Prayer Waves
Tom Shrader walks through Daniel 2, where Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream threatens the lives of all Babylon's wise men, and Daniel responds not with panic but with prayer and trust in a sovereign God who reveals hidden mysteries. Daniel's immediate praise upon receiving the dream's revelation is held up as a model of humility — deflecting all credit to God rather than claiming personal wisdom — and his relationship with God is identified as his greatest asset in the workplace. The teaching closes by connecting Daniel's story to believers today, calling them to live out a faith that is personal but not private, trusting that God's kingdom will ultimately outlast every earthly power.
“Everything happens for a reason, and everything that happens is caused by or allowed by a sovereign God who not only knows all things but can do all things.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Faithful
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 55 min
Themes: prayer, humility, trust, sovereignty of god, faith at work, crisis, praise, courage, feeling overwhelmed, workplace pressure, navigating hostile culture, young adult, new believer, professional, struggling with fear, living out faith publicly
Scripture: Daniel 1:8, Daniel 1:17, Daniel 1:19, Daniel 2:1-47, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Colossians 2:3, Genesis 37-50
Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, providence, biblical prophecy, kingdom of god, eschatology, sanctification, revelation, faithfulness
Full Transcript
Living Faithfully in a Hostile Culture
Open your Bibles to the book of Daniel. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and the guys will get you a copy — it will be on page 478. We are in week six of what will be a ten-week series titled *Faithful*. As always, the overarching main character is God, but we are also looking at the lives of two men from ancient times: Joseph, whom we studied through Genesis 37 through 50, and Daniel, as we work through the first six chapters of the book of Daniel. In both of these men, we see lives that triumphed — and were in the midst of triumphing — in the middle of moral and spiritual corruption in the culture around them.
That is certainly the world we live in. We live at a time that is more and more becoming blatantly opposed to the very things we believe, the things we hold as fundamental. And just so you know, we picked these studies long before many current events made them feel timely — this is not a response to any one thing this week, but rather to the gradual and increasingly open hostility you see toward your faith.
I sent myself three emails this week with news stories, and I'll share just one headline to illustrate how far things have gone: "New Trend: Gyms Banning Slim Clients to Foster Comfort for Overweight Patrons." What they're saying is that gyms are now telling fit people they're not particularly welcome — which means you're working yourself out of a job, since once you get fit, they want you out. We have reached a point of lunacy in the culture.
This is not new, by the way. We now prefer accolades over achievement — "you tried really hard" rather than "you won." My grandson, who is four, is intense and competitive. He can make anything a contest. We were at breakfast one day when the food came at the same time and he said, "I know I can eat my breakfast faster than you." He went to see his cousin Reagan in a little ballet recital last week, and it drove him nuts that nobody won. That is the culture we are in — one that has lost not just its moral compass, but its resolve. It is a culture grown very soft, much more concerned with accolades and effort than with achievement and success, and increasingly driven by a concern for the weakest — not weak in circumstance, but weak in resolve.
The World Daniel Lived In — and the World We Live In
Now, on a much bigger scale than what they do at the gym, you live in a time — particularly when it comes to moral and spiritual issues — where you and I stand in real opposition to the culture around us. There will be times where you get the head bob of agreement, but you are going to find yourself in exactly the same position as Daniel. That is the whole point of this study. Daniel was living in a secular, humanist society, and we will talk more about that next week.
Let me remind you what we saw in chapter 1. Daniel and his friends are living in Jerusalem when the city is conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar takes the king, the king's family, the royalty, and key people — particularly the young men of potential — and brings them back to Babylon. We meet these boys at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old, and we see in them remarkable men.
They are living in a foreign land where their entire support structure is God. It is a secular land in dark contrast and opposition to their beliefs. Their identities are stripped away. Their names are changed. All of this is an effort to take the best and brightest of these boys from Judah and assimilate them into the culture. They stand in opposition to the force of the king, and they are clearly under spiritual attack.
Daniel Resolved
What do you do in moments like that? We said that chapter 1, verse 8 is the key verse: Daniel made up his mind — he determined, he resolved. Daniel Campbell wrote this about Daniel, the subject of our study:
> Daniel could discern the fact that the Babylonian culture was in conflict with the word of God. And Daniel had the maturity and moral courage to say a firm no to cultural pressures. Involved in this is the clear implication that Daniel was a keen student of the scriptures and he had the ability to apply what he knew to the problems of everyday life.
