Wednesday, April 16, 2008

When it's dark and you can't sleep Daniel 2:1-23

King Nebby can’t sleep. I’ve been there. Insomnia can keep even the best of us crazy. But, I don’t think my insomnia was because God had a message for me. Sometimes I wonder though, if I’m awake, maybe I should be praying for something or someone. But, that’s a different topic.

King Nebby was troubled in his mind. He had had dreams and they weren’t settling well with him at all. He called upon his magicians, astrologers and sorcerers to tell him what he had dreamed. Notice, he didn’t ask them what the dreams meant. No, he wanted them to tell him first what he had dreamed and then tell him what it all meant.

Call me crazy, but I think that’s asking a little much. Bad news for the guys he had called on.

“If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into pile of rubble,” said the King.

That just doesn’t seem fair. But, you will soon find out that King Nebby wasn’t the nicest of guys. Let’s just say he was a bit of a hot head.

You can guess that the men could not tell him his dream. In fact, they went as far as to say, “No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.”

Aren’t you glad this isn’t so?
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:13.

What does that do to your heart? To really think about the fact that God came to this teeny tiny earth to live and dwell among us, so that He would know exactly everything we go through. So that He can be everything we need? Now He doesn’t dwell among us, but in us.

And so it was for Daniel. But, hang on, we’ll get to that.

So, in verse 12 Nebby really loses it and ordered the execution of all wise men of Babylon. Yeah, you guessed it, Daniel was one of those wise men. So far, that being “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in the whole kingdom” isn’t working out so well.

Smart Daniel begs for more time for he and the other boys to try and figure it out. He hightails it to his friends and they hit the floor in prayer.

Has their ever been a time in you life you really needed God to show up for something? A time when you needed every ounce of wisdom He was willing to give? So it was for Daniel.

I love verse 19, “During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel…”

Sometimes when it’s the darkest, scariest, or loneliest and when it seems that there is no answer, God will show up. When it seems we can take no more and our faith is stretched to the limit, God will come in and reveal what we need to know.

He is the revealer of mysteries.

And when He does, let us take note from Daniel. His first response was praise!

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his…”

On and on he goes giving God all the glory and praise for such things.

“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him”

The darkest times, when danger looms and it seems there is no way out, let this be your prayer:

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever,
wisdom and power are His…
He reveals deep and hidden things;
He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

He knows. He knows what is lying in your darkness and He will bring the light. He has made His dwelling among us as the light of the world.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness…” John 1:5

Praise Him

8 comments:

Kim Heinecke said...

I love when He wakes us in the night to reveal his truth.

And this study makes me think of your theatric performance in Kansas that one year. priceless. Too bad everyone else missed it...

Amy said...

Theatric performance!? Girl, we have got to talk. I love me some theatric performing!
I am loving this study. I feel like I having some internet church and frankly, it's making me really wish I could pop into OK for coffee.

Natalie Witcher said...

Theatric performance was my redition of what may have happened with Daniel and his friends. It was spontaneous and ha-larious! Let kim and I know the next time you're here!

Anonymous said...

i am so thankful that God shows up when i'm in that dark place.

deleise said...

Thanks again, Natalie.

Robin Meadows said...

Sure enjoying this!! Looking forward to MORE!

Theresa said...

OK All cought up now. It is hard without the post titles listed to make sure I got them all. I am just a sunfried california girl that is easily confused. :)

God has revealed many things to me at night. Sometimes I wonder if he uses the nighttime because I am too busy running the rest of the time. I run in circles and he just waits by my bed for me to stop and be still.

This is super great thanks soo much for utilizing you spiritual gifting!

BraggFam said...

I am eating this up!!! Thank you so much for doing this!!!