What little faith I had in the strength of our culture and political system has been shaken by the recent Planned Parenthood scandal. Secret videos have revealed that Planned Parenthood, an organization known to provide abortion services, has been profiting from the sale of body parts from aborted babies. The callous disregard for the value of human life that is on display in these videos can only be described as demonic. And yet, our federal government funnels 500 million of our tax dollars per year to this wicked organization. One would hope that, upon hearing about this revelation, the public outcry would be so overwhelming that our elected representatives would know they had no choice but to stop giving our money to Planned Parenthood. Instead, powerful politicians (funded by none other than Planned Parenthood) have joined with influential media outlets to circle the wagons and defend this organization. What seems like a slam dunk case will be, as we can see now, a long drawn-out fight, with no guarantee of victory.
It may seem difficult for us to fathom how anyone could come to the defense of Planned Parenthood at a time like this. But it shouldn’t really be that difficult. The Bible itself tells us that between the believer who submits all of his thinking to the lordship of Christ and the unbeliever who doesn’t, there is a world of difference, and that difference is manifested in different worldviews with different implications for a whole range of issues. There is a sharp division between believing thought and unbelieving thought.
The story we read in Daniel 2:1-30 puts that division on display. Here we have a contrast between two approaches to life: one approach seeks truth in the ideas of man apart from God; the other seeks truth in dependence on God. What is your approach? Do you seek to take every thought captive to Christ? Or do you allow the currents of unbelieving thought to cut away at your faith so that you think and act, at least in some situations, like a pagan?
The primary doctrine that obligates us to shape all of our thinking by our Christian faith is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. “Sovereignty” is simply a word that refers to God’s rule over creation. God’s sovereignty is the focus of the book of Daniel. The author wants us to know that even through Babylon’s victory and the defeat of the house of David, God remains king over all, and therefore, we should remain faithful to him in all circumstances. The very structure of the book makes that point. On the one hand, you can divide the book in half and see that there are two even sections:
I. Narratives (chapters 1-6)
II. Visions (chapters 7-12)
The “narratives” section includes three stories about tests of discipleship (chapters 1, 3, and 6) and three stories about divine revelations given to kings (chapters 2, 4, and 5). But something interesting happens in chapter 2: in verse 4, when the Chaldeans answer King Nebuchadnezzar in Aramaic, the language changes from Hebrew to Aramaic, and it will continue in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7. The reason for this change appears to be that Aramaic was the international language of the day, and chapters 2-7 focus on God’s plan for the kingdoms of the world, whereas the other chapters are written in Hebrew because they have a more clear focus on the nation of Israel. So if you take chapters 2-7, the chapters written in Aramaic, and lay them out in an outline, you notice a clear pattern that is telling you something about God:
A. The Four Kingdoms: A Dream (chapter 2)
B. Deliverance from the Fiery Furnace (chapter 3)
C. Judgment on King Nebuchadnezzar: Positive Result (chapter 4)
C. Judgment on King Belshazzar: Negative Result (chapter 5)
B. Deliverance from the Lions’ Den (chapter 6)
A. The Four Kingdoms: A Vision (chapter 7)
When you see a deliberate pattern like this one, the focus falls on the middle sections: the two judgments on King Nebuchadnezzar and on King Belshazzar (his descendant). In other words, in the very way the author has framed the stories, he is making the point that God is sovereign over the kings of this world. I want to keep that larger structure in mind as we launch into chapter 2 today. The sovereignty of God is in full view here.
But it is not just his sovereignty. The author also highlights the wisdom of God along with his sovereignty. The real theological center of this chapter is verses 20-23, where Daniel praises God for making known to him Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its meaning. In verse 20 he says, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.” Then in verse 23 he says, “To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might.” The God of wisdom and might had granted Daniel a revelation of wisdom, and in doing so had empowered Daniel with might to move the heart of the king and save lives. Daniel acts in this story as a man of wisdom and might because he has received these things from the God of wisdom and might.
As we live in our own Babylon, will we seek the wisdom and might that belong to this age? In other words, do we trust and value the wisdom of this world more than the Word of God? That would certainly be the easier path. Our hearts are naturally drawn by sin away from God, and when the leading institutions of culture regard our adherence to the Bible as outdated and backwards, the temptation to find a more culturally respectable way of thinking and life will certainly be there. Or will we seek wisdom and might in dependence on the God who has revealed himself to us in his Word, no matter how odd it may make us look to those around us? This story summons us to consider two truths about wisdom and might to urge us to seek them from God, not from man.
First, we see
There is a scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas where Charlie Brown, the director of the Christmas play, is trying to get Frieda, the red-head, and Pig-Pen, the kid with dirt all over him all of the time, to rehearse their scene. Frieda says, “I can't go on. There's too much dust. It's taking the curl out of my naturally curly hair.” Charlie Brown responds, “Don't think of it as dust. Think of it as maybe the soil of some great past civilization, maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination. He may be carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon or even Nebuchadnezzar.” Pig-Pen then says to Frieda, “Sort of makes you want to treat me with more respect, doesn't it?” It is important for us to remember who Nebuchadnezzar was: he was the king of one of the great empires of world history. In his day, he was not merely a king but the king of kings, the most powerful man in the world. It is illuminating to see such a powerful man reduced to the rash and erratic behavior we see in this story.
