Yesterday we looked at Ezekiel and the pictures he painted from exile in Babylon - How God is still at work, showing His people and the world that His is still in control, and "Then they will know that I am the Lord" In the next book we find that Daniel too had been exiled to Babylon, being used of God in the courts of the Babylonians Kings, where he has a reputation for interpreting dreams. In Chapter 5:
17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. 18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 19 And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. 20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 21 He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. 22 And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
As stated twice in this passage, the Lord is the Most High God. The world was, and still is, filled with false gods, idols, whom men and nations serve, but there is only one true, Most High God, ruling over all. Daniel stuck out in the middle of this pagan court, and His writings stick out in the middle of human history to say: God still rules. He gives us glimpses of things yet to come which reverb all the way through The Revelation of John in the rest of the Bible. God was, is, and will always be the Most High God. What do you think of when you hear about Daniel? Lions? The Fiery Furnace? The Writing on the wall? Daniel's Prayers? The purity and faithfulness of him and his friends? Picture it. Send it. Show me, and celebrate that the Lord is the Most High God.
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