That is our goal as well — to study the word of God so we know the God of the word, and to understand how that God would have us live. The little "What Would Jesus Do?" phrase is cute and clever, but that really is not the issue. The issue is: what would Jesus have *you* do? How do you take timeless lessons and principles and bring them forward 2,500 years to apply them to your life today?
And in a practical way, one of the things we saw with Daniel last week is that as the forces and demands came against him —
they were going to be $9 billion. And just like that, what went up came right back down. Nobody saw that coming. We try to predict things. We try to predict our own health. We try to predict our relationships. We don't do very well. And the second thing I find interesting about the future is that it actually reveals to us the greatness of God, because God not only knows the future, He created it, and He controls it. And that is precisely what this dream is about.
Nebuchadnezzar's Troubling Dream
So Nebuchadnezzar is troubled. He can't sleep. And he calls in his cabinet — the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans — and he says, I need you to tell me my dream. Now here's where it gets interesting, and this is unique in all of ancient literature. He doesn't just say, tell me what the dream means. He says, tell me what the dream was, and then tell me what it means. Some have suggested he forgot it. Others have suggested he remembered it but wanted to test his wise men to see if they were legitimate. Either way, the demand is the same: tell me the dream, and then interpret it. And the wise men say, in verse four, "O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation." Reasonable enough. But the king says, no. In verse five, "The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap."
That is a serious threat. And the wise men push back. They say, in verse ten, "There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean. Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh." Now, that last line is ironic, because they are actually closer to the truth than they realize. There is indeed a God whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh, and yet who knows exactly what the king dreamed.
The king, of course, doesn't receive this well. He is enraged. Verse twelve tells us he "gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon." And that order sweeps up Daniel and his three friends as well, because they are now part of that cabinet. Arioch, the commander of the king's bodyguard, goes out to put the wise men to death, and he finds Daniel. And Daniel, verse fourteen tells us, "replied with discretion and discernment" to Arioch. Notice that. He doesn't panic. He doesn't rage. He responds with wisdom.
Daniel's Response: Bringing It to God in Prayer
Daniel goes to Arioch and asks for time. He says, give me an opportunity, and I will tell the king the interpretation. Then he goes home. And this is the part I want you to see. Verse seventeen: "Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon."
He goes straight to prayer. He doesn't sit down and try to figure it out. He doesn't call a strategy meeting. He gathers his friends and they pray together. They ask God for compassion. They ask God to reveal the mystery. And then verse nineteen: "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven." God answered their prayer. He gave Daniel the dream and its meaning, and Daniel's first response is worship.
Look at what Daniel says in verses twenty through twenty-three, because this is a remarkable prayer of praise. "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and power; even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, for You have made known to us the king's matter."
What Daniel's Prayer Reveals About God
I want you to notice several things in that prayer. First, Daniel says that wisdom and power belong to God. Not to the king. Not to the wise men. Not to Daniel himself. To God. Second, he says it is God who removes kings and establishes kings. Nebuchadnezzar thinks he is the most powerful man in the world, and in human terms, he probably is. But Daniel knows something Nebuchadnezzar does not yet know: that the God of heaven put Nebuchadnezzar on his throne, and the God of heaven can take him off it. Third, Daniel says God reveals the profound and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness. That is exactly what just happened. God revealed what was hidden — the dream that no human being could recover or interpret.
And then Daniel goes to Arioch and says, don't execute the wise men. Take me to the king. And Arioch brings him in quickly, and he says to Nebuchadnezzar, in verse twenty-five, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king." Now, Daniel gently corrects that in verse twenty-seven. Because Nebuchadnezzar says to Daniel, verse twenty-six, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?" And Daniel says, essentially, no wise man, no conjurer, no magician can do this. But then verse twenty-eight: "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days."
That is the heart of the passage. There is a God in heaven. Not a god somewhere, speculative, philosophical. A God in heaven, personal, present, and active, who reveals mysteries and who controls what takes place in the latter days.
The Content of the Dream: A Great Statue
Now Daniel tells the king the dream. Verses thirty-one through thirty-five. "You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
That is the dream. A towering statue made of four different materials, each diminishing in value as you go down, and then a stone — not cut by human hands — that strikes the statue and destroys it entirely, and then grows into a mountain that fills the whole earth.
