A Resilient Remnant Daniel 2 part 1: Prayer as a Sign of Resilience

Intro

Daniel 2:1–18 NASB 2020

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king gave orders to call in the soothsayer priests, the conjurers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. The king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.” Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be turned into a rubbish heap. But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.” They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” The king replied, “I know for certain that you are trying to buy time, because you have perceived that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, so that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.” The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is no person on earth who could declare the matter to the king, because no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any soothsayer priest, sorcerer, or Chaldean. Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.” Because of this, the king became angry and extremely furious, and he gave orders to kill all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued that the wise men be killed; and they looked for Daniel and his friends, to kill them. Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon; he said to Arioch, the king’s officer, “For what reason is the decree from the king so harsh?” Then Arioch informed Daniel of the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him a grace period, so that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his friends would not be killed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Have you ever had a really good or interesting dream but once you woke up you couldn’t remember what it was about? That’s exactly what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel for You Restless

The king may be virtually all-powerful—but he has no authority over his own sleep

He had a dream that he knew was important, but he could not remember the dream. So he called on his wise men to not only give him an interpretation of his dream, but to tell him what the dream which he had forgotten was.

Of course this is an impossible task by any human means.

Tension

What is our natural response when we’ve come to the end of our rope? Where do we turn when we have a task or situation in front of us which seems to be entirely impossible? What do we do when we have no ability to handle something in our own strength and no one we know has even remotely the ability to handle it either?

Our responses to these questions can help us understand what really moves us in life. It is important for us to get to the heart of what is truly at the center of our lives.

Most people will turn to self in a situation like this. Some get angry (like Nebby). Perhaps they will turn towards a friend, a colleague, or an expert in the field if the situation is outside of them.

What about when no one has the answer?

For most, this is the moment when they might abandon ship, despair, or simply surrender to their fate.

For a rare group of people though, this is when they turn their eyes to the Lord in faith and hand it over to God.

Be honest with yourself for a minute. Which is your most honest and immediate reaction when you are in a situation that seems impossible?

Truth

Today we are looking at an impossible situation Daniel and his friends faced. We will see through their example what a response from faith might look like for us, and how through Christ we can be a people who respond out of faith rather than fear when we face overwhelming situations in our lives.

I. Facing an impossible task (1-11)

Interpreting the dream would not be enough.

The king no doubt had dreams interpreted for him in the past, but this time something was different. He wanted to be sure the interpretation was not from man, but had a divine origin for a divine vision.

The response from the wise men said all the king needed to know about them.

The wise men of Babylon were truly exposed as frauds by this situation.

They were happy to give the king an interpretation but could not fathom having the content of the dream divinely revealed to them.

If they had truly heard from God about interpretations, why would having the dream itself be any more difficult?

The fact that these men could not do this proved that they had no real divine connection, but were calling their own thoughts divine in order to influence the king.

They did not really know God and they pretty much clearly said as much. (11)

In other words, the wise men were not honestly guiding the king but were using him to get what they wanted.

It isn’t entirely surprising considering these things, that the king was mad enough to wipe out his fraudulent wise men.

II. Walking in faith rather than fear (12-16)

Facing his own death, Daniel stepped up to make an appeal rather than running, hiding, or giving up.

Daniel made a request to the king, but he looked to the King of kings for his true answer and deliverance.

Daniel knew that God had preserved him and his friends for a purpose.

He knew that God had promised to bless His people in Babylon, and that God would bless even pagan Babylon through His people (Jer 29).

When we face an impossible situation, we are often tempted to respond in fear but Daniel shows us what it looks like to respond in faith.

Faith means that we trust God beyond what we can see right in front of us.

Faith means that we trust that God will hold up his end of a promise.

Faith means that we trust that when we feel like we are dangling at the end of our rope, we were never reliant on the rope to hold us anyway. God was always holding us even when we thought it was our grip which kept us there. When we have to let God He will still be carrying us along.

III. Responding with prayer rather than despair (17-18)

Despair means to lose all hope, to give in to a feeling of humility, or to just concede defeat.

In a situation such as this, it would have been easy to just give up, but that is not what Daniel did.

Daniel called his friends together.

They did not have a pity party.

They did not discuss possible solutions.

They prayed, seeking compassion and a revelation from the Lord which could remedy the problem and save everyone.

Prayer is the act of petitioning God, of seeking his wisdom and favor.

By praying Daniel shows resolve to resist desperation.

By praying they showed a resolute faith-induced hope in God who had already proven that He was faithful time and again.

They were confident that even and perhaps especially when facing a hopeless situation, God could and would deliver His people.

When we respond to impossible situations with prayer rather than despair, it is a clear sign of resilience in us.

Philippians 4:6–7 NASB 2020

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Prayer itself can help cure anxiety as we cast our cares on a God who is bigger than our problems, and loves us.

1 Peter 5:6–11 NASB 2020

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Application

Philippians 4:4–7 NASB 2020

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

God is not calling us to deny the severity of the moments we are in, but to turn towards Him in faith rather than towards ourselves in despair.

Consider Jesus in the garden, who although emotionally disturbed, turned towards God and trusted His will and that He was faithful even in the midst of Jesus’ sorrows.

God is not calling us to deny what we are feeling, but to turn towards Him in spite of what we are feeling.

There is something powerful and character building about persisting in prayer when you are feeling anxious, hopeless, and depressed.

Seeking the Lord is often the last thing we want to do when we are in a dark moment, but it is the one thing which can lead us to a place of freedom and deliverance.

What makes Daniel such a powerful example to us is that he did not think of himself as a hero, but rather turned to God as the hero of his story.

Like Daniel, we often don’t have the answers to our problems.

Also like Daniel, we know the One who knows all, who knows our future, who has our future in His hands, and who has the power to restore every broken thing in our lives.

Like Daniel, Christ beckons us to stop viewing ourselves as the hero of our own stories, to make Him central in our lives, and to find freedom in trusting that God has us firmly in His hands... come what may.

When Christ is our treasure, there is nothing supremely valuable which the world can take from us.

Colossians 3:1–4 NASB 2020

Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

When we live with that mindset, we are a part of a rare and resilient remnant people who live up to these words from the Apostle Paul.

Philippians 2:14–16 NASB 2020

Do all things without complaining or arguments; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.