GROWTH THROUGH CRISIS
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Introduction
Introduction
-Daniel and his friends were some of the first to be taken into captivity into Babylon. They were young and bright and handsome and part of the royal family, so they were taken to be trained to work in the bureaucracy of King Nebuchadnezzar. Part of the training involved something that would cause them to compromise their faith, and they refused. But they didn’t refuse in a negative way, they cast it in a positive light, offered an alternative, and were given grace in the eyes of those around them. And because they didn’t compromise, God equipped them to excel at what they did. It might be good to revisit what is said about them at the end of chapter 1:
17 As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
18 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
19 And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king.
20 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.
21 And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.
-But just because they were some of the top dogs already doesn’t mean that God was done growing them and preparing them for what would come in the future. God knows everything that is going to happen in the future, and He has His sovereign plans and purposes, and so He is never going to stop preparing His people for their part in everything. Just because Daniel and the boys were top of the class and then placed in upper management doesn’t mean that was the end-goal. God placed them there for future use. And even in these positions, God had some more learning for them to go through.
-But sometimes the learning God has people go through is through crisis. The learning and training that God gives isn’t always the bright, sunshiny walk-in-the-park we want it to be. Sometimes God allows us to go through crisis so that years later down the road we are prepared for whatever He has in store. And it’s not just a matter of preparation, it is also a way that God reveals Himself more fully to us. We would not know certain aspects and characteristics of God outside of crisis. And so, just as Daniel and the boys went through some crisis to be prepared and to receive some lessons, we will often go through the same.
-We’ll do things a little different tonight, taking our passage tonight bit by bit as we look at the first part of Daniel 2. So, let’s begin:
1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
-Nebuchadnezzar was recently crowned king. He had been leading his father’s army, and soon after his father died and he ascended to the throne he had taken siege of Jerusalem and started taking captives. So it seems that very soon after Daniel and the boys finished their 3-year training the king had a dream that troubled him. Being a pagan, his religion was very superstitious and often saw any dream as having special meaning. And he had a dream that bothered him because he couldn’t figure it out.
-Now, from a biblical standpoint, we know that God does communicate through dreams sometimes. Jacob had a special dream of angels ascending and descending. Joseph had his special dreams telling of the future. Joseph then interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer and baker. And there are many more. But not every dream we have is a message from God. Most of the time you just have weird dreams. I would think that God would really let you know that a dream is from Him. I don’t think there’s any mistaking it.
-King Nebuchadnezzar did not follow or worship the God of Israel. He believed that Yahweh existed, but that He was just another local deity who was seemingly defeated by Nebuchadnezzar’s more powerful gods. And so, the king thought that his god had sent him a dream, when in reality it was the One, True God that had sent him a dream. But because he didn’t understand the dream and didn’t understand who sent the dream, he was stressed over what it meant. He knew it had significance for him and his rule, but he didn’t know what. So,
2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.
3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”
-This was normal for a pagan royal court. Nebuchadnezzar had his advisors that were trained to serve him in the government, and part of their duties were in the realm of the supernatural, or we might rather want to call it the realm of the occult. Just like our president has a cabinet that covers all sorts of different areas of life and government (Department of Defense, Department of Treasury, etc.), so too did his government. So, we might say that the king called in the Department of the Occult. And dream interpretation was part of their duties. They were a very superstitious people, and if the world of the supernatural was going to do or say something, they wanted to be prepared to respond properly. Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to advise him what it all meant. And they were more than eager to serve:
4 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”
-These guys thought that it was going to be a normal day on the job—the king asks for an interpretation of a dream and then they just make up whatever on the spot that seems to follow their training and the superstition of their religion, then the king will be pacified and they can go about their business. But Nebuchadnezzar decides to put a little twist into the normal routine.
5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.
6 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.”
-Here’s the twist: if these guys truly had some sort of connection to the supernatural then they shouldn’t only be able to interpret the dream, they ought to be able to tell him what the dream was. Now, it isn’t necessarily that he wanted to put them to the test, although that may be part of it. But what might be happening is something very common when it comes to dreams: you had a pretty vivid dream but after you wake up the exact details leave you. You might lay there going: I know I had this weird dream, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it is.
-So, part of the issue is that the king doesn’t remember the dream clearly, but if it were told him it would come back to his remembrance. And part of it also might be to see if these guys really can do what they say they can do. So, they respond:
7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.”
-Oh, oh. They’re worried the jig is up. So, like good politicians, they ignore what was requested of them and try to twist it to their advantage. Just tell us the dream, and we’ll tell you what it means. But the king isn’t going to have any of that:
8 The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm—
9 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.”
-King Nebuchadnezzar was no fool. You don’t become one of the most powerful kings in history by being a dummy. He knew their political tactics. They were just trying to buy time so that they could find a way to change his mind. They may have thought that given time the king would settle down and then tone down his request, and then they could just make up whatever and go on their merry way. But the king was not going to let them weasel their way out of this one. You are my Department of the Occult. You are supposedly connected to the supernatural. You tell me the dream and then tell me what it means. Period!
10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.
11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
-This may not necessarily have been the best response. They pretty much tell the king that his demand is unreasonable. No one can do it and no king has ever demanded such a thing from this Department. I dare say that what they were implying was: your dad would never have asked such a thing. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar had just been on the throne a few years. Many of these magicians and enchanters and whatnot were probably working for his father. It probably wasn’t the best idea to bring that up.
-They also may have cut their own legs out from under them because they say no one can show the king these things except the gods. If that’s the case, then what good are these magicians and enchanters if only the gods can do it?
-But, despite themselves, they actually were correct. No human can do these things. But it is not some pagan god that can do these things, it is the One True God who can do these things. As the saying goes, things escalated quickly:
12 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
13 So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them.
-Nebuchadnezzar had enough. But his wrath didn’t only fall on these magicians and the enchanters. He got mad at his entire government. So, he orders the execution of not only that one Department, but it would be similar to ordering the execution of the entire cabinet. Every Department was to be disposed of, and this included Daniel and his friends. But, here again, we see the spirit that God had given them:
14 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.
15 He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel.
16 And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.
-Daniel uses wisdom again in handling the situation. He again doesn’t rail against the machine, so to speak. He goes in to the king to seek time to figure things out and then he will help the king out. He requests that if the king gives Daniel and his friends a certain amount of time, they will get him the information that he seeks.
-And because Daniel and the boys have proven themselves to the king and because God has given them grace in the eyes of the Babylonians, the king agrees to their terms. Now, the threat of death is still over their heads. But here is the key difference—Daniel and his friends know where the dream came from and they have faith that God will use them and use this situation to glorify God’s name in the presence of these pagans. They knew God gave that dream to Nebuchadnezzar for a reason and (as we will look at next week) they will seek God’s face to figure out why.
-This was most certainly a crisis situation. The threat of death was looming large. But Daniel and his friends knew that God would use this situation to allow them and the king to learn more about God and what God is doing. And so, instead of fretting and complaining (as humans often do), they sought God to figure out what He had for them to learn.
-Don’t allow your crisis to pass by without learning whatever it is God has for you to learn. You may need to learn something about yourself (which Nebuchadnezzar will eventually learn), or maybe learn something about your relationship to God or others (which Daniel and the boys will learn), or maybe learn a new aspect of God which you would not have learned otherwise. Either way, God wants to use that time for you to come to Him and learn from Him something that He will use in you and through you in the future.