The Bible: Daniel
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 3/17/2013
Someone once said, “To be a person is to have a story to tell.”
Storytelling is a part of life, intrinsic to most cultures. Stories help people make sense of the world—life’s experiences, dilemmas and hardships. Stories can educate, inspire and build relationships. And human beings spend more of our free time immersed in story than doing anything else. Stories about things that aren’t true and people that don’t exist, for the most part. We watch movies and television, play video games, read books, comics and cartoons. We tell each other stories around the dinner table or the campfire. Even Jesus used stories to teach and tantalize his listeners. In fact, the Bible actually says, “Jesus used stories to tell all these things to the people; he always used stories to teach them” (Matthew 13:34 NCV).
Jesus understood the power of a simple story. Stories are capable of building a bridge from one heart to another that truth can then walk across. And I don’t know about you, but the stories that touch me the deepest and affect me the most are true stories.
That’s why, all through the month of March, we are revisiting some of the most inspiring and powerful Bible stories, with the help of clips from the made-for-television miniseries called The Bible. It started airing two weeks ago on The History Channel and will continue through Easter. I hope everyone got the first couple of episodes. I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about this series. The first week, it had more viewers than The Walking Dead, which is the most popular show on television right now. This means that we have a great opportunity to engage people in spiritual conversations. We can talk with friends, neighbors and co-workers about the Bible. And I hope that you’re taking advantage of those opportunities. Let people know that the movies are good, but the book is even better!
Now, tonight, one of the stories you’ll see and the story we’ll focus on today is the story of Daniel interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. This takes place centuries after Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. After generations of prosperity and success under Kings like David and Solomon, Israel has abandoned God. And so, as punishment, God allows Israel to be conquered and captured by the Kingdom of Babylon. Nearly the whole nation is taken captive and brought to Babylon as slaves.
That’s where our clip picks up:
NEXT SLIDE—CLIP WILL PLAY AUTOMATICALLY
Daniel was just one of many exiles who were forcibly taken from their homes when Jerusalem was conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar. But even though he was more than five hundred miles from home, among people who didn’t know or worship his God, Daniel’s story was just beginning. And Daniel’s story is like our own stories in several ways. First, Daniel’s story is like ours because Daniel faced a serious problem.
• SERIOUS PROBLEM
The clip we watched summarizes the story in the Bible. So let’s dig a little deeper into what really happened here. The Bible says, “During Nebuchadnezzar’s second year as king, he had dreams that bothered him and kept him awake at night. So the king called for his fortune-tellers, magicians, wizards, and wise men, because he wanted them to tell him what he had dreamed” (Daniel 2:1-2 NCV).
Nebuchadnezzar not only wanted them to tell him what the dream meant, but he wasn’t even going to tell them what the dream was! And if they couldn’t tell him what he dreamed and what it meant, he said, “I will have you torn apart, and I will turn your houses into piles of stones” (Daniel 2:5). Apparently, Daniel wasn’t actually there when the King first made this announcement. So when none of his fortune-tellers or wizards could tell him what he wanted to know he ordered that all the wise-men in the land be killed. Next thing you know, soldiers are knocking on Daniel’s door and he doesn’t even know what’s going on!
That sounds like a pretty serious problem to me.
Like Daniel, we all have problems. Most of our problems are small by comparison. You wake up in the morning and accidentally put both contacts in the same eye. You pull up to the gas station and it costs more to fill up your car than it did to buy it. Your doctor tells you that you’re allergic to chocolate. Your four-year-old tries to flush a teddy bear down the toilet. Those are small problems.
I like what Charlie Brown said to Linus one day: “I don’t like to face problem head on. No problem is so big that I can’t run away from it!”
The truth is—some problems are too big to run away from. I’m talking about serious problems. Daniel and his friends were in an impossible situation that looked as if it would cost them their lives. Some of you know what serious problems are like. You might be in an impossible situation right now. Maybe that’s even why you’re here today.
Maybe you’re stressed out every day because you’re buried under a mountain of debt and you don’t see any way out. Maybe your marriage is at the breaking point and you just don’t know how to fix it. Maybe you live every day with some debilitating pain or you struggle with depression and you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. These are serious problems.