The Interpretation: Four Kingdoms and the Kingdom of God
Daniel then gives the interpretation. And this is where the sovereignty of God becomes extraordinarily specific. Verse thirty-seven: "You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold."
Notice again how Daniel frames it. You are the king of kings, Nebuchadnezzar — but only because God gave it to you. The power, the strength, the glory: all of it from God. You are the head of gold, but you didn't make yourself gold. God placed you there.
Then verse thirty-nine: "After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth." And verse forty: "Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces." But then the feet — partly iron, partly clay — and verse forty-one tells us that kingdom will be a divided kingdom. There will be some of the toughness of iron in it, but also the brittleness of clay, and it will not hold together.
Historically, the overwhelming consensus of scholarship reads these four kingdoms as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Babylon is the head of gold. That fits — it is the greatest and most glorious. Medo-Persia follows, inferior in some ways but broader in reach. Greece comes next, sweeping across the known world with speed and power under Alexander. And then Rome — the iron kingdom — crushing and breaking everything it encounters, and yet ultimately divided, never fully unified, part strong and part brittle.
The Stone Not Cut by Human Hands
And then the stone. Verses forty-four and forty-five: "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy."
The stone cut without human hands. This is a kingdom not built by human effort, not established by military conquest or political power. It is a kingdom set up by God Himself. And it will never be destroyed. Every human kingdom in history has risen and fallen. Every empire has had its moment and then collapsed. But this kingdom endures forever. It starts as a stone and becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.
For those of us on this side of the New Testament, we understand who that stone is. Jesus said it Himself. The kingdom of God is at hand. He is the cornerstone the builders rejected. The kingdom He inaugurates is not of this world in its origin, but it is absolutely for this world in its scope. It begins small, like a stone, and it grows until it fills everything.
Nebuchadnezzar's Response and What It Means for Us
How does Nebuchadnezzar respond? Verse forty-six: "Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense." And verse forty-seven: "The king answered Daniel and said, 'Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.'" The most powerful man in the world falls on his face. Not before Daniel, ultimately, but before the God Daniel represents.
And Daniel is elevated. Verse forty-eight: "Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon." And Daniel, characteristically, does not forget his friends. Verse forty-nine: he requests of the king that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon. He brings them with him.
Now, here is what I want us to take away from all of this. It is not primarily a history lesson, though the history is stunning. It is not primarily a prophecy seminar, though the prophecy is precise. The central lesson is this: there is a God in heaven who knows the end from the beginning, who sets up kings and removes them, who reveals what is hidden, and who is building a kingdom that will never end. And Daniel knew that God. Daniel talked to that God. Daniel trusted that God even when the circumstances said he was about to be executed along with every other wise man in Babylon.
The question for us is the same question it always is. Do we know that God? Do we bring our impossible situations to Him the way Daniel brought this one — not with a plan, but with prayer? Daniel did not have an answer. He had a God who had answers. And that is the posture the book of Daniel is calling us to.
God's Sovereignty Over All Things
People are curious about their own personal dreams: Will I get married? Who will I marry? Where will I live? What will my future hold? How long will I live? What we learn in scripture, what we learn over and over again in the book of Daniel, is that God is the King of all things, predicting the future, and He knows all things.
Someone left a mug on my desk one day, and inside there was a label tape that said "Tom's Oprah Cup." This is a result of my quoting Oprah approximately fourteen million times, because on the mug it says: "Things happen for a reason." That's what Oprah says all the time, and I pick Oprah because she's iconic. It is odd to be in a world where so many people — including people who believe in evolution and accidents — somehow believe that everything happens for a reason.
I believe that sentiment is nothing more than self-medication to make you feel a little better. Because if everything is an accident, and evolution and all these things are true, then for everything to happen for a reason, there has to be someone in control, somebody orchestrating things. What the Bible tells us is that God is sovereign.
For twenty-two years, we have done an amazing job at East Valley Bible Church and Redemption Church of teaching the sovereignty of God as it relates to our salvation. But I want to make sure we don't stop there. It is the sovereignty of God in all matters — that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, so that His will will be done. There is no maverick molecule loose in the universe that can usurp His plan. God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and He controls the universe.
