Daniel (Two): What About Pretence?

Good morning

Today we are going to discover something very interesting from the second chapter of the book of Daniel http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel%202:1-23&version=NIV1984.

Have you noticed that life is a lot about pretence? How we appear, how we can impress people, and so on. When someone embarrasses us by affecting our image, we don’t like it and often readjust our pretence to remedy the situation. Sometimes we don’t really have the ability to do something required of us, but pretend we can so as to create the impression that we are able. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:19)

This nature of man is as old as man himself. Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His so called wise men or magicians, however, underestimated him for when he told them he would like his dreams interpreted and they said in Daniel 2:4: “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” How easy; once they have heard the dream they could make up any story and the king would believe them – pretence. As long as the king thought they were clever, their image were safe and so were their jobs and lives. He, however, was not stupid and knew more than they anticipated, for we read in verse five: “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble,” and he promised rewards if they were able.

How upright are we? Do we try to deceive others in believing things about us that we are not?

Psalm 24:3-4

 Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

Proverbs 22:11
He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend.

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

1 Timothy 1:5
The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

2 Timothy 2:22
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

In Proverbs 22:11 above we see the condition for having the king as a friend, to be in his favour. Nebuchadnezzar proved it true when he subtly warned the wise men of Babylon that if they try to deceive him, insulting his intelligence, they certainly would not have his favour.

How often do we insult our neighbour’s intelligence, even worse insulting the Lord’s intelligence? Trying to be what we actually are not is a form of pride. We are too proud to admit we do not know or need help.

How did Daniel respond when he heard about the king’s decree to execute all the wise men of Babylon? Previously he did act in much wisdom, which is why they came for him as well in response to the king’s decree - he was considered one of the wise men. It would have been easy for him to take pride in his wisdom and think that he was able to help the king on his own.

But Daniel did not have any pretence in him - the Lord was everything to him. When they wanted to kill him, he immediately knew he was not able to remedy the situation, but his Lord was. “Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said...” (Daniel2:17-20) and then followed his song of praise.

We have a choice to depend wholly on the Lord, purify our hearts from all kinds of deceit and acknowledge our dependence on Him. Then we will have the King of kings as our friend as well.

Lord, please give me grace to always be pure, honest and upright.

Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.