When Your World Is Turned Upside Down: When The Wrong People Win

We’re in an election year again. In the midst of the Pandemic, the Democratic National Convention occurred virtually this week and dominated all the major TV networks. As expected, the speakers at the Democratic Convention relentlessly attacked the incumbent president, and true to form, he returned the favor. Both parties are suggesting that to allow the other party to win will permanently damage our nation. In various ways, both have suggested they will not accept the result if they lose. You’ve got to wonder, no matter who wins in November, what will happen in such a divided country.

And for each of us this morning, as believers, we’ve got to be wondering how we should respond if the wrong people, or the wrong party wins. What if our political hopes and dreams are turned upside down. How should we respond?

That’s why we’re in the book of Daniel at this moment in our history. Because for Daniel, the wrong people had won. The pagans defeated the people of God, the idolaters defeated the worshipers of the one true living God, the unrighteous and ungodly defeated, not in an election, but in a war, the people that at least laid a claim to godliness, even if most of them did not practice it. And as we noted last week, Daniel, as a teenager, was exiled to the land of Babylon, 500 miles away from the Promised Land of Israel, and the temple of His God, and Jewish culture, and was trained to serve an arbitrary, ungodly, capricious pagan king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

And in Daniel 2 just how serious the consequences of this change of power was for Daniel and his friends became obvious. It became a matter of life and death. They were put in an absolutely impossible situation for circumstances that they were not responsible for. But how they, and especially Daniel responded provides for us a model if things go wrong in November—if the wrong guys—whoever you deem them to be--end up in power. Daniel’s example teaches us that if the political world goes south on us, we should stand in the gap for the Lord, pray, obey & trust God will exalt Himself anyway. Yes, that’s a lot to swallow. I know. Stand in the Gap for the Lord—pray, obey & trust God will exalt Himself anyway.

If you remember last week, Daniel and his Jewish friends had just completed their training for the King’s service in the King’s Academy in Babylon. Because of their faithful devotion to God and their resolution to refuse to be defiled by the King’s food, God had blessed them so that as the King examined them they were found to be 10 times wiser and more suited for the King’s services than any of their fellow students in the academy. So they embarked on what seemed to be promising careers in the King’s Service when almost immediately an impossible crisis threatened not only their careers but their very lives.

Now it’s important to notice here that this crisis was entirely initiated by the Almighty God of the Jews. It was absolutely no accident. It was part of the plan of the Sovereign God. I’m sure it stretched the faith of these four young men to the absolute limit. But God’s plan was a good plan—a plan that would very quickly accomplish four amazing results:

1. It would establish in this pagan kingdom that the God of the Jews as the Almighty God, a God greater than all the gods of the pagan Babylonians, especially in the mind of Nebuchadnezzar the King.

2. It would decisively and quickly exalt God’s faithful servants, these four young men, and place them into the positions of power and authority in ruling over the Kingdom and city of Babylon.

3. It would expose the false gods of the Babylonians as vastly inferior to the true God.

4. It would humiliate and expose the wise men, conjurers, magicians and astrologers of

Babylon as frauds.

In other words, this crisis would begin to transform substantial parts of Babylonian culture.

As we’ve read, it all began with a dream that puzzled and tormented King Nebuchadnezzar. The dream so upset him that he was unable to sleep. And so he decided to turn to his wise men—a group of men who had been trained to be magicians, conjurers, enchanters, astrologers and in all the wisdom and rites of the occult. These men were all experts at dealing with the spirit world. The King’s Cabinet consisted of the kind of people who read Palms, put out astrological forecasts, practice dark arts and magic, and would lay claim to psychic powers today. They dealt with demons. Yes, there was a supernatural power evident in their practices. There were contacts with knowledge and beings beyond the natural world. However, these spirits were fallen angels, deceptive spirits, whose aim was the spiritual destruction of the human race. These men were pagans, and so they were deceived. And by the way, idolatry and contact with demons go hand in hand. Scripture tells us I Corinthians 10:20 as well as Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 106 that those who practice idolatry actually worship demons. In other words, when there is a supernatural power behind idolatry, it is demonic as demons do their best to pretend to be a god or gods.