Knowing & Not Bowing

Into:

Political power and titles

Saparmurat Niyazov Rose quickly through the Communist Party ranks, and was chosen as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan (effectively the supreme ruler of the Turkmen SSR) at around age 45.

Held a hardline communist position, opposing reforms like glasnost and perestroika.

After the failed 1991 coup against Gorbachev, quickly shifted position, declared Turkmenistan an independent, Western‑style democracy, and called for free presidential elections.

Ran unopposed in those elections and was reported to have won with 99.9% of the vote.

"There are no opposition parties, so how can we grant them freedom?"

Created a national medal for “furthering the goals of the Turkmen people” and awarded it to himself.

Founded the “Association of Turkmens of the World,” largely to announce himself as the supreme leader of all ethnic Turkmens worldwide.

Officially changed his surname to Turkmenbashy, meaning “Father of all the Turkmens.”

Neutrality and monumental architecture

Declared that Turkmenistan would be permanently neutral in foreign affairs and would not join any economic, political, or military alliance.

Had this neutrality status recognised and documented through the United Nations.

Ordered the construction of a large “Arch of Neutrality,” a tall marble structure.

Had a large gilded statue of himself placed on top of the arch, mounted on a mechanism that rotated so that it always faced the sun.

Now at this point the great Turkmenbashy was only starting to warm to his own megalomania.

Self‑glorifying naming and imagery

Created a new Turkmen alphabet

Renamed months of the year and days of the week after:

Himself,

His book,

Members of his family, and

Selected heroes from Turkmen or regional history (including some who were not actually Turkmen).

Changed the word for “bread” to the name of his deceased mother.

Named multiple institutions and products after himself,

Put his face on every denomination of the national currency.

Filled the country with portraits and depictions of himself and his mother, including statues and hand‑embroidered images.

“If I was a worker and my president gave me all the things they have here in Turkmenistan, I would not only paint his picture, I would have his picture on my shoulder, or on my clothing... I’m personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the street - but it’s what people want." - Saparmurat Niyazov

Bans and restrictions

Abolished the teaching or use of:

Algebra,

Physics,

Physical education (P.E.).

Restricted or abolished the Internet.

Abolished or replaced the Hippocratic Oath.

Banned recorded music.

Banned smoking.

Banned beards.

Banned chewing tobacco.

Banned:

Ballet,

Opera,

The circus,

Symphonic orchestras,

The National Academy of Science.

Had musicians arrested for lip‑syncing at concerts.

Banned dogs from the capital city because he thought they smelled bad.

Banned gold teeth, saying people should strengthen their teeth by chewing bones instead.

Forbade make‑up on women, claiming Turkmen women did not need it as they were already naturally so beautiful

Required foreigners to pay a large government fee (you cited 50,000 dollars) to obtain a permit to marry Turkmen women.

The Ruhnama (“Book of the Soul”)

Wrote a book called the Ruhnama, presenting:

A highly revised or invented history of the Turkmen people, reaching back to very early times.

Spiritual guidance and moral teaching.

Self‑help style advice.

Poems he wrote about Turkmenistan.

Personal anecdotes.

Treated the book as a foundational national text, combining

Awarded himself the National Award for Literature after publishing it.

Ordered copies to be placed in every library and school.

Made it mandatory reading at all levels of education.

ANd assured, was a ticket straight to Allah’s paradise in the uslim majority nation of Turkmenistan.

Niyazov ruled Turkmenistan with an Iron fist for 20 long years

Built a personality cult while keeping strict control over media, speech, and political life.

Crushed serious opposition: critics were jailed, exiled, or silenced, or dissapeared

Centralised power so completely that institutions served primarily to reinforce his personal rule.

Spent vast sums on monuments, prestige projects, and self‑glorifying architecture while hiscitizens lived in poverty.

Piledged the countries natural resources and used the money like its his

Made erratic policy decisions (including disruptive closures or cuts) that harmed access to healthcare, social support, and education for ordinary people.

Used the education system and public rituals to indoctrinate children and adults in loyalty to him as “father” and saviour of the nation.

Turned religion into a prop for his own authority, blurring lines between state, personality cult, and spiritual life.

He died of a sudden heart attack and left the country’s rule to his dentist but not before siphoned off $2Billion off the top of his governmental operating budget and into Swiss and German banks.

Felt Need:

He is not missed…

There is something within the human psyche that loves to see despots like this get paid back for what they did

Teaching:

Ending:

A grandmother who isn’t on the guest list for her grandson’s drunken, blasphemous party, but still walks in uninvited and immediately takes charge. Sees:

the most powerful man in the room is the most frightened man in the room; the king’s knees are knocking;

A thousand nobles who can raise a toast, but can’t raise an ounce of courage when God speaks; golden gods that glitter on the table, but cannot say a word.

A court that has ‘moved on’ from Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation, until grandma has to remind them of the story they conveniently buried.

So, Meema (Big Bang Theory reference) drags, Daniel, out of semi‑retirement, a man the regime has quietly sidelined and forgotten—until they suddenly need him.

To read a plain plaster wall and an ordinary lampstand become the stage for God to address an empire.

