And When You Pray ...: Daniel 4 – 6 and Picture from Texas

Daniel 4 - 6

In today’s reading, we seethree pagan rulers who were affected by Daniel, his character, the abilities God gave him, and his faith.

Once again, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and only Daniel was able to tell him what the dream meant. Daniel was obviously reluctant to explain the vision to Nebuchadnezzar, but the king encouraged him not to be afraid to explain his dream. I think I would been a little scared if someone started a dream interpretation with “I wish events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you!”

Daniel foretells that the king will “be driven from human society, and …. Live in the fields with the wild animals. This was to go on for “seven periods of time” until the king learned that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them ti anyone he chooses. Daniel advises the king to stop sinning and do what is right. A year later, the dream is fulfilled as Daniel predicts.

When it was all over, Nebuchadnezzar praised and worshiped the Most high and honored the one who lives forever.

After Nebuchadnezzar was king, Belshazzar, his successor, holds a big party and uses the gold cups taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. “While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” All at once, they say the fingers of a human hand writing ont the wall of the palace. He called for all of the usual crew to tell him what it meant, but they couldn’t. The queen mother suggested Daniel be consulted. The writing (Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin) meant that God had numbered the days of his reign and it was over. The king had been weighed on the scale and had not measured up. His kingdom woulkd be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. The king died that very night.

Apparently, others were jealous of Daniel’s abilities and sought to harm him. They set him up, knowing he prayed three times every day. They tricked Darius into signing a decree that anyone who prayed to anyone or anything other than Darius would be thrown into a den of lions. Daniel, despite the decree, continued to pray three times every day. Of course, he was arrested, but Darius wasn’t too happy about having to throw Daniel in the lion’s den, but couldn’t find any way around it. Amazingly, he says to Daniel, “May your God whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you” and he “returned to his palace and spent the night fasting.” And he was rescued.

The king sent a decree that everyone throughout his kingdom should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel and even said “for he is the living God, and he will endure forever. His kingdom will never be destroyed, and his rule will never end. He rescues and saves his people; he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Tomorrow, we’ll be reading Daniel 7 - 9.