But ultimately, when people are asked for their opinion about the Book of Daniel, the reason that it is considered to be important goes back to those special prophecies. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream outlines the great kingdoms of man – yet to come in Daniel’s day. There was a spectacular prophesy about Nebuchadnezzar himself, followed by its obvious fulfilment. That little prophesy about hair like feathers, and eating grass like an ox helps to authenticate the rest of the prophecies that we find here. Another prophesy declared the fall of Babylon under Belshazzar, and it occurred immediately. Then there is Daniel’s vision of the four beats in chapter 7. Following that there is his vision of the ram and the goat in chapter 8. In chapter 9 the angel Gabriel comes for a visit and reveals more interesting material. Another, lengthy vision comes along after that, describing details about the world up to the very end. Without a doubt the Daniel is a book of marvelous prophetic revelation. And as I said, many of the details of those prophesies are open to debate.
But I’d like to suggest that there is perhaps a more important, beneficial aspect to this book. Sure, we like to know about what the Lord is going to do in the near and distant future . But what the Lord is going to do, He IS going to do, whether we understand these things or not. On the other hand, you and I live in the today – the here and now – and what Daniel teaches us about this is far more practical and far more helpful. These are things that he teaches us not through prophesy or theological lectures, but through his life. Admittedly this sort of thing isn’t as exciting – as sexy, as they say in the vernacular – but when problems and difficulties come into our lives, the important questions are not: of what nationality will the Antichrist be, or when will the Messiah return. In the midst of the problems of life, the important question is: how should I deal with this current tragedy? I believe that Daniel answers this kind of question, as well as he does some of the others.
Have you noticed how Daniel illustrates this succession trials and problems? In chapter 1 he was dragged from his home to a strange city with a strange language, strange foods, strange gods, strange customs and a forced education. Trial #1 was just the task of learning to cope and exist in such conditions. This was not something that he brought upon himself – it was forced upon him. But then almost immediately he was confronted with the choice of eating for God and eating for life. Sure this again was something which was thrust upon him, but in this case, he felt it necessary to make it a challenge, while perhaps others just acquiesced. Daniel felt that Jehovah required him to refuse the King’s food, and so he did. It might have cost him his life, along with the lives of his friends whom he encouraged to follow him. This was a crucible into which he willingly jumped, but there was a Biblical principle involved. In chapter 3 there is another test much like the first – Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were expected to bow in idolatrous worship before the image of the king. Of course, they refused, and their lives were nearly extinguished in a furnace of fire – or perhaps I should say that their lives were nearly consumed. In a sense the Lord extinguished the flames of that furnace as far as they were concerned. Chapter 4 deals with Nebuchadnezzar, but when we run into Daniel again in chapter 5, he is once caught between a rock and a hard place. God’s finger writes upon the palace wall, and the message speaks of the king’s destruction. Daniel has to tell the foolish monarch the truth. In merely explaining the revelation, he might have incensed the king to wrath and caused his own death. In Chapter 6 Daniel is told by the federal government that he cannot pray. It is a deliberate trap, designed to ensnare only one man – Daniel, the temporary Prime Minister. The situation gave him several options: He could have stopped praying during the allotted period. He could have prayed secretly, because he knew full-well that God hears our most inward thoughts. Or he could have prayed as openly and obviously as he ever had, exposing his uncovered head to the slings and arrows of the wicked. That, as you know, was the choice that he made. And as a result, he was condemned to die in the lion’s den – you might call it death by leonine injection. On and on I could go.
The point is — life is full of challenges and decisions, many of which carry dangerous or fatal effects. And the life of Daniel is an illustration of this fact. Some of these problems come to us, and we have no control over them. Why do I have leukemia or diabetes? As far as I know I didn’t cause these diseases. I don’t have any control over the economy, and I didn’t force my company to down-size and to lay me off. I didn’t make that other car swerve into my lane and run into me. He/she might say so, but I didn’t force my spouse to cheat on me. Not all our problems are brought upon us by our own actions. But the fact is that sometimes they are. Just trying to be conversational, I asked an acquaintance the other day if she survived the holidays. She said that physically she did. But financially, she is not so sure. Ah, that is a crisis of her own making, or the making of her family – creating unnecessary debt. When we choose to sin, there will be consequences, and sometimes they will come immediately. Alcohol and drugs may have immediate and long-lasting effect. Ask Noah and Lot. Adultery, womanizing and flattery can irreparably destroy a marriage relationship or a life. Ask David about that. Greed, deception, fraud and chicanery…. No matter what sin we might mention, we can usually see the devastating effects.
