But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,
"At the last Daniel came."
I suppose the meaning of this text is that Daniel was the last of the "wise men" to stand before the king to advise him on this, his second dream. There are lessons to be learned in this:
Perhaps God so ordered it that Daniel was last to prove that the others were unable to help the king.
The Bible calls them magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. This is a well-rounded representation of the "worldly wisdom" of the day - the best that could be gotten. In the first dream, the king challenged them to tell the dream before they gave an interpretation. They, of course, could not. But they did tell the king that if he would tell them the dream, they could interpret it. In this case, they were told the dream. Still, they were incapable of making known the interpretation. Even if they had known it, they may have been too self-concerned to have told it to the king. The interpretation was against the king and in favor of his enemies. At last, Daniel came in. He not only could tell the king the interpretation but was man enough to do so.
It could have been that the king was still not convinced that the man of God was his "go-to" source.
After all, Nebuchadnezzar was a Gentile, Daniel was his captive, and surely, in his mind, there must be someone in his realm on equal par with the wisdom of a Jewish slave. The kindest of the people of the world see the Christian faith as another of the philosophies of life. They might see nothing wrong with Christianity, but they do not see the superiority of the Christian faith. It's because they do not know the Christ of the Christian faith.
I'd like to "press" the passage just a little bit for a moment and read it like this, "At last Daniel came."
It's like he's the hero of the day. I'm envisioning the king as an endangered soul. He's a prisoner. He's a captive. He's trapped in sin, pride, and worldliness. He's hanging from a cliff, about to be lost forever. Others are there and more or less aware of his need, but they have no means of helping him. Whether they realize it or not, they are in the same danger. At last comes the hero. Having been rescued himself, he knows the dangers, and he comes equipped. He sees the needs, has the means to help, and has the courage to do it.
The Christian is a “Daniel.”
He has been rescued, so he knows the danger, has the means to show people the way of salvation, and is courageous enough to do the work.
Everyone else (including most professing Christians) is more like the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. They talk a lot, but they cannot help.
#AtLastDanielCame #DanielTheHero #WisdomOfDaniel #ChristianCourage #BringingHopeLikeDaniel
Call to Courage: Daniel's Timely Arrival
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