So I'm already diggin' Daniel and I know there's alot more to discover, so I'll probably have to come back to him, but what I'm looking at now is Daniel 2. Once again, Daniel (like the other two) is noted for his wisdom. Which is good, but what I really like about it is how he carry's out that wisdom, how he carries himself.
Ok to set up the scene - King Nebuchadnezzar (I bet he didn't learn to spell that til like 3rd grade), has these dreams and they're really messin with him. So he calls up these astrologers and he says tell me what it means, but if you can't, I'm going to cut you up into pieces and torch your house and property. (Great, no pressure, right?) So the astrologers and magicians say "ok tell us, we'll tell you what it means." and King Neb says "no, i think you know how serious I am about this so you'll just make up something to survive. No you tell me what the dream was and what it means." They reply with "dude, thats impossible. No one can do that." So King Neb gets TO'ed and sends out an order to kill all the wise men in the Kingdom. [Enter Daniel: Stage left]
So as Arioch (King's Executioner) comes to get Daniel and the 3 (Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego). David talks to Arioch "with wisdom and tact." (v14). I like that. I like it cause not only did he have wisdom, but he knew how to use it. He didn't go around with his nose up in the air, he kind of thought it through of what's the best way to convey this. He used tact, which takes alot more thinking through than just "I have the answer, here it is!" But he was aware of things and knew the best way to communicate was not to fly off the hinges or deal with stuff that way, but tactfully. He was a thinker, and a wise man. So he talks Arioch to talking to the King and letting them have some time to interpret it. Then he runs back and gets the 3 and urges them to "plead for mercy from the God of heaven." <--Dude straight up knew how to handle stuff. You get you and your posse together and you faceplant in-front of the God of heaven (the only God, thats why they give him the capital "G") and you plead and beg. They all knew this was the only way it was happening is if God shows up and God explains it. Footnote in my bible explains it as he just met with the temperamental king who ordered his death. Instead of panicing he prayed. Panic shows your hopelessness, prayer shows your hope in God. So they hit their knees and cry out please. (I dont know this for sure, but the feeling I got when I read it was that Daniel didn't ask for Him to solve it, or for Him to get the interpretation. He just was asking that God would tell one of them.) How much more should we be like that. Doesn't it seem like alot of time's we want to be the hero? or that we want to be God's all-star? But Daniel wasn't into that (granted his death with his life or death) but still a good lesson that when we want God to work, we often want God to work through us (not a bad thing, necessarily) but are we a little frustrated when God does it and it's not through us? I know I am. I shouldn't be. It's ridiculous. It's not about me, it's about Him. The goal got done, but I think part of it is where I want to feel like I accomplished something. We often forget how much prayer is a great part in the process. Actually prayer is like the bottom of the iceberg. It's like 2/3 of the situation. It's only the 1/3 that sticks above the water that people see and that we are doing something. Hmm.. yeah I like that. Anyways. Daniel prays that it gets done, doesn't matter who or what does it, but that it gets done. I wish I could pray like that? I wish I did pray like that.
{[God, please help me pray without pride. God, show me what I can pray for, whether or not I'm in the situation, and help me to pray with your heart. Not that I could help, but if I can please let me, but that it will be done. That we, as we go about the situation, that we wouldn't think about ourselves or anything we're doing, but see that it's you who's doing it and that it's you who get all the glory. and God please, help remove any feelings of being let down or disappointment because we weren't the ones there to help, but help us rejoice in the fact that you are working despite the people involved. Let us fully be the body of Christ, and as there is any small victory that we could celebrate it because it is our victory also. That we would be encouraged by this victory and it would motivate us and spur us on to further work harder. to pray harder. ]}
So Daniel is the one who God ends up using in the middle of the night through a vision. and What i like is in v18 he says "he urged them to plead for mercy" then in v19 "Daniel praised the God of heaven." ok 1) He believed fully that God could answer the prayers and God did. 2) instantly he turns around and praises God for it. He just turns and thanks God honestly and open heartedly. Sometimes, I think we, atleast I, thank God not the way I should. I thank him, but not nearly as much as I asked him for help in something. Not with the same creative language, not with the same life changing urgency. I also have a tendency to go tell everyone else right off and celebrate with them rather than stopping and celebrating and thanking God first. I'll go tell the other 4 people in the situation and then thank God.
So then he goes to tell King Neb. He says can you tell me what it means? and I love how Daniel responds. It in no way could be pointing the finger at himself. He doesn't even take partial credit like we often do by saying "I've got it, God gave it to me." He spins the whole sentence structure. He says, "No one could do that. It's impossible for anyone to do it. But God can." Actually his exact words which I'll put cause it's slam-in-your-face-good was "No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but thre is a God i heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown. . ."(v27-28). BAM! Then the humbleness continues to pour out after he says this he make sure everyone knows who he is and that he's nothing special. After he says God reveals stuff, then he goes on to say "as for me, this mystery has been reveal to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men," but so that you know what your dreams mean. It would have been very easy to just leave this line out when your talking and say, "I have the answer God gave me" and let people revel a little in God using you. But he says, it's not because I have greater wisdom.