And the reward on offer of the most high king of the greatest kingdom, to become third in line of kingdom that won’t last the night.

Can you see the ridiculousness of it?

Great Babylon goes out with a whimper….

You cannot read Daniel 5 and honestly believe any life will escape being humbled before God.

No throne is too high, no wall too thick, no ego too insulated, no society so great, that they will not bow the knee.

Such a comfort to a confused culture

Illustration about Sal Glover & Roxanne Tickle

Two opposite reactions to stories of judgment 

Every act is judgment (“hell in a hand‑basket”)

Every headline becomes proof that “God is judging” exactly as I think he should.

We slip into an undifferentiated view of God’s actions.

Temptation: baptising my opinions as providence; confusing my grievances with God’s gavel.

Danger: my anger gets mistaken for God’s justice, as if every setback for people I dislike is automatically a chapter in the Book of Judgment with my name in the byline.

Next page is how to stockpile tuna and build a backyard bunker

Nothing is judgment (“aloof disappointment”)

Disappointment slides into distance: “Nothing we can do; just preach Jesus and heaven.”

We ignore God’s temporal judgments and lose the ability to interpret our world in biblical categories.

We enthrone Jesus in heaven but act as if his feet never touch the earth.

We comfort ourselves with a seated Christ while talking as if his rule hasn’t reached the news cycle yet.

Effect: We speak as though God has retired from history to a safe corner of heaven—quietly denying that the One on the throne still has his feet on the footstool.

Why we drift to these extremes 

It is genuinely hard to speak faithfully

We are usually trying to be faithful, not cynical.

Some fear sounding like angry, judgment‑obsessed Christians, so we say nothing at all.

Others care so much about truth and justice that we start reading every headline as if we can declare, on God’s behalf, “That’s his judgment.”

We feel inadequate to speak for God

Honestly, who feels adequate to speak for God about nations and leaders?

“I don’t.” It is hard to find a humble, faithful voice in the midst of tribal and antagonistic politics.

HERE IS WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT

Daniel 5 exposes insulated arrogance in leaders

A leader who lives above reality and forgets he lives below God.

An insulated man whose self‑confidence is based in unreality—the unreality that settles over those who can no longer hear the people they rule.

That pattern is not just ancient

Those kinds of rulers are everywhere: governments, corporations, institutions.

The same proud unreality can creep into our own hearts and churches, not just “out there.”

We get to Belshazzer the way everyone does

The drift we don’t notice—because God hasn’t acted… yet

The terrifying thing in Daniel 5 is not just the suddenness of the judgment; it’s the slowness that came before it. Belshazzar had years to watch, to listen, to repent—and nothing obvious fell from the sky.

That’s where most of us live. We drift. We say things we shouldn’t, we nurse pride, we cut corners, we ignore what we know God has said—and the ceiling doesn’t cave in. No handwriting appears on our wall.

So we think: “Maybe it’s fine. Maybe God isn’t that bothered.” And we drift a little further. And a little further. Because he hasn’t stopped us. He hasn’t pulled us up.

But the whole point of Daniel 5 is that the delay is not approval; it is patience. God’s silence is not God’s shrug. The fact that he has not acted… does not mean he will not act. It means he is giving space to humble ourselves before the writing appears.

Thats what we are invited into…

The church, the people of God this side of Jesus’ resurrection. To Be God’s prophetic voice - announcing the crucified and risen King to leaders and peoples—and so speaking into leadership for their good, and the good of “God’s Image Bearers in their care.

The church’s prophetic role: what it isn’t 

Not that we take turns learning Aramaic to interpret mysterious handwriting on the wall.

Not that we label every crisis, “I know exactly what God is doing here,” as if we’re heaven’s commentators.

We cannot even fully untangle our own motives; we certainly won’t bat 100% on global geopolitics.

We do not propagate the myth that utopia is two election cycles away if we just cut or raise taxes and elect our party.

But to ANNOUNCE THE GOSPEL and take into and apply it to everyt situation..

The church is God’s prophetic voice, not because we are smarter or purer, but because we carry his word.

We inherit Christ’s prophetic office in a derivative sense:

Bearing witness to his Him

Calling people and powers to repentance and faith.

And yes, carry a message of judgment…. No political shortcut to Eden

If there were a way to “politic” our way back to the Garden of Eden, God could have done it without the cross.

That this is Jesus’ creation, people are God’s Image bearers and he had to suffer our judgment in order to redeem and purchase us back

and begin God’s renewal project for the world, as the entrhroned in heaven King

And you best believe he cares about it, he cares about us and he cares about what happens here

And that you - king, you - member of parlaiment, you - business leader, you - person of influence

HAVE ONLY PROVISIONAL POWER! YOU rule a “whatever”, but it is only ever temporary and under crucified and risen Jesus will one day weigh and measure every life.

God’s sovereighnty

Look how he accomplishes it

And it might come from a dissapointed grandma, calling on a forgetten old prophet, to ruin a party.

It is no hard thing for god to bring down what he wills. To ruin nations and cause trmebling in all peoples by the very anticipation of his presences

When I tell that I get varying responses and the two extrems are:

We are all going to hell in a hand-basket. Every single act seems like God’s judgment

Undifferentiated view of God’s Actions

The temptation to baptise my opinions as providence.”