That is what Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, verse 20: "Since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes as eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen." Scientists tell us the universe is growing and growing. If we believe God created it, then we are beginning to see how big He really is.
Wouldn't it be remarkable if there is no life anywhere else in the universe? That would be God's way of saying, look at how big I am — and how small you are. And yet, how deep My love must be for you, because in this vast universe, I love you, I chose you, and I sent My Son to die so that you all might have eternal life. The whole point of the mysteries and the prophecies we are going to look at today is to provide comfort to you — to remind you of who you are and to remind you of who He is.
God Reveals Mysteries
This future has mysteries, and periodically God grants us a glimpse into the future through prophecy. We see it throughout the Old Testament. Jesus gives it when He says He must suffer, die, and rise again. The last book of the Bible is called Revelation, and it is about exactly that — the revelation Jesus gave to the Apostle John.
God does this periodically, and this is one of those occasions. We are in Daniel chapter 2, and the point is made three, four, five times. Verse 19: the mystery is revealed to Daniel. Verse 22: it is God who reveals the profound and hidden things. Verse 28: there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. Verse 47: there is a God who is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, a revealer of mysteries.
A mystery is something unknown. Some of your translations may say "secrets," but it refers to something that, up to this point, God has hidden and now decides to reveal.
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He doesn't remember it, and it troubles him. So he does what a king like this would do — he calls in his best and brightest, all of his cabinet, and tells them in verse 3: "I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream." They respond by suggesting they go through the normal procedure: tell them the dream, and they will tell him what it means.
He tells them he has a problem this time — he does not know the dream. The king says in verse 5, this is his command: if they do not make known to him the dream and its interpretation, they will be torn limb from limb and their houses will be made a rubbish heap. That is his management style. If they do declare it, verse 6 promises the opposite — they will receive a reward.
They push back, saying this is not how it works — tell them the dream and they will give the interpretation. The king responds that he knows they are bargaining for time, and that if they do not make the dream known, all of these consequences will take place. He insists they are lying and corrupt, and demands they tell him the dream now.
This is just my own observation, but I wonder if Nebuchadnezzar arrived at a realization: his advisors kept telling him what his dreams meant, but if they could not tell him what the dream actually was, how could he know whether any of their interpretations were real?
The Magicians' Confession
There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer, or Chaldean. This is uncharted waters — unprecedented. No king, no king in battle, no king ever has asked this. There is nobody who could possibly do it. Moreover, beyond all of that, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling place is not within mortal flesh.
Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 11 this way: "What you're asking is impossible unless some god or goddess should reveal it to us — and they don't hang around with people like us." This is the perfect summary of their position, and it is fascinating to see so much overlap between this moment and our earlier study of Joseph. Joseph declares to Pharaoh that God is the one who gives dreams and God is the one who interprets them. What these wise men say is exactly right in its logic, even if they get the theology wrong.
A Distant God or an Intimate One?
What they got wrong is the nature of that God — because there is one God. And this idea of a God who wound the whole thing up and then walked away is not unique to ancient Babylon. There was a very popular song years ago called "From a Distance." It was all about what things look like from a distance: the world looks blue and green, the snow-capped mountains white, the oceans meet the streams, and the eagles fly. Then the refrain comes: "God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us — from a distance." It was this idea of an unknown God, a removed God, a distant God.
Let me give you something radically different. Everything happens for a reason — I believe that. And everything that happens is caused by or allowed by a sovereign God who not only knows all things but can do all things. He is all-knowing, He is all-powerful. That is why He is sovereign, that is why He is in control, that is why He does as He pleases. But He is not a distant God. He is a God who is intimately and personally involved with us.
Go back to what we considered a few moments ago. There is this infinite God who took void and nothingness and created the universe, and He rules it today. And yet — and this gets into mind-blowing territory — that vast, all-knowing, all-powerful God indwells me and you. He is not a distant God. He sees the sparrow fall. The hairs of your head are counted. He knows everything you have ever said and everything you will say. He knows all of those things.
When Suffering Twists Our Theology
There was a book that became very popular in the culture probably twenty-five or thirty years ago, and what became alarming is that it became popular in Christian circles — in fact, there were even a few prominent Christian leaders who endorsed it. It was called *Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People*. I believe one of the chapter titles was something like "God can't do everything, but He can do some very important things."
