Another line by heart.

Did you
Daniel Know I was last of all our class?
The Rabbi barely let me pass."

The two old men stared quietly "Of course I knew; I watched you all
And smiled about the memory The time. You'd stare into the wall,
Of years in Babylon. Meshach As if there were a window there,
Was almost blind, but in the back, And never cheated once! No snare,
Behind those milky eyes, his mind As I recall, had ever caught
Was clear as mountain air — the kind Your foot, when we were brought
Of air that lets you see almost To Babylon. And I was just
Forever. Daniel used to boast Remembering your dad. He must
About his friend, "If I should die, Have been a noble man. Was there
The king could easily rely A way he built your heart to care
On Meshach for some brilliant words More for the truth and honesty
To make his fingernails like birds'." And law of God, than luxury?
And they would laugh, the four of them, I mean, to live with you has been
And think about Jerusalem, An awesome thing. For Daniel, in
And parents who had taught them well, These sixty years I've never seen
And perished when the city fell. You act or speak except with clean
And holy principles, and stake
Your life time after time to make
That was a long, long time ago, Some truth or purity outshine
Abednego was dead, and so The meager worth of rank and wine,
Was Shadrach. Daniel still remained, And even life itself. Can you
As strong as though he had been trained Recall? What did your father do?"
To stand up like a cedar tree
Against the Persian world. Now he
And Meshach spent their days in town "There was a day," Daniel replied,
And village telling the renown "That I will not forget. He died
Of God, and in the evening they At Babylon's first strike. And I
Would ponder over years, and pray; Had half an hour with him to try
And sometimes feel the loss of friends And stop the bleeding with some strings.
So deeply they would weep. "It mends At fifteen years there are some things
More slowly than I thought it would. . ." A boy would like to hold, but not
Meshach would say, "But God is good." The body of his father shot.
Of all the things he might have said,
He quoted Psalm fifteen. He'd read
This night the mood was very calm, It to me countless times before.
And memory was like a balm It was the garment that he wore
Of healing peace spread over all Around his faith and hope. He said,
The loss and pain. "Can you recall 'Son, love not ease, nor much the bed,
The time when Zion was a joy Nor station, rank, or human praise,
And crown, and you were just a boy?" Nor pleasures that the wine repays,
Meshach inquired. "I can. Can you?" Nor wealth or power from below,
Old Daniel smiled, "You know, it's true, Nor life, above the God you know.
Meshach, that you could memorize Thus says the Lord, my son: Who swears
The Torah best. Of all the tries For good, and does not change, but bears
That I would make, you always knew
The threat of man, will dwell with God, Not drink your wine nor fill
And know the blessing of his rod.' My stomach with your royal food,
Nor let my tongue and heart be wooed
Away from Moses and my God
Meshach, I swore that moment I For fear of some Chaldean rod.'
Would never lie, nor ever try
To make my life more pleasant through
Deceit, nor ever twist what's true, Again I see a banquet hall
Or bend the rule of God that some And King Belshazzar over all,
Fictitious benefit might come. And drunk before a thousand lords,
So you are right; my father left Exalting gods made out of gourds,
Me fatherless, but not bereft And lifting up a toast to hell
Of rectitude, or reverence. With chalices from Israel.
It was a great inheritance." I see the writing on the wall
And suddenly the merry ball
Is terror stricken: what could mean
"It was indeed, Daniel, and I Mene tekel upharsin?
For one can surely testify And then I see a young man dare
That you were not the only heir To stand alone for God, and there
Of this great legacy; for there To lift his voice and say, ‗Was it
Have been ten thousand Jews Not pride that made your father sit
Who year by year have heard the news Insane for seven times and eat
That Babylon with all its might Grass like an ox, until that seat
Cannot bend Daniel from the right. Taught him that kingdoms built by men
Your father's legacy has fired God gives to whom he will and when?
The flame of honor, and inspired And now, Belshazzar, read the script
The courage of a million deeds Of God. Is not the finger dipped
Against the stream of pagan creeds In blood? Your days are numbered short,
With all their lures and steamy breath You have been weighed with all your
And puny threats of pain and death. court:
The whole world knows what you have Like dust upon the scales your deeds.
done Tomorrow come the mighty Medes.'
Within the court of Babylon. And finally I see a man
Of prayer. He reads the royal ban
That says, "If anyone should pray
And I, my friend, for all these years To heaven's God, that very day
Have lit my fire and calmed my fears He will be stopped by watchful men,
By watching you. And now tonight And thrown into the lion's den."
Without my eyes, I still see light I see him read, then rise and take
Stream down the memories, and feel His place in open view to make
The fire ignite my faith and seal His prayer."
The certainty that you were sent, "And Meshach, do you know
And every pagan threat was meant The prayer I made? I said, ‗Below
To magnify the power and truth The heavens there is none I love
Of God, though you were but a youth. More than my dad, and none above
I see a Jewish boy with tears More than my God. And if it cost
Of loss still on his face, and fears Me everything, and if I lost
Of what might come — I see him stand My life, I will not cease to flood
And face the guard, and lift his hand, With praise the day my father's blood
And say to Ashpenaz, ‗I will Sealed me for truth and righteousness.
With all my heart, O God, I bless, Where little love is spent on truth
The day my father died and left And many fathers fail the youth.
Me fatherless, but not bereft O, God, as we light candle two,
Of rectitude, or reverence. Ignite a fire for what is true.
It was a great inheritance!'" May Daniel's flame burn bright today,
And fire us, young and old, to say,
That whether we survive or not
And so it was, and is today, We will do right no matter what.
A legacy to light the way

Daniel's Defiance of
Darius in Prayer
Scripture: Daniel 6:1–13
Topic: Prayer
It pleased Darius to set over the
kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps,
to be throughout the whole kingdom;
and over them three presidents, of
whom Daniel was one, to whom these
satraps should give account, so that the
king might suffer no loss. Then this
Daniel became distinguished above all
the other presidents and satraps,
because an excellent spirit was in him;
and the king planned to set him over
the whole kingdom. Then the president
and the satraps sought to find a ground
for complaint against Daniel with
regard to the kingdom; but they could
find no ground for complaint or any
fault, because he was faithful, and no
error or fault was found in him. Then
these men said, ―We shall not find any
ground for complaint against this
Daniel unless we find it in connection
with the law of his God.‖
Then these presidents and satraps came
by agreement to the king and said to
him, ―O King Darius, live for ever! All
the presidents of the kingdom, the
prefects and the satraps, the counselors
and the governors are agreed that the
king should establish an ordinance and
enforce an interdict, that whoever
makes petition to any god or man for
thirty days, except to you, O king, shall
be cast into the den of lions. Now, O
king, establish the interdict and sign
the document, so that it cannot be
changed, according to the law of the
Medes and the Persians, which cannot
be revoked.‖ Therefore King Darius
signed the document and interdict.
When Daniel knew that the document
had been signed, he went to his house
where he had windows in his upper
chamber open toward Jerusalem; and
he got down upon his knees three times
a day and prayed and gave thanks
before his God, as he had done
previously. Then these men came by
agreement and found Daniel making
petition and supplication before his
God. Then they came near and said
before the king, concerning his
interdict, ―O king! Did you not sign an
interdict, that any man who makes
petition to any god or man within thirty
days except to you, O king, shall be
cast into the den of lions?‖ The king
answered, ―The thing stands fast,
according to the law of the Medes and
Persians, which cannot be revoked.‖
Then they answered before the king,
―That Daniel, who is one of the exiles
from Judah, pays no heed to you, O
king, or the interdict you have signed,
but makes his petition three times a
day.‖
God Is My Judge
The name Daniel has three syllables
and each one in Hebrew has a
meaning. ―Dan‖ means ―judge‖. The
little ―ee‖ sound (i) means ―my‖. And
―el‖ means ―God‖. So Daniel‘s name
means ―God, my judge‖—―God is my
judge‖.
It is a wonderful thing to have a name
to live up to. Daniel lived up to his in a
most remarkable way. He lived a life
that shouted the truth: ―God is my
judge, not man!‖ ―God is my judge,
and no king of Babylon or Persia!‖ ―To
God I will have to give an account for
how I live my life, not to
Nebuchadnezzar, not to Belshazzar,
not to Darius.‖ ―God is my judge!‖
In other words, his life was centered on
God. It was built on God. And his way
of looking at the world was drenched
with God. This comes out in the way
he ate, the way he interpreted dreams,
the way he wrote his book, and the
way he prayed.
The Way Daniel Wrote
Take, for example, the way he wrote
his book. Look at the very beginning
of the book, chapter one, verse two. He
describes the capture of Jerusalem and
the kingdom of Judah by
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
like this: ―And the Lord gave
Jehoiakim king of Judah into his
hand.‖ Just like that! God has one king
in his hand, and when he pleases he
gives him into the hand of another
king—the way you might exchange a
defective Christmas present at
Rosedale; you just hand it over the
counter. God gave Jehoiakim into
Nebuchadnezzar‘s hand! Again and
again Daniel tells the story of great
political events like that (see 2:21, 37
and 5:18).
The Way He Ate
Or take another example: the way he
ate. Remember, Daniel was one of the
captives that was taken to Babylon
when Nebuchadnezzar captured
Jerusalem. He was chosen with others
to be trained for service in the royal
palace and fed with the king‘s best
food and wine. But Daniel saw his
food as a God-issue. For
him everything was a God-issue.
