Daniel 2: How do I know?

So Nebuchadnezzar has this dream – about “an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.” (NIV) “an enormous, extraordinarily shiny statue, frightening in appearance.” And when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream, he was disturbed. No wonder! His first instinct was to think “That’s me! Who is more imposing, dazzling, and awesome than me? Whom do people fear more than me?” Because this statue with its head of gold, its chest of silver, waist and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with pottery, was knocked into the dust by a rock, that then grew to fill the whole earth. This dream doesn't look good for Nebuchadnezzar, so he – the guy everyone feared – was afraid.

And suddenly, he doesn't know who he can trust. He is asking these questions:

• “How do I know that I am going to get the truth from these guys?” 
• “How do I know that the crawlers and yes-men won't make up some interpretation to flatter me?”
• “How do I know that somebody won't take the opportunity and kill me off if the dream says I am to be toppled anyway.”

So he decides that only someone who knew what the dream was, would be trusted to say what it meant. If someone could tell him what he had dreamed, he would know.

So he calls in the magicians (engravers or writers) and enchanters (mediums) and sorcerers and Chaldeans. All the most educated and plausible and spiritually switched on guys in the empire, the chief advisors and senior priests... and he says “I had a dream last night, and it is doing my head in. Tell me what I dreamed and what it means.” I imagine a long silence. Then one of them speaks up. I imagine, smooth-talking sort of guy, like Sir Humphrey Appleby in “Yes Prime Minister.” “But your majesty, it can't be done like that. If it please your majesty, tell us the dream and we’ll give the interpretation”.

Don't let the sense of comedy detract from the deadly seriousness of the situation. Nebuchadnezzar isn't joking. “I know what you’re up to—you’re just playing for time. You know that if you can’t tell me my dream, you’re doomed.”

Sir Humphrey tries again. “But your majesty, how do we know what you have dreamed? Nobody anywhere can do what you ask. And no king, great or small, has ever demanded anything like this. What you’re asking is impossible unless some god should reveal it—and they don’t hang around with people like us!” That is an admission. Although they – or some of them – were priests and fortune tellers and mediums, men who walked in and out of temples every day, performed rituals, burned incense, studied the stars, maybe had a stab at predicting the future – they had no contact, no relationship, with any of the gods. In fact, despite their religious credentials, they didn't believe that such a relationship was possible. “The gods don't hang with people like us!”

So the paranoid king orders a purge: execute all the “Wise men,” the priests, shamans, intellectuals. And that will include Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah! It was not long before Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, came for Daniel. Courageously, courteously (These were becoming his hallmarks), Daniel engaged him in conversation: “What is going on? Why is the King so angry?” When he found out, he went to the king – no doubt ushered in by someone like Arioch – and asked fro a bit of time and he would interpret the dream ( and by implication find out what the king had dreamed!) It is a remarkable comment on the kind of reputation Daniel already had, that he got in to see the King and won a stay of execution. The King obviously felt that at least there was some possibility of this young Hebrew giving him the answers he needed.

This Daniel guy, How did he know? How could he possibly be any different from the rest of them? That step of faith was possibly the greatest one.... And once they had their extra time, Daniel got his three friends to pray. You kind of think, there must have been a sense of urgency about those prayers. And in the night he knew: it came to him in a vision. He saw what the King had seen. And he praised God for it.

But how did he know? God revealed it to him. The story is awesome in its power; it was a miracle. And it was a miracle of faith and courage, to be taken before the King, and to tell his vision. What if he got it wrong? No amount of education, training or innate wisdom and people skills could have pulled that off. It had to be God.

“How do I know?” is one of the big questions of our day. There is a level of distrust, of suspicion and cynicism in the world we live in.

• How do I know who I can trust? 
•  How do I know that people are not making a fool of me? 
• How do I know I am not just being exploited by other people?
•  How do I know what I know about God?
•  How do I know about the supernatural?
•  How can we be expected to know the King's dream?  
• But how do they know what is possible and what is impossible? 
• How do they know there isn’t a supernatural strand to life to be explored?
  

Daniel knows. He knows because he has prayed. He knows because he has spent the night waiting on God, listening and tuning in to God's voice. He knows because he is prepared to exercise faith. He knows because God reveals it to him. “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. “

We could stop there. But there's a wee bit more. We need to look at the dream itself and the interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, not the whole statue. Each change of metal represented a change of empire. We can see the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires represented by the gold, silver, bronze and iron, and even the division of the Roman empire into Eastern and western in the feet of clay. (Although some clever people have different ideas!) So striking is the prophetic force of this, that some people suggest that Daniel must have been written about 150BC, when the Alexander the Great's Greek Empire was declining and the Roman one beginning to rise. But Daniel says “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.“ So it's not too much for him to predict the coming empires. If there is a “God in heaven who reveals mysteries” then predictive prophecies are a possibility. If there isn't such a god, then we need to explain these prophecies away. It's a matter of world-view. And the more we find out about the Dead Sea Scrolls the more they confirm that Daniel was not written in 150BC, because it is referred to in the Scrolls as part of Scripture and it wouldn’t have been if it had only just been written.

