Everything is possible for him who believes. --Mark 9:23Have you ever been in an impossible situation? There are times when mentally we cannot comprehend a solution to a problem; emotionally we cannot see any way out; physically there is no possible way for something to happen. Sure, we have read about miracles in the Bible, but those are just stories, right? We may have heard about miracles happening to some missionary overseas, but those things just don't happen in my neighborhood, and especially not to me.
Sure, we tell our kids to "Fully Rely On God (F.R.O.G.)" and give them t-shirts and bible covers with pictures of frogs on them to help them remember. But most of the time we are like the church in Jerusalem described in Acts chapter 12. The Apostle Peter had been arrested and put into prison by Herod Agripa I, king of Judea. "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." (Acts 12:5) Peter was miraculously freed from prison in the middle of the night. He went to the house of Mary, John-Mark's mother, where many of the people were praying. He knocked on the door, and a servant girl named Rhoda answered. She was so astonished that she shut the door in Peter's face and ran back to tell the others in the house. They all scoffed at her! " 'You're out of your mind,' they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, 'It must be his angel.' " (Acts 12:15) These were some weak-faithed Christians: they had been praying for Peter, and when Peter came to the house, they didn't believe it was him; in fact, they rationalized their unbelief, thinking that the servant girl Rhoda must be crazy, or that she had seen an angel. "But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished." (Acts 12:16)
These were people who had seen first-hand the power of the Roman government, the ruthlessness of King Herod, and the impenetrable walls of the prison where Peter had been chained between two Roman soldiers. They had seen several of the Apostles killed, martyred at the hands of the Roman government. So their faith in Rome and the evil that they saw every day was real; their faith in God was theoretical. How much like them are we today? We read the Bible and think in terms of hypothetical situations. We ask, "What if that happened today? Could it really happen the same way?" Undoubtedly, that was what many in the early church thought of when they read the Old Testament accounts of the Prophets. Many in the church might have been Gentiles, who grew up hearing of the Greek or Roman gods. But since this was the church in Jerusalem, I daresay most of the members had grown up hearing of the one true God, with stories of Noah, Moses, and Daniel.
We all know Daniel--if we grew up in the church, we all learned stories of this bold man of faith who prayed to God even when it was against the law to pray. As a result, he was thrown into the lion's den. Yet the lions did not devour him, as the Babylonians had intended. Daniel spent the night with the lions, and in the morning, when King Darius came to check on him, Daniel preached this gospel to him: "My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in His sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (Daniel 6:22)
Like the Jewish Christians in the early church, we have also heard of Daniel's friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We might know them better by their Persian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men of faith refused to bow before a statue in the image of King Nebuchadnezzar. As a result, these men were arrested and thrown into the fiery furnace. The heat from this furnace was so great that the Babylonian soldiers--the ones that were ordered to put Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace--these soldiers were themselves overcome by the heat from the furnace and they died. But when King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he was amazed at what he saw. "He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a Son of God." (Daniel 3:25).
The early church had heard of these great heroes of the faith. But like us, they had not personalized the story. They did not realize or comprehend that the same God who had rescued Daniel could rescue Peter, as well. They did not understand or put into practice the fact that the same God who rescued Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from the flames could also rescue themselves from the Roman persecution.
So this we know as background. What do we know about these four Old Testament heroes? They lived in Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's army, the city fell. Those Jews still living in Jerusalem were taken into exile, meaning that they were captured and re-located to Babylonia. Many were sold as slaves. But a select few were taken into service in the king's palace. These were "young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians." (Daniel 1:4). Once trained, these exiles, which included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, became known as "the wise men of Babylon." They joined the wise men from Babylon, as well as exiles from other conquered lands. This was one of the ways that Nebuchadnezzar could control the enslaved exiles--by elevating some nobility from each conquered country to a position in Babylonian nobility, thus assimilating them into Babylonian culture.
But these four young men from Jerusalem did not fully assimilate. They held to their faith in the God of their fathers. They continued to pray to God, and not bow down to idols. They even kept to the strict Jewish dietary laws. They were offered meat and wine from the king's table; but since it was not Kosher, they instead became vegetarians, and only drank water. It is fascinating how they went their own way, but were still accepted into the noble class and were counted among the wise men.
Now comes the impossible part. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. It troubled him, because he knew that it was significant, but he did not know what it meant. He called in some of his wise men, and asked them to interpret the dream for him. Not only that, but he asked them to first tell him what the dream was, and then tell him what it meant. The wise men asked him, begged him to tell them the dream, so that they could interpret it for him. But he refused. I have heard some preachers interpret this to mean that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten what the dream was. Scripture does not say this, however. It could be that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to test his wise men to see how wise and how spiritual they really were. Did they have access to the gods? Was their wisdom limited to facts, or did it extend to faith?