So Daniel 1:8 says, ―Daniel resolved
that he would not defile himself with
the king‘s rich food, or with the wine
which he drank.‖ Daniel looked to God
to judge his cause, not to the king. And
the upshot in 1:17 was this: ―God gave
[him] learning and skill in all letters
and wisdom; and Daniel had
understanding in all visions and
dreams.‖
The Way He Interpreted Dreams
The same God-drenched way of life
comes out in the way Daniel interprets
the dreams of king Nebuchadnezzar
and the vision of Belshazzar his son.
He gives all the credit to God, for
example, in 2:28, ―There is a God in
heaven who reveals mysteries, and he
has made known to king
Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the
latter days.‖ And he accuses the most
powerful rulers on earth of irreverence
and treason against God. For example,
to Belshazzar in 5:23, ―The God in
whose hand is your breath, and whose
are all your ways, you have not
honored.‖ Every interpretation Daniel
gives has God right at the center of it,
and great kings like Nebuchadnezzar
and Belshazzar (or Gorbachev) fade
from history like a cloud (2:39; 5:28).
The Way He Prayed
But one of the most amazing examples
of Daniel‘s living out his name is his
prayer life. ―God is my judge‖ means
―What God thinks and what God does
matters more than what anybody else
in the world thinks or does.‖ That‘s the
way I want us to be at Bethlehem as
we move from 1991 to 1992. What
God thinks of Bethlehem and what
God does at Bethlehem is more
important—vastly more important—
than what anybody else thinks or
anybody else does.
For Daniel that meant a life of daring,
defiant, disciplined prayer. If what God
thinks matters most, then you consult
him most. If what God does matters
most, then you ask him to act first. In
other words, you live your life by
prayer.
Now don‘t forget that Daniel was a
very powerful political person. Back
in Daniel 2:48 Nebuchadnezzar had
made Daniel ―ruler over the whole
province of Babylon.‖ Here in our text
(6:2) Darius makes Daniel one of the
three presidents over the 120 satraps
(or governors) of the entire empire.
Sometimes we slip into thinking that
prayer is the way monks spend their
time. It‘s something for pastors or
professional religious people; but it‘s
not for activists, or men of affairs, or
people with power and influence.
That is a very wrong way to think
about prayer and about your life as a
busy person. Daniel was more
immersed in secular life than most of
us and he lived by prayer—daring,
defiant, disciplined prayer—
because God was his judge. What God
thought and what God did mattered
most. So Daniel lived by consulting
God and by asking God to act.
Today‘s text is an amazing testimony
to the daring, defiant, disciplined
prayer life of Daniel. I read this, and it
fills me with longing to be courageous
in prayer. It makes me want to be
daring in prayer, and if necessary
defiant against earthly powers in
prayer, and disciplined in prayer. I
don‘t want to be a spiritual jellyfish,
drifting on the sea of emotionalism,
praying a little here and a little there as
the waves of emotion rise and fall. My
hope is that God will use Daniel‘s
example here to fill you with the same
longing and the same commitment for
1992.
Famously and Firmly Dependent on
God
Look at Daniel‘s amazing response to
Darius‘ decree against prayer. Let‘s get
the situation in view. Verse 2: Daniel
was one of three presidents over the
kingdom of the Medes and Persians.
Verse 3: ―An excellent spirit was in
him‖ and he excelled above the others,
and the king planned to put him above
the others and over the whole
kingdom.
Daniel had an unbelievably successful
future in front of him—all the
influence and all the prestige and
wealth and freedom he could have
asked for. But this made him a target
for jealousy and envy. So verses 4-9
describe how the other presidents and
satraps persuaded Darius to make a
law that said (according to verse 7),
―Whoever makes petition to any god or
man for thirty days, except to you, O
king, shall be cast into the den of
lions.‖
In other words, Daniel‘s life of prayer
was so well known and so established
as part of his character that his enemies
knew that this was one place they
could count on him not weaseling. And
they were exactly right.
Verse 10 just takes your breath away.
Here is where I get the insight that
Daniel‘s prayer was daring and defiant
and disciplined.
When Daniel knew that the document
had been signed, he went to his house
where he had windows in his upper
chamber open toward Jerusalem; and
he got down on his knees three times a
day and prayed and gave thanks before
his God, as he had done previously.
 Six Expressions of Daring
Dependence
Notice six daring things:
1) He did not act in ignorance, he acted
in full knowledge of the law and the
consequences.
―When Daniel knew that the document
had been signed, he went…‖ to pray.
Don‘t forget, Daniel is right on the
brink of being promoted to the main
ruler over Persia. Think of the
rationalizations that must have rushed
to his head—―my influence would be
so great if I held that position … I can
do more for God alive than dead … it‘s
only thirty days, and then I can pray
again … legalism is surely a worse sin
than expediency1 … etc.‖ But he
rejected all the rationalizations. He
knew the law. He knew the penalty.
And he went to pray.
2) He did not go to the woods to pray,
he went to his house.
He could have kept on praying to his
God without putting himself at risk if
he had just gone underground for thirty
days. There is no law that says you
have to pray in your house where your
enemies will be looking for you.
3) He did not go to the secret inner
chamber of his house.
He went to the room with windows
(open windows)—the one in the
second story of the house, the one most
visible, the one that faced Jerusalem
and not the palace in Babylon.
Do you begin to catch on to why I call
this act of prayer defiant? Daniel is not
just praying contrary to the king‘s
decree. He is making a public
statement. We would say today, he is
demonstrating. He is doing an act of
public civil disobedience. And he is
doing so in a public way that no
biblical law requires.
4) He did not pray once, early in the
morning when no one might be
looking, but three times a day and
every day.
He would make sure that he is not
missed in his refusal to obey this law.
5) When Daniel prayed, he did not use
words that were vague and ambiguous
that some clever defense attorney
could argue were really made to Darius
because they didn‘t specify which god
was addressed.
It says, ―He gave thanks before his
God.‖ Not Darius. And not the gods of
the Medes and Persians, but the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
6) He did not change the way he
prayed or do anything different to yield
to the pressures of the law Darius had
made.
It says at the end of the verse that he
prayed ―as he had done previously.‖
There were many ways to pray that
might not have been detected and that
would have fulfilled the law of his
God. But Daniel prayed daringly,
defiantly and in his usual disciplined
way of three times a day.
Imitating Daniel in Our Day
Now what are we to make of all this? I
would suggest four concluding
applications for our life of prayer
today.
1. Prayer is a legitimate public
testimony, and we should seek to use it
as God leads us.
Jesus said,
When you pray, you must not be like
the hypocrites; for they love to stand
and pray in the synagogues and at the
street corners, that they may be seen by
men. Truly I say to you they have their
reward. But when you pray, go into
your room and shut the door and pray
to your Father who is in secret; and
your Father who sees in secret will
reward you. (Matthew 6:5-6)
Does this indict Daniel‘s public
demonstration of prayer? I don‘t think
so. Jesus was warning against our love
of praise for prayer, not our
willingness to suffer for prayer. He
was not saying that it is wrong to be
seen in prayer. He was saying it is
wrong to want to be seen so as to be
praised for your piety. Blessed are you
when men persecute you for
righteousness sake (Matt. 5:10); but
woe to you when you use your
righteousness to seek their praise (6:2-
4).
In Daniel‘s context—and here we need
great wisdom to know our own
context—the call of God on his life
was ―let your light so shine that men
may see your good works and give
glory to your Father in heaven.‖ For
Daniel, prayer had become a public
statement about the glory of God over
the glory of Darius. And it was a
legitimate testimony. And so it is for
us, if our hearts are right.
2. Daniel‘s prayer was a testimony, not
only to the glory of God over the glory
of Darius, but also, to the fact that his
life was built on prayer.
Daniel was making a statement, not
just about God but about his relation to
God. God would not have changed if
Daniel had prayed in secret. God
would still be God. Daniel would still
be a ruler in Persia. What would have
been different is the way the presidents
and satraps thought about Daniel‘s
relationship to God. And when Daniel
thought about that, he could not bring
himself to go underground.
He was known as a man who lived by
prayer—whose life was built on
prayer—who consulted his God in all
things and who sought the action of his
God before he took action himself.
Daniel would not surrender that
testimony. I pray that we won‘t
surrender that testimony either. May
prayer week—our fasting, our morning
prayer watches, our night of prayer—
be a resounding testimony to God‘s
glory and to our life and our church
being built on prayer!
3. Daniel‘s prayer was disciplined and
regular.
When the time came for a
demonstration. Daniel did not have to
change anything. He already was
praying three times a day in a stated
place. There was pattern and routine
and discipline. Does it strike you as
strange that in America today almost
no Christians pray this way? I‘m sure
that there are some who would
celebrate this absence of order and
design and habit and pattern as a sign
of freedom from legalism. I might
believe it if I saw anything like the
freedom and power of Daniel where
discipline like his is absent. But I don‘t
see it, I don‘t believe it.
I asked in the STAR last week: could it
be that Daniel‘s discipline in prayer
was the secret of his unexpected,
unplanned, spontaneous encounters
with God? Could it be that discipline is
not the boring substitute for
spontaneity and power but the garden
where it grows. You till the garden
with patient discipline and suddenly
God makes a plant grow with
supernatural power. I think this is so. I
urge you to take time this week to step
back and plan some discipline into
your prayer life for 1992. Be like
Daniel.
