It’s What They Do: Daniel 2

Over the last few years, insurance companies have been using humor to sell their products and services. There are the khaki-wearing agent on a late-night telephone call, the emu and his human sidekick, and the therapist promising to help you not become your parents. Perhaps one of the most extensive campaigns can be summarized by the phrase, “It’s what you do.” These ads always begin with an amusing situation. For example, there is an ad facing down the bad guys when his mother calls to talk about the squirrels in her backyard; raccoons eating trash and trying to get each other to taste something terrible; and an alligator who is dining with his coworker, but his arms are too short to reach the bill. These spots all ad with the same tagline: If you’re this… then you do that. It’s what you do.”

In Daniel 1, Daniel and his three friends resolved to live godly lives in the midst of the ungodly Babylonian regime and so ascended to positions of profound influence and impact. You can read about that here. Indeed, if we want to make a positive difference in this world, then godliness is absolutely key, but how does that work? How does godliness lead to influence and impact?

To answer that question, let us consider Daniel 2. By the beginning of this chapter, several months had passed since Daniel and his friends arrived in Babylon. Our heroes had completed a couple of semesters at Babylonian U, where they learned about Babylonian wisdom and knowledge, language and literature, and everything else they would need to know to serve among Babylon’s wise men and attend the king. Just as Daniel and co. were settling into their lives in Babylon, though, there was a great uproar throughout the city when the king had some troubling dreams. We read about it in Daniel 2:1-13:

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him, and sleep deserted him. So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans[a] to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.”

The Chaldeans spoke to the king: “May the king live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.”

The king replied to the Chaldeans, “My word is final: If you don’t tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a garbage dump. But if you make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you’ll receive gifts, a reward, and great honor from me. So make the dream and its interpretation known to me.”

They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will make known the interpretation.”

The king replied, “I know for certain you are trying to gain some time, because you see that my word is final. If you don’t tell me the dream, there is one decree for you. You have conspired to tell me something false or fraudulent until the situation changes. So tell me the dream and I will know you can give me its interpretation.”

The Chaldeans answered the king, “No one on earth can make known what the king requests. Consequently, no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, medium, or Chaldean. What the king is asking is so difficult that no one can make it known to him except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.” Because of this, the king became violently angry and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. The decree was issued that the wise men were to be executed, and they searched for Daniel and his friends, to execute them.

Daniel 2:1-13 CSB

The world will be crazy.

Like many ancient cultures, Babylonians believed that dreams were one of the main ways the gods used to communicate with people. Kings’ dreams, in particular, held great significance to the life of the nation, and so when Nebby had a dream that he did not immediately understand, it troubled him. In fact, it troubled him to the point that he could not sleep, and by morning, Nebby was both troubled and cranky when he summoned the people he expected could help him interpret the dream: the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans (i.e., priests).

This was not unusual. These men were considered experts in the spiritual realm to which dreams belonged, and as such, they wielded a variety of tools such as dream books that allowed them to look up different elements of a dream and discover the meaning; astrology; and reading the entrails of dissected animals or people to discern the will of the gods. What made this situation unusual, though, was that, when they asked Nebby to share his dream in verse 4, in verses 5-6, he refused. Instead, he insisted that they should tell him his dream and then its interpretation. More, if they could not both tell him the dream and its interpretation, he announced that they would be dismembered and their houses razed with their families still inside.

The priests’ alarm in verse 10 was palpable: “No one on earth can make known what the king requests.” In fact, no king had ever before made a request so utterly crazy! In fact, from the king’s request to the punishment for failure and even the means these wise men would use to interpret the dream, the whole affair was crazy!

This, however, was neither the first nor the last crazy thing the world has concocted. In fact, our news is full of examples of how crazy the world can be. From racism and race riots in 21st century America to premeditated and unwarranted invasions of sovereign nations, from people going hungry when the world actually produces more than enough grain to feed its entire population to people always hungering for more, from unreasonable demands and ridiculous laws to outlandish solutions, the fact of the matter is that the world will be crazy. It’s what they do.

Stay faithful.

The question, of course, is how we should respond to the world’s craziness. Sadly, finding an answer to that question can be confounding, to say the least. Indeed, we often see the crazy stuff going on around us, and the only obvious answers are to join the world in its craziness or throw up our hands and cry. Fortunately, Daniel shows us a better option starting in verse 14:

Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon. He asked Arioch, the king’s officer, “Why is the decree from the king so harsh?” Then Arioch explained the situation to Daniel. So Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time, so that he could give the king the interpretation.

Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter, urging them to ask the God of the heavens for mercy concerning this mystery, so Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of Babylon’s wise men. The mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a vision at night, and Daniel praised the God of the heavens and declared:

May the name of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him. He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals the deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him. I offer thanks and praise to you, God of my ancestors, because you have given me wisdom and power. And now you have let me know what we asked of you, for you have let us know the king’s mystery.

Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had assigned to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He came and said to him, “Don’t destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will give him the interpretation.”

Daniel 2:14-24 CSB

It is important to notice what Daniel did not do as he responded to Nebby’s craziness. First, he did not join them. That is, he did not stoop to Nebby’s level and start doing the same sort of crazy that he did. Neither did he throw up his hands and cry. In other words, he did not just give up and let Nebby’s crazy go unchecked.

Instead, when the king and the rest of the world went crazy, Daniel did several things that would eventually enable him to turn around the situation. The common theme, however, was faithfulness. In short, when the world went crazy, Daniel stayed faithful, and we must do the same. Stay faithful, but let us examine more closely how Daniel’s faith and faithfulness helped him respond to the world’s crazy.

Consider, for instance, verse 14, where “Daniel responded with tact and discretion.” Actually, depending on your translation, you may see this phrase rendered in variety of ways. Regardless of your translation, the bottom line is that Daniel did not panic. Rather, even as the world around him went crazy, Daniel kept his head. This allowed him to approach Arioch to learn more about what was going on. Thus, he was able in verse 16 to approach the king and offer an honest suggestion. Instead of lying to gain time, he simply “asked the king to give him some time.”

Speaking of verse 16, notice that this request for time was more than a stall tactic. While we are not certain exactly how much time Daniel requested or received, the text does make clear that our hero was confident that, if the king gave him some time, “he could give the king the interpretation.” This is especially striking since all of the king’s more seasoned advisors insisted that there was no one earth who could do what the king asked, and indeed, they were right. No one on earth could do what the king asked, but that was Daniel’s secret: He had faith that God, and God alone, would provide.

Observe also that, in verse 17, Daniel “went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter.” That is, he recruited other faithful people to help. If you want a technical term, it is called a fellowship, a group of people united in common cause, but far more important in this case than the common cause is the fact that these were the same three men who stood with Daniel in chapter 1 and refused to defile themselves with the king’s food. In other words, Daniel did not worry about recruiting anyone and everyone to think about his plight, to send good vibes or energy, or anything else. Rather he went straight to the three people that he knew were right with God and would join him in prayer.

Indeed, we see in verse 18 that this was the singular thing that Daniel asked of these men. Rather than brainstorm possible dreams, interpretations, or escape routes, Daniel and his friends prayed. Neither was this a typical, casual prayer. Indeed, the phrase translated by the CSB as “ask… for mercy” is, in the NIV, “plead for mercy,” and the added intensity of this translation reveals that this was the kind of prayer that one prays when he knows that there is no other way. Because there was no other way. These men needed God to move, and so Daniel and his buddies prayed.

Even then, though, they were not yet done. After spending time together with his friends in prayer, in verse 19, the mystery of the king’s dreams was revealed to Daniel in a vision at night, and the next morning, in verses 19-23, Daniel’s first order of business was to praise the God of the heavens. In fact, he did not just utter a simple, “Praise the Lord.” Instead, he broke into song, and in that song, he recognized God as the one who installs and removes kings; supplies wisdom, knowledge, and understanding; reveals things that are hidden from everyone else; and provided the answer to the king’s mystery and Daniel’s dilemma. Further, he did not do this only with his friends behind closed doors. In verse 28, he made absolutely clear to Nebby, the ungodly crazy king, that it was God who revealed this mystery to him.

In each of these ways, Daniel demonstrates what it looks like to stay faithful when the rest of the world has gone crazy, but there was one more thing that Daniel did which we too often overlook. In verse 24, Daniel urged Arioch, the man the king appointed to destroy the wise men, “Don’t destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will give him the interpretation.” Keep in mind, these wise men shared neither Daniel’s nationality nor religion. They were not godly in any way, shape, or form. In fact, much of their way of life was explicitly prohibited by Jewish law. Further, some of them may have survived until the days of King Darius and join the satraps and officials who manipulated the king to land Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel 5. Some of these men would one day try to kill Daniel. Yet, here in Daniel 2:24, Daniel interceded on their behalf. That is, he did not just say, “Hey, I know the answer, so spare me and my friends.” Rather, he said, “Don’t destroy [any of] the wise men.” You see, Daniel’s values and objectives were aligned with God’s. Remember, God desires so strongly that no one should perish that he sent his son to die for us while we were still his enemies. It only made sense, then, that Daniel interceded even for those who would try to kill him.

