These seven verses of historical text and personal dialog can be used to teach several more lessons on the life of the Child of God. Daniel was one of us – one of the saints of the Lord – and one whom Jehovah used for His glory. Oh, that we all might be of significant use to our God and Saviour. Perhaps we could be of more use, if we learned some of the lessons on Godly Christian living. This isn’t especially a “feel-good” message, nor is it a truly “self-help” sermon, because the only way that we can ever be something positive for the glory of God, is when we are full of God’s help.
What does this scripture teach us about living the Christian life? Some of those things are…. Don’t use your personal advantages in order to hurt others. Knowledge produces responsibility. Don’t be surprised when others use you to their advantage. And don’t be surprised when you are doubted. Always keep things in their proper perspective. Be ready and quick to honor the Lord. And honest self-appraisal is always best.
Then the Lord revealed that dream, and its meaning, to young Mr. Daniel. After spending some time in earnest prayer with his three friends, the Lord graciously replied. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” And to paraphrase the first part of that verse from James – “Confess your needs to one another, and pray one with another, that ye may be blessed.” So now, Daniel miraculously has the information that he needed. And as we saw last week, the first thing that Daniel did was to give the Lord his due praise. Then “Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.”
Some Bible experts think that Arioch, had continued to carry out his orders to execute Babylon’s wise men. Some think that Daniel had to search for him, and probably found him with covered with gore. But with all the zeal of the moment, Daniel did what he could to stop any further blood-shed. Whether that was really the case or not really isn’t important to my point.
But does Daniel’s reaction make any sense? The men that Daniel was trying to save were, at the very best, personal rivals. Some of them had been through the same college courses that he was currently attending. But many more of them were established leaders in their various fields. They had written the current books on astrology and demonic channeling. You can be sure that none of them wanted this young Hebrew genius to interfere with their position and respect in their idolatrous society. If they had the same opportunity that Daniel had, they would have been quick to have him executed. These men were among the most wicked in all Babylon. Wicked in the sense that they were ambassadors for Satan. There may have been worse sexual deviates, murderers and thieves. But these were the people who taught the kind of morality which produced these other kinds of sins.
In addition to the four kinds of Satanists mentioned in verse 2, we have a new one mentioned by Daniel. The magicians were tricksters and deceivers. The astrologers pretended that the stars and planets are powerful enough to govern life on earth. The sorcerers were the openly satanic. They might have boasted in their ability to channel demons and their messages from the netherworld back to this world. And the Chaldeans were most likely the most diabolical of them all. Daniel mentions “soothsayers” along with the others. These were the people who cut open animals and claimed to say that the size of the liver, or the way that gall-bladder lay in relationship to the spleen, conveyed special messages from the gods. They might have taken the family dog, or the prize steer and cut them open to tell the future. Foolishness – utter foolishness. But the foolishness of man knows no bounds. People will believe anything if they are told about it often enough and with enough earnestness.
The lesson in this is that Daniel went out of this way to stop the slaughter of some really wicked men. Instead of slowly making his way to the palace, Daniel rushed out in the other direction to find Arioch. He could have completely ignored what the executioner was doing elsewhere in the city, guaranteeing the slaughter of a few more of the Lord’s enemies.. He might have only thought about himself – but he didn’t. Does this make sense? Is this the Christian sort of thing to do? Whether it makes sense or not, it is the Christian thing to do. Doesn’t God constantly display common grace toward the wicked as well as the just? Aren’t the children of God supposed to do the same sort of thing as their Father in Heaven? If the Lord wants to execute these people, then that is his choice, and Daniel isn’t going to stop it. But they were being slaughtered unjustly over something which was not directly connected to their sins. Justice – a very interesting subject – justice suggested that they should not have been slaughtered today.
If we want to leave a testimony which will draw the attention of the wicked…. If we want to tell the world that we serve a different kind of God…. If we want to influence the faith and repentance of the wicked, then we should never use our advantages to promote our own personal position in the world. Use the Lord’s gifts, talents, extra monies, and opportunities, to glorify the Lord, not yourself. Especially when the expense of others is involved. Use the Lord’s blessings toward you to be a blessing toward others, and even to the unbeliever.
I’ve used this illustration before, but let’s try it once again…. One of you with leukemia, quite accidentally has eaten something unusual, and it cured you of your disease. You then tell your brother and fellow church member to give it a try, and it does the same for him. Of course there is great rejoicing among all the church brethren – it is a miracle of sorts. Perhaps it’s not a miracle of healing per se, but a miracle of knowledge and information. Now, what are you going to do with that divinely given information? There is a Romanian missionary whom we know, who will soon have to return from the field, partly because he is suffering from some form of leukemia. It would be criminal and sinful, if you didn’t share your information with him. In fact, it would be criminal and sinful, if you didn’t shout it from the housetops, to all the leukemia victims around the world. Should you charge a fee for that information? It’s not like you spent $4 billion to develop some special chemical – you simply bumped into it. No one would be angry with you if you charged a tiny sum to cover the cost of postage and mailing this information around the world, but what the drug companies ordinarily charge is criminal.
