about what we wear or don’t wear, what we drink or don’t drink, our characteristic assortment of adjectives, and, above all else knowing we’re right and they’re wrong, we know the truth and they don’t, and they need to hear it from us -- just like a good little Pharisee. I remember one of their songs I would have myself approved was “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose true, and dare to make it known.” Those words may sound good while you stand singing in church, but they are expressing the heart of a Pharisee. Words and messages like that encourage people to go into the workplace and be “militant,” to walk into work confident you’re “better” than them, to work with a chip on your shoulder. I was too long that person myself but I also got to watch other believers acting like that. I got to see how the other workers saw them, got to hear what they said about them. And it wasn’t pretty. Arrogance is never pretty, and it gets even uglier when it’s called religion. But what was lacking? Humility. How did we come across? Arrogant. And why? Because we were. Jesus wasn’t like that and when He calls us to be different, He doesn’t leave us the option to decide how we want to define it (like Pharisees always do). He means to be like Him. If we would sincerely desire to “make a difference” in our world, then we must be like the real Daniel, the one in the verses before us, and we must know something of his humility.

How do we see it? First of all, we see it in his gratitude. The Lord does something good for him, and he is immediately “thanking and praising.” We could camp on the importance of gratitude, and resolve to be more grateful, but I would suggest humility is the engine that drives gratitude. Daniel doesn’t believe he’s “better” than anyone else. He doesn’t see himself as God’s “fair-haired boy,” who obviously gets whatever he wants. Because he is genuinely humble, he doesn’t see himself as “deserving” anything. And so, when he does receive blessings, his heart naturally wells up in gratitude. This is one of the unmistakable (and very beautiful) expressions of a genuinely humble heart – to be a person who sincerely appreciates anything and everything others do for them. I would suggest this is part of why the Lord had caused Daniel’s bosses “to show favor and sympathy” to him, part of why the king found Daniel and his friends “ten times better than all the magicians in his kingdom,” and even why Arioch was willing to stand there and “explain the matter to Daniel” when his job was to cut off his head. Esther was the same way. The Bible specifically notes of her overseer Hegai, “The girl pleased him and won his favor.” Interestingly, when it came her “turn” to go to the king, we’re told “she asked for nothing other than what Hegai suggested.” Humility. Gratitude. Priceless jewels for living in a world that desperately needs to see Jesus.

Next we see his humility in his total acknowledgement that this knowledge of the king’s dream is to God’s glory and not his. He says, “ …because You have given to me the wisdom and the power, and now You have made known to me what we asked from You.” You, You, You. Daniel has no problem with in-grown eyeballs. He is in no sense “impressed with himself.” Did he just do something amazing? Yes. Does he have an ability no one else has? Yes. Was what he has just accomplished literally impossible? Yes. Did he just literally save his own and his friends’ lives? Yes. So does he deserve a medal? He doesn’t seem to think so. In fact, there’s not the slightest hint of self- adulation.  He has just acknowledged in v20 that “wisdom and power” are God’s and then in v21 that is in fact God who gives “wisdom and power” to people. Now in v22, we find that Daniel actually believes what he’s saying, because when he is found to possess “wisdom and power” he immediately attributes it to the Lord.

Herein again we see Daniel’s humility. He is living out the truth from I Cor 4:7, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” The fact is that “every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights.” All our abilities, all our successes, all our knowledge or insights, are gifts from God. Daniel knew it. So should we. And here again is a place where faith ought to make you and me different in the workplace. It is an ugly thing to see a person impressed with themself, and it is probably 1000x worse when that person has claimed to be a Christian in the workplace. In fact, in today’s world, I’m not even so sure we should be as verbal as Daniel is giving glory to God. I don’t think that is the point. Whether we say it or not, it will be apparent to everyone around if we sincerely do not take credit for our successes. The less we say, perhaps the better – let the Lord make our humility obvious to those around us. So when something “works,” when we make a sale, solve a problem, succeed in any way, let us from our very hearts acknowledge it is all a gift from God, that I am only His vessel to do good to this world, and He alone deserves the glory.