4. Finally, prayer is more precious than
life.
Just think of it. Daniel knew that the
penalty for praying would be the lion‘s
den. I don‘t think Daniel knew that he
would be delivered any more than
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
knew it as they stood before the fiery
furnace and said, ―If God does not
deliver us, be it known to you, we will
not serve your gods‖ (Daniel 3:18).
This must mean that prayer is more
important than life. Daniel would
rather pray than save his life. Not
praying was a worse prospect to Daniel
than being eaten by lions. That is a
radical commitment to prayer. Just
think of it. Can you say with Daniel:
―You will have to take my life before
you take my prayer‖?
Prayer week is a time for spiritual soul-
searching. I call you to fasting and to
prayer. I call you to search your heart
and see if God has something new for
you in 1992. Please, for your own
sense of spiritual life and reality and
power, don‘t let this week of prayer be
like all the others. Step back. Give
yourself to fasting. Seek the Lord.
 compassion for the poor and oppressed on
Angels and Prayer the conscience of the church. In the 1970s
Daniel's Experience there were the first seeds of the growing
prayer movement around the world. And
and Ours in the 1980s, with the third wave, there has
Scripture: Daniel 10 Topic: Prayer been a great emphasis on supernatural
power in ministry, especially gifts relating
to prophecy and healing. As we enter the
How Shall We Think About
1990s, Peter Wagner sees spiritual warfare
"Territorial Spirits"?
with territorial spirits moving to the
This chapter is the clearest reference in all
forefront.
the Bible to what people today are calling
YWAM in Argentina
"territorial spirits." I want you to be aware
Of course, spiritual warfare is not new. But
of what is happening today in this realm of
the way territorial spirits are being
spiritual warfare, and I want us to think
confronted seems to be new. For example,
biblically about it. I don't want us to have
in Cordoba, Argentina, 200 Youth With A
our head in the sand as God awakens the
Mission missionaries gathered from
church to spiritual realities long
around the world to tell fans at the World
overlooked. And I don't want us to be
Cup (soccer playoffs) about Jesus. But no
naïve in believing everything we hear, or
one seemed to be listening to their good
lopsided in letting a secondary biblical
news. Their evangelism efforts were
truth become a primary preoccupation.
listless and powerless; their Spanish tracts
I believe that territorial spirits are real, as
were ignored.
they turn up in Daniel 10, and that they
The missionaries decided to devote a day
exist today. How then should we think
to prayer and fasting. In that meeting God
about them? How do they fit in with other
revealed that Satan was not only busy with
biblical truth? How should we pray in
individuals, but that he had immersed
view of their reality? That's my goal this
himself deeply into the culture of the
morning.
territory—especially in the form of pride.
Cordoba was very sophisticated, fashion-
What's Happening in the World Today
conscious, and materialistic, and the
Before we look at Daniel let me give you a
people clung to their values of position,
taste of the kind of thing that is happening
possessions, and appearance. The
today.
missionaries discerned that the only way
Peter Wagner's Assessment
this "territorial spirit" manifesting itself in
Peter Wagner just published a book
pride would be overcome was by humility.
called Engaging the Enemy: How to Fight
So they scattered themselves throughout
and Defeat Territorial Spirits. He believes
the central mall shopping area and got
that as we move into the '90s, the Holy
down on their knees with their foreheads
Spirit is calling the church to a spiritual
to the cobblestones in full view of passers-
warfare with territorial spirits—evil spirits,
by and prayed for Jesus to be revealed to
demons, principalities, powers, world
the city.
rulers of this present darkness, spiritual
A breakthrough came immediately. Large
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places
curious crowds gathered to watch and
(Ephesians 6:12)—which attach
listen. People took the tracts eagerly and
themselves to specific territories or
even asked to have them autographed by
regimes or institutions.
the missionaries. John Dawson preached at
His assessment is that in the 1950s God
the Plaza of St. Martin, and people in the
began to ripen a harvest of souls as he put
crowd dropped to their knees repenting of
evangelism high on the church's agenda. In
their sins. His interpretation of what
the 1960s God pressed the issues of
happened was that "the intimidation of the
enemy was broken along with our pride."
In other words, the way many are doing
spiritual warfare today is by moving into
an area, seeking to discern supernaturally
the spirit that Satan has assigned to
oppress and blind and control the area, and
then specifically serving notice on that
spirit that Jesus Christ is triumphant in this
place and breaking its spiritual hold on the
region. S. D. Gordon said 90 years ago,
"Intercession is winning the victory over
the chief, and service is taking the field
after the chief is driven off." That's the
strategy that many seem to be applying
today with a direct focus on territorial
spirits.
The Teaching of Daniel 10
Let's look at Daniel 10 to see what it will
teach us about these things.
Daniel's Vision and His Seeking to
Understand It
Daniel receives a word from the Lord in
verse 1—a vision of conflict that stunned
him with its greatness. Verse 1b says that
he understood it. But verse 12 it says that
when he received the vision, he set himself
to understand it. I take this to mean that
the general structure of the vision was
clear to him, but the meaning of its parts
was not clear to him.
So Daniel set himself with tears and
fasting and prayer to seek the meaning of
the vision, and for three weeks he wrestled
in prayer over this vision and sought to
know God's will. Verse 2: "In those days I,
Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I
ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered
my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all,
for the full three weeks."
Another Vision on the Banks of the Tigris
After three weeks he went out to the banks
of the Tigris River (v. 4). There he had a
vision that was so awesome he could
hardly bear it. Verse 5: "I lifted up my
eyes and looked, and behold, a man
clothed in linen, whose loins were girded
with gold of Uphaz. His body was like
beryl, his face like the appearance of
lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his
arms and legs like the gleam of burnished
bronze, and the sound of his words like the
noise of a multitude."
In other words, his single voice sounded
like the roars at the Metrodome. This
appearance was so terrifying and so
powerful that (according to verse 7) even
the men who were with Daniel, who could
not see the vision, trembled and ran away
to hide themselves from whatever it was.
Verses 8–9 say that Daniel lost his color,
had no strength in him, and fell on his
face.
God Answered Daniel's Prayer
To make matters worse (in v. 10) a hand
reached out and touched him so that he
shook terribly on his hands and knees.
Then the voice said (v. 11): "O Daniel,
man greatly beloved, give heed to the
words that I speak to you, and stand
upright, for now I have been sent to you."
Then he went on and said (v. 12): "Fear
not, Daniel, for from the first day that you
set your mind to understand and humbled
yourself before your God, your words
[prayer!] have been heard, and I have
come because of your words."
Now this is immensely important for
understanding prayer. Notice the words: "I
have come because of your words." Put
that together with the words in verse 11: "I
have been sent to you." That is, God sent
him. So the point is that God answered
your prayer as soon as you began to pray
three weeks ago. "From the first day that
you humbled yourself before your God
your words [your prayers!] have been
heard, and I have come because of your
words [your prayer!]."
So this heavenly being has come because
Daniel prayed and humbled himself before
God and fasted. And the three week delay
was not because God took three weeks to
hear. What was it then?
Why the Three Week Delay?
Verse 13: "The prince of the kingdom of
Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to
help me." The reason the messenger of
God was detained is because a spiritual
being called "the prince of the kingdom of
Persia" stood against him. And the reason
this angelic messenger got free from this
opposition was because the angel Michael
came to help him.
This is the clearest example in all the Bible
of what is called today a "territorial spirit."
Verse 13 refers to "The prince of the
kingdom of Persia." The natural meaning
of this phrase would be that among the
supernatural beings opposed to God, at
least one is assigned to a territory or, more
accurately, to a kingdom, namely, Persia.
Presumably his job is to darken the people
of Persia—to keep them from having the
truth and the light of God's Word.
Other Enemy Spirits Rising Up
But this spirit is not the only one
mentioned. Look at verses 20–21: "Then
[the messenger from God] said, 'Do you
know why I have come to you? But now I
will return to fight against the prince of
Persia; and when I am through with him,
lo, the prince of Greece will come. But I
will tell you what is inscribed in the book
of truth: there is none who contends by my
side against these except Michael, your
prince.'"
So the messenger is going back to fight
against the prince of the kingdom of Persia
and defeat him. And then there will appear
on the scene another great enemy spirit,
the prince of Greece. In other words, as
different kingdoms rise and fall, different
demonic spirits hold sway and have to be
dealt with by God's messengers in
accomplishing his purposes.
So it appears that there was a spirit over
Persia and a spirit over Greece. But it also
seems that Michael, the good angel, has
some special assignment for Israel.
Because it says at the end of verse 21:
"Michael, your prince." And the "your"
there is plural in Hebrew. This is not a
reference to Daniel's guardian angel, but to
Israel's guardian angel.
Conclusion
So I conclude from this that there is good
biblical reason for thinking that there are
powerful evil spirits with special
appointments from Satan over kingdoms
like Persia and Greece. In Luke 4:6 the
devil took Jesus up and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and then tempts
him with these words: "To you I will give
all this authority and their glory; for it has
been delivered to me, and I give it to
whom I will." He has an inflated notion of
his power in relation to the sovereignty of
God. But under God it is true that Satan is
"the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4).
