Nebuchadnezzar is testing his prophets to the utmost, “if
you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn
limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.” It isn’t good enough to interpret the dream
he has had, he requires them to also tell him the dream and the
interpretation. They are certain that
this can’t be done, “no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose
dwelling is not with flesh.” As Daniel
and his companions were among the Chaldeans, their failure was also their
failure. All the “wise men” of Babylon
were to be executed. Daniel was a bit
surprised at this edict to say the least and stepped up to say, I will give the
interpretation. How did he know he would
be given the truth? Daniel knew he was
called to a work and that work was making known that his God was greater than
the gods of Babylon and that his God dwelt among men He had chosen. Even here in a foreign land Daniel believed
the Lord was with him as He had been with Joseph in the land of Egypt. The exile was a chance for the Lord to reveal
Himself to a foreign king and his nation.
In this prayer for the disciples, Jesus makes it plain that
this world is not our home and it is not our friend. We are, like the Israelites in Babylon, a
people in exile in a foreign land. While
we are here, we are to make Him known because He has promised to make His
dwelling not simply among us but within us.
It is His desire to make Himself known through us in the same ways He
did through Daniel. Do we trust Him as
Daniel did in this matter? Jesus
promised to be with us even to the end of the age not just in the form of the
written word but in Spirit as well. We have
the promise of God in this, should we not have the confidence of Daniel?
Knowing Jesus is proven by keeping His commandments. That is part of the Great Commission, the
part that we tend to focus on least. There are four parts to the Commission: go
into the world, make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey all Jesus
commanded. We have done two of those
with gusto. We have gone and we have baptized. The making of disciples is something we are
trying to focus on now but we have become so enamored of grace that we forget
that last part of the commission lest anyone think we are saved by works. John, however, teaches that the keeping of
the commandments of Jesus reveals that we indeed know Him. Discipleship is the process of learning and
applying our learning in such a way that we become more and more like our
mentor, or in this case, like our savior, who has shown us the way to be truly
human. We need not fear standing before
the king unprepared like the Chaldeans in that first lesson, we have already
been delivered from the death sentence over our lives. Now we can get about the business of
restoring the image of God that has been broken by our sin.
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