Finally, we see Daniel’s humility in his ready inclusion of his friends in his success. “…now You have made known to me what we asked from You. You have made known to us the matter of the king.” Note the “we” and the “us.” Daniel sincerely values the presence and involvement and the contribution of his friends. He sincerely believes their help was part of his success. I would suggest it is of monumental importance that we each learn not only that our successes are gifts from God but also that we’ll seldom see them come to us alone. We need the people around us. We may ourselves have unique abilities but we also need the abilities of others. I can’t do it all. I need my co-workers. I need my wife. I need my fellow Christians. It is a huge part of humility to genuinely appreciate those the Lord places around us and just how important they are to us. For myself, I can honestly say the Lord has allowed me to do some amazing things in my life. He has given me the ability oftentimes to figure out things that utterly baffle everyone else, to succeed in things others had long written off as impossible. In every one of those situations, I am thankful I can look back and say, “They couldn’t have done it without me,” but I am equally thankful to be able to say, “But I couldn’t have done it without them.” It is one of the treasures of life to succeed “together” and it is important for us as believers to know that is usually the only way it will happen. The Lord will bless us “together.”

What an amazing fellow our young friend Daniel is. At a time in life when most of us suffer deeply from our own arrogance, here’s one young man who has already learned to be humble. And it is a beautiful thing to see, especially in the workplace. It is a beautiful thing for his boss and his co-workers to see. They’ll know he’s “different” all right, and it will be the kind of difference that might just move them to come and “ask a reason of the hope that is in him.”

May you and I be genuinely humble like Daniel. May we keep ourselves “out of the way” so the Lord can show others Himself. And may that light shine brightly into someone else’s dark world “to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.”

God help us.

Daniel 2:23 – “God of our Fathers”

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

²³To the God of my fathers, giving thanks and praising You, I [am];

   because You have given to me the wisdom and the power,

   and now You have made known to me what we asked from You.

   You have made known to us the matter of the king.

I think I could write volumes on this verse. What we have before us in these few short words is a living model of everything believers ought to be. And I want to point out, in particular, that this is not the picture of some monk cloistered away in a cave or even a pastor or missionary in their office. This is a man who works a secular job just like the vast majority of believers always have and always will. Here before us is a divinely inspired picture of a real believer living in a secular environment, living out his faith as he faces the challenges of a real world. Also note, he is exactly where the Lord wants him to be – just like the majority of believers – living that faith literally swimming in a sea of unbelievers, of people who desperately need to know the grace and love and redemption of his God.

Seriously, this might take several posts.

First I want to camp on Daniel’s identification of the Lord as “the God of my fathers.” I think it very important to note, in a sense, where Daniel “came from.” We’re only half way through the second chapter of this book and already we have observed that this is one exceptional young man. Not only does he in fact know the Lord, but he already, even as a young man, exhibits exceptional qualities of faith, courage, respect, humility, and a very strong work ethic (Babylon U’s valedictorian of 602 BC!). Where did he come from? Did he just fall out of the sky?

The text tells us nothing about Daniel’s upbringing or his family, so anything I suggest is admittedly conjecture. For all we know he could have been the orphaned child of a couple of hopeless drunks. However, when Daniel begins his praise calling the Lord “the God of my fathers,” I rather think we have good reason to believe he saw his parents as models; that he saw his own faith as a continuation of something which had long run in his family. Of course, the “fathers” could be simply referring to the Jewish race itself, but again, I don’t think it at all unreasonable to believe that Daniel has in mind his immediate family, his parents, grandparents, and beyond. In support of this suggestion, I would point out the very good and godly Hezekiah was told that some of his own descendants would be carried away to Babylon to serve in that king’s court (II Kings 20:17,18), and that prophecy was given to him only about 100 years before Daniel was born. It is very likely Daniel could count that godly king as one of his recent ancestors!

So I don’t think it unreasonable and in fact I think it highly likely that Daniel has his own family in mind. In further support of this conjecture, I want to point out that the words “To You, the God of my fathers …” actually start this sentence in Hebrew, and the 1^st person pronoun “I” is the last word, as I tried to convey in my fairly literal translation above. Also of note is that the word “I” is emphatic, in that, in Hebrew it is normally just part of the verb and doesn’t get expressed. When a Hebrew speaker did include it (which Daniel does), they were intending it to be in some way emphatic, which is why I’ve underlined it in my translation above. In this sentence, the first thing on his mind is “the God of my fathers,” and he is humble enough to put himself last, but it is himself. He is singularly aware that this is his own experience, apparently in his mind very much lived out as an expression of a family faith that has long preceded him.

