In the first and second chapters of the Book of Daniel we find that God has caused the House of Judah (the Jews) to be defeated by the nation of Babylon (Chaldea) and the survivors taken to the land of the victors as slaves.  Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, had ordered that several hand-picked Jews be groomed and taught the Chaldean language so that they could serve the king, as did his Chaldean wise men–magicians, sorcerers and astrologers.  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were chosen from among the captives and were being prepared to personally serve Nebuchadnezzar when  something very unusual happened.  The King had several dreams that troubled him greatly.  His magicians, sorcerers and astrologers could not tell him what he had dreamed or what the dreams meant.  Infuriated, the king ordered that all wise men in the kingdom be killed, including Daniel and his three Jewish companions to whom the king had given Babylonian names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego respectively.

Upon learning of the king’s declaration, Daniel asked the king’s captain why the death order had been given.  After hearing the explanation, Daniel and his Jewish companions immediately prayed to God for help.  Following this prayer session God revealed to Daniel what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, along with the interpretation.

At this point I will point out that Daniel was no different from any other man.  He and his fellow Jews had come from their mothers’ wombs having the same “blank slate” as all other men.  However, as will be revealed by Holy Writ, Daniel and his Jewish companions were very much different from all other men, but not because of innate characteristics.  They were different from other men because of the CHOICES THEY HAD MADE THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES.  Daniel and his companions had chosen to search the heart of their God, learn what pleased him, then do it.  Out of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Jewish captives, these three men had MADE THEMSELVES God’s elect due to their decision to obey Him.  One cannot serve two masters; man must choose which master to serve and which to reject.  They had chosen to serve God and reject Satan.  As Scripture tells us, we either love A and hate B, or we love B and hate A.

Daniel, speaking also for his companions, made it clear that he was no different from other men by his prayer to the Almighty as recorded in 2:20-23: “Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, FOR WISDOM AND MIGHT ARE HIS. He (God) changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He GIVES WISDOM to those who have understanding; He reveals deep and secret things (to such men).  He knows what is in the darkness, for light is in Him.  I thank you and praise You, O God of my fathers, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME WISDOM AND MIGHT AND HAS MADE KNOWN TO ME THAT WHICH I HAVE ASKED OF YOU.”

In 2: 30 Daniel tells the king: “As for me, this secret was REVEALED to me, not for any wisdom that I have more than any other man ….”  Daniel, the common man, was most uncommon BECAUSE, AND ONLY BECAUSE HE BELIEVED AND OBEYED HIS GOD.  God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).  If we follow Daniel’s example we too can be mightily used of God.  Through Daniel, God not only showed Nebuchadnzzar what he had dreamed, but also what the dreams meant (2:31-45).  Later God would protect Daniel while he spent a night surrounded by hungry lions.  In 2:47 the king acknowledged the greatness of Daniel’s God, saying: “Of a truth, your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets ….”  The Babylonian king had “seen the light” as so many do during a crisis.

But as is always the case when someone “gets saved” without experiencing a complete change in character, Nebuchadnezzar’s recognition of Daniel’s God did not change his actions.  In chapter three we find that not long after the miraculous revelation literally brought him to his knees, he made an image of gold and forced everyone in the kingdom to bow down and worship it.  When Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego refused to do so they were cast into a fiery furnace.  In this case the king actually saw the Word–the God of the Old Testament. Once again God came to the rescue, causing the king to once again publicly acknowledge the supremacy of the God of the Jews over all other gods.  This time he decreed that anyone who spoke against the Jews’ God would be cut to pieces and their house made into a dunghill.  The king again acknowledged that ONLY the God of the Jews could do what had been done for and through the Jewish captives.

Beginning in verse one of chapter four Nebuchadnezzar made a public written decree and sent it to “all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth.” In his proclamation he revealed “… the signs and wonders that the “high” God has wrought for me.  How great are His signs and how mighty are His wonders.  His kingdom is everlasting, and His dominion is from generation to generation.”  He then confessed that the Jews’ God had given him YET ANOTHER DREAM, this one involving a tree.  Some people are slow learners; Nebuchadnezzar was one of them.  Notice in verses 2 and 3 that he acknowledged that the God of the Jews was the “highest” God among ALL OTHER GODS.  He also knew that Daniel was the only one who could interpret the dream.  In spite of all that had happened, in spite of his acknowledgement of the supremacy of Daniel’s God, he had remained a polytheistic heathen.  Looking to his gods first, he called in his Chaldean wise men, told them his tree dream and asked them to consult the gods to give them the interpretation.  Of course, they failed.  “Then AT THE LAST (after the other gods had failed) Daniel was brought in and told the dream.”  The king confessed to Daniel that “… the spirit of the HOLY GODS (plural) is in you, so TELL ME THE VISIONS I HAVE SEEN AND THE INTERPRETATIONS OF THEM.”  Amazing.  Time and again Daniel’s God came through when the king’s “holy gods” could not.  And yet he refused to serve the one and only true God.

Daniel told him what he had seen in his night visions and what the visions meant.  In verse 18 the king again declares that Daniel’s God is only one of many gods, albeit the “highest” of all gods.  Following yet another miracle from Daniel’s God, Nebuchadnezzar once again got on the bad side of the “highest God” which brought him down to the level of an animal where he remained for seven years before the “chief among all gods” restored him to power.  Later, as recorded in verses 36 and 37, the king acknowledges that Daniel’s God is the “King of heaven” that “all His works are truth,” and that “His judgments are right.”  Later, as recorded in chapter five, Daniel the common man would read the Lord’s handwriting on the wall for a future king named Belshazzar (ch. 5).  And still the Babylonians refused to obey the one true God.  Nothing has changed.  Billions have and continue to proclaim the rightness of the Biblical God, then enter into wholesale rebellion against Him.  And they wonder “Why is God allowing this to happen to us?”  The answer is that God is CAUSING this to happen to us.  Why?  REBELLION AGAINST HIS LAW.

I will emphasize that Daniel was no different from any other man in terms of innate ability.  What he did he did ONLY BY THE POWER OF ALMIGHTY GOD AS EXPRESSED THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT.  The same is said by none other than Jesus Christ about Himself and everything He did and said (Jn. 8:28/ 12:48-50/ 14:10).  Daniel, Jesus, the prophets and apostles–they all had two things in common: 1) they were no different from other men relative to innate ability, power, etc., and 2) what they did they did using God’s Holy Spirit power.  L.J.