Ok a few other things real quick after he tells King Neb about the dream he says now WE will tell you what it means. WE as in him and the 3. Although Daniel was the only one speaking, he still makes sure to include the other 3 who were there all along. Who prayed (doing most of the hard work). and I think about how often we don't give credit to all of those who prayed for us. We tell them thanks, but when someone says something how often do you hear someone say, well God did all of the work, and there was Bob and Jill and Sarah and Meghan and Michael and Jonathan and Kayla and all these people people praying so they get just as much congrats that I do." I don't know if I've ever heard someone say that. Then along the same lines King Neb raises up Daniel in a high position and gives him lots of crap (good crap, like gifts) and by Daniel's request, the 3 are made administrators over the province Babylon. He never forgets those who were with him, he never leaves them behind. he always prays and rewards those who have prayed with him. Hmm. Lots of good lessons in humility from such a wiseman. He wasn't thinking less of himself, he was just thinking of himself less. He never let the power get to him or persuade his mindset. He stuck to God did it, and these people helped me pray for it. I was just the one God happened to use.
UPDATE: So, my bad. Foolishly, I started with chapter 2 cause that's where I was referenced, but kind of missed the pre-chorus of chapter 1. So Chapter 1 hits this: Daniel and the 3 have exported, along with the rest of his people to a foreign land after Judah was conquered. Then they get picked up by King Neb's official because Neb wanted some of the young men of Israel. So as they're there, Neb gives them a certain amount of food and wine for each day, but Daniel doesn't want it. It's unclean food and is starting to be swayed towards the Babylonian culture (leaving God's). So the dude in charge comes and says, "if you guys look worse then all the rest then Neb will have my head." So David says, "Ok. test us. Give us 10 days to do it our way, and then judge for yourself how we look." At the end of 10 days, the 4 look fantastic (fantastic 4, get it?), better than the others, so the boss allows them to continue their veggie diet. After this it says that there were none like the 4 in the kingdom. That God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning to these men. and David could understand visions and dreams of all kind. Then as King Neb talked to them all, he found that these 4 stuck out above all the rest. "10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole Kingdom."
So I started looking at this from a conceptual standpoint rather than just pure facts and learned this: long before any of them were used to interpret dreams or rise above the rest, before the fire they walked in, before they were placed in a place of authority, before Daniel's dreams, and before he hung around with some rather large felines, before all of that, they stuck with Jesus. Two words I love now: 1) Resolve. Daniel resolved not to eat any of the meat or wine. Resolved - to be devoted to principle and to be committed to a course of action. 2) Consecrate. Consecrate - to set apart or devote to God. I think these two words best describe what's going on here. They fantastic 4 set themselves apart from all the rest of the Israelites and all the Babylonians and dedicated themselves to a strict course of action to follow God at all costs, and not to give in anyway. This was way before they expected to do anything. They had no idea what was about to happen. All the crap they were about to be put through. This wasn't even the best of times either. God allowed them to be kicked out of their home, then taken away from their family, and still they said "You know what, we're sticking with God." And because of their set-apartness, then God raised them up and used them in some mighty big ways. OK. RELATED TO US - Sometimes God has to move us away from things we're comfortable with, away from home away from friends and family. Do we crack? Do we give in and adapt to the culture around us? or do we stick with God, even if we're the only ones who are. IF we do, then God can use us in big ways. It doesn't mean we're going to be promoted and be the head of something. It means he will bless us (surprising what that comes in the form of), and it means that they'll be opposition. After this, Daniel gets thrown into the lions den, the 3 get tossed into the fire. both things I wouldn't necessarily do. But both times you see that God is with them and that God never leaves them. Thats like being caught in a gun battle between two gangs, or being tossed in a shark tank with a fresh cut on your leg. Maybe that's being tossed into another country in missions work, or tossed into a freshman class at college when no one is left around you, or when they all abandon you for the ways of the land instead of sticking with God. If the fantastic 4 would have given in, we might not have had any of these stories about men walking in fire, or thrown to the lions who become your friends. Extreme cases of sticking to God and God showing up BIG. So it makes me think of how sometimes God moves us out and when things aren't too happy, we stick with him. Then he raises us up and uses us in more ways than if we had been left where we were, where it was easy and complacent. Heck, due to Daniel not going with the flow and eating the food the next chapter we see a Kingdom being turned around, that's like one guy refusing to conform and a country turns to Jesus. BAM! Chpt 2:46-47 "Then Kin Nebuchadnezzar fell prostate (face-down on the ground in submission) before Daniel and paid him honor... the King said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings..." <- DANG! Check that out. Bamboozled. woop! woop! Of course, the Neb-ster wasn't a full convert, whenever God works there tends to be another force at work and so there's more to the story. Kind of how we have to continue to fight all the way through the battle and not give up at the first sign of victory. But how amazing is that. To consecrate yourself before God, not expecting anything but to stay with Him and then he does that? So before or even during things that are happening, we should remain devoted to God. James 4:10 "Humble ourselves before God and he will lift you up." Complete and total submission and dedication, devotion to one thing long is the beginnings of wonders. If we want to be used, we have to set ourselves apart to be used.
No comments:
Post a Comment