Opportunity or Catastrophe: Daniel 2:5-11
God is quite capable of making His own opportunities. If God created the world, can He not act upon it? If God knows our hearts better than we even know our own heart, is He not capable of speaking meaning into us? If God knows all things, is He not the best one to decide what needs to happen next?
Nebuchadnezzar revisits his challenge to the wise men. If they cannot tell him the dream prior to interpreting the dream, Nebuchadnezzar promises to tear them limb from limb and ruin their houses. Nebuchadnezzar’s threat could be literal: the homes of the prophets would be destroyed. The threat could have been figuratively directed at their offspring: the lineage of the wise men would be erased from history. We don’t know which Nebuchadnezzar means, but the threat is real regardless.
No wonder the wise men panic. They stall for time. Can we blame them for trying flattery and logic to get the king to tell them the dream? They know the king’s request is impossible on human terms. Their hesitation indicates their own belief in their gods’ power.
This scenario belongs to God, though. The book of Daniel is fundamentally concerned with reminding God’s own people about His identity and power. God gave the dreams to Nebuchadnezzar to put His power on display. God gave Nebuchadnezzar the belief that his challenge should be able to be met. God creates this opportunity and God controls the terms. God is absolutely in control; He will reveal His omnipotence to His people through the wishes of Nebuchadnezzar.
Human beings like to be in control. Some days – when my ego gets a bit out of control – I think about doing something incredibly cool and being praised by God for coming up with the idea. When I was younger, I used to think I would be so good at sharing my faith that people would see the wisdom of my words and naturally want to enter a relationship with God. I dreamed big and thought of all the marvelous things I could do for God.
I need to learn that God doesn’t need me to create opportunities to serve Him. When I dreamed of serving God in a big way, it was my own ego dreaming. I was behaving like Peter and James and John when they asked Jesus to sit at His right hand. I forget God is in control and He wants me to follow Him. As I dreamed big, I honestly tried leading God rather than following Him.
That’s the brilliance of what God does with Nebuchadnezzar. God creates His own opportunities. God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar and prepared his heart for a true encounter with the divine. God opens the door to Nebuchadnezzar and gives Nebuchadnezzar space to respond. God meets people where they are and He opens doors. God doesn’t need people to lead Him; God needs people humbly willing to follow Him through the doors He opens. God is quite capable of making His own opportunities.