And it is probably true that he gives his
power to those who worship him
(cf. Revelation 13:2). He is the "prince of
demons" (Mark 3:22).
Since the New Testament tells us that this
prince of demons "darkens the minds of
unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and that
he "deceives the world" (Revelation 12:9),
and that he plants his weeds (unbelievers)
throughout the world (Matthew 13:39),
and that he takes people captive to do his
will (2 Timothy 2:25), and that he plucks
up the seed of the Word when it is
preached (Matthew 13:4), and that he
thwarts missionary activity (1
Thessalonians 2:18), and that he throws
ministers in prison (Revelation 2:10)—
since we know the prince of demons does
all that, we may conclude with good
reason that this is what his sub-princes do
as well.
So then, I would conclude that there are
high-ranking demonic powers over various
regimes and dominions and governments
and realms of the world; and that they
work to create as much evil and corruption
and spiritual darkness as they can. They
strive to interrupt Christian missions and
ministry as much as they can.
That is why the prince of the kingdom of
Persia tried to hinder the messenger from
reaching Daniel from heaven. The
messenger was bringing a message of
truth. Verse 21: the messenger says to
Daniel, "But I will tell you what is
inscribed in the book of truth." But Satan
is a liar and a deceiver from the beginning.
The main aim of all his princes is to keep
the book of truth from being known and the warfare in the spirit realm was being
believed. The truth frees people (John fought in a real sense by Daniel in the
8:32) and sanctifies people (John 17:17). prayer realm.
So the territorial spirits like the prince of And so it is with more of our prayers than
the kingdom of Persia do their main work we realize. But the point is this: Daniel's
of corruption and destruction by blinding praying was not about angels. And
the people of their area from the truth. probably ours shouldn't be either. We
should wrestle in prayer and fasting for the
Implications for Ministry things that we know are God's will in our
How then shall we do ministry in view of lives and our families and our church and
this reality of "territorial spirits"? our city and our world. But by and large
1. Take the Supernatural Seriously we should probably leave it to God how he
Take the supernatural seriously and realize will use angels to get his work done. If
that we are in a warfare that cannot and God shows us more, we will use it. But the
should not be domesticated by essence of the matter is not knowing the
reinterpreting everything in the biblical spirits but knowing God and praying in the
worldview so that it fits nicely with power of Holy Spirit.
secular, naturalistic ways of thinking about So let us be about it with all our might this
the world. Be ready for the extraordinary year. May the Lord make us a people who
as well as the ordinary ways that evil pray like Daniel.
spirits work. Don't be presumptuous, as
though demons were weak; and don't be
anxious, as though they were stronger than
Jesus.
Be filled with the Spirit and well-armed
with biblical promises about the authority
of Jesus Christ and about your rights as a
child of God. Remember that two times in
our text the messenger from heaven said to
Daniel, "O man greatly loved." The word
means "desired" or "precious." He said this
to take away Daniel's fear in the midst of
spiritual warfare. And it should take away
ours too.
2. Daniel Wasn't Praying About Angels
The second thing is to notice that Daniel's
prayer that has such powerful effects in the
spiritual realm was not a prayer about
angels and territorial spirits. He was
wrestling for truth and for the good of
God's people the way we saw him
praying last week. He was totally shocked
when an angel appeared to him. And he
knew nothing about the conflict with the
prince of the kingdom of Persia.
But it's no accident that the messenger said
that his struggle with the prince of Persian
lasted exactly the same amount of time
that Daniel's fasting and prayer did (cf. vv.
2, 13)—21 days. The reason for this is that

How to Pray for a
Desolate Church
Scripture: Daniel 9:1–23 Topic: Prayer
The reason I titled this message "How to
Pray for a Desolate Church" is that I see
much of the Christian church today as
desolate. The ruin of Jerusalem and the
captivity of Israel in Babylon are pictures
of the church today in many places around
the world. There are pockets of life and
purity and depth and faithfulness and
power and zeal around the world. God will
never give up on his people and he will get
his global purposes done, even if he has to
use a remnant to do it.
But much of the Christian movement
today has become a desolation of
disobedience and disunity and dishonor to
the name of Christ. So the way Daniel
prays for the desolation of his people is a
pointer for how we can pray for the
desolation of ours.
Three Aspects of the Desolation of
God's People
Let me mention three aspects of the
desolation of God's people in this text to
see if you won't agree that it sounds like
much of the Christian movement today.
1. The People Are Captive to Godless
Forces
Two times, verses 11 and 13, Daniel says
that this calamity of Babylonian captivity
was warned against in the law of Moses.
For example, in Deuteronomy
28:36 Moses says that if the people
forsake God, "The Lord will bring you . . .
to a nation that neither you nor your
fathers have known; and there you shall
serve other gods." Now that had come true
in Babylon.
In 1520, Martin Luther wrote an essay
which he called "The Babylonian
Captivity of the Church." What he meant
was that forces and powers that were
foreign to Christ and to his Word had
captured the mind and heart of the church.
She was in bondage to godless forces.
That is the situation in much of the church
today. Millions of church-goers today
think the way the world thinks. The simple
assumptions that govern behavior and
choices come more from what is absorbed
from our culture than from the Word of
God. The church shares the love affair of
the world with prosperity and ease and
self. Many groups of Christians are just
not that different from the spirit of
Babylon, even though the Lord says that
we are aliens and exiles and that we are
not to be conformed to this age. So, like
Israel of old, much of God's church today
is captive to godless forces.
2. The People Are Guilty and Ashamed
Daniel spends most of his prayer
confessing the sin of the people. For
example, verse 5: "We have sinned and
done wrong and acted wickedly and
rebelled, turning aside from thy
commandments." In other words, we have
great guilt before God. And because of this
real guilt there is real shame. This is
mentioned in verses 7 and 8. The RSV has
the phrase "confusion of face"—"To us
belongs confusion of face." Literally it
means, "To us belongs shame of face."
What we have done is so terrible and so
known that our face turns red and we want
to cover it and run away. That is the way
Daniel felt about the people of God. Their
guilt and their shame were great.
Today in the church there is an uneasy
conscience. There is the deep sense that
we are to be radically different, living on
the brink of eternity with counter-cultural
values and behaviors of love and justice
and risk-taking service that show our
citizenship is in heaven. But then, we look
in the mirror and we see that the church
does not look that way. And the result is a
sense of shame based on the real guilt of
unbelief and disobedience. So we slink
through our days with faces covered, and
scarcely anyone knows we are disciples of
Jesus.
3. The People Were a Byword Among the
Nations
Verse 16b: "Jerusalem and thy people have
become a byword among all who are
round about us." "Byword" (in the RSV)
means reproach, or object of scorn. It
means that the nations look at the defeated
and scattered Israelites and they laugh.
They mock Israel's God.
That is the way it is with the Christian
church in many places. She has made the
name of Jesus an object of scorn by her
duplicity—trying to go by the name
Christian and yet marching to the drum of
the world. So the world sees the name
"Christian" as nothing radically
different—perhaps a nice way to add a
little component of spirituality to the other
parts of life that basically stay the same.
So when Daniel prays for the desolations
of the people of Israel, I hear a prayer for
the desolations of the Christian church—
captive to godless forces, guilty and
ashamed, and a byword among the nations.
Four Ways to Pray for a Desolate
Church
Now how do we pray for such a church?
1. Go to the Bible
First, we pray for a desolate church by
beginning where Daniel began. We go to
the books.
Verse 2: "In the first year of [Darius's]
reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books . . .
" The books are the prophet Jeremiah and
other biblical books. Prayer begins with
the Bible.
George Mueller said that for years he tried
to pray without starting in the Bible in the
morning. And inevitably his mind
wandered. Then he started with the Book,
and turned the Book into prayer as he read,
and for 40 years he was able to stay
focused and powerful in prayer.
Without the Bible in our prayers, they will
be just as worldly as the church we are
trying to free from worldliness. Daniel's
prayer begins with the Bible and it is
saturated with the Bible. Phrase after
phrase comes right out of the Scriptures.
There are allusions to Leviticus (26:40)
and Deuteronomy (28:64) and Exodus
(34:6) and Psalms (44:14) and Jeremiah
(25:11). The prayer brims with a biblical
view of reality, because it brims with the
Bible.
What I have seen is that those whose
prayers are most saturated with Scripture
are generally most fervent and most
effective in prayer. And where the mind
isn't brimming with the Bible, the heart is
not generally brimming with prayer. This
is not my idea. Jesus was pointing to it
in John 15:7 when he said, "If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask
whatever you will, and it shall be done for
you" (John 5:7). When he says, "If my
words abide in you . . . ," he means, "If my
words saturate your mind . . . if my words
shape your way if thinking . . . if my words
are memorized and just as likely to come
to your mind as advertising jingles . . .
then you will pray so as to heal the
desolations of the church."
So the first way to pray for a desolate
church is to go to the Book. Saturate your
mind with the Bible. Pray the Scripture.
2. Confess Our Sin
The second way to pray for a desolate
church is to confess our sin.
About 12 verses of Daniel's prayer is
confession: verses 4–15. This means being
truthful about God and about sin.
It means recognizing sin as sin and calling
it bad names, not soft names: things like
wickedness and rebellion and wrong (v. 5)
and treachery and shameful (v. 7) and
disobedience (v. 10). It means recognizing
God as righteous (v. 7) and great and
fearful (v. 4) and merciful and forgiving
(v. 9). It means feeling broken and
remorseful and guilty (v. 8) before God.
