Daniel 2

I was talking with a pastoral friend of mine this week he said something very astute, he said that some of the biggest frustrations that we are all feeling at the moment are down to not being able to make an informed decision about many things and therefore we are left to trust others, which many people find very difficult. 

Sometimes we need to trust others without much information, we need to take people at their word and trust them, and it becomes even harder. In Daniel 2 I believe we see a couple of good reasons why we should trust God. This will no doubt help us with some of the frustrations that we are all feeling at the moment.

How does Daniel 2 answer this question of trust then,

why should I trust God?

Well, one thing that we learn from the details and history of Daniel 2 is that God knows what is to come in the future. You don’t, I don’t, God does. And from what we know about God, His love, His mercy, His goodness, His character, we know that what is going to happen will glorify Him the most and be for our ultimate best. He said that silver, and bronze, and iron, would follow the gold, and they did. He also said that iron mixed with clay will follow and it will. So, simply, one reason to trust God having read Daniel 2 would be the demonstrable history that God shared ahead of time here.

Another reason would be this repeated idea of a coming stone, not cut from human hands, becomes a mountain, an empire that will be eternal, a kingdom that is everlasting. This speaks of a deeper, more profound reason to trust Him.

You can bow to worldly empires, like the gold, silver, bronze, iron, or the big mixup yet to come. You can bow to pretty much anything you want, but here in Daniel 2 we see that even the biggest, most powerful, widest reaching, best organized, most ruthless, or most domineering of world-ruling empires are, and will be, smashed to pieces. We see that they will become 

…like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away…But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth.

Daniel 2.35

Why do we trust God then? Because it’s into this context, into this track of history – people trying to rule the world – that, as we read, 

…the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will not be destroyed and a kingdom that will not be left to another people. 

Daniel 2.44

It was into this people-ran, broken, power-hungry, empire-building, God-ignoring mess that Jesus was born: born during the reign of the legs of iron, wasn’t He? And it is into this mess that He will come again to put things right. All of it. He has said He will. 

He came once into it. He says He will come again into it to put everything right, to do away with people-ran, broken, power-hungry, empire-building, God-ignoring messes.

You know, often when Christians talk about redemption there is this really narrow sense that oh ok, that is me not going to hell and me going to heaven (and people talk about those places with all manner of descriptions, some very Biblical and some very much not),  “I have been redeemed” in that sense. There is truth to that. It’s very focused on you, but there is truth there. But Biblically, Scripturally, there is so much more to redemption, to renewal, to redeeming, to the stone that becomes a mountain that fills the entire earth, than that. There is so much more to the stone coming and doing away with worldly ways and empires, than you “going to heaven”.

For example, the redemption that we read of in Romans 8 encapsulates and includes everything. Paul writes that creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God…creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children (vv.19-20).

This is another way of saying that everything is waiting for Jesus to come again, which, here in Daniel 2, we read that He will.

Into this mess He was born, He stepped down and took on flesh to redeem the lot, everything. Included in that everything is everything about you: not just your final destination, but everything about your current earthly station as well. Those so called wise men said God doesn’t take on flesh, God doesn’t live here among us…well, yes, He does. He did, and He will, and that is a massive reason to trust God, because He cares enough to get involved.

He cares about you. He cares about everything. He cares so much as to take action about it (John 3.16). He cares enough to tell His people here hey, don’t think this is it, there is hope for you in the future, this and this and this will happen, and then a pause…then ultimately…there is a coming Kingdom that will last forever. Just trust me. I love you, I want the best for you, trust me.

So just pause and think, if the first four parts of this dream in Daniel 2 are evidenced and true; gold, silver, bronze, iron… then what about the last part, the mixed iron and clay and then the stone cut not by human hands, that grows into a great mountain that fills the whole earth?

Revelation 11.15 says

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ,

and he will reign for ever and ever.” 

The first four parts of all this have been proven true. He said they would be and they were. Trust Him for the last part.

He knows you and cares about you and took action to redeem you. He loves you and wants the best for you. Trust Him.