And it certainly is no stretch to imagine this young man Daniel remembering watching his own parents living out their faith, trusting the Lord through hard times, and, as a family, seeing His faithfulness again and again. If he knew his grandparents, perhaps he saw this in them too, or at least heard stories of their faith and that of earlier ancestors. His family had trusted God again and again and found Him faithful. Now the young man is out “on his own” and has just lived that same faith, trusted that same God in his own very personal trial, and gets to see that same faithfulness, that same miraculous providence -- and even as his heart moves him to say “thank you,” all that heritage of faith and the realization of it wells up in his heart and he calls out to “the God of my fathers.”

Fast forward to 2017. Here I sit, ready to turn 60 in less than six weeks. I have three grown children (plus one in Heaven) and four grandchildren (hopefully that will swell to 50 or 60, J). I find myself living in the awareness that my life may soon be over. I had my chance. I was young once. I’ve lived what is probably the majority of my adult existence. At this point, without question, the single greatest desire of my heart would be for my descendants to know the Lord like I have, to love Him, to enjoy His grace and kindness and patience and guiding hand, to personally know and experience that Jesus is in fact “the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” that “this is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent” – that they could perhaps see him too as “the God of their fathers.”

I have to sadly say that, in this life I lived, I’ve done a very poor job of living faith. I’ve taken too many wrong turns, too often plunged ahead in misguided arrogance when I should have waited on the Lord, listened too often to the wrong people, and, in short, would hardly classify myself with the kind of people I believe Daniel’s parents had been. So I’m on pretty shaky ground to hope my descendants could quickly and easily identify with “the God of their fathers” because of me. The problem today for me (and everyone else, for that matter) is that I can’t change the past. I can’t re-write the story. It is what it is. In light of that, one hope I have is that at least maybe my life has been a story of redemption – of the Lord’s patience to have picked up the raw material of my life and to have at least brought me to where I am. I wish all of my descendants could know the Lord early and, like Daniel, live a lifetime of strong faith, but perhaps, like me, some will make very bad decisions early and then need the same redemptive God I’ve known.

On the other hand, I do feel like, in the last seven years or so, I finally at least got on some kind of level ground. For years I was very aware, like Jacob and the angel, I was “wrestling in the dark.” Too many things didn’t make sense, which, if someone reads my last post, they will understand how utterly torturous that was for me. Although I still have a LOT of unanswered questions, I feel like now I’m wrestling in the light, that somehow I know God’s heart in a way I never understood before, and I hope I live a stronger faith because of it. So, maybe in my waning years there will be something worth remembering.

Regardless of all that, I want to say I think we greatly underestimate the influence of godly grand-parents. Of course, everyone would be quick to highlight the importance of godly parenting, but I want to suggest that there is a power, a magic, in a grandparent’s influence that I fear goes almost unacknowledged. Someone once asked a group, “If one of your grandparents had written a book, how many of you would read it?” and every hand in the place shot up. I believe there is something very stabilizing, very enduring, very worthy of emulation, in a grandparent’s example to us. When we hear they were hard workers, it makes us want to work hard too. When we hear how they were frugal, of good decisions they made, there is some kind of power there that draws us to be like them. And I suspect their faith is just as alluring.

Where did this Daniel come from? Did he fall out of the sky? I don’t think so. I think, knowing something of life, and based on the very words he spoke, that his faith, even in his own mind, was an expression of a long line of godly examples. For us who live today I would suggest there is great hope that, even if we have lived a less than exemplary faith, yet our faith is in a great God who can, if He wills, give beauty for our ashes, that He very well can take what few things we perhaps did right and call our children, and grandchildren, and hopefully great-great-great-great grandchildren to know this “God of my fathers.” Prov 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children …” May the Lord Himself be the inheritance we each pass on.

As feeble and faltering as we may all be, let us fall into the arms of our redeeming God, do our best to try to leave behind an example of faith, and trust to Him that even after we’ve long lain moldering in our graves, He might be a God of great blessing to our descendants. The plain, simple fact is that most of this work must be accomplished after we’re gone. While we’re still here, let us love with His patience, do our best, and, as our own human experience draws to a close, may we (confidently) leave the work in His able hands.

It worked in Daniel’s life. God hasn’t changed. It will still work today. May it work in our families, O God of our fathers!

Daniel 2:22 – “Light”

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

²²He [is] One revealing the deep and hidden things, One knowing what [is] in the darkness and the light with Him dwells.

