WHEN LIFE SEEMS OUT OF CONTROL—Daniel 2
Does it sometimes seem like your life is out of control?
Coronavirus. The national debt. Politics. Natural disasters.
As a parent committed to your kids, you try to protect them and control their environment, but you can’t control all the people and cultural influences surrounding them.
You work hard, try to live the right kind of life, and make smart choices, but things don’t work out.
You mind your own business and try to treat people right, but even today, there might be one person, one hazard, or one difficult situation that is a continuing threat.
LIFE IS OUT OF CONTROL.
Daniel is a Jewish refugee, a young intern in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He has been doing his best to survive and do well, but he is caught up in events totally beyond his control.
Read Daniel 2:1-13.
This is not Daniel’s fault! Daniel did not cause the people of Judah to sin and go into exile. Daniel was not the cause of the king’s troubled mental state and sleeplessness, or his troubling dreams. Daniel had no control over the king’s “enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers,” who were frauds and charlatans. Yet Daniel’s life is in danger, because of the failures of others. (Does that sound at all familiar? Do the failures of others cause problems for you?)
It seems that Daniel can do nothing about his situation, and his life is in danger. We wouldn’t blame him if he panicked, or got angry at God, or lashed out at the men who come to look for him and his friends, seeking the death penalty.
But Daniel handles the situation with WISDOM and FAITH.
Daniel 2:14-16 “When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with WISDOM AND TACT. He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.”
When life seems out of control, a wise person understands that, although he might not be able to control the situation, he can control how he responds to it.
Daniel responds with “wisdom and tact,” and we can learn from him:
Don’t “shoot the messenger,” or vilify a person who is also caught in a bad situation.
Get the facts straight, and figure out the causes of the problem.
Make space for a solution, by asking for time, looking for flexibility, and reducing the anxiety level.
But it is hard to be wise and tactful when you are in panic mode. How do you get control of your response?
FAITH.
Read Daniel 2:17-23.
Daniel prayed—not just any prayer, but a prayer of faith. A prayer of faith goes beyond worrying on your knees, regurgitating your problem, or blaming God. Daniel laid out his problem before God, and pleaded for help. Then, when God answered his prayer, he completed the cycle by praising God.
Of course, it would be easier if God would reveal mysteries to us at night—or would it really?
How did Daniel know that his understanding of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision was correct, or that Nebuchadnezzar would accept it? Daniel praised God BEFORE he knew how everything would turn out. In fact, the most important answer to his prayer was not that God solved his problem, but that God spoke to him, and he could believe God was in control.
When life is out of our control, is it enough to know that God is in control? It was enough to give Daniel, a young intern, the courage to face the king of Babylon! He went to the king’s servant—the king’s executioner—and asked to be taken to the king. He boldly said to the king, “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.” (Don’t miss the irony in the story: In verse 11, the astrologers had said, “What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”)
Daniel proceeded to prove that God had revealed to him the meaning of the dream, by describing the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. It was a strange one!
Read Daniel 2:29-43.
The historical interpretation of the statue is open for discussion. The head of gold represents Babylon, of course. The silver, bronze and iron might point to the succeeding kingdom of Medea, Persia and Greece.
Since the Medes and Persians overlapped, the statue could point to the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. (There will be another vision in chapter 7, which might influence our interpretation.
The details of the statue are not important, however. A rock comes into the vision: “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.”
The powers of the kingdoms of this earth all pass away eventually. Rome, Nazi Germany, the USSR, even the USA? But the rock—the rock becomes a huge mountain and fills the earth.
What does the rock represent? Nebuchadnezzar’s vision gives clues: The rock was cut out, but not by human hands. The rock became a huge mountain, filling the earth. In verse 44, Daniel goes on to say, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
From our perspective as Christians, we can see that the kingdom that fills the earth and endures forever is the kingdom of God, and Jesus is the King who reigns.
Revelation 5:9 celebrates the victory of the Lamb, as all of heaven sings, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Revelation 11:15 jumps to the end, with all heaven singing, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
Yet in our dreams and visions—in the dark of the night, or the darkness of the day, the dazzling statue sometimes looms large. The statue—political, economic, and cultural powers—towers over whatever powers we have. Or maybe the statue is closer to us: the guy at work who runs the place, the group at school that can destroy confidence, or faceless powers of emotional and spiritual darkness.
Yet the eyes of faith see something else: a rock that will crush the powers before it, filling the whole earth.
Daniel caught a glimpse of that rock, far off in the future, and the young intern rose above the powers of Babylon. Daniel 2:46-47 finishes the story: “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, ‘Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.’”
When our lives seem out of our control, and the kingdoms and powers of this world loom large, we have an even greater vision than Daniel. We have a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, overcoming every power and authority, to establish a kingdom that will fill all things, and endure forever.
In the words of Ephesians 1:19-23, “God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Or, in the words of Jesus (John 16:33), “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
