Cahhh! Cahhh! Excuse me, I have a nasty cough. I haven’t been feeling very well these days!
Anyway, today I would like to share some of my life experiences that have taught me about God’s sovereignty. I wasn’t always a servant of the sovereign God, but throughout my life, God has used a number of tragic and triumphant events to show me that he is in complete control. As a matter of fact, these occurrences have convinced me that God isn’t just in control of my life, but he is in control of everything. So, I would like to tell you about a few of them!
Daniel the Exile (1:1-2)
As I mention, I wasn’t always a servant of the sovereign God like I am today. Even though I grew up with a fairly solid faith, something happened to me when I was just a boy that made me seriously question God’s control: When I was about 14 years old, my home was set on fire and I was taken away from my family.
Even though it has been many years ago now, I still remember it like it was yesterday. It happened during the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. A band of Babylonian insurgents stormed the royal palace, captured many of the noble families in Jerusalem, burned our homes, and looted our temple.
During the raid, soldiers charged into my bedroom, tied my hands, and forced me and about 8,000 other captives to march all the way to Babylon. As I watched them set my house on fire, terror ran through my veins. I had no idea what happened to my family and I had no idea what was going to happen to me in Babylon! Being so young, I didn’t understand everything that was happening. I couldn’t understand why God would allow this to happen to his chosen people. It didn’t make any sense to me. I thought to myself, “If God was really sovereign—that is, if he was really in control, why would he allow his people to suffer like this?
Have you ever wondered about that? Have you ever wondered how an omnipotent and compassionate God could allow such violence and suffering in the world? Have you ever questioned how a sovereign God could allow you to face such adversity? I had always been taught that God was more powerful than anything, but I have to admit, it sure didn’t seem like it. But over the years, a number of other events took place in my life that answered some of my questions and eventually showed me that God really is in control!
Daniel the Vegetarian (1:3-21)
Not long after we arrived in Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar commissioned his chief official to enroll the best and the brightest among the young Israelite exiles at the royal academy where they would learn the language and literature of the Babylonians. It was their custom of conquest to take the young foreign exiles, to indoctrinate them in the ways of Babylon, and then use their talents to advance their own empire.
So, the official scoured through the young men among Israel’s nobility and he picked the cream of the crop; the crème de la crème, as they say; the smartest, strongest, and best looking. Out of hundreds, I Daniel and my three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were selected. This got me to wondering about God’s sovereignty again. Maybe he did have reason for all of this? From this point, I began to take God more seriously again!
One of the privileges of being trained for the king’s court was being able to eat from the king’s table. Every day there was a smorgasbord of culinary delights; vast tables of meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, vegetables, and wine. The exiles from the other nations loved this, but it presented a huge problem for me and my friends. God had given our people some strict dietary regulations in our constitution. We were not allowed to eat anything that was not kosher—that is, anything unclean like pig meat, shellfish, or anything that had been sacrificed to foreign idols.
Almost everything on the lunch buffet was out of bounds, and we found ourselves in a real pickle; unkosher, of course. We had to decide whether to keep God’s law or defile ourselves by eating the king’s food. We had to make a decision: would we be obedient to God’s Word or would we compromise our convictions?
Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever find yourself in a moral dilemma where you have to choose between pleasing God and pleasing someone else? Have you ever been in a predicament where you were forced to decide between doing what is right or doing what is easy or convenient? Have you ever been in a situation where you had to pick between compromising your convictions or paying the price of holiness?
Well, we made the right choice! We decided that we would not disobey God by eating the king’s food. So, I went to the official and explained the situation. For some unexplainable reason, he liked me, but he said, “Daniel, I am afraid the king, who has assigned your food and drink. If you should look worse than the other boys, he will have my head.” Then I said to him, “Give us nothing but vegetables and water for ten days; then compare our appearance with that of the others who eat the royal food, and then do what you wish.” He agreed and at the end of the ten days, we looked healthier and better nourished than any of the others.
We honored God by refusing to compromise our convictions, and he honored us by making us exceed beyond the other students. He blessed us with exceptional knowledge, understanding, and learning—so much so, that in every matter of wisdom, the king found my friends and I ten times better than all the wise men in his kingdom. That is how I became a vegetarian and it is where I began to see God’s sovereignty unfold in my life!
