THE HANDLING OF A CRISIS "And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain." -- Tomorrow:
"And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." (Daniel 2:13-18)
Devotion 5 of 28
A "vortex" is a whirlpool or maelstrom that pulls things into its center. In our text, that vortex is the wrath of king Nebuchadnezzar. Because of the pretension of Babylon's wise men, and their inability to describe and interpret his dream, he has passed a sovereign edict. In his fury and anger he "commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon" (2:12).
THE DECREE WENT FORTH
"And the decree went forth . . . " Other versions read, "So the decree was issued" (NIV), "So the order went out" (BBE), and "On publication of the decree" (NJB). The king did not burst forth in anger, then call back his words. His counselors did not advise him to retract his words, and his mind was not changed on the matter. Rather, his command was formalized. It was made a point of immediate law, and the due authorities went to work to fulfill it completely.
You may remember the manner in which the king said the wise men would be put to death. They would be "cut in pieces," or "torn limb from limb" (NASB). A picture has been found in the Hall of Judgment in the interior of the palace at Khorsabad. It represents "the chief of the slayers" commencing the operation of flaying alive. It was a dreadful manner of execution.
The text suggests that a considerable number of the wise men were actually slain. The Aramaic version reads, "And the decree went forth, and the wise men were being slain." No doubt the ones standing before the king when he made this decree were immediately slain. I cannot imagine Nebuchadnezzar allowing them to live when his anger and wrath erupted in this wide-sweeping edict.
Some even suggest that all of the wise men were slain. This, however, cannot be true, for some of these wise men surface later in the book (4:6-7,18; 5:7-8,15). I suppose one might argue that later references were to a new generation of Babylonish wise men. However, this is not possible, since it is generally agreed that the events of chapter four occurred in the same year as those we are presently considering (around 604 B.C.).
THE CARNAL MIND IS SEEN
We see in our text how quickly a carnal mind can forget significant revelations. Nebuchadnezzar had already been exposed to the superior wisdom of Daniel and his fellows. The Scriptures say that when he examined them, "he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm" (Dan 1:21). But the king makes no association of his need for wisdom with the four Hebrew children who had appeared before him.
Worldly people who are exposed to Divine wisdom will soon forget it, for they do not have a mind to retain it. The more the flesh dominates, the more forgetful the individual becomes of Divine interventions and exposure to heavenly wisdom.
This is precisely why the Spirit speaks of the person who has "forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Pet 1:9). As the carnal mind gained dominance, the remarkable cleansing from sin was forgotten. Holy memories cannot be maintained in a carnal mind – even if they are most unusual. Thus, there was a time in Israel's history "when they forgot the LORD their God" (1 Sam 12:9). Even though God had dealt mightily with them, "They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt" (Psa 106:21).
Over the past fifty-two years, I have observed many souls in whom God has accomplished great things. These have ranged from unusual healings to spiritual insights that were not common. Some of these very people, because they became carnal in their thinking, soon began living just as though those things never occurred. Like Nebuchadnezzar, they had seen great things, yet handily forgot them when their minds were fastened to the earth.
The people of God do well to take due note of these things, and not allow them to slip from them. We are living in spiritually impoverished times, when it is easy for church members to be more like Nebuchadnezzar than Daniel. Uninformed men may boast of living in times of great revelation and mighty moves of God, but the condition of the American church will not justify such a conclusion. While it is quite true that those who are close to the Lord can, indeed, experience such greatness (like Daniel in Babylon), this is not the experience of the religious masses.
Our text, then, is declaring that the decree of Nebuchadnezzar was in the process of being carried out, when Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are introduced. The king's executioners are in the process of removing a political and social virus from the land. How will these Hebrew captives react under such adverse circumstances?
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask for grace to be spiritually minded, thrusting from myself all carnal ways of thinking.