The premise of this book is born out of tragedy — out of one rabbi's experience of losing his son, and his attempt to bring reason to it. I understand that. But what suffering so often does is take our theology and twist it. Somehow, in this quest to spare God's reputation by saying He really couldn't do anything about it, we end up with a God who is less than God. We believe that God either causes or allows everything. If that is not true, He is not God. He is all-knowing, He is all-powerful, and He does not owe me an explanation.
He is the God who creates, and yet within the vastness of that power is the intimacy we can have with Him. He is knowable — not completely, because He is infinite and we are finite — but He is knowable, and He has a desire to be known by His people. In fact, one of the things the Spirit of God does when He indwells us is to take this Word and open it up to us. Formerly, as First Corinthians 2:14 tells us, as natural people we could not understand spiritual things — but now we can.
Daniel Steps Forward
So the magicians got it right when they said to Nebuchadnezzar that only the gods could reveal such a thing. What they got wrong is that there is one God. Because of this, the king became indignant and furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. The decree went forth, and as verse 13 makes clear, this included Daniel.
Daniel replied with discretion and discernment. He went to Arioch, the captain of the king's bodyguard who had gone forth to slay the wise men, and said to the king's commander, "For what reason is this decree from the king so urgent?" Arioch told Daniel what was happening, and Daniel went in — verse 16 — to the king.
Now, Daniel at this point was perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old. Remember, when the young men were first brought over, they were probably fourteen or fifteen. We also need to note that a fourteen-year-old in that culture was very different from a fourteen-year-old today. A young man was a man at fourteen or fifteen. And yet what you have here is still remarkably striking — something that the members of our pastoral team and the teams at our other campuses will tell you is just alarming when they see it today.
The Importance of Community and Support
Daniel appears to have had something important already in place. Though these circumstances were extraordinary, he was able to go back and plug into an existing support structure around him. It wasn't crisis management. He didn't have to say, "I wonder if I can get a team together." He went back to his house, and he seemed to have these guys already in place. What you and I need to understand is that we were not designed to live this life in a vacuum — and that applies to life in general, and to spiritual life in particular.
Daniel went to his house and informed his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego about the matter, so that they might request compassion from God of heaven concerning the mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. I want to make a couple of observations: one about what Daniel appears to have had in place, and one about his approach to it.
I also want to say something about Daniel's confidence here. I don't think he's being impetuous. I think he's saying he has a great deal of confidence in God, because he knows what was true — that there is a God who can give interpretation — and Daniel was going to wait on Him.
A Word on Accountability Groups
I mentioned this book to you last week: *Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything* by Tullian Tchividjian, who is Billy Graham's grandson. He took over at Coral Ridge Presbyterian after D. James Kennedy, so he inherited quite a situation and somehow was still breathing. He is also a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Seminary. I asked Aaron to get a couple of cases, and they are available in the bookstore if you are looking for something to read this summer. Part of the reason I like this book is that he agrees with me — but more importantly, one of the things he addresses is accountability groups.
We need community. But my concern is that some of these accountability groups miss the mark, and rather than rant about it myself, let me read what Tullian says:
> "At different times in my life, I've been part of what's called an accountability group. You know the ones I'm talking about — where you and a small group of friends arrange a time each week to get together and to pick each other apart, uncovering layer after layer of sin. All parties involved believe that the guiltier we feel, the holier we are. You confess your sin to your friends, but it's never enough. No matter what you unveil, they're always looking for you to uncover something deeper, darker, even more embarrassing than what you fessed up to. It's usually done with such persistent invasion that you get the feeling that they're desperately looking for something in you that will make them feel better about themselves."
> "Well, I hate those groups. The reason I hate these kind of groups described above is that they're focused primarily, if not exclusively, on our sin, not on our Savior. Because of this, these groups breed self-righteousness, guilt, and an almost irresistible temptation to pretend to be less than honest. I can't tell you how many times I've been in accountability groups where there's been little or no attention given to the gospel — never the reminder of what Christ has done for our sin, cleansing us from guilt, and the power that we have and the resources that are ours by virtue of our union with Him. These groups produce a 'do more, try harder' moralism that robs us of the joy and freedom Jesus paid dearly for us."