Daniel isn't interested in explaining where each of these empires would arise or what they would be. All that matters is that, despite their different characteristics, whether rich and malleable like gold, or hard and practical like iron, all empires are the same... they may do some good, but in the end they are all proud, oppressive, and none lasts for ever. Not the Roman empire, the dynasties of imperial China, the British empire, the Ottoman empire, the Third Reich the Soviet bloc or Islamic State. Their thrones must fall. A rock knocks the statue down as quickly and finally as David's smooth stone from the river knocked down Goliath.

Babylon was built on a sandy and muddy plain that was fertile because the rivers Tigris and Euphrates carry tons of silt. There isn't a rock in sight, the mountains are way to the north. You've seen the pictures on TV. There wasn’t a rock in sight. It's because of the lack of rock, that all the houses and temples were made of brick. You can make bricks out of mud. So a rock was an unusual thing. The superhuman hand that carves it out, does so from mountains many miles away. It's the hand of God. The same hand of God that had allowed Judah to be take in to exile. The same hand of God that had set Nebuchadnezzar up to become King. God is sovereign, and his Kingdom – not made with hands, brought from heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ – will eventually knock down all the empires of this world, and grow to fill the whole earth.

How do we know? How do we know that the Kingdom of God will triumph? How do we know that the Bible is reliable? How do we know that miracles happened and happen? Like Daniel, we know by faith. We know as we spend time with god. As we pray. As we listen. As we step out on that faith. As God's Spirit surges through us in a power that produces gifts and fruit – supernatural words and works, and strengthened character.

© Gilmour Lilly August 2016

Daniel 1: Young, Smart, and in a Strange Land

Life was not easy, when Daniel was born in Judah, a small country that was under the power of the mighty Babylonian empire.  For a hundred years, Judah had been trying to fend off foreign invaders; their kings weren't much good and the King when Daniel was a young man was called Jehoiakim. He was a puppet – the emperor was pulling the strings.

Pic by Kencf0618, Creative Commons share alike license

Judah had to pay tribute to the empire.  The Babylonians had taken the gold and silver cups and plates from the Temple in Jerusalem; word came back that they had ended up in the temple of one of their gods.  It was like a sign of defeat.  Not only was the temple bare (and soon it would be destroyed) but the cups and plates were in an idol temple. It looked like the Lord wasn't as powerful as the gods of the Babylonian empire.   Why did God allow it?  The prophets had warned that God was more interested in people living right, than in the temple and sacrifices.  So telling the truth, treating each other fairly, avoiding false gods, and really loving the Lord, were more important than sacrifices.  You don't get to be a car by sleeping in a garage; you don't get to be a Christian by hanging around in church.

Eventually the emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, had ordered that the smart young guys from the nobility – people like Daniel, were to be carted off to Babylon.   Imagine it was you. What does it feel like?  What a wrench – to have to leave home,  your Mum and Dad  wondering if you were ever going to see them again. and travel several hundred miles, to start training for a new career. Lots of sadness, a bit of anxiety; and maybe a bit of excitement too.  After all, they had been picked out for special treatment and training. They got to hang with other smart young people; they didn't have to dig the fields or work on a building site; and the food was known to be good. They could have  a good career working for the empire.  Maybe things weren't so bad, after all...

And then when they came to Babylon and saw it....  They had been proud of Jerusalem, with its temple.  But Babylon was so much bigger and more splendid. It was the biggest city in the world at that time.   The River Euphrates ran through it.  It had sixteen splendid gates, decorated with shiny blue tiles; and images of lions, dragons and bulls. The royal palace had huge roof-gardens to keep the queen happy – she was born in the country.  Inside the city were hundreds of temples – and there were temples outside as well.  It was massive and overwhelming. Wow!  It must have Mae them feel like kids from some wee backwater.

And when the training started, it was quite intense.  It was three years – like going to university.  They would have to learn to speak the language of the Chaldeans – like a Babylonian, not with a foreign accent. 

They had their names changed. 
Daniel means “God is Judge” and he was renamed Belteshazzar – “ Bel protects his life”.
Hananiah –  “The Lord shows grace” – was renamed Shadrach – “Command of Aku”
Mishael – “Who is like God?” – became Meshach – “who is like Aku?”
Azariah – “The Lord helps” – became Abed-nego – “Servant of Nebo”
Just so you know, Bel, Aku and Nebo were Babylonian gods.

