Looking for God's heart for all people through the first 5 chapters of Daniel...
From the very beginning, we are once again confronted with the fact that God is sovereign over all people. We are told that the people of Judah are handed over by God to the Babylonians. The theme throughout these five chapters seems to be that God does care about what is going on in the lives of people outside of the Israelite world. In chapter two, the Babylonian king has been plagued by dreams he does not understand and Daniel comes forward to interpret the dreams. Daniel interprets the dream for the king and makes it clear that the only reason he was able to do so, was because God wanted the king to understand what the dreams meant. The dream in itself serves as a map of God working through a multitude of different people groups, and it gives us a picture of the impact that God's salvation plan is going to have on the history of all humanity. We see as the story plays out that each time God intervenes in the life of the pagan king, the king walks away praising the Lord. God could have easily brought judgment upon the Babylonian king, but instead He chooses to offer him a chance to repent and turn from his arrogance. God offers multiple chances at forgiveness and redemption tot he king. When the king tries to force God-fearers into worshipping an idol, the fiery furnace incident open his eyes again to the power of God. When the king again returns to prideful leadership, Daniel confronts him about his lack of humility and warns that God will expose his true weakness. Again, after being miraculously shown the power of the one true God, Nebuchadnezzar gives his honor to the King of Heaven. Nebuchadnezzar's story ends there and one would hope that his life was lived out as a God-fearer. Whatever the outcome, we can see that God went out of His way to show His power to the king and offer mercy. Clearly God's heart for people goes beyond the boundaries of Israel. Daniel offers us a snapshot from the Babylonian world, but I believe it is safe to assume that God has always been working powerfully in the lives of men and women from every stretch of the globe so that His name might be glorified.
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