This is what authentic faith looks like. It keeps its head when the whole world is crazy. It expects that God will provide. It seeks out like-minded men and women of faith and invites them into fellowship. It prays urgently and earnestly to God for whatever is needed. It offers praise and thanksgiving to God when he delivers. It aligns our desires and objectives with God’s so that we want what he wants and we do what he would do if he were standing in our shoes. And if we are going to make an impact in this crazy world, we must stay this kind of faithful.

Glorify God before the world.

Faithfulness in a crazy world is crucial, but that still does not answer the question of how godly living in an ungodly world translates to influence and impact. We find, therefore, another key in Daniel 2:25-45. If you have time, I would recommend reading the text, but for our purposes today, a brief synopsis will suffice. God revealed to Daniel, and Daniel revealed to Nebby that, in the king’s dream, he saw a colossal statue. The head of this statue was made of gold, its chest and arms were silver, it stomach and thighs were bronze, its legs iron, and its feet a mixture of iron and pottery. The whole thing was then shattered by a stone that broke off supernaturally, and an even bigger mountain grew up and took its place. Daniel continued to explain that the statue represented history, and its four sections were different kingdoms that would dominate successive periods of history. Eventually, though, all of these earthly kingdoms would be crushed by a single everlasting kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

To be sure, this final interpretation is encouraging to any person of God. Notice, however, how Daniel was careful in these verses to point out his real Lord even as he stood before this blatantly ungodly king who worshiped other little-g gods. In verses 27-28, Daniel acknowledged that no one on earth could solve the king’s riddle, “but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” He then went on to say that God revealed the mystery to him so he could reveal it to the king. In verses 37-38, Daniel admitted, “Your Majesty, you are king of kings,” but then he went on, “The God of the heavens has give you sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. Wherever people live – or wild animals, or birds of the sky – he” – that is, God – “has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all.” So also, in verse 44, he explained the rock which would crush all of the previous kingdoms and the mountain that would rise up in their place: “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.” Finally, in verse 45, he reaffirmed that it was God, and God alone, who “told the king what will happen in the future.”

No less than four times, Daniel directed Nebby’s attention to the Lord, making clear that God is greater than any of the other gods and earthly methods the other wise men were using to reveal this mystery; God is greater than any earthly king or kingdom, including Nebby himself; and that God alone is responsible for revealing Nebby’s vision and orchestrating the future that it foretold. That is, Daniel glorified God before King Nebby and the rest of the royal court, and when the rest of the world goes crazy, we must still do the same. We must glorify God before the world.

This means not hesitating to tell people about him. It means being quick to share what he’s done for you. It means jumping at the chance to give him all flory, honor, and praise. It means exactly what it suggests: glorifying God before the world.

Faithfulness leads to impact.

Staying faithful and glorifying God for all to see are essential to living faithfully in this faithless world, but it is in Daniel 2:46-49 that we discover how these things translate into influence and impact.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell facedown, worshiped Daniel, and gave orders to present an offering and incense to him. The king said to Daniel, “Your God is indeed God of gods, Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many generous gifts. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon. At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to manage the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.

Daniel 2:46-49 CSB

Did you catch that? When Daniel stayed faithful and glorified God, this blatantly ungodly king acknowledged Daniel’s God and promoted Daniel to the highest office in the land. Daniel was then able to request that his buddies be appointed as administrators, and it was done. Simply put, Daniel’s faithfulness led to his ability to impact the world in all its craziness. Faithfulness leads to impact, but how? Fortunately, looking at the whole situation from the perspective of nearly 2,500 years later, it begins to make sense.

By his words and actions, Daniel established rapport with the king. Instead of cowering in fear or ranting like a lunatic, he engaged honestly and constructively, and Nebby learned that he could trust Daniel. Put another way, everything Daniel said and did built credibility, and that credibility compelled Nebby to listen and act upon Daniel’s advice. Moreover, when Daniel was quick to give glory to God as the source of his excellent insight and advice, that piqued Nebby’s interest in God!

Please hear me. Being faithful when the world is going crazy around us is not easy. Several Bible commentators point out that Daniel’s decision to approach Arioch and then the king without an invitation could have resulted in his immediate execution. Neither is being faithful guaranteed to lead to anyone’s conversion. To our knowledge, King Nebuchadnezzar never fully embraced God so that he stopped worshiping other gods or truly changed his lifestyle. The sad fact of the matter is that, even when we do everything right, some people will still reject God.

But Nebby was listening.

And in this world, crazy as it may be, that is exactly what is required to make an impact.