One night King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled him. It was a dream that rattled him so badly that he couldn’t sleep anymore. Although he did not know it at the time, this dream came from the God of Israel, the very God whom Nebuchadnezzar thought he had recently defeated by taking the best and brightest from Jerusalem to Babylon. Being unable to sleep, the king summoned the best of his wise men: the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, the most educated men of his court, to explain the meaning of the dream to him. But here’s the catch:
Nebuchadnezzar decided not to tell them the dream. He wanted them to tell him both the content of the dream and its interpretation. Why would he do that? Some have argued that he had forgotten the dream. But that reading doesn’t seem to fit the narrative. Clearly, the wise men assume that he can remember it, because they keep asking him to reveal it to them.
Furthermore, it seems unlikely that he could be so deeply troubled by a dream that he has forgotten. So let’s look for a better explanation. It appears that Nebuchadnezzar refused to reveal the dream because he was testing his wise men. In order to make sure that they didn’t dupe him by simply making something up out of their own heads, he wanted to verify that they could provide him with genuine, supernatural understanding. So the best way to prove to him that they were for real was to tell him the content of his dream and then interpret it. And if they couldn’t do that, then the king would know that they were phonies. Note how insecure Nebuchadnezzar is here. The king of the Babylonian empire, the most powerful man in the world, is so troubled by a dream that Israel’s God sent to him that he holds his own advisors under deep suspicion, accuses them of trying to buy time until he is in a better mood, and even takes the rash step of ordering that they—and all the wise men of Babylon!—be torn to pieces and their property turned into a trash heap. This is not the kind of behavior of a man who is in control. The truth is, he is not in control.
But if Nebuchadnezzar comes off looking bad, his magicians don’t fare any better. In the story they speak to the king three times. The first two times they assume standard operating procedure, so they ask him to reveal the dream to them, and they will consult their books and tell the king what it means. But upon the king’s continued refusal to do so, notice what they say in their last recorded words in this story (verses 10-11): “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” Notice the bankruptcy of their theology here. They acknowledge that only the gods can do such a thing, but they are quick to point out that the gods do not dwell with us down here on earth. The gods are distant and inaccessible, leaving these wise men with no confidence that they can draw on their supernatural power.
Among his disciples, Jesus called a number of fishermen. If you read the New Testament stories about them fishing, you will notice that every single time they fish without Jesus present, the text says they caught nothing. It makes you wonder how they ever made a living as fishermen before they met Jesus. Something similar happens with the “wise men” here in Daniel. There are three occasions when they are given the opportunity to interpret a divine revelation given to a king: this story and the stories in chapters 4 and 5. All three times they can’t do it. The author wants us to see clearly that the pagan approach to knowledge leads us to a dead end.
Unbelieving thought (i.e., non-Christian thought) always reaches a point of unraveling. It was true in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve, refusing to depend on God for knowledge, sought to gain knowledge apart from God, and when they did, their eyes were opened to see what they really were apart from God: exposed in their nakedness. It is still true today.
Unbelieving thought always reaches a dead end. About a hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote about the mindset of modern man, who is always rebelling against something. In fact, Chesterton notes, modern man’s rebellion has reached such an extreme that it has veered into absurdity. He wrote, “The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite sceptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines.
In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.” We see today where that trajectory of thought has brought us. Today we have the notion that sexual orientation is as fixed as the law of gravity, but gender is as malleable as Play-Doh. So the public will crucify you if you try to help change a man who says he is attracted to other men and wants to be attracted to women. And then they will crucify you if you don’t try to help change a man who says he wants to be a woman. Or with respect to human life, we are told on the one hand that a fetus is not a human being and thus can be killed at the will of its mother, but then we are told on the other hand that what is left from the procedure are human body parts that can serve as valuable commodities for research. Does that kind of thinking make any sense? What we are witnessing today is the full flowering of a culture in rebellion against God reaching the heights of utter absurdity.
But let’s bring this closer to home. Although we may recognize the absurdity around us, aren’t we tempted to conform our thoughts about the good life to the prevailing notions of a confused culture, not in the context of a trusting relationship with God? Aren’t we tempted to bow to the idol of this age, an imaginary god who exists to help me fulfill my personal dreams and desires?
And so we think, “My life is about me; my happiness is the goal, and my preferences are the way to get there, and anything that stands in my way is to be swept aside.” In other words, we are tempted to refuse dependence on God because we want to be God. But the pathway of independence from God always has been and always will be bankrupt. Man’s wisdom and might will get us nowhere. Take an example from Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world, and take an example from the most educated, accomplished men in his court.