They were to eat the very best in the land – the same menu as the King, and the same wines.  But they had rules about what they could and could not eat. 

The point is that everything was new, and not just unfamiliar but a deliberate attempt to change them as people.  To make them into something other than what they were.  It was an assault on their nationality and their identity.  Their language, their names, their food laws, were tied up with their values, their worship, their identity.  The idea was that when they finished their three years training, they would think and feel like Babylonians.  They would be no different to the rest of the students.  How do they respond? 

• “Yesss!  I haven't got my mum breathing down my neck!  This is the good life!   Freedom, time to make my own mind up about things, and grab my own opportunities!”  or 
• “Oh dear, I can't hang around with these people.  They're all terrible pagans.  Must keep separate!”

Neither!    They show amazing wisdom, in finding their way around a strange land.  

They knew there are Blessings in Babylon. They were happy enough to learn the language and study the literature of Babylon.  That is a good thing.  They would be able to communicate with the people round about them in Babylon.  They would understand how these people thought.  What were the stories they shared? What were the things they believed?  What was important to them? Learning like that is a good thing.  They didn't have to agree with it all.  But it was important to know.  Guys, we need to understand how people think.  We need to know how to communicate with the people round about us.  There were good things in Babylon.   We need to learn and that is not a bad thing!  

Pic by Bernard Gagnon, creative commons share alike license

They were able to live with their new names.  They  didn't protest at being given Babylonian names, even names that spoke about the Babylonian gods.  But they didn't give up their old names, either. (See Daniel 2. 17, 26 and 4. 8, 19).  Even the King says “Daniel” occasionally!   Why was that?  They knew who they were.  And they knew who their God is.  Nebuchadnezzar could call them whatever he liked, and they would answer.  But they knew they were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  Guys, to survive in our society, we need to know who we are, and who our God really is.  If we don’t; know who we are, then we become like shape-shifters,  like chameleons, always trying to blend (though Chameleons don't change to camouflage themselves but to reflect their mood!)   And in Christ, every one of us is a brand new creature.  We are all special and valuable. 

They were not, however, willing to eat the King's food or drink his wine.  What was that about?  In Daniels world, food and drink was closely connected with worship. There were rules about food that was clean or unclean. Food was used for sacrifice – and then some of the sacrifice was eaten. Wine was used in toasts to the Babylonian gods.  The Babylonians had taken the cups from the Temple in Jerusalem and later on they would be used in a drunken party.   So this was their cut-off point. Daniel “resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine”  He had fixed in his mind that he wasn’t going to go along with that. He could benefit from the learning, even learning about the gods of Babylon    He could live with being called Belteshazzar.  But he wouldn't toast the gods of Babylon or eat their food. He had the Lord. That was all he needed.  The gods of Babylon, Greece, Rome, and of secularist atheism, are all part of the natural world.  Daniel's God, our God, is not part of the natural world, but outside, before and beyond it.  So Daniel and his three friends protest.
Ashpenaz, the guy in charge of their well-being, is worried.  “Look, if you guys start to get plooks and runny noses, and they find out it's because you've not been eating the royal food, it's me who will get my had cut off!”   They do it gently, respectfully, carefully, understanding how Ashpenaz feels.  They make a deal, confident that God will look after them and keep them healthy: try us for just ten days.  Then see if we look OK.  In challenging what is wrong in our world, we need to do so with gentleness, compassion and understanding.

What made them able to do this?  I believe there were three things:
Commitment: they had drawn their line in the sand,  they were not going to cross it whatever it cost.
Confidence: they knew what they believed and why they believed it and expected God to be big enough to look after them.
Companionship: they were in this together; they supported one another, prayed for one another, talked things through with one another. 

And after ten days, they are looking healthier than those who have been guzzling the King's food and wine.  And after three years, they are top of the class. Straight A's. The combination of hard work, commitment and faith pays off. But it's more than that. .These four are “ten times better” than not just the other students but the experienced magicians and enchanters. This is a miracle. It's supernatural.  God has done it.  God doesn't guarantee that we will always prosper like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  But he does promise that when we engage sensitively and wisely in our world, he will come through and work a miracle in our lives.

Finally, a word to those who are older.   The book we are studying is called “Daniel.”  Not “Belteshazzar”!  Although some of the action happened to a bunch of teenagers, Daniel survived into old age, and wrote his story down.  It is the testimony of a man who has proved God.  What an important place there is today, not just for the teenagers, not just for the young mums and dads.  But there is a vital role for the older people, the grannies and grandpas, who have proved God, and who can continue to say in a difficult and challenging world “Keep at it.  God is for real, and he does come through and answer our prayers.” 

© Gilmour Lilly 2016