Despite what it looks like, God is in control.
And that’s good news for a conquered kingdom like Israel at the opening of the book of Daniel.
For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had come
and laid siege upon God’s promised land and his chosen population.
Israel’s temple was plundered, their land was sabotaged,
and their king, Jehoiakim, was made a slave in Babylonia.
But this was not the only way Babylon wreaked havoc on the kingdom of Israel.
They also captured their nobility, their wisest, and their most capable.
One of whom was a man named Daniel.
Yet, the most surprising statement we come upon
is not that the temple’s holy ground was trampled on or that its holy objects
were taken to a pagan temple in which they did not belong.
It’s not even that evil Babylon conquered the Holy Land.
The most surprising statement we find is that it was God himself
who gave Israel into their enemy’s hand.
And this is really what the book of Daniel communicates as a whole.
That even when the worst events imaginable begin to unfold, someone is still on the throne.
Because despite what it looks like, God is in control.
For this destruction was already foretold.
For Israel and their king had committed all kinds of evil.
They had defiled the temple, neglected orphans and widows,
and even built and worshipped false idols.
Sin was on their throne and needed to be overthrown.
So God sent them a prophet named Jeremiah and through him promised that he would send
the Babylonians to demolish them, to punish their sin, to bring about their destruction.
But God’s people didn’t listen.
They refused their opportunity for repentance, and so from God’s land they were evicted.
Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon to serve their king,
to worship their gods, to become Babylonian down to the bone.
But Daniel knew that even though Nebuchadnezzar was in power,
God was still on the highest throne.
And so, God rose Daniel to a place of prominence
in order to show that he alone reigns over every king.
It is God’s kingdom that will remain after all others have been overthrown.
And he made this known through Daniel and his friends by a series of miraculous events.
Daniel and his friends refused to eat the unclean food offered by the king.
But God’s control made it so they grew fat from nothing but water and greens.
The king was driven mad by a dream no one could interpret accurately.
But God’s control made it so this unknown mystery was seen by Daniel clearly.
Daniel’s friends were thrown into a furnace for not bowing to the king’s golden image.
But God’s control made it so not even their clothes were singed by the embers.
As King Nebuchadnezzar’s power increased, he became proud and boasted of his strength.
But God’s control made it so the king became like a wild beast
to show that God is truly over every empire’s highest seat.
The King’s son threw a feast and drank wine
from Israel’s holy objects which Nebuchadnezzar had seized.
But God’s control made it so the writing on the wall, which only Daniel could read,
spoke of this King’s downfall by the Persians and the Medes.
And finally, Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den for praying to God when it was forbidden.
But God’s control made it so the lion’s hunger was overwritten.
Their mouths were shut to show that no matter the power, kingdom, or position,
God has full dominion.
All these stories in Daniel contribute to a central goal.
And that is to show that despite what it looks like, God is in control.
Now, these stories which show God’s control only compose the first half of the book.
But the second half will show how God’s control is going to look.
While the first half is filled with stories of God’s provisions,
the second half is filled with visions.
And these visions were given to Daniel.
Visions of kingdoms that rise and fall, visions of beastly empires being uninstalled,
visions of war both in and outside Israel’s walls.
But no matter what the visions depict or what their symbols are called,
the hope of every vision is the same.
God is in charge of it all.
One day he is going to place his own king over every nation and every land,
one king whose kingdom will always stand, one king who has actually reigned ever since the world began.
And this king in Daniel is called The Son of Man.
But when Daniel’s visions had come to an end and when his life and his book had finished
being penned, that Son of Man had still not come for them.
For as the visions promised, God’s kingdom would come long after Daniel and his friends.
It would come after the Persians, Medes, Greeks, and Babylonians.
It would even extend to the time of Caesar and the Romans.
For even though Israel was back in their land, they were still waiting for their savior.
They were still waiting for the Son of Man.
So, when Jesus came and applied the title, “Son of Man,” to himself,
he was saying that he fulfilled its role.
He is the Son of Man the book of Daniel foretold.
He is God’s king who would spread God’s rule from pole to pole.
But he would not do so by fitting the Babylonian mold.
No, he would not reach his goal through furnaces, lion’s dens, or amassing armies and gold.
Instead, he would transform a cross into his throne.
Because every nation, every king, every person was ruled by the same thing.
It’s the thing that led to Israel’s destruction and Babylon’s demise.
It’s the thing that toppled kingdoms and rules every life.
It’s the thing that makes us put ourselves on the throne instead of him.
And that thing is called pride, lust, greed.
That thing is called sin.
So, when Jesus left his throne to take up the cross, he made our sin his own.
But despite what it looked like he was still in control.
Because Jesus rose from the dead and now he sits on the highest throne above every president,
army, and power unknown in order to give us this vision, to give us this hope that this
Jesus who conquered sin and sheol will return to reign forever as Daniel has told.
So, take heart for he has and does and will forever have the world in his hold.
For despite what it looks like, Jesus is in control.
Hey, David here with Spoken Gospel.
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Up next is the book of Job.