Confusing my grievances with God’s gavel

One danger in talking about temporal judgment is that we start confusing my anger with God’s justice—as if every setback for those I dislike is automatically a chapter in the Book of Judgment with my name in the byline.

Dissapointment = Aloof nothing we can do

When we ignore God’s temporal judgments, we lose the ability to interpret our world in biblical categories.

We retreat into a vague “just preach Jesus and heaven” message that never grapples with how God is acting among nations now.

We enthrone Jesus in heaven and act as if his feet never touch the earth

We comfort ourselves with a seated Christ while talking as if his rule hasn’t reached the news cycle yet.

When we speak as though God has retired from history to a safe corner of heaven, we’re not protecting his reputation—we’re quietly denying that the One on the throne still has his feet on the footstool.

I know why we do it… Because its just so jolly hard!

Most of us swing to one of two ends because we’re genuinely trying to be faithful.

On the one hand, some of us are so afraid of sounding like angry, judgment‑obsessed Christians that we’d rather say nothing at all.

On the other hand, some of us care so much about truth and justice that we start reading every headline as if we can declare, on God’s behalf, ‘That’s his judgment.’

And honestly, who feels adequate to speak for God about nations and leaders? I don’t. It is hard to find a humble, faithful voice in the midst of tribal and antiagonistic policies

Here is why its so important.

Daniel 5 exposes the insulated arrogance of a leaders who lives above reality and forgets he lives below God. An insualted man whose self-confidence is based in unreality that settles over those who can no longer hear the people they rule.

Those rulers are everywhere

You are God’s prophetic voice, to speak to leadership hubris.

Daniel 5 doesn’t invite us to be God’s PR team or his spin‑doctors; it invites us to be Daniel—small, clear, humble, trembling, but willing to say what God has actually said.

We are a voice of judgment to leaders…..

I am not talking about Christians labelling every crisis as ‘I know exactly what God is doing here,’like we are heavens commentators.

We can’t even work out our own lives, our inner thoughts and no one knows us better than we do, what hope do we have to have 100% batting average on global geo-politics.

Gospel Link

Many thoughtful theologians describe the church as having a “prophetic role” in relation to governments—

The church is God’s prophetic voice,

The church inherits Christ’s prophetic office in a derivative sense: bearing witness to his word, calling people and powers to repentance and faith.

WE don’t have to take turns learning aramaic to interepret words like Daniel

But we speak for God in announcing the crucified and risen King to leaders and peoples—and so speaking into leadership for their good, and the good of “God’s Image Bearers in their care.

not to seize power, but to call rulers toward justice, righteousness, and humility.

We speak God’s word, not our hunches

We don’t propogate a message that utopia is two election cycles away once we cut or raise taxes and elect that party

If there was a way to “politic” our way back to the Garden of Eden, God could have done it and Jesus wouldn’yt have needed to lay down his life.

greater accountability for those in positions of authority,

Romans 13:1–4 – Authorities are “established by God” and are “God’s servants” to reward good and punish evil. To misuse that God‑given role is to answer not just to voters, but to God.

Revelation 18 – Judgment falls on “Babylon” as a system of economic and political oppression; kings and merchants are singled out as sharing in her guilt.

Acts 12:21–23 – Herod accepts worship as a god and is struck down by the Lord; it’s a narrative picture of a ruler judged for pride and misuse of glory.

Luke 12:47–48 – “The servant who knew his master’s will… will receive a severe beating… From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.”

Personal Link:

And before we point at Canberra, we have to admit: the same insulated arrogance can live in my own heart, my own workplace, even my own ministry.

We get there the same way every one does, “we look around and see, I got away with it, I can do more of that, God hasn’t stopped me”

Yet….

God will act, He is acting, his purposes are are not thwarted by the greatness of leaders and the prosperity of nations. He is acting and working now!

a. Avoiding an anemic, deistic view

b. Learning to read history humbly

Daniel 5 shows God deeply involved with real kings, real policies, real empires.

That should re‑energise our ability to say: God still raises, humbles, and replaces rulers; he is not indifferent to what they do.

Possible concrete push: “Are there areas of public life we refuse to interpret theologically because it feels too messy, and so we default to a thin, deistic Christianity?”

4. Sovereignty, history, and our own hubris

a. History is not a straight, comfortable line

We like to imagine one smooth line to Revelation 22, where we can plot exactly where we are.

Daniel 5 (and the wider book) confronts that desire with a history of rises and falls, of unexpected delays and extensions (e.g. Daniel misreading the timing and being corrected later).

b. Guarding against interpretive arrogance

Even Daniel had to learn that his reading of Jeremiah’s “seventy years” was too small; God’s plan was bigger and longer.

That means our entry into political and prophetic conversations must be marked by humility – resisting our own Belshazzar‑like overconfidence in our timelines and schemes.

Possible concrete push: “In what ways do we speak about ‘where we are in history’ as if we see more than Daniel did, instead of holding our interpretations with a trembling, humble confidence?”