But as we saw from Daniel 1, sometimes we create our own crises, and yet it has nothing to do with sin. Daniel’s battle over meats offered to idols, meats forbidden by God, and meats unhealthy to eat was a choice which he made, but he felt that morally he had no choice. He was willing to face the music and to suffer the consequences for the honor of his God. And the Lord blessed him for that choice. But once again, I remind you that our lives are a constant string of challenges. Some are mundane, some create danger, and some are more dangerous than dangerous. It shouldn’t surprise us when our best laid plans place us in precarious positions. Consequently, the question becomes – what am I going to do about this?
For example, reading between the lines, I would have to say that despite being so radically different in faith from most of the Babylonians, Daniel was earning the respect and friendship of many of them. Of course, as I pointed out in regard to Ashpenaz the prince of the eunuchs, it was by the grace of God that Daniel was brought into his “favour and tender love.” This also appears to have been the case with Melzar and now with Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard.
Arioch, may have been the man responsible for the personal safety of King Nebuchanezzar. In the Aramaic language he is said to be the “chief slaughterer” – that is, the chief of the executioners. (Have you ever noticed the parallels between Daniel and Joseph so many years earlier in Egypt?) I would think that if this professional executioner had no affection for Daniel, there wouldn’t have been any delay and conversation between them. He appears to have reluctantly told the man of God that he was under orders to kill him. Then Daniel calmly, politely and respectfully, asked for the reason – he “answered with counsel and wisdom.”
As I say, I think that Daniel approached this critical trial in his life with utmost faith in God. Nebuchadnezzar was a brutal and bloody man, not blinking an eye in ordering the slaughter of some of the smartest people. And yet, Daniel appears to have walked into the throne-room, requesting a twelve hour moratorium. Courage and boldness, are not necessarily indications of faith, but faith in the Lord can quite often produce courage and boldness. It might be argued that Daniel was under a threat of death, so there was nothing for him to loose, but I doubt that was the way that he looked at things. He trusted in the Lord and in His wisdom in these circumstances – there was nothing to fear, even if the king did order his immediate execution. What is a little death between the Lord and His saint?
But this is just the hem of the garment of Daniel’s faith. “Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.” I’m sure that you can see the enormous difference between what the Chaldeans had asked and what Daniel requested. They had wanted Nebuchadnezzar to tell them the dream so that they could concoct an interpretation. Daniel needed only a little time, so that the Lord would reveal both the dream and the interpretation. Now, try to put yourself into that saint’s sandals for a moment. Would you have been asking for the same sort of concessions? What would your request have been? Just like the Chaldeans? Perhaps mercy? Justice? Daniel’s request displayed unparalleled faith in the Lord.
Oh, that you and I had that kind of faith. We’re not charismatics handling snakes and drinking poisons, tempting the Lord to deliver us. When we sinfully create our own life’s crises, we shouldn’t expect the Lord’s mercy, despite hoping for it. But when it seems that God has brought these things upon us, or He has at least permitted them, shouldn’t we trust Him to bring us through them? How much can we trust Him? Theologically, we know that our God is unlike any of the gods of the Babylonians, Chaldeans or secular Americans. We know that Jehovah is omnipotent, and that our Saviour loves us. We know the scripture which says “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” And we know that “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” But is our faith in the Lord great enough to trust Him to deliver us from this current crisis? Daniel could trust the Lord; he did trust the Lord and was temporarily delivered from this problem. One of the most powerful men on the planet, and one without any semblance of Christian morality, granted Daniel some time.
That meant that Daniel would be able to enter door number two in seeking a solution to this predicament. The Lord had not yet revealed to His young prophet what the king had dreamed. Here was something about which he would have to pray. So he went to his apartment, and invited his three friends to join him in a special prayer meeting. Of course, they quickly complied, because their lives were in as much danger as all the others. And together they earnestly besought the Lord for grace and mercy in dealing with this specific problem.
Now, here is a question for you closet theologians: Do two, three or four prayerful people have more power with God than just one sincere, godly soul? Would the Lord have granted Daniel this wisdom if Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah hadn’t joined their friend in prayer? The only thing that I can say in this regard is that the Lord has said, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” I believe that the Lord delights in a church, no matter how small, which gathers together for the purpose of calling on the Name of the Lord. But I am not prepared to say that He ignores or demotes the prayer of a single saint. I think that Daniel invited his friends to join him because they were in the same danger that he was.