Before God! There is a difference between
feeling miserable because sin has made
our life miserable and feeling broken
because our sin has offended the holiness
of God and brought reproach on his name.
Daniel's confession—biblical confession—
is God-centered. The issue is not admitting
that we have made our life miserable. The
issue is admitting that there is something
much worse than our misery, namely, the
offended holiness and glory of God.
So we pray for a desolate church by going
to the Book and by confessing our sins.
3. Remember Past Mercies Knowing God
Never Changes
The way to pray for a desolate church is to
remember past mercies, and be encouraged
that God never changes.
Verse 15: "And now, O Lord our God,
who didst bring thy people out of the land
of Egypt with a mighty hand . . . " Daniel
knew that the reason God saved Israel
from Egypt was not because Israel was so
good. Psalm 106:7–8,
Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did
not consider thy wonderful works; they did
not remember the abundance of thy
steadfast love, but rebelled against the
Most High at the Red Sea. Yet he saved
them for his name's sake, that he might
make known his mighty power.
Prayer for a desolate church is sustained
by the memory of past mercies. Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever (Hebrews 13:8). If God saved a
rebellious people once at the Red Sea, he
can save them again. So when we pray for
a desolate church, we can remember
brighter days that the church has known,
and darker days from which she was
saved.
This is why church history is so valuable.
There have been bad days before that God
had turned around. The papers this week
have been full of statistics of America's
downward spiral into violence and
corruption. Church history is a great
antidote to despair at times like this. For
example, to read about the moral
decadence and violence of 18th century
England before God sent George
Whitefield and John Wesley is like reading
today's newspapers. For example,
Only five or six members of parliament
even went to church . . . The plague, small
pox, and countless diseases we call minor
today had no cures . . . Clothing was
expensive, so many of the cities' poor wore
rags that were like their bedding, full of
lice . . . The penalties for crimes seem
barbaric today (hanging for petty thievery)
. . . Young boys, and sometimes girls, were
bound over to a master for seven years of
training. They worked six days a week,
every day from dawn to dusk and often
beyond . . . If you were unlucky and
starving, you might fall foul of the law and
be packed off to the stench of New Gate
Prison. From there, you might have the
chance to go to the New World in a boat
loaded with prisoners of all sorts . . .
[Drunkenness was rampant] and gin was
fed to the babies too, to keep them quiet,
with blindness and often death as a result
[did you think crack babies were a new
thing?] . . . The people's love of
tormenting animals at bull-baitings was
equaled only by their delight in a public
execution. ("Revival and
Revolution," Christian History 2, pp. 7–8)
All that and more, including a desolate and
corrupt and powerless church. Yet God
moved with a great awakening. And to add
hope upon hope for our prayers, he used
two men who could not agree on some
significant theological points and one of
them was overweight and the other was 5'
3" tall and weighed 128 pounds.
We pray for a desolate church by
remembering past mercies, past triumphs
of grace. We remember that history is not
a straight line down any more than it is a
straight line up.
4. Appeal to God's Zeal for the Glory of
His Own Name
Finally, we pray for a desolate church by
appealing to God's zeal for the glory of his
own name.
Look how the prayer comes to its climax
in verses 18b–19: "We do not present our
supplications before thee on the ground of
our righteousness but on the ground of thy
great mercy. 19) O Lord, hear; O Lord,
forgive; O Lord, give heed and act; delay
not, for thy own sake, O my God, because
thy city and thy people are called by thy
name."
The people of God are known by his name.
And God has an infinite zeal for his own
name. He will not let it be reproached and
made a byword indefinitely. That is our
deepest confidence. God is committed to
God. God is committed with explosive
passion to the glory of his name and the
truth of his reputation.
So that's the bottom of our prayer for a
desolate church. We are called by your
name. We live by your name. Not to us, O
Lord, not to us, but to your name give
glory. For your name's sake, O Lord, save.
For your name's sake, revive. For your
name's sake purify and heal and empower
your church, O Lord. For we are called by
your name.

The Shadrach Option
A growing number of American Christians
are realizing that we are not living in the
Promised Land, but in what increasingly
appears to be Babylon. If that‘s true, then
like our Jewish forefathers, we should live
here as ―sojourners and exiles‖ (1 Peter
2:11–12), keeping our conduct honorable
among the post-Christian Gentiles that
surround us, while proclaiming the
excellencies of Christ who has called us
out of darkness into light.
The notion that we are to live as exiles (not
only in America, but anywhere that we
find ourselves) is not a new one. What‘s
more, it has special appeal to my own
generation, the newly ubiquitous
Millennials. In particular, younger
Christians are attracted to Jeremiah‘s call
to his co-religionists to ―seek the good of
the city‖ (Jeremiah 29:7). The prophet‘s
larger call goes like this:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent
into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Build houses and live in them; plant
gardens and eat their produce. Take wives
and have sons and daughters; take wives
for your sons, and give your daughters in
marriage, that they may bear sons and
daughters; multiply there, and do not
decrease. But seek the welfare of the city
where I have sent you into exile, and pray
to the LORD on its behalf, for in its
welfare you will find your welfare.
(Jeremiah 29:4–7)
This Jeremian option encourages us
to engage with American society, rather
than war against it. Build houses, plant
gardens, make art, take a seat at the multi-
cultural table, join in with the big
American stew being cooked up. Of
course, we should do so as thoroughgoing
Christians. But don‘t withdraw from the
city that we find ourselves in. Seek the
good of the city and pray for this ungodly
place, because our own welfare (at least in
this life) is wrapped up with America‘s
welfare.
If we accept that our own situation is, in
some ways, analogous to the Jewish exiles
in Babylon, and that therefore, we should
heed Jeremiah‘s call, then it seems
incumbent upon us to know what it is that
we‘re heeding and what response we ought
to expect if we do heed faithfully. And to
do that, we need to continue to read that
ancient story.
See the Next Episodes
Thankfully, the Scriptures provide us with
the next chapter. It‘s called the book of
Daniel. The first half of the book is a basic
narrative about Daniel and three friends as
they seek to live out the Jeremian call to
―seek the good of the city.‖ However,
those who call for Christians to seek the
good of the city by embedding ourselves in
its institutions, and pursuing God‘s justice,
often fail to reckon with the fact that two
of the main instances of this do-gooding in
the Bible resulted in a lion‘s den and a
fiery furnace. Apparently some
Babylonians don‘t find our do-gooding to
be all that good.
Daniel was cast into the lion‘s den for
defying the king‘s edict that no one should
pray to anyone except the king. In other
words, he was told to stop doing the very
thing that Jeremiah told him to do. What‘s
more, Daniel didn‘t just keep praying; he
prayed with the windows open, where
everyone could see. He didn‘t just disobey;
he defied. He didn‘t slink away into the
corner and seek the city‘s good in private;
he openly and brazenly flouted the king‘s
edict.
The story is much the same with Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. When King
Anthony Kennedy, I mean,
Nebuchadnezzar, ordered the people to
worship his golden image whenever they
heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, and
the lyre, the three Jews refused, even when
threatened with the fiery furnace.
―O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to
answer you in this matter. If this be so, our
God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if
not, be it known to you, O king, that we
will not serve your gods or worship the
golden image that you have set up.‖
(Daniel 3:16–18)
High Defiance Against God
Which brings us to our present situation.
The Supreme Court‘s recent decree about
marriage isn‘t just a run-of-the-mill policy
difference. It‘s an act of high defiance
against God, nature, and history. The State
is attempting to arrogate to itself the right
to define marriage — to define what men
and women are, and what they are for. But
God the Father Almighty did not give
them that authority. (And for what it‘s
worth, neither does the Constitution. The
fact that the Court found a right to same-
sex mirage lying under a broken down
penumbra in one of the amendments
somewhere doesn‘t mean that the rest of us
have to pretend that we can‘t read.) God
has given all authority to his Son, the
crucified and risen Lord Jesus, and our
system of government gives such
prerogatives to the people, not our black-
robed betters, or the Deep State, or even
President Executive Order.
What I‘m suggesting is that this is our
Shadrach moment, and that, alongside
other ―options‖ being considered (whether
―the Benedict Option,‖ or Constantine,
Lincoln, or Buckley), we need a Shadrach
Option. The Supreme Court is playing
their funky music on the lyre, and
demanding that we all become liars. Like
the Roman emperors of the second and
third centuries A.D., they are demanding
that we offer a pinch of incense to Caesar,
acknowledging his divinity. And we
should refuse to play ball.
Now I can already hear the objections.
―No one‘s asking you to worship anything.
Worship whoever and however you want.
But you will issue the marriage license.
You will bake the cake. Or else.‖ This sort
of objection fails to reckon with what the
public act means — whether it‘s bowing
down or offering incense or issuing lying
marriage licenses. At the end of the day,
Caesar didn‘t care whether the early
Christians worshiped him deep, deep down
in their hearts. ―Think whatever you want
behind your eyes and between your ears.
But you will acknowledge the absolute
divine right of the emperor in public.‖ Had
Shadrach and his friends fallen down when
they heard the music, but in their minds
thought, ―I‘m really worshiping the Lord
God right now,‖ Nebuchadnezzar would
not have known and would not have cared,
because he would have gotten what he
wanted: their participation in his public,
brazen lie.