The wise men answered that what the king had asked was impossible. They could no more read the king's mind than they could read the hand-writing on the wall (also found in the book of Daniel, in chapter five--this is where we get the expression, "The writing on the wall", as in, "He didn't see the writing on the wall", meaning he could not foresee what was going to happen to him.) Nebuchadnezzar would not be swayed. He threatened to kill not only those few wise men in his courts on that day, but all of the wise men. The stakes were that high. And the wise men failed. So the king decided to exterminate them all, and start over. He issued a decree that all the wise men should be gathered up and executed. This included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
When the arresting officers came to arrest Daniel, Daniel tactfully asked why the king's decree was so harsh. When he learned the impossible situation, Daniel went before the king and asked for some time to discern what the king had asked for. He then did three very important things, things that the early Christians in Jerusalem should have done, and things that we should do today.
He acted in faith
Daniel knew that the God he served was mighty to save, and that nothing was impossible with God. Centuries before Jesus spoke those words to the disciples in Matthew 19, when they saw the rich young ruler rebuffed by Christ and asked, "Lord, who then can be saved?", Daniel knew the truth in the statement, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26).
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that they should put on the whole armor of God, what was the first metaphor he used? "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist." (Ephesians 6:14a). What did he mean? To prepare for spiritual battle, the first thing to do is to securely fasten your faith. Affirm what you know to be true: Our God is mighty to save; He is righteous and true; He is merciful to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. Daniel recognized that he had been called by God according to His purpose, and that He was able to deliver him.
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Daniel's faith was being severely tested--if he did not find the secret to the king's dream, and the interpretation of it, he and his friends would be killed. How many of us could face down the impossible in the face of death? Yet we place our faith in God for salvation of our souls from hell, a fate worse than death. The surety of our faith is Christ Jesus, who died in our place. The certainty of salvation is founded in the sacrificial blood of Christ. Most of us do not realize this now, but one day we will know the power of God for salvation, and what forgiveness of sins really means.
He asked his friends to intercede for him
"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 the mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." (Daniel 2:17-18) I wish that I had these three men of faith in my accountability group! Remember, these friends of Daniel would later walk through fire and not be burned. But before that could happen, they needed to be prayed up in order to escape death by the sword.
We were never meant to fight our battles alone. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more, as you see the Day approaching." Jesus said, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:19-20). There is a story of a church that met together in west Texas to pray for rain. But only one little girl brought an umbrella with her. Like the church in Jerusalem who was surprised that Peter came knocking on their door, we often go through the motions when we pray. But God has promised to act on our behalf if we truly believe. If we have the faith to go to the Father with a request, we should also be bold enough to ask our Christian friends to intercede with us.
Remember what Jesus told Peter when he had affirmed the deity of Jesus? "I tell you that you are Peter (the Rock), and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it." The church is a powerful resource for prayer and supplication. In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorted the church to "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18) Intercessory prayer, that is prayer on behalf of others, is one type of prayer that Paul was talking about. And Daniel asked that his friends would intercede for him.
He prayed believing
"During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision." (Daniel 2:19) I don't believe this was a dream that Daniel had while he was sleeping. He was praying for his very life, knowing that if he did not receive the answer from God, he would be killed in the morning. I believe his vision came to him while he was actively praying to God. I don't know how long it took, but I believe Daniel persevered until the answer came.
The night before Jesus' crucifixion, He asked his closest friends to intercede for Him. Peter, James and John were led into the Garden, away from the others. Jesus asked them to watch and pray. They fell asleep. Jesus came and found them sleeping, and asked, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40) Then He gave them this word of encouragement: "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41) Jesus knows us; He was there when we were created. Prayer, like any physical exercise, needs to be practiced to build up strength and endurance. Often we feel like we have been praying for hours when we have only been praying a few minutes. But men of faith are known to often pray for hours on end.
The story is told of George Mueller, a great man of faith. He ran an orphanage in Germany. One morning, the housemother told him, "The children are ready and dressed for school. But there is no food for them to eat." George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. "Mr. Mueller," he said, "last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in." Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children.
Once the vision revealed to Daniel what king Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, and what it meant, Daniel praised God, and said:
Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank and praise You, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, You have made known to me what we asked of You, You have made known to us the dream of the king. --Daniel 2:20-23In this prayer of praise, we see Daniel's faith--he reaffirmed what he knew about God (wisdom and power are His...He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things.") We see his including his friends in intercession, acknowledging that he was not alone ("what WE asked of You, You have made known to US the dream of the king.") And we see that he prayed until he received the answer ("You have made known to me what we ASKED of You.")
The next time you are faced with an impossible situation, act in faith, ask your friends to join in, and y'all pray, believing. When the circle is complete--that is, when the acting in faith meets the praying and believing--you can move mountains.
Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations
(Chorus:)
Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever
Author of Salvation
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as You find me
All my fears & failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender (I surrender)
(Chorus:) (2x)
Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever
Author of Salvation
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
(Bridge:) (2x)
Shine Your light &
Let the whole world see
We're singing
For the glory
Of the risen King
Jesus
(Chorus)
You're the Savior
You can move the mountains
Lord You are mighty to save
You are mighty to save
Forever
Author of Salvation
You rose & conquered the grave
Yes You conquered the grave
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