HE KNOWS WHAT IS IN THE DARKNESS

When Daniel and his friends were kidnapped and taken to Babylon, they were pushed into a world not of their choosing. It wasn’t unusual for conquering kings to bring talented captives back to their capitals and train them to serve in their government or the military. As their kingdoms expanded, the demand for talent grew and Daniel and his friends were definitely “above average.”

These four young men were very committed to the ways of God that they had learned at home in Judah and were well trained in the religious ways of Judaism. Moving to Babylon did not cause them to adopt the motto, “When in Babylon act like a Babylonian.” They served Jehovah faithfully and more than once proved their willingness to die rather than serve a foreign god.

In the second chapter of Daniel a major crisis came up that put the four Hebrew lives in jeopardy. Because of the wisdom and skill that Daniel and friends had shown, they were considered to be among the “wise men” of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a nightmare that so frightened him that Scripture says sleep left him (2:1). The king created the crisis himself by demanding that the wise men of the nation not only interpret his nightmare but they also had to tell him what the nightmare was.

The wise men of the nation responded to the king by telling him that what he was asking was impossible and that no king in history had ever made such an unreasonable request (2:10). Nebuchadnezzar may have been slightly crazy at this point and his response to the wise men was, “If you don’t do this, I will kill you and every last member of your family.” And then he issued the orders for the killing to begin (2:13).

Daniel and his friends were not in on this volatile exchange between the king and the wise men but the king’s assassins soon found their way to where the four were. Daniel calmly asked the captain of the killers, “Why is the king acting this way?” and the man responded to him the best he could. Daniel then got permission to go and meet with Nebuchadnezzar where he requested time “to seek mercies from the God of heaven” regarding the troubling nightmare (2:17-18). Apparently the king had respect for Daniel and honored his request for time to pray with his friends.

There is no indication in the Bible has to how long the four prayed but I feel comfortable in saying that the answer did not come quickly. All we are told is that the secret was “revealed to Daniel in a night vision” (2:19). Sounds like an all-night prayer meeting to me!

When the vision came, Daniel began to praise the Lord in these words:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.
‘I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s demand.’” (Daniel 2:20-23)

This is a wonderful passage for us to spend time in, especially during the troubling times in which we live. Daniel reminds us that God is in control of all things, including history. He also affirms that God gives understanding to those who seek Him and that He knows the future and reveals secret things to His people.

In the story told in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmare was a seemingly impossible problem for the wise men to solve. But God gave Daniel the complete picture of the dream and its meaning. Nebuchadnezzar saw the figure of a man in his dream, which was a snapshot of world history from the time of the Babylonian empire until the end of time and included an understanding of the major empires of history. Included in the dream was the appearance of a stone that was “cut out” but not by human hands. This stone struck the feet of the image, destroying it entirely, and a wind swept away the debris (2:31-35).

I do not think that what frightened Nebuchadnezzar was the image that he saw in the dream but, rather, the stone that appeared and destroyed the image. I believe the stone threatened the king because he knew that his kingdom was a part of the image and the stone would destroy it. We know that the stone represented the kingdom and power of God (2:44).

Today mankind cannot see into the future. Horoscopes, astrology and fortune-telling are just parlor tricks and they fool people. Only God can see into the future because He lives in eternity and “He knows what is in the darkness.” Seemingly impossible situations that our world now faces in the Middle East and also disasters like the earthquake/tsunami in Japan are not unknown to Him.

Our response to the darkness of the hour we live in should be the same as that of Daniel and his friends: “That they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this….” God will guide us step by step through the uncertainties of our world and our future because “only He knows what is in the darkness” and we are to seek Him and trust Him.