Everything was a ‘God-issue’ to Daniel....look at how he eats. Remember, Daniel
was one of the captives taken to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar captured
Jerusalem. He was chosen with others to be trained for service in the royal
palace and fed with the king’s best food and wine. But Daniel saw his food as a
‘God-issue’. Or, look at how he
interprets dreams. The same God-drenched way of life comes out in the
way Daniel interprets the dreams of king Nebuchadnezzar and the vision of
Belshazzar his grandson. Daniel gives all the credit to God. For example, in
2:28, “There is a God in heaven who
reveals mysteries, and he has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in
the latter days.” And he accuses the most powerful rulers on earth of
irreverence and treason against God. For example, to Belshazzar in 5:23, “The God in whose hand is your breath, and
whose are all your ways, you have not honored.” Every interpretation Daniel
gives has God right at the center of it and great kings like Nebuchadnezzar and
Belshazzar fade from history like a cloud (2:39; 5:28). Our text visits how
Daniel prays...when the chips are down...when the momentum is against him...how
does he respond?
Daniel nurtured a life of
daring, defiant and disciplined prayer. If what God thinks matters most to
Daniel - then you consult him most. If what God does matters most - then you
ask him to act first. In other words, you live your life by prayer. Now don’t
forget that Daniel was a very powerful political person. Back in Daniel
2:48 Nebuchadnezzar had made Daniel “ruler over the whole province of Babylon.”
Here in our text (6:2) Darius makes Daniel one of the three presidents over the
120 satraps (or governors) of the entire empire. Sometimes we slip into
thinking that prayer is the way monks spend their time. We think it’s something
for pastors or professional religious people; that it’s not for activists, or
men of affairs, or people with power and influence. But that is a very wrong
way to think about prayer and about your life as a busy person. Daniel was more
immersed in secular life than most of us and he lived by prayer—daring,
defiant, disciplined prayer. What God
thought and what God did mattered most to Daniel. So Daniel lived by thanking
God and by asking God to act. Maybe everything in our lives should be a
‘God-issue’ too......
It’s
been a dangerous journey...but it’s ‘with God’
Keith
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