Because Shadrach and his friends, along
with the early Christians, recognized the
idolatrous claim for what it was, they
refused to go along. They defied. They
said, ―No.‖ And here‘s the clincher: They
did so because they were seeking the good
of the city.
MLK and the County Clerk
But perhaps the biblical analogy doesn‘t
move you. You‘re not really into the
Shadrach Option. Fine. Let‘s try one closer
to home. We‘ll call it the MLK Option.
Baronelle Stutzman can be our Rosa Parks,
and Kim Davis can be the white elected
official in Talledega County, Alabama —
the hypothetical one that we all imagine
that we would have been had we lived
back then. You know? The one who defied aren‘t led to the furnace with a hang-dog
George Wallace and his vile edicts? The look, muttering an apologetic, ―I‘m so
one who registered blacks to vote despite sorry; we‘ll regrettably have to decline the
―the rule of law‖? The one who refused to king‘s invitation to kneel.‖ Nor did they
prosecute the sit-ins at the lunch counter, angrily rant and rave about the injustice of
and in doing so, galvanized others to resist it all.
that wicked racial tyranny — that‘s who
you are in the story that might have been,
right? They walked to the gallows with clean
consciences and a gleam in their eye that
said, ―Go ahead. Throw us in that briar
―But these are different situations. Same- patch. We know in whom we‘ve believed,
sex marriage isn‘t the same as Jim Crow.‖ and our God reigns.‖
Sure, they‘re not identical. But one of the
key differences is that we‘re attempting
to prevent a rebellious legal regime from If this is Babylon, let‘s be Shadrach.
being established, whereas they were
trying to remove one that had
metastasized. But don‘t miss the common
denominator: Both seek to enshrine high-
handed rebellion into law and force
everyone to participate. Both want to
decree lies and ensure that everyone
repeats them. The old Supreme Court
pretended that they could make separate be
equal. The new one pretends that they can
make men into women. But as Vaclav
Havel famously wrote, ―It always makes
sense to tell the truth.‖ Even when you‘re a
county clerk.

Moxie on the Way to the Furnace

One of the things I love about Shadrach
and his friends is their moxie. They didn‘t
concern themselves with the possible
results of their actions, whether intended
or unintended. ―We‘re going to obey God,
whatever the consequences.‖ They were
standing athwart history, saying, ―Stop‖
long before modern conservatives brought
it back.

And this response wasn‘t because they

were blind to the possible outcomes; they
mention two of them, right there in the
passage. But the outcomes were irrelevant
to their duties. And what‘s more, they
 God’s Agenda on
Debate Night
The first presidential debate on September
26 attracted a record 84 million viewers. I
was one of them.
Another sizable audience is predicted to
watch the second presidential debate
tonight. I will not be one of them — nor
will my wife or my kids.
The lewdness factor of the election
reached new heights this weekend, and it
has been suggested that tonight‘s debate
should be rated R and prefaced with a
parental advisory warning. Mud will be
slung (and there‘s never been more mud to
sling). Ratings will be high again.
We are troubled by the personalities and
we are troubled by their policies — and
when you add those two features together,
many Christians are simply withdrawing
themselves from both major candidates
and both major parties.
If it feels odd to withdraw support like this
from such a major American institution,
you‘re not alone. Writer and hip-hop artist
Sho Baraka recently opened a powerful
op-ed piece by writing, ―As a black
Christian in an urban environment, I
consciously struggle to give my allegiance
to either political party. In this way, this
election gives many white evangelicals a
sense of what it‘s like to be a black
believer in America today.‖
The 2016 election is giving a lot of us a
taste of displacedness. Perhaps like never
before in this country, for black and white
evangelicals alike, there‘s a new feeling of
un-belonging. But it‘s not a shrugging
cynicism. Under the political
disillusionment, we are all finding ways of
voicing concerns for the welfare of our
nation. We are displaced, yes, but we are
not separatists.
Believers in Babylon
About 2,600 years ago, under the shadow
of a pagan superpower, another believer
felt this same pinch: Daniel, a godly man
living in exile in the Babylonian empire, a
nation which traced its origin back to the
rebel egotropolis, Babel. Yet in spite of his
disagreement with Babylon‘s policies,
Daniel gave his life to serve the nation.
The book of Daniel is thoroughly political,
revealing the power of God‘s sovereign
undertow beneath the tides of world
politics, and all for the sake of his chosen
people. Even as his people endured exile
in Babylon, God sovereignly governed the
world‘s political leaders — raising,
dropping, and reordering political powers
for millennia (Daniel 2:21).
Into this pagan society, Daniel fought to
balance his loyal service to Babylon with
his ultimate obedience to God. And what
he needed was a transhistorical vision of
God‘s rule over the nations. He got it in
the form of a dream from the restless sleep
of Babylon‘s king, Nebuchadnezzar.
In Daniel 2:36–45, we read about a giant
statue of a man that towered perhaps one-
hundred feet in the air and glistened
brilliantly in the noonday sun.
The dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar.
The interpretive key was given to Daniel.
The statue was a stack of nations, said
Daniel. The metal man was capped with
Babylon (represented in the gold head),
placed atop Medo-Persia (the silver torso
and arms), placed atop Greece (the bronze
belly and thighs), and placed atop Rome at
the bottom (the legs of iron and feet of
clay). This layered statue represented a
succession of the world‘s four great
superpowers from Daniel‘s day into the
future, all stacked vertically and cemented
together (Hamilton, 330).
Then it toppled.
The statue was targeted by a stone, which
flew into the dream like a comet, smashed
into the statue‘s feet, and, on impact,
shattered the entire statue like safety glass.
With one blow, the statue exploded into a
pile of rubble, pulverized into a heap of
human superpower dust, barely hitting the
ground before the wind blew it all away
into oblivion.
The small meteoric stone, now on the
ground, began to grow and expand into a
mountain that covered the entire earth —
the image of a new and unshakable
kingdom now spread out over every
continent, displacing all the world‘s
superpowers in history.
The fall of this giant man-statue is meant
to remind us of David‘s sling-whirling,
Goliath-defeating precedent. In both cases,
the world‘s powers must fall before the
reign of a Davidic king.
The Politics of Jesus
The throne-room coronation scene
in Daniel 7:13–14 is striking for helping us
understand Christ‘s self-revelation, and for
understanding our mission as Christians, in
a world of confusion. To make the
connections, we need to set the ―Cosmic
Commission‖ of Christ in Daniel 7:13–
14 alongside the Great Commission of
Christ in Matthew 28:18–20.

Return of the King

This theatrical dream triggers a future
history: a new king will establish God‘s
global reign over creation (the mountain).
Later in the book, God gave Daniel a
dream of his own, ushering him into a
divine throne room of stunning imagery to
see ―the Ancient of Days‖ presiding over a
glorious coronation anointing, over ―one
By theme and by language, these passages
like a son of man‖ (Daniel 7:9–13).
are linked together unmistakably,
This king, this ―son of man,‖ entered in to
meaning, ―the risen Jesus, vindicated over
receive his Cosmic Commission: to reign
those who tried to destroy him, is now
over all the peoples and nations and
established as the universal sovereign, and
languages of the earth, to be globally
his realm embraces not only the whole
adored in glory, and to be obeyed by all
earth, which was the dominion of the ‗one
peoples.
like a son of man‘ in Daniel‘s vision, but
The Davidic symbolism of chapter two,
heaven as well‖ (NICNT, 1113).
and now the introduction of this ―son of
Carrying that interpretation into the
man‖ in Daniel 7, combine to reveal the
commission language, this means that the
connection to Christ. Jesus would use this
Great Commission, on the right, drives
―son of man‖ phrase about eighty times in
toward the fulfillment of the Cosmic
the Gospels: to reference his own
Commission, on the left (see Dwells,
authority, to reference his own need to
95; Temple, 175; Jesus, 142–43).
suffer and die, and most importantly, to
Tied together, the Great Commission
communicate his future glorified majesty
inaugurates ―the triumph of Israel‘s God
and authority (NDBT, 236).
by extending his sovereignty over all the
Christ found ample opportunities to tie all
nations on earth‖ and shows us how ―the
the major features of his Messianic
sovereignty of God over the nations will
purposes back to the throne room scene in
become effectual through nonviolent
Daniel 7. His words remind us that God‘s
means. The nations are ‗conquered,‘ as it
agenda reigns on debate night — and
were, through baptism into the name of the
every night.
Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit and through their instruction to obey
the teachings of a master who has insisted
that the meaning of Torah is summed up in
acts of love and mercy‖ (Echoes, 184–85).
Yes. For now. Quite apart from the rise
and fall of global superpowers, the Son of
Man‘s international conquering will
transpire (at least in part) in time and
space, through the nonviolent means we
call disciple-making.
These closing words of Matthew deliver
the ultimate Jesus-juke of self-consumed
political establishments.
Jesus is the sovereign King of the
universe. Period. He has all authority now.
Period. But his conquering kingdom is
being quietly unveiled. His leaven is
working its way through the dough.
His Cosmic Commission has ushered in
our Great Commission.
The Minority Voice of a Conquering
Kingdom
Now, let‘s step back from Daniel‘s
glorious theology for a realistic inventory
of the Church in the West. A couple of
years ago, Eugene Peterson, 83, was
asked about the state of discipleship today.