Now, once you say these things, you have to go back and qualify them. To be sure, we are called to mortify — to put to death — the misdeeds of our body, to cut off our hand and gouge out our eye. And we do need the help of others to do this. The sin that gives rise to our sinful behavior is a preoccupation with ourselves. That is the root sin that needs to be mortified, the under-the-surface sin that gives birth to our misdeeds. The first sin that needs to be rooted out and attacked is not immoral behavior — it is immoral belief: the belief that my Christian life is all about my morals and my spiritual progress.
I am in complete agreement that you need people around you. I just think some of these groups — and perhaps it is a weakness in me, so I was glad to read that it appears to be a weakness in Tullian as well — can devolve into an exchange that goes something like: "How are you doing?" "I'm fine." "How are you really doing?" And at that point, what was fine five seconds ago is no longer fine. I want to be careful, because some of that kind of honest accountability has genuine value — but the dynamic can go wrong when the focus never moves beyond uncovering sin and never arrives at the Savior.
Grace Over Self-Examination
Tozer said long ago that self is bad whether it manifests as self-degrading talk or self-aggrandizement. In either case, the focus remains on ourselves. We want to acknowledge sin and talk about sin, but it becomes so easy to fall into a self-righteous, pharisaical posture — saying "I've got to do this, stop doing this" — until it becomes all about me rather than about the forgiveness we have in Christ.
What we just described is grace, and every time we talk about grace, things get very sloppy. This is not about me being strong; it is about Him being strong. One of the songs sung in the conference center has a verse that says, "All I need is You, every hour, all I need is You," and there is a great line: "When I can't stand, I'll fall on You. You're all I need." That is the truth. It is the mystery of the Christian life — He is the vine, we are the branches, we hang in, and He produces the fruit.
Daniel has companions around him, but they are there to build each other up, not to engage in this chronic self-examination that spirals downward. That is the first observation.
What Daniel Does Next
The second thing to notice is what Daniel actually does. In verse 17 they gather together, in verse 18 they pray, and in verse 19 the mystery is revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Notice what Daniel is doing in verse 19 — he is sleeping.
This illustrates a wonderful principle: it makes no sense for us to do what only God can do, and it makes no sense for us to wait for God to do what we can do ourselves. Daniel understood that the revelation of this mystery comes from God. Staying up all night walking in the woods and thinking it through was not going to make any difference. He could not figure it out. God does this kind of thing, and if God is going to reveal it, perhaps He will reveal it in a dream. There are certain things only God can do, and exhausting yourself trying to accomplish them is a waste of time — but there are other things God says you can do, and you should do them.
Time as an Ally
In the midst of this, what Daniel recognized when he went to the king with his request is that time can be an ally. We often speak of time as though it is a precious commodity dripping away, and it is — time is running out, the biological clock is ticking, you do not have forever. But time also periodically provides the opportunity to heal, to step back, to clear your head, to reflect, and to regroup.
I was watching a cooking show, which is remarkable because I do not cook. I watch home improvement shows, but I do not improve homes. I watch cooking shows, but I do not cook. On this particular show, a man was preparing a steak and said, "Right here is where almost everyone stops cooking, because the steak seems done. I'm going to leave it on two more minutes and seal in the juices." That is time at work. Daniel looked at his situation and said, we have time — let us see what happens. He went to sleep, and God revealed the dream to him.
Awe Without Surprise
Now, what would your first reaction be in a moment like that? Mine would be to wake up with the dream, think "aha," sprint to the palace, and announce that I believed Nebuchadnezzar wanted to see me. I would get in and say, "Neb, can I call you Neb? You are one lucky king. You have me in your kingdom, and I know what the dream means." You would do that too — yes, you would, after you confess that you would. Daniel does not do that.
Somewhere in my Bible I found a note I had written — I do not remember when — that read: "I am frequently in awe of God, but never surprised by Him." That captures Daniel exactly. He is in awe of God, but he is not surprised, and so what does he do? He breaks out into praise. He takes time, literally, to thank God. "Daniel said, 'Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times, it is He who removes kings, it is He who establishes kings, it is He who is sovereign.'"
Stirred to Praise
John Calvin wrote that whenever God confers any remarkable blessing on His servants, they are more stirred up to praise Him. If that is true — and I believe it is — then I need to count my many blessings, count them one by one. I tend to be an ungrateful person. I tend to rarely thank God with vigor for my health, yet I pray urgently when I am sick to be healed. I see this pattern over and over again.