Notice the language of verse 18 – They desired the “mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” Of course, Daniel didn’t know exactly what it was that the Lord had in mind in all of this. He knew that of all the people in Babylon, the Chaldeans, the magicians, the astrologers, and the sorcerers, were among the most ungodly and Satanic in the realm. He didn’t know whether or not the Lord had plans to wipe out the whole rattlesnake den in one stroke – through this command of Nebuchadnezzar. If I was God, I would have arranged for Daniel to reveal the king’s dream, and then for all of Satan’s diabolical counselors to be exterminated, setting up the prophet of God to be Nebuchadnezzar’s only advisor. But in a perfect world, I wouldn’t be God.
In reality, through the prayers of these men, the lives of all those Satanists were temporarily spared. Does that make any sense at all? As long as there is life in that wicked heart, there is hope for that wicked soul. By that I mean – perhaps there were some of those Chaldeans who came later to worship Daniel’s God. If they had been killed that night or the next morning, that possibility would have been forever removed. Years later, who were those three mysterious men who visited the toddler in Matthew 2? They were wise men – Magi – from the east – from Chaldea? I’m not saying that they were, but they might have been descendants of some of these people whose lives were spared through Daniel’s prayers. The prayers of these four men might have had long-lasting, even eternal effects.
Have I ever gone on record, saying that Daniel was a good man? A saint of God? It is difficult to find anything in God’s Word with which to accuse him. At the same time, I remind you that he was a child of Adam and therefore a sinner worthy of the Lake of Fire. “There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no not one.” That includes you and even Daniel and his friends. Since they knew that, we aren’t surprised to hear that they sought the Lord for mercy.
Now Into your life has come a crisis; you have run into a dead-end, with only a tiny deer trail leading away. This problem was not of your creation, even though you have created many others in the past. This was thrust upon you by a wicked society – by an apparently mindless microbe – by an enemy. You cannot see any escape except through divine intervention. These things being true, you still have no right to demand that intervention. God owes none of us anything – not even to Daniel. The only things which we can plead are mercy and grace. “God be merciful to me a sinner,” is not a plea confined to the moment of salvation. It must ever be kept in mind, because it is always our need.
Daniel and his friends had been tossed into the crucible; they were seeking for divine extrication.
Did Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah spent a few hours in prayer and then everyone went home? Was Daniel so confident and so full of peace that he went to bed – and went to sleep? I wouldn’t be surprised that this was possible and actually true. And if it was, what specifically was it that Daniel dreamed? Do you suppose that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed his dream two or three times, but when he awoke he couldn’t remember it, and then Daniel was given precisely the same dream, and he remembered it with absolute clarity? Did he dream the same dream as the king? Actually, most commentators suggest that there is a difference between a vision and a dream, and this was said to be a vision.
Whatever it was which occurred that night, it was obviously miraculous. This was a revelation from the true God – the God of Heaven and earth – Jehovah. It was a dream first to Nebuchadnezzar, then it was a revelation to Daniel. It was a revelation of the future – a future which was under the complete control of the Almighty God. We will table our study of that revelation for the moment. But we point out that it was miraculously given. And in the process, Daniel’s deliverance from this special crisis was also miraculous. “Then Daniel blessed the God of Heaven.”
Sometimes the challenges of life are solved in what looks like ordinary ways, but on other occasions there is no other explanation except the direct intervention of God. And yet, for the children of God, the first solution still points a finger to the second. Recently, you were suffering under that huge financial blow, brought about by a medical problem. Not only was your cure relatively quick and somewhat unexpected, but then you received that very unexpected check from a distant relative. To the world, there are logical explanations for both, which don’t include the Lord, but you know better. “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him my family here below. Praise Him above – ye Heavenly Host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
If you are not currently in some sort of crisis, then we can be sure that you’ll have one soon. For Christians, these things are not designed to make us despair. They are opportunities for us to utilize our faith and to draw us nearer to the Lord. They are opportunities for us to bring glory to the Lord. And perhaps we should add, that they should provoke us to evaluate our relationship to God. I am truly a child of God? Is the Lord trying to tell me that if I died at the hand of Arioch, my soul would immediately be plunged into eternal darkness? Is my faith in the Lord real, or am I actually trusting in my merits to merit points with God? Are you living in repentance before the Lord? Is your only hope and trust for eternity, resting on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you ready for the next great crisis in your life? Are you ready for the final crisis – the one that will bring your soul into the presence of God? We all need a Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed His blood on Calvary. We must meet him in repentance and with utmost faith in Him. Repent before God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you ready for the final crisis of life – the one that will bring your soul into the presence of God?