The second truth about wisdom and might we learn in this story is
If human wisdom, human reason, human ability, is not enough, then where do we go? We go to divine revelation. We seek to know God and to listen to his voice. That is what Daniel did. When the death sentence went out on all the wise men of Babylon, guess who got swept into it: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They had been trained in the royal academy, so they too were considered wise men who fell under Nebuchadnezzar’s sentence. When Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, came to round them up, verse 14 tells us Daniel “replied with prudence and discretion,” in contrast with the rash and erratic behavior of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel asked what was going on. When Arioch told him, Daniel requested an audience with the king, where he asked for time. If given some time, Daniel said he could return and do exactly what the king asked: tell him both the content and the interpretation of his mysterious dream. The king granted his request.
Notice also how different Daniel’s approach to the problem is from that of the Babylonian wise men. When asked to declare something that only the gods would know, they simply gave up and said the gods do not dwell with flesh, and so they must be inaccessible. Daniel, on the other hand, prays. And he calls upon his three friends to pray with him. Acting in faith, he is confident not only that Israel’s God still reigns, but also that he speaks to those who seek him. Isn’t this exactly what Daniel would later say to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 28: “But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” As Francis Schaeffer would later put it in the title of a book, “He is there, and he is not silent.” Daniel’s faith was well-placed. That night God revealed the dream and its interpretation to him in a vision in the night. We who are reading this account would naturally expect to get the dream at this point, but the author is not ready to give it to us yet. Before he gets there he wants to make a point along the way about the God who reveals mysteries, so he records Daniel’s prayer of thanksgiving, followed by Daniel’s interaction with the king. In this prayer (vv. 20-23), which is the theological center of the chapter, Daniel praises God “to whom belong wisdom and might.”
These two themes are then unpacked throughout the prayer, though in reverse order. God’s might is the subject of the first part of verse 21: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings.” As we will see next week, the dream is about how the future of the world will unfold, and God is the one who is in control of it all. He is absolutely sovereign. And then in verses 21b and 22 God’s wisdom is put on display: “he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” What is hidden from man is known to God, and God in his grace gives wisdom to those who seek it from him.
In verse 23 Daniel turns from speaking about God to speaking directly to God. The God of wisdom and might is now praised for granting wisdom and might to Daniel: wisdom in the divine revelation itself, and might in the ability Daniel now has to save lives by speaking to the king. To any faithful Jew living under a pagan king in exile, this example of God’s triumph where the gods of the Babylonians had failed would have stirred up the fires of faith in his soul.
So Daniel went to Arioch and asked to see the king again. Arioch brought him in quickly, and the king questioned him: “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel’s response, basically, is to say, “No man can do this. Only God can.” In this moment of crisis, Daniel has relied, not on his Babylonian education, but on the God of his fathers. True wisdom comes from a relationship with God, a relationship in which we both speak to him and listen to his Word.
A few years ago, a pastor from Idaho named Douglas Wilson spoke on the topic of sexuality at an event held at Indiana University. Wilson went there to represent a traditional Christian understanding, but as word spread about the upcoming event, protesters started to take action. The whole event was recorded and can be watched online. It is the most shocking display of rudeness I think I have ever seen. Students shouted, heckled, insulted, and interrupted repeatedly throughout the duration of Wilson’s talk. They made their message clear: this man and the viewpoint he represents are not welcome on this campus. But the irony of it all is that these students shouted and protested and heckled all in the name of tolerance. What they mean by that is that they want people like Wilson to “tolerate” (which they take to mean “approve”) homosexuality. But what becomes painfully clear in the course of the video is that for these students, tolerance extends only to people who agree with them. In fact, that is the exact opposite of tolerance. This is another absurd dead end of unbelieving thought.
But I bring up this story to highlight how arrogant we Christians come across when we make the kinds of truth claims that have sharp edges—you know, truth claims that imply that opposing viewpoints are false. When we stand in the center of our 2,000 year Christian tradition and affirm that Jesus is the only savior of humanity, that only faith in him brings salvation, that God designed marriage as the union of one man and one woman, etc., the world calls that arrogance.
Who are we to assume that we are right and everyone else is wrong? I doubt the unbelieving world will ever understand this, but at least we can understand it: our claims to truth are not built on arrogance. They are built on humility. As Christians, we are the ones saying that we don’t trust our own reason, emotions, and instincts to lead us to truth. That’s why we seek truth outside of ourselves. We build all of our thought, all of our lives, on what God has spoken. This is the path of true wisdom and might, and it is the path we have chosen precisely because we know how bankrupt we are apart from God. If this story in Daniel teaches you anything, let it teach you to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And God’s final, climactic Word is the Word he has spoken in his Son, Jesus Christ. It is quite ironic that the Babylonian wise men would specifically say in this story that the dwelling place of the gods is not with flesh. John 1:14 tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” We do not have a god who remains distant, but a God who draws so near to us that he became one of us to reconcile us to himself. Do you know this God? Have you been reconciled to him through the death and resurrection of his Son? True wisdom is found, first and foremost, in trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Give up your attempts to live apart from God. Confess the lordship of Christ over you and demonstrate your faith through baptism.
If you are a baptized believer in good standing with an evangelical church, I invite you to express your faith in Christ anew by eating and drinking his body and blood once again. The God who gave wisdom and might to Daniel is the same God who gives wisdom and might to those who seek him in Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” So come and welcome to Jesus Christ. Amen.