Paul knew all about serious problems, too. He wrote: “We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die” (2 Corinthians 1:8 NLT).
Can you relate? Have you even been overwhelmed beyond your ability to endure? Have you ever wondered what to do when you just don’t know what to do? The answer is found in the next verse: “But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead. God saved us from these great dangers of death, and he will continue to save us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-11 NCV).
When Paul faced serious problems, he knew where to turn and whom to trust in. So did Daniel. Like Daniel, sooner or later, serious problems will come knocking on your door. But, like Daniel, we can face them through sincere prayer.
• SINCERE PRAYER
Daniel’s story is like ours because in the face of life’s problems, he turned to God in sincere prayer. When the commander of the king’s guard comes to kill Daniel, the Bible says Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion. He asked the commander what was going on and then went immediately to the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant.
Then, the Bible says, “Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:17-18 NLT).
This was Daniel’s answer to his problem: prayer! Prayer wasn’t his last resort; it was his first response. And don’t you know, these four guys prayed like they never prayed before!
This reminds me of the preacher who died and went to heaven. When got there he noticed that a New York cabdriver had been given a higher place than he had. So he complained to St. Peter, “I don’t understand. I devoted my entire life to ministry. Why does a cabdriver have a bigger reward than I do?” So St. Peter explained, “Our policy is to reward results. It seems whenever you gave a sermon that some people in the congregation fell asleep but when people rode in this man’s taxi, they not only stayed awake, they prayed the whole time!”
If you’ve ever sat in the back of New York taxicab, then you know about sincere prayer. If you’ve ever sat in a hospital waiting room, anxiously awaiting the news, then you know about sincere prayer. If you’ve ever had a bad day that lasted longer than you thought you could endure, then you know about sincere prayer.
Prayer gets us through the tough stuff, doesn’t it?
Just kneeling down and sharing your problems with God often gives an immediate sense of relief because you’re communing with the creator of the cosmos! When life gets unbearable, God invites us to aim our hard questions at him. The Bible says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him” (James 1:5 NIV). In other words, when we’re looking for answers to life’s questions—turn to God. That’s what Daniel did.
God heard Daniel’s prayer and, as a result, God gave him supernatural power.
• SUPERNATURAL POWER
As we saw in the video clip, God gave Daniel supernatural knowledge about King Nebuchadnezzar dream and then gave Daniel the power to interpret the dream. So Daniel goes before the king and says, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (Daniel 2:27-28 NIV).
In the video, Daniel summarizes these verses, saying, “No one here can read your mind, but my God can.” This is the theme of Daniel’s story—my God can! I may be unable, but God is able. My God can do what no one else can do.
Let’s remember that prayer isn’t about getting your will done in heaven; rather, it’s about getting God’s will done on earth. Prayer isn’t a magic formula to get things from God; it’s about getting God himself. But let’s also remember that no matter what problems or impossibilities we face, there is a God in heaven who can do anything!
As the Bible says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV). When we sincerely seek him, God will show up in surprising ways.
We are here today worshipping an unrivaled, uncontested God of infinite might and power and glory and awe! There is no one like him and there is nothing he cannot do! Daniel learned that first hand.
Conclusion:
Daniel’s story can be your story, too.
Whether it’s bills you can’t pay, people you can’t please, habits you can’t break, failures you can’t forget, or a future you can’t face—we all have problems. And sometimes those problems can kick us in the stomach and knock us to our knees. But, as Charles Stanley has said, “The shorted distance between our problems and a solution, is the distance between our knees and the floor.” Why? Because even when you can’t, there is a God in heaven who can!
I want to encourage everyone to watch the next episode in this series tonight and keep your eyes and ears open for people talking about this series. Spark some spiritual conversations this week. You never know where it might lead.
Invitation:
In the meantime, maybe you’re struggling under the weight of some heavy burden right now; maybe you’re in an impossible situation or facing some serious problems. If you’d like to share those problems with someone and pray together about them—now is the time to do that. Please come forward while we stand and sing.