The normally upbeat Peterson responded
candidly. ―I hate to be pessimistic, but it‘s
declined,‖ he said. ―At this point the world
is making a bigger impact on people than
discipleship is.‖
Peterson is right. But perhaps it has always
seemed this way. Perhaps the world will
always seem to be louder than
discipleship. And perhaps John Piper is
right in saying, ―There is little evidence in
the Bible, as I see it, that before the
coming of our Lord, there will be a
powerful ‗Christendom‘ and a worldwide
dominance of Christian influence‖
(Pleasures of God, 116).
The Church is increasingly a minority
voice in America, yet our commission
holds. As nineteenth-century Anglican
bishop J.C. Ryle reminds us, ―Let us never
stand still because we stand alone‖
(Leaders, 431–32).
Working Backward from the End
The end of all human history will rush in
at the hands of one ―like a son of man,
with a golden crown on his head, and a
sharp sickle in his hand‖ (Revelation
14:14–16).
The storyline of the universe is Christ‘s to
consummate, but it‘s our calling to
embrace. We are sent on mission so that
more and more people will come under the
Lordship of Christ. The absolute rule of
King Jesus will ultimately be spread across
the earth by force, but now it spreads
across the earth in a non-violent
conquering of the nations — in global
mission, church plants, baptisms, sermons,
and one-on-one personal disciple-making.
Perhaps it‘s too trite to say, but it is time to
make the Great Commission great
again — not great, as in trying to add
steel-reinforced ankles to a reconstructed
statue of political superpowers,
but great in our sense of true greatness —
the greatness of Christ‘s sovereign glory,
commissioned from a cosmic throne room.
Christ offers us the joy of his glorious
work — to participate in his mission, to
abide in his presence, to continue our little
gospel labors in light of the global reign of
the Son of Man.
This is God‘s agenda on debate night.
 Appalled but
Productive
The vision in Daniel 8 is appalling. The
great beastly enemy of God is allowed to
kill huge numbers of saints.
His power shall be great...and he shall
cause fearful destruction and shall succeed
in what he does, and destroy mighty men
and the people who are the saints. (Daniel
8:24)
Daniel is made sick by the vision. But in
spite of being sick and appalled, he does
his work.
And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick
for some days. Then I rose and went about
the king’s business, but I was appalled by
the vision and did not understand it.
(Daniel 8:27)
That is the way it is in ministry. From one
day to the next the news changes. Some
hits home so close it makes you sick.
Some is global and makes the heart
tremble. But we press on in the work we
are given to do.
How can we do this? One way is to know
that we are ―greatly loved.‖ Three times an
angel tells Daniel he is ―greatly loved.‖
 "You are greatly loved.‖ (9:23)
 ―O Daniel, man greatly loved.‖ (10:11)
 "O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be
with you; be strong and of good courage.‖
(10:19)
Everyone who believes in Christ
experiences the same:
―But God...because of the great love with
which he loved us...made us alive together
with Christ.‖ (Ephesians 2:4-5)
You are loved with ―great love‖—
omnipotent love, omniscient love,
unstoppable love, eternal love. Therefore,
do not fear. Be appalled at the world, and
be productive in it.
But If Not
Walking into Suffering
with Faith
―Do not worry, my friend,‖ he told me. ―If
God does as we have discussed, I trust that
he will bring about something wonderful
from it.‖
Do not worry. The irony could not be more
apparent. It was he, not I, that was headed
home to a hostile country. It was he, not I,
that had already received death threats
from former Muslim friends who awaited
him there. And it was he, not I, who
sought to comfort others in the hours
before his departure.
If God does as we have discussed — that
was one way to summarize it. After forty
minutes, he shared story after story of
what his government, friends, and family
had done to those even accused of
following Jesus. Some were brought in for
―questioning‖ and never seen again. Some
had been publicly executed as examples to
deter others, like my friend, from calling
Jesus Lord. Excommunication from family
seemed to be the most merciful of
potential outcomes.
He was going home to tell them about his
Lord. He may have been going to his
death. We had studied texts like 1 Peter
and Romans 8 together preparing to suffer
well. We prayed, and he left, confident
that God could protect him from all harm
if God desired it, but he trusted that if God
didn‘t, God would do something better
through it.
God of Possibility
Whether this extreme or not, God indeed
can deliver us from any afflictions we
face.
He can deliver from oppression. He can
keep his people from persecution. Jesus
teaches us to pray, ―Deliver us from evil,‖
because God can. But of course, all of this
is easy to say when we‘re not suffering or
threatened. ―God is sovereign over my
cancer‖ is difficult to announce. Harder
yet, ―God is sovereign over my wife‘s
cancer.‖ Harder still, ―God is in control
over my daughter‘s terminal illness.‖ The
glorious truth of God‘s sovereignty can be
hard to look at in such seasons.
But the question we all must answer within
this brief moment in eternity, is this: If
God does not do what we know he can —
cure, redeem, repair — will we trust him?
If he refuses to answer our pleas in the
ways we expect, will we love him, obey
him, and endure in faith till the end?
Will we, after praying to him about our
deepest pains and sorest bruises, after
casting burdens upon him so heavy that
they daily threaten to break our will to go
on — will we, after experiencing sorrow
so paralyzing that we have trouble to even
cry — will we, along with my friend, and
three young Jewish boys facing a fiery
furnace, defiantly say, ―But if not . . .‖?
But If Not
Refusing to bow — even to avoid being
burned alive — they stood before the king
of Babylon and the massive gold statue of
himself. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was a
god. He demanded their worship. But three
young boys bowed their knees only to the
true God, and so they declared, when
summoned to kneel,
―O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to
answer you in this matter. If this be so, our
God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if
not, be it known to you, O king, that we
will not serve your gods or worship the
golden image that you have set up.‖
(Daniel 3:16–18)
Other Israelites lay prostrate around them.
They alone stood sounding the
proclamation of faith available to us today,
―My God will deliver me — but if not, still
I will trust him. The Lord is strong enough
to rescue me if he chooses. But if not, I
will not give in to sin. My God is able to
heal me if he decides it best. But if not, I
will not forsake my confession of faith.
My God can undo this disability if he but
speaks the word. But if not, I will trust in
the God who will raise me from the dead.‖
We can join the faithful and say, ―Take my
Isaac, take my family and servants, take
my health from me, and I shall sing, ‗It is
well with my soul.‘ I will contend, ‗I can
do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.‘ I will reason, ‗I consider
the present sufferings
as light and momentary compared to what
awaits me.‘ I will resolve, ‗Although the
earth quake and the mountains be thrust
into the sea, I will not fear nor be moved.‘‖
I will not run. I will not hide. I will boast
in my weakness. I will tell my mockers,
―Though he slays me, yet will I trust him!‖
I will state plainly, ―I know my Redeemer
lives!‖
And I will pray, oh, will I pray, ―Lord,
deliver me from evil.‖ I will pray, ―Father,
let this cup pass from me.‖ I will pray, ―O
my God, let me not be put to shame; let
not my enemies exult over me.‖ But I also
will pray, ―But not my will, but yours, be
done.‖
And when I despair of life itself, I implore
my Savior, ―Satisfy me in the morning
with your steadfast love.‖ And when doubt
tempts me, I will pray, ―Lord, I believe;
help my unbelief!‖ And should my enemy
prevail over me in this life, should they
pelt me with rocks, sending me to the
Rock of ages, I will pray, ―Lord Jesus,
have mercy on them.‖ And, ―Father, into
your hands I commit my spirit!‖
Standing in the Flames
Do you feel like you‘re sliding down the
shoot into the furnace? Do you feel like
you‘re already standing in the flames
which are burning seven times hotter than
usual (Daniel 3:19)? Do you feel like you
simply cannot keep going? Do you see that
fourth person standing in the flames with
you (Daniel 3:25)?
Do you see him sympathizing with you?
Do you see him suffer for you? As all else
fails, is he enough for you? Do you believe
his promise that soon you will suffer no
more? Do you see him with you? Do you
know the depths of his love for you? Do
you know he is strengthening you, even in
this, even now? Are his scarred hands
holding yours as he whispers of glory to
come?
Or has the deceiver stolen your courage
from you? Has he been sowing doubt in
your heart? Are you on the brink of dying
— not because of the flames touching your
body, but because they have begun to
singe your faith? Has hope deferred made
your heart sick?
Do not grow weary of doing good. Do not
give up in the fight of faith. Consider him
who endured such hostility against
himself, so that you may not grow weary.
You may not be delivered from this
furnace, but you will rise from it to a place
where agony cannot follow. In the grace
that God supplies, stand and say, ―My
God is able to deliver me from this
nightmare if he chooses. But if not, I will
bless his holy name and wake to see his
face in glory.‖
Believing God on
Election Day
Scripture: Daniel4:28–37
Topic: Government
This is a story about a king, with a lesson
for kings and presidents just as valid today
as it was twenty-five centuries ago. But
it‘s also a story about every one of us. One
way or the other we must learn this lesson
or we will perish. And if we learn it, we
are in for the greatest joys in the universe.
So what I would like to do is look at your
story and mine in this text first, and then
look and its relevance for Mr. Bush and
Mr. Dukakis and the future of our nation.
From Pride of Self to Praise of God
What Daniel describes in this story is the
pathway of a man from the pride of self to
the praise of God through the valley of
humiliation. And that‘s a pathway that
every person in the world must walk if he
wants to get to heaven and have eternal
life.