I personally can almost not stop praising God for the very truths Daniel notes here. He is the God who gives light, the God who explains the “why?” and the God who makes my world make sense. “He [is] One revealing the deep and hidden things.”  I’m sure everyone is different and perhaps different aspects of God’s truth mean more or less to different people, but for me, perhaps above all else, He is the God who takes away the confusion, who “turns on the lights” and in Him I find a world that makes sense.

The one thing I find almost unbearable in this world is confusion, the not understanding “why?” Why are things the way they are? Why are people the way they are? Why am I the way I am? Why does this or that happen? What can I do about this or that? My world is still to this day full of these same questions, but ever since the Lord stepped into my life, He has again and again answered my questions, explained things to me, shown me the way, made sense of what I see, and I am SO grateful to Him. I’ll join Daniel in saying, “Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever … He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him!”

Jesus promised me a long time ago, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). The Lord gave me Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things thou knowest not.” I have spent my adult life reveling in the truth that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (I Jn 1:5). Yes, Daniel, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever!” “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”

In college, I got to enjoy the great blessing of studying engineering. As a young man I remember how immensely satisfying it was to sit in one class after another and actually get to understand so many reasons why the world is the way it is. I got to learn why skies are blue but sunsets turn red, why music is in octaves, why steel is ductile but iron is not, why cellophane is impossible to pull apart but tears like tissue, why stagnant water turns black, why iron rusts but aluminum doesn’t, why carbon monoxide kills people, and on and on and on and on. Words fail to express what a thrill it was (and is) to me to understand these things, to dispel the confusion, to actually have the world make sense. The same thing happened as I got to study Greek and Hebrew. I no longer had to listen to other people say, “The Greek says this,” or “In Hebrew, this means …” I could read it myself. I could have my own opinions of why this or that. Once again, perhaps everyone is different and maybe these things don’t mean much to someone else, but to me they are life and death.

Of course, as Daniel has already expressed, even those “natural” truths are wisdom that God gives, so how much more of a blessing is it when He opens our eyes to see spiritual truth? What a treasure it is to know, spiritually speaking, that it is God Himself who is behind all that “natural” truth I so enjoyed learning? In other words – to know the big “why” things are the way they are. Other people can go on theorizing how the world came into being but I know. It’s not by chance or any other reason. The world we know exists because the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ wills it to be and He is a God of perfect wisdom and love. What a treasure it is to know that “the heart of man is desperately wicked.” That explains why the world is so full of cruelty and violence. What a treasure it is to understand there is a Redeemer – that there is a solution to man’s (my) wickedness, how it is possible for love to conquer it all.

I could go on and on but I guess I’m just reveling in this wonderful little sentence from Daniel’s praise, “He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him!” In case my grandchildren or great grand children ever get to read this silly blog, I want to share that, when I was in the pits of my confusion, exasperated at life, and totally not understanding, I wrote the words,

Help me, I’m drowning in a sea of black,

There’s darkness around me and knives in my back.

I struggle for freedom, I search for the light,

But I never quite reach it, it’s lost in the night.

There was a time, so long ago, when I was young and free,

Life was good and love was warm, my days were filled with dreams.

But those dreams are now just fantasies, they’re lonely thoroughfares,

And life is just a carousel of reality’s nightmares.

“… I search for the light, but I never quite reach it, it’s lost in the night.” As I said above, I can’t stand confusion. For me, life is unbearable when I don’t understand “Why?”

I want so much to “see the light.” But thanks be to the Lord, one day I was sitting on the edge of my bed, and as I stood up, the lights came on. I don’t even know what I was thinking about before that, but as I stood up, suddenly I knew that God is real, that Jesus and the Bible and all of it is true. It is the truth! I didn’t “reach” the light, it reached me. It was no longer “lost in the night” – suddenly I felt it was shining around me like an afternoon sky, and has ever since. What I found in that moment is that He is the light! As Jesus said, “I am the light of the world!” Everything makes sense in Him.

Another time, I was flying out to DC to see my friend JR and marveling how the sun was shining above what below was a dark, rainy world, and wrote some more words. At the time they were just a silly love song, but they express what my heart feels toward the Lord:

The sun is always shining, when you fly above the clouds,

Like the way my life is beautiful, whenever you’re around.

You soothe my soul like summer rain, you make the world seem right,

You lift me up above the clouds, and drive away the night.

What more can I say? “Blessed be the name of the God forever and ever … He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him!”

Thank you, Jesus, for turning on the lights in my heart. I so wish everyone else could enjoy such blessing. May my stumbling, bungling life in some way today be used by You to turn on the lights in someone else’s heart.

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.