If you are like me, when you hear a statement like “God is sovereign”, it gives you peace but it can also leave you perplexed as you wonder what exactly that means and whether or not you should do anything. When we are facing difficulties, it lifts the burden on us when we realize and remember that God is sovereign but at the same time we can wonder what we should or how we should proceed in light of that sovereignty. The same goes for statements like “Wait on the Lord” or “Trust in the Lord”. They seem exclusive and final. For many of us, to wait on the Lord means to simply, wait. Therefore, with this mindset, if I am trusting in the Lord, any action I take is contrary to the instruction of waiting on the Lord. Still, to some, these statements are said to dismiss any attempts at taking an action concerning a situation. I often wrestle with how to handle life in light of the sovereignty of God and that has led me to seek the Lord to understand how He expects us to live while trusting Him and trusting in His sovereignty. Thankfully, the book of Daniel does give us some pointers. As I continue in my reading, I would like to share observations from Daniel’s relationship with the Lord and how that enabled him to live courageously in difficult times. Because of his trust in the Lord, Daniel teaches us that you can be in the world and not from the world and that in the midst of difficulty, our call as children of the Most High is to continue to act justly, seek the face of the Lord when in doubt or when the future appears to look bleak.
Daniel’s eyes were on the Lord. He lived for the things above and not for earthly things (Colossians 3:1). I would have loved to see what that looked like on a daily basis for him. He was not standing in the way of mockers, nor was he sitting in the seat of sinners, nor was he walking in the counsel of the wicked (Psalm 1:1). Often times, Daniel would be found praying to his God, it is repeatedly said about him that there was “no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent” (Daniel 6:4). In fact, the only time a charge was brought against him was in regard to his obedience to God. Daniel’s colleagues knew that and said, tired of not finding any grounds of accusation against Daniel: “we will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:5). This is the type of reputation Daniel had. Daniel had success physically (in the world) and spiritually. In chapter seven of the book of Daniel we learn about some of the visions Daniel had. The visions are so well documented it is almost unbelievable. I wonder how quickly he had to recover from the visions to be able to document them? Or to be able to go back to normalcy again? As Daniel says “I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself” (Daniel 7:28). The vision Daniel refers to here, happened before he appeared to king Belshazzar (another king who elevated himself above God). Whatever it was that troubled him, we know he went back to work at some point. In that vision, there are two observations: one, Daniel was shown the things to come and two, he met the Christ. Daniel certainly did not understand all that was shown to him but somehow, the Lord knew Daniel would be a faithful steward of the things to come. Daniel sought the Lord so much that he got to see a glimpse of the “‘son of man’, coming with the clouds of heaven…He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). We who are believers in Christ today now understand who it is Daniel saw in the vision. This happened thousands of years before Christ came into the world, yet Daniel got the privilege to know what was coming to pass. Because of Daniel’s heart to “seek the Lord and his strength; and to seek his face continually” (1 Chronicles 16:11), the Lord revealed to him things that our minds cannot grasp and fathom. This is mind blowing because we do not function well after seeing things that are unfathomable to us, yet the Lord shared that with Daniel. Remember how Daniel was deeply troubled? I personally believe the Lord himself had to strengthen Daniel to bring him back to a normal state of mind after seeing all that he saw. The presence of God was more important to Daniel than the praise of men, more important than the riches of this world. We know Daniel had friends (at least for a portion of his life) so I am going to assume that he enjoyed spending time with them and that they probably did fun stuff together. Yet, what we read about Daniel makes it clear that he was not a man of this world. He did not love the world (1 John 2:15), he was in the world but not of the world (John 17:14). His citizenship was from heaven. Indeed, Daniel was surrounded by people that did not worship the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and did not abide by His rules which means he was probably an outcast to the people around him because he would do things contrary to the norm. That is a very lonely place. Yet Daniel did not trade loneliness for the love of man. Instead, Daniel continued to love his God with all his heart and with all his mind and soul. It is quite ironic that Daniel does not get a standing ovation from the Lord like Job did (Job 1:8), or Moses (Numbers 12:7-8), or David (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), yet he seems to have walked faithfully with the Lord until the end. This goes to show that we may not always hear an encouragement from the Lord while on this earth or our peers might not even recognize our faithfulness but we know that we will be hearing the words of Jesus himself “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21,23) once it is all over for our reward is in heaven. Indeed, we serve the one who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him and those who do not give up will receive the crown of life that God has promised those who love him (Hebrews 11:6; James 1:12). Truth be told, with the continued presence of God Daniel experienced on this earth, I doubt he needed anymore recognition from the Lord.
Daniel is a great example of doing our part even when we know the Lord is sovereign over everything. Daniel knew the Lord was sovereign over the exile of Israel, he knew the Lord was sovereign when he chose to be led into the lion’s den, he knew the Lord was sovereign when he set his mind to seek the Lord in prayer and fasting when the time had come for Israel’s liberation as prophesied by Jeremiah (Daniel 9:2), he knew the Lord was sovereign as he worked for kings who had no regard for the Lord of hosts. Yet, he continued to be faithful, he continued to honour the Lord, he continued to obey the commands of the Lord, he continued to do what was right, to seek justice, to walk in humility, to care for the poor and widow and the like. This means, we too, in the face of adversity, must continue to do what the Lord expects of us, we must continue to hail his name, we must continue to bring light, we must continue to plead with the Lord for our nation in “sackcloth and ashes”, we must pursue ways to bring about the justice of the Lord wherever we are. Knowing that the Lord is sovereign, or that we must trust Him is not an excuse for inaction. We must continue to bring in the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost. The time is now, the harvest is plentiful indeed so let us pray for workers for the bridegroom is coming anytime now. Let us therefore be like the wise virgins, ready for our bridegroom for we must make it to the marriage feast (Matthew 25:10). Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 