Dare to be Daniel
How to view History

Those of you who were churched as young people remember this little ditty:

Dare to be Daniel
Dare to Stand Alone
Dare to Have a Purpose Firm
Dare to Make it Known

Daniel lived in a pagan culture not his own for 70 years. He lived in unwavering and uncompromising faithfulness to God. He is a good example for us today. Much of western culture is hostile to the Christian faith. Daniel and the lessons learned from the living of his life are timeless and appropriate for us today. Christians today must be willing to “stand alone”, have a “firm purpose” and let that purpose to be “made known” to all.

Right off the bat in Daniel, the context of all that happens to Daniel is set forth. The tone of all that happens to Daniel is revealed in the first two verses of the first chapter:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And he Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand…

A timeless lesson is revealed to the reader. There is a spiritual answer to every historical event. God is in control of all things! There are no renegade molecules or acts in the universe. God gave over His own people to the Babylonians. Nothing [no thing] occurs outside the sovereign will of God. Man is at work in history; God is in control of history.

God was not surprised when Judah fell. He arranged it! It was predicted in His Word, even the carrying away of the young men [Is 39:6, 7]. The curse for disobedience by the House of Israel was prophesized by Moses long before fulfillment [Deut. 28: 45-52]. Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of God as did Manassas before him [2 Chron 36:5; 2 Kings 24:3,4]. God is faithful to His Word ALWAYS. The consequences to man are of no concern. Man had been forewarned. No matter how much we try, we cannot blame God for what He has promised.

Oh, the sovereignty of God is an unpopular topic to modern man. As, a result we think we are creating reality instead of living in the face of reality. Even, those who are faithful followers of God, have difficulty swallowing God’s sovereignty. Witness the prophet Habakkuk. He was one who was apprised of God’s plans, and he did not like it. In like manner to 21st century Christians lamenting the state of the church and/or the USA, Habakkuk cried out to God for justice. How long O Lord until justice comes?

God’s answer comes in Hab. 1:5-11. Babylon would overrun Judah thus ending Judah’s violence and faithlessness. Imagine the thoughts of Habakkuk. The Babylonians, they are a nasty, wicked and ruthless people! God, the cure is greater than the disease. God, how can you use such ungodly people to chastise Your own? Yes, even the OT saints have trouble with the sovereignty of God over history. They, as we, want it done their way even though they full well knew His will as set forth in Scripture.

Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher, spoke to the concerns of men in a rapidly disintegrating world during WW II. In his commentary on Habakkuk lays out four principles for the Christian to understand about God and History:
1] History is under God’s control: Every nation on earth is under God’s
control…Things are not what they appear to be. It seemed to be the astute military power of the Chaldeans that brought them into ascendancy. But it was not so at all, for God had raised them up. God is the lord of history…We must never lose sight of this crucial fact.
2] History follows a divine plan: The events of history are not accidental, though they may appear so to us. They follow God’s plan. There is a purpose in history, and what is now happening in this twentieth century is not accidental.
3] History follows a divine timetable: God says: I am going to do something in your days…not before or after or but precisely when He wanted it to happen.
4] History is bound up with the divine Kingdom: The key to the history of the world is the Kingdom of God…Let us not, therefore, be stumbled when we see surprising things happening in the world. Rather, let us ask: “What is the relevance of this event to the Kingdom of God?” Or, if strange things are happening to you personally, don’t complain, but say, “What is God teaching me through this? What is there in me that needs to be corrected? Where have I gone wrong and why is God allowing these things?”…WE should therefore judge every event in the light of God’s great, eternal and glorious presence.

It was this understanding of history that marks Daniel’s time in Babylonian captivity and measures his responses to various trials in Babylon. He did not know why he was a captive, but he understood that his God was still in control. There was a divine purpose for all that had happened. Pastor/theologian Sinclair Ferguson summarizes how Daniel could live for 70 years in Babylon: The principles that governed Daniel’s life –grace, faith, Scripture, prayer, fellowship, obedience, hope—provide the answer. Daniel knew he was not the master of his fate, the captain of his ship. He was not where he necessarily wanted to be. But, he accepted God’s sovereignty over all things which allowed him to sing the Lord’s song and be His witness as an exile in a foreign land.

This has tremendous practical import to us today. When matters seem to be “going to hell in a hand basket” as one of my old law partners used to say, take heart, God is still in control, His will will be done. In this era of prosperity, seemingly endless progress and the appearance of man having control over all things, we panic when matters seem to get out of our control. We fail to realize that they were always out of our control. Take a cue from Daniel. Understand that history is in God’s control, following a divine plan, happening when He wills it and that all is for a divine purpose. We too can live in difficult times with the principles of grace, faith, Scripture, prayer, fellowship, obedience and hope singing God’s song in a strange and hostile land. Christian in 2009…dare to be Daniel!