Theological Commentary: Click Here
Daniel is
such an impressive figure in the faith.
That’s no surprise, he is constantly lifted up as one of the boldest men
of the faith. Daniel steps out on limbs,
knowing that God is supporting him at every turn. He is constantly willing to put himself on
the line in order to give God glory and praise.
For example,
look at this chapter. The Babylonian
king has a dream and demands for the interpretation. However, he doesn’t tell anyone what the
dream was! This seems somewhat unfair
from a human perspective. After all, who
can interpret a dream that they have never heard. However, from the perspective of the king,
what better way is there to distinguish between human wisdom and the
divine? If someone who has never heard
the dream comes and tells you the dream and its interpretation, that’s a pretty
good clue that something spiritual is going on!
That’s
exactly what Daniel does. He hears that
the king is mad at the court wise men because they are proving their humanity
in being unable to answer his summons.
Watch what Daniel does. Daniel
steps out in faith. Notice that Daniel
wasn’t told by God to do this. Furthermore,
if we can take the chronology of the chapter at face value, Daniel doesn’t
discover the interpretation of the dream until after volunteering to accomplish
the task. Daniel steps out in faith,
trusting that God will provide.
That is
precisely what happens. Daniel tells the
king that he can interpret the dream. Then
Daniel receives the vision from God and follows through. The king hears the interpretation and finds
Daniel to be a man of his words. Daniels
standing in the kingdom rises, and the kings wrath against his wise men abates.
However, I
think the most important thing to remember in this whole chapter is why Daniel
does this act. Daniel doesn’t do this
for his own glory. He isn’t seeking to
be great. He isn’t looking to put other
people down by demonstrating his own greatness.
Daniel does it so that God’s name will be praised. Daniel steps forth in order to give
opportunity to bring praise and glory to God.
That’s what is truly important.
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