What Calvin is saying, and I think it is exactly right, is that when God confers a remarkable blessing on His servant — and really, any blessing from God is a remarkable blessing — my heart will be stirred to praise. I will sing songs that say "I need You, oh I need You, every hour I need You," and I will truly mean it. I will understand these amazing truths, and my life will not be filled with self-righteous pride. Instead it will reflect exactly what John the Baptist said: He must increase, I must decrease. He is everything, I am nothing. That is not a low self-esteem issue — it is simply the reality of truth.
Daniel does not rush to take credit. Daniel says, "God, thank You. You are the God of power, and I praise You in the midst of this."
Daniel's Prayer of Praise
"I praise You for Your wisdom and Your power." A.W. Tozer, in his book *The Knowledge of the Holy*, writes this: "The idea of God as an infinitely wise God is at the root of all truth. Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by perfect means. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision." That is God. That is God's plan.
Just keep reading at verse 23: "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness." We don't. We can't see this. "To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise. You have given me wisdom and power, and even now You have made known to me what we requested of You." So Daniel starts with this macro view. He says, this is who You are, but look at what You have done. You have given to me wisdom and power, and even now You have made known to me the king's matters. You are an awesome God.
This is not just something unique to Daniel. Paul tells us in Colossians 2, verse 3, that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom. Going back to 1 Corinthians 2:14, the natural man does not receive spiritual things, but now you and I have Christ in us. We have the ability to see things.
I like to define wisdom as the ability to connect the dots — the ability to see the forest and the trees. It is the ability to look at life around us and, while not necessarily understanding each specific circumstance, to always understand that everything is under the jurisdiction of God, His grace, His mercy. He is an awesome, holy, mighty God who rules the kingdoms of the earth, who holds everything in place, and who desires to have an intimate, personal relationship with His people. You can know Him. Not completely, because He is infinite and you are finite, but you can know Him and know about Him, know His complexities, and begin to see life as it really is.
Daniel Before the King
Daniel goes to Arioch and asks to see the king, and he is hurried into the king's presence. Arioch goes in and says, in verse 25, "I have found a man from among the exiles of Judah who can interpret the dream." The king says to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?" Make sure you understand what the king is saying. He is asking, can you do this?
Here is what Daniel says. No. Verse 27: "As for the mystery about which you, the king, have inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king." Here is the king with all the resources, talking about rewards and accolades and all the praise that goes with it — this can all be yours. Can you interpret the dream? No.
Verse 28: "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed." Daniel is saying, no, I cannot explain these dreams, but there is a God in heaven who gives these dreams and who gives their interpretations. It is not about the gods or goddesses of the present or the future. He is a great God, a holy God, a perfect God. I have seen this, I have heard this, but do not for a second mistake that and think it is me. There is a God who has made this known to me.
Not Because of Me
Verse 30: "This mystery has been revealed to me not because I possess more wisdom than any other living man." This reinforces the earlier point. Yes, there is a God who has revealed it. Yes, He revealed it to me, but Daniel underlines it and puts exclamation points on it — not because of me. He wants to make sure no one gives him any praise for this. God did not give it to him because he is something special.
I was watching one day as Herschel Walker was being inducted into the University of Georgia Bulldog Hall of Fame. He said, "I want to thank God, because everything I accomplished is from Him." And then he did not do what a lot of people do — he did not turn around and start talking about what he himself did.
One day I was down at La Paloma teaching, and I was at a red light coming out onto Ina. Herschel was staying at La Paloma and was out running early in the morning — shorts, no shirt, just shorts and shoes. His thighs are like my waist. He is a massive human being. But he stewarded that. Now, you can go the other direction and look at Marcus Dupree, who had the same kind of body but simply did not steward it. Herschel is smart enough to know he did not deserve that body — it was a gift.
I look at LeBron James and think, honestly, do you believe he and I were born with the same ability or opportunity? One of the things that has caused so much confusion in this country is that God granted us the pursuit of happiness — He did not guarantee happiness. And while we are all equal, we are not all the same. You can see it watching boys play basketball at six, seven, and eight years old. Some of those boys are phenomenal. Some of them, it is simply never going to happen. They were just born that way. It is easy to take a gift and confuse it, to look at it and say, I got the gift — and why wouldn't God give it to me? I must be pretty special.