Daniel and the Dream of the Statue (2)
After we finished our training and were serving in king’s court, Nebuchadnezzar started having strange dreams that would keep him awake at night. He called for all of the astrologers and wise men of Babylon to interpret one particularly puzzling dream for him. He raised the stakes by announcing: “If you cannot interpret the dream for me, I will cut you into pieces and turn your houses into piles of rubble. If you can interpret the dream for me, I will bestow upon you gifts, rewards, and great honor.”
They tried to interpret the dream, but they couldn’t do it. They concluded that what the king was asking was impossible. When the commander of the king’s guard came to get me, I asked him why the king issued such a harsh decree. After he explained, I went to the king myself and begged him for time so that I could explain the dream to him. I met with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and urged them to pray that the Sovereign God the Creator of Heaven and Earth would reveal this mystery to me. That very night, God proved his sovereignty by answering our prayers.
The next day I came before King Nebuchadnezzar and he asked me, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” And I said to him, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown you what will happen in the days to come.”
Then I explained the dream to him: “You looked, O king, and before you stood a large stature—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. It had a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. You are the gold head. The other metals represent great kingdoms that will rule the world after you. But a time will come when the God of heaven will shatter all of these earthly kingdoms and bring them to an end. He will establish a spiritual kingdom that will endure forever.”
King Nebuchadnezzar recognized that the interpretation was accurate and he fell prostrate on the ground before me and said, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and the revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery to me.” Then he gave me a high ranking position and lavished me with gifts. He made me ruler over a whole province in Babylon and promoted my friends to high administrative positions.
After all of this happened, I completely trusted in God’s sovereignty. He showed me that he was in control of my life by answering my prayers and revealing the meaning of this dream to me. He showed me his sovereignty over my life when he answered my prayer, when he showed me the meaning of the dream, when he made Nebuchadnezzar the mighty King of Babylon bow down before me, and when he made me the ruler over the whole province of Babylon and its wise men. Imagine that, a Jewish exile becomes a Babylonian ruler. If God can do that in my life, he must be sovereign!
When God revealed that dream to me, I realized something else about his sovereignty. He isn’t just sovereign over my life or my nation or my time, he is sovereign over everyone’s life, every nation, and every period of time. When I saw the different metals on that statue, I knew that God was sovereign over all of history. He had already planned and orchestrated events that wouldn’t come to pass for hundreds and even thousands of years.
Daniel and the Lion’s Den (6)
A number of years after Nebuchadnezzar died, King Darius the Mede took over the kingdom. The Lord had helped me do such a great job ruling over my province that Darius was going to appoint me ruler over the entire kingdom. I didn’t know it at the time, but some of the administrators became jealous of my success and they conspired against me. The administrators talked the king into issuing a decree that anyone who prays to any god or man other than the king should be thrown into a lion’s den.
Before the king thought through the all of its ramifications, he signed the decree into law. Now the administrators knew that I prayed to the living God three times a day and that I was a man who didn’t compromise my convictions. When I heard about the decree, I just kept on praying as I had always done before. But one day, the administrators caught me praying and charged me with treason. When they brought me before the king, Darius knew that he had been tricked, but there wasn’t anything he could do to save me.
So, they threw me into the lion’s den and sealed it with a giant stone. King Darius said to me, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you.” And sure enough, he did. God sent his angel to stand guard over me and that night the lions were as gentle as lambs!
By saving me from the mouths of the lions, God not only proved his sovereignty to me, but it was also displayed for everyone else. King Darius expressed faith in the living God. He issued a new decree that everyone in the kingdom must reverence Daniel’s God.
Daniel and the End Times (12)
After many days had gone by, God gave me another experience that affirmed his sovereignty. God gave me a vision of what will happen in the end times. There will be a time of distress such has never happened on the earth before, but will God will raise up the angel Michael to protect his people. After this, God will open the Book of Life and see the names of those who have responded to him in faith, and they will be delivered. Those who have died and sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, some to everlasting contempt. God told me to go my own way until the end. Then I will rest until the final days and then receive my allotted inheritance.
As I stood there contemplating the vision, I wondered when these things would come to pass. I am almost 100 years old now and my “Cahhh! Cahh!” health is beginning to fail. Even though my body is ready for the grave, my soul is ready for heaven. How about yours?
Well, now you know why I am a servant of the sovereign God. I didn’t even have time today to tell you about how God delivered my three friends from the fiery furnace or how I saw the writing on the wall or some of the other visions God gave me. I still don’t always understand God’s ways, but I do believe in his sovereignty. He really does have everything under control!