Now remember that what we all possess in the gospel is infinitely more valuable and more important than any cure for cancer. We possess the key to eternity – in what we know about sin, righteousness and judgment. Daniel reminds us that we are obligated to share what we know of Christ with others – even the soothsayers of our society.
Don’t be surprised when you are used as a wrung on another person’s ladder to success. It might not be right, and it might anger you, but don’t be surprised. – it happens all the time. In fact the more godly and the more humble you are, the more vulnerable others might think that you are to this kind of abuse. Brush it off and forget about it, because there is a God in Heaven who not only can, but who will eventually make all such injustices right.
There is an corollary to this point. Arioch didn’t apparently know that Daniel had taken it upon himself to meet with the king the night before. When he heard about the death-sentence, Daniel went to the king, pleading for a short reprieve. In other words, when Arioch said, “I have found the solution,” Nebuchadnezzar could very well have seen through him. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” – Sir Walter Scott. The harder we try to manipulate circumstances to our advantage, the more we risk our own disaster.
Another interesting point would have come up if Daniel had been wrong. What would have happened to Arioch if he presented Daniel, but he was just as much a fraud as the others. This might illustrate Arioch’s almost destructive greed for reward and advancement; he was willing to risk life for a small smile from the king. Again – foolishness. But it might also prove that he had learned to trust this young Hebrew. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our lives, our words, our character, and our faith impressed the wicked enough to make them risk their lives based on what we had to say? What soul-winners we could be if this was the case.
Contrary to that is lesson four –
Don’t be surprised or offended when people doubt your sincerely, your ability, your worth or your faith. Don’t forget that they did the same with your Saviour. People are going to think whatever they want to think, and we have no direct control over that. We can only be as sure, as knowledgeable, as confident, and as godly as we can be. Paul can say, “Let no man despise thy youth,” but our only control is in his next statement: “But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Nebuchadnezzar may have been questioning and even sneering at this point, but in just a few minutes he will be trying to worship at the feet of Daniel. We cannot control the thoughts or the feeling of others, but we can control our relationship to the Lord. If God has given you the answer to the man’s questions, then be bold and share it. Don’t worry about what that man thinks at this point.
In a kind of parallel with the religious frauds, is the fact that God’s saints are actually nothing either. Lesson six demands that we maintain an honest self-appraisal of ourselves. “As for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.” I can look back over my life and I can see the trail which has brought me to the person that I am. Doctrinally, there have been people and events which shaped me and led me. If I believe anything correctly, it isn’t because I am so smart. As far as my personality is concerned, I am not the same man that I was forty years ago. You young people are on a journey which may seem to move very quickly, or very slowly, but believe when I say that it will shape you – up until the day that the Lord calls for you.
And some day, you may be called upon by a king, a judge, a neighbor, or a child, to explain some divine secret. “Tell me what is going to happen to me when I die.” “Tell me what I need to do in order to be prepared for that day.” “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” If you know the answer, really know the answer, it is because the Lord has been gracious towards you. It was not your wisdom, which brought you to this point. Yes, there may have been teachers or books, sermons or tracts which taught you these things. But it was the Lord who opened that stubborn heart of yours and fed you this divine knowledge. “I have been given this information by the grace of God, and one purpose was that I might share it with you, O king Nebuchadnezzar. Like all the rest of mankind, you need to humble yourself before the true God of Heaven. You must repent before Him – repent of your sin, repent of your attitude toward the Lord. And you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as your personal, substitutionary sacrifice for sin.” Perhaps Daniel couldn’t go quite that far that day, but you and I can – and must.
And for what purpose?
And just as we saw last week, it is the responsibility of the saint of God to be quick to honour the Lord with our praise. Yes, we may be talking to the most powerful man upon the planet, but he needs to hear us say, that “there is a God in Heaven.” There is a God who controls all things; who raises up kings and removes kings at His will. There is a God who controls Heaven and who controls Hell. And you Mr. King, must bow before him in repentance and faith. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
The same message is true today as it was in Paul’s day and Daniel’s day. There is a God in Heaven, and He will judge the quick and the dead. There is not a person on earth who does not deserve eternal death and eternal destruction. But there is a Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ. If any man will repent before God, and trust Christ as your Saviour, he shall be saved. Honour the Lord, obey the king, but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.