The Dream and the Coming Kingdom
He talks about kingdoms. In verse 36, he talks about the kingdom of gold — the head — which is Babylon. In a biblical sense, these kingdoms are prototypes of earthly kingdoms. Then there is the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, then the kingdom of the Greeks under primarily the direction, at least initially, of Alexander the Great, and then the Romans. There seems to be a progression in this, and different authors get carried away with it, but what was just given is the general breakdown — a progression showing the weaknesses of these empires.
Then along comes, in verse 44, a divine kingdom: "In those days, those kings, God of heaven, will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put to end all these other kingdoms." This is the kingdom of God, and it will destroy all the kingdoms — the Babylonian kingdom, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the kingdom of Germany, China, Brazil, the United States. All those kingdoms pass away.
There is a perfect kingdom coming. Jesus said, "Here I am — the kingdom of God is at hand." He comes and says, now, here is the beginning of this new kingdom. You and I are kingdom people. Getting into eschatology, we generally understand Jesus came once and seems to be coming again — He has set up this kingdom, will set it up, there will be an earthly kingdom, and there will be the kingdom of God reigning.
The whole point of that prophecy is to understand that kingdom is coming and God will reign. He is superior. The one true God raises kings up and puts kings down. He is the One who establishes, and ultimately His kingdom — whenever it comes — will be the final kingdom. You can be in that kingdom of God and participate in it right now.
Nebuchadnezzar's Response
Verse 46: "Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. And the king answered Daniel and said, 'Surely your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings, a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.'" Here Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the one true God.
What is very interesting is that Nebuchadnezzar is still not ready to come to that one true God. He says, in effect, this is the God of gods, this is the Lord of all kings, this is the one God — and I want all the blessings He can shed on me. He wants Daniel close, but he does not yet need that God for himself.
There is a sub-point here worth making: when the king saw Daniel doing what he did, the king knew there was a God. In the same way, when people see you living a life empowered by the Holy Spirit, they take notice. Is that not what Jesus said — let them see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven?
Daniel's Advantage in the Workplace
Daniel had a huge advantage over all the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans — all the other men in his office, all the people in his workplace. And that same advantage is the one you have at work: he had a personal relationship with God.
The king promoted Daniel and gave him many gifts and made him ruler over the province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon while Daniel remained at the king's court. Daniel's faith in the one true God was not a hindrance but an asset in his work — just as yours is.
We need to make sure we understand this: our faith is a deeply personal matter, but it is not a private matter. You have a personal relationship with the Creator God of the universe. It is personal — one-on-one — but it is not private. It is not designed to be something restricted to Sunday morning, a Sunday school class, an accountability group, or whatever else. It is a deeply personal matter, but not a private one, because that relationship is meant to infect every area of your life.
The strongest asset you have when you walk into the office tomorrow is a relationship with Christ — just like Daniel's. By all human indications, the other men may have been better trained and sharper in every way, but God was indwelling Daniel, and that was his greatest asset in the marketplace.
A Pattern of Discernment and Humility
One of the things most striking about Daniel is that he seemed to have a clear pattern of discernment. Whenever challenges came into his life, he had the wisdom to recognize: that is something only God can do, so I will let Him do it — and here is something I can do, so I will do it. He understood the difference.
He also understood that his knowledge of God and who He is was not a liability, nor was it something God owed him. It was a gift God gave him. His attitude was not merely "not me" — it was "not only not me, but God gave this to me, and do not think for a second I deserved it, because everything I have is from God."
We will pick up the story there next week, taking a look at Daniel chapter 3. In the midst of all of this, the magicians and conjurers — all those whose lives were spared from the death sentence — you would think they would be rushing to thank Daniel. But all of a sudden, that prejudice...
Closing Prayer
Jealousy arises, and now Daniel faces yet another test in his walk with God.
We will pause here. If you are over in the conference center, Matthew or Brian will come and close your time together. Here in the chapel, Paul will come and lead us in our time of communion, and the band will come back and lead us in our time of worship.
Father, thank You for this amazing and awesome truth. God, thank You that You love us and You care for us, and You have provided for us wisdom and insight through Your Spirit — that You, the Creator God, indwell us. Father, now we pray that we could count our blessings and become men and women, students of praise. We pray this to You in Christ's name.