Ever since Adam‘s first sin we have all
been born with his disposition. Do you
remember what the essence of that first sin
was? It was the abandonment of childlike
dependence on God in favor of God-like
dependence on self. And ever since then,
all people everywhere have been born with
this sinful nature of pride.
That is bad news because God hates pride
(Proverbs 8:13). In Isaiah 2:11 God said,
―The haughty looks of man shall be
brought low, and the pride of men shall be
humbled; and the Lord alone will be
exalted in that day.‖ God hates pride. But
God also loves proud sinners. That‘s why
he sent his Son into the world to save us
from the power and the penalty of our
pride. So Jesus says in Matthew 18:4,
―God has provided a path that leads from
pride to the kingdom of heaven and to
eternal life.‖
Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and
become like children, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles
himself like this child, he is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus came into the world to convert
people from God-like dependence on self
to child-like dependence on God. And then
he died to pay the penalty for our pride and
to show us the way of humility and to send
all our boasting toward God and not
toward ourselves.
So God has provided a path that leads
from pride to the kingdom of heaven and
to eternal life. That‘s what the Bible is all
about. That‘s what this story in Daniel 4 is
about, and I want us to walk it together
this morning.
Three Stages of King Nebuchadnezzar’s
Story
It has three stages: it starts with the pride
of self and leads through the valley of
humiliation to the praise of God. Let‘s
look at these three stages in the story of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
1. The Pride of Self
We are in the early 500s BC in Babylon
where the Jews had been taken into
captivity. Nebuchadnezzar is king of a
great empire and he knows it. His heart
swells with pride. This is stage one in the
path. It‘s where we all start. Let‘s look at it
carefully in verse 30:
And the king said, ―Is not this great
Babylon, which I have built by my mighty
power as a royal residence and for the
glory of my majesty?‖
Can we learn from these words what the
nature of pride is? I think so. We can see at
least two parts to pride. One is found in the
word ―by‖ and the other in the word ―for.‖
First, he says (verse 30), ―Is not this great
Babylon, which I have built by my mighty
power.‖ Then he says that he built it ―for
the glory of my majesty.‖ By my power
and for my glory! That is the lub-dub in
the heartbeat of pride.
―By my mighty power‖ means: I love to
think of myself as the cause and origin and
controller and source of all my greatness.
When I see what I have built, I love to
savor the fact that my intelligence and my
initiative and my power were the cause of
this greatness. It came from me and
through me. So pride gets its pleasure from
being independent, and self-determining
and self-sufficient. ―By my mighty power I
have built this great Babylon.‖
Then Nebuchadnezzar adds, ―For the
glory of my majesty!‖ ―I have built this
great Babylon by my power and for my
glory.‖ In other words, pride is driven by
desire for the glory that men ascribe to
human achievements. Pride loves to think
of itself as the source of great achievement
and the recipient of great praise. The
origin of great achievement (by my
power!) and the recipient of great praise
(for my glory!). So I think we‘ve got here
the essence of pride: the enjoyment of self-
sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency
and the enjoyment of self-exaltation rather
than God-exaltation.
Now don‘t make the mistake of saying to
yourself right now, ―Well pride is surely
not my problem, because I‘m a loser. I
don‘t feel self-sufficient at all. And I don‘t
expect anybody to exalt me because I am
so ugly or unintelligent or weak. So pride
is not my problem.‖
Be very careful here and now. Don‘t let
Satan trick you. I did not say that pride
was the achievement of self-sufficiency or
the achievement of self-exaltation. I said
that pride is the enjoyment of them, the
delight in them, the desire for them. You
may see your life as a total failure and feel
crushed by this morning and still have
pride as the driving force of your life. The
very pain you feel at being a failure may
be owing to the desperateness of your
desire to look successful and to taste the
glory of human praise.
One person may go to a party and brag and
boast and draw attention to himself and his
achievements. Another person may go to
the same party and be so fearful and
insecure that he hides in corners and tries
to avoid people. And both of these persons
may be driven by the unbelief of pride.
The strong person doesn‘t believe the
grace of God is needed; the weak person
doesn‘t believe the grace of God is
sufficient. And since God is not their
portion, man is — the longed-for esteem
and praise of man. One person, fearful that
he won‘t get it, hides. Another person,
hopeful that he will get it, brags. Same
disease, different symptoms. And all of us
have it.
―By my power and for my glory I have
built this great Babylon!‖ The first stage of
our journey is pride.
2. The Valley of Humiliation
The second stage, by the grace of God, is
the valley of humiliation. And don‘t miss
that word grace! God bends our stiff necks
and pushes our face to the ground because
that‘s where the streams of life are
flowing. Verse 31:
While the words were still in the king‘s
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ―O
King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken:
The kingdom has departed from you, and
you shall be driven from among men, and
your dwelling shall be with the beasts of
the field; and you shall be made to eat
grass like an ox.‖
―Pride puts man in a class with the beasts
of the field.‖
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I call this the valley of humiliation because
it is a long way down from being the king
of Babylon to being a beast in the field.
The reason God made Nebuchadnezzar act
like an ox that eats grass, with hair as long
as eagles wings and nails like a bird‘s
claws — the reason he did that was to
show us the bestiality of pride. When man
tries to become like God, he becomes like
an animal. Pride puts man in a class with
the beasts of the field. That‘s the point of
Nebuchadnezzar‘s insanity.
Stage two on the pathway that leads to
heaven is the painful discovery of this
truth. We thought we were strong and we
discover that we were weak. We thought
we were weak and we discover that we
were protecting our ego. We thought we
were self-sufficient and we discover that
we were utterly dependent on God — for
life and breath and everything.
So I urge you, if you have never been
there, to go to the valley of humiliation.
Let yourself feel the insanity and bestiality
of pride. And when you have tasted the
bitter grass of that field, come with me to
the final stage our journey.
3. The Praise of God
The pathway to life leads from the pride of
self through the valley of humiliation to
the praise of God. Verse 34:
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason
returned to me, and I blessed the Most
High, and praised and honored him who
lives forever.
What is the biblical opposite of pride? This
text teaches that the opposite of pride in
man‘s strength is praise for God‘s
sovereignty. This is what Nebuchadnezzar
sings about when his sanity returns. Verse
34b–35:
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation
to generation; all the inhabitants of the
earth are accounted as nothing; and he
does according to his will in the host of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth; and none can stay his hand or say to
him, ―What doest thou?‖
This is Nebuchadnezzar talking here! This
is what the valley of humiliation is for.
The opposite of bestial pride is a song of
praise to the sovereignty of God.
Two Revolutions
Two great revolutions take place as you
come out of the valley of humiliation on
the way from the pride of man to the praise
of God.
One is an intellectual revolution, a
revolution in the way you think about God.
It is described in verse 32b. The voice
from heaven says that Nebuchadnezzar
will eat grass like an ox ―until you have
learned [know, acknowledge] that the
Most High rules the kingdom of men and
gives it to whom he will.‖ The biblical
way out of the valley of humiliation is a
revolutionary change in the way we think
about God. The truth that God rules the
kingdom of men must grip your mind, and
the sovereignty of his will must become
the deep solid foundation of all you
thinking.
The other revolution that takes place as
you come up out of the valley of
humiliation is an emotional revolution, a
revolution in the way we feel about God.
Nebuchadnezzar was persuaded in his
head now that the slogan ―By my power
and for my glory‖ is the slogan of an ox or
an ass in the field. The true slogan is now
―By God‘s might and for God‘s glory.‖ He
learned in the valley of humiliation.
―The only person who does justice to the
sovereignty of God is the person who sings
about it.‖
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But he didn‘t just learn it in his head, he
felt it in his heart. That‘s the point of verse
34, ―I blessed the Most High, and praised
and honored him.‖ The only person who
does justice to the sovereignty of God is
the person who sings about it. Watch out
for a person who wants to talk about the
sovereignty of God but has no song in his
heart. The biblical opposite of pride is not
pondering the sovereignty of God, but
praising the sovereignty of God —
delighting in it, resting on it.
I hope that‘s the story of your journey this
morning. It‘s the only journey that leads to
heaven. Three stages: from the pride of
man through the valley of humiliation to
the praise of God. Wherever you are on the
road, take another step toward God and
away from pride.
An Application to the Coming Election
I close with a simple application of the text
to the election. One simple and awesome
truth: God will choose the President of the
United States. Verse 32b:
The Most High rules the kingdom of men,
and gives it to whom he will.
God will give the presidency to whom he
will. Now there are two things this does
not mean:
1. It does not mean that you should not vote.
God will govern the election by governing
the voters. ―He does according to his will
in the hosts of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth [even the USA]‖
(Daniel 4:35).
2. It does not mean that God will approve all
the policies of the man who wins.
Sovereign rule over sinful men is no
endorsement of their deeds.
God will choose the president. And there
are two things that this does mean:
1. It means that the winner should not boast
like Nebuchadnezzar and say, ―By my
power and my wisdom I have won this
presidency.‖ But he should be humbled
under the mighty hand of God ―who rules
the kingdom of men and gives it to whom
he will.‖
2. It means that you should take heart and be
encouraged by the sovereignty of God in
this election. If your candidate is elected,
or if he is not, God reigns!
His purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.