What to Do

When

YOUR WORLD
Falls

Apart

Lessonsfrom the Life ofDaniel

FRED KINSEY

with Ken Wade

The)

Box53055, Los Angeles, CA 90053

www.vop.com

Contents

What to Do When

Your World FallsApart

The Reliable God

13

Trusting God

19

The Perils of Pride

27

The Importance of Spiritual Insight

Cover design by Palimor Studios
A Life Well Lived

33

41

Scripture quotations marked "NASB" are from the

NewAmerican Standard Bible, Copyright 1960 1962

The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Notes

47

1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by'

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from the

New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used bypermission. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2009 by

TheVoke ofProphecy
Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved

Chapter 1

What to Do When Your World

Falls Apart
(Daniel 1)

/hat do you w*
apart?

do when your world falls

It's a question that's on many minds today, I'm sure. Recession, the housing bubble, job
loss, sickness, an accident, Ponzi schemes that

rob your life savings, you name it.There are so many things that can rip life from its moor ings."Normal" life is fragile.It can all disappear so fast, with a single phone call,or just a tiny lump discovered one day in the shower. So, what do you do when your world falls
apart? How do you cope? Trisha Meili's "normal" life came to a sudden,
violent end in New York's Central Park on the

night ofApril 19,1989. Her name wasn't wide ly released at the time; she was known to most people simply as "The Central ParkJogger." Beaten so badly in the course of an attack that only the soles of her feet remained

unbruised, she was left for dead. One eye socket was shattered, and she lost most of her blood. She couldn't even breathe on her own. Life would never be the same again for Trisha. She remained in a coma for twelve

days, and during that time at least one physi cian told her parents that it might be better if
she diedshe'd probably be unable to func
tion as a normal human being even if she did
awaken.

they must have abandoned it during their fight with Babylon, and King Josiah took his army to Megiddo to fight on the side of Babylon, trying to stop the Egyptian army from passing through the land to aid the Assyrians. When Josiah died fighting the Egyptians, his anti-Egyptian son was quickly deposed from the throne by Pharaoh Necho and replaced

But awaken she did. And eventually she

by a more sympathetic son, Jehoiakim. Then, a few years later, Egypt lost a major battle against Babylon, and about the same time,
Nebuchadnezzar's army stopped by Jerusalem and took a number of young Jewish men cap tive back to Babylon. Daniel was among those captives. He was taken away from home by a hostile power, imprisoned, and sent to aare-education center" to learn the ways of his captors. It's even likely
he was castrated in order to become a eunuch

returned to her job as an investment banker

and made vice-president of her company.
Then in 2003 she did something else amaz

ingsomething that continues to improve other people's lives today.

What was it she did? And what secrets con

tributed to her recovery? More about that in a moment, but first let's turn to a Bible story

about a group of young men whose lives also fell apart, to see what it can teach us about handling the crises in our own lives.
It was a time of war. Armies were on the

in the king's service.

march all around Jerusalem. In 609 B.C., Judah's KingJosiah, one of the most faith-filled kings in the history of the nation,had marched out of the city to do battle against Egypt's
Pharaoh Necho, and the mission had ended in

His youthful hopes for a peaceful fam ily life in his homeland crushed, his freedom taken awayeverything seemed to be going wrong for Daniel. His world had fallen apart.
It seemed like God had abandoned not only Daniel, but the whole kingdom of Judah. But Daniel, likeTrisha Mieli, not only survived

this great tragedy,he prospered amidst it.

How did he do it? In a time when his world

disaster. King Josiah was mortally wounded in

battle.You can read about this in 2 Kings 23.

The whole region was engulfed in war between three great powers: Assyria and

Egypt on one side and the rising star of Babylon under the king's son, General
Nebuchadnezzar, on the other side.

The Assyrians had controlled the strategic

was Ming apart, what was it that gave Daniel the strength to go on, and not only to go on, but to end up on top of the world? Scholars who study survivorspeople who go through trauma, and prosper rather than giving uphave identified several traits that they have in common. It's called the "recipe
for resilience."

city of Megiddo for more than a century, but

What traits make the difference? A recent

USA TODAY article about Trisha Mieli identi fies several:^ can-do attitude is one.Another

is the ability to live in the present rather than

wallowing in "what-ifs" or "if-onlys." Survivors

also have a certain type of bravery that allows them to tackle hard problems head-on instead of hiding their heads. They're also willing to accept help from others, and perhaps most important of all,they have a positive spiritual ity that leads to life-changing growth. Trisha
Mieli comments, "I saw God's grace in all the

Daniel 1:5 describes their dilemma: "The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service"
(NASB).

"Dilemma?" I hear someone asking. "What

sort of a dilemma is that? An invitation to eat

the king's finest food? That wouldn't be a

dilemma for me!"

people who reached out to me."1

While researching his book The Survivors
Club: The Secrets and Science that Could

Save Your Life, Ben Sherwood asked a U.S.

Marine survival instructor, "What's the secret

But for Daniel and his friends it was. They knew they would feel better, and do better, eating the plain food of their homelandthe basic,healthful diet recommended by the Bible. They had a can-do attitude. They believed that

of survival?"and without hesitating, the instruc

tor answered: "Faith in God."2

This is no preacher in a pulpit. This is a rough-and-ready man's-man who lives day-inand-day-out with Marine warriors, teaching
them how to survive in combat situations. He could have learned that lesson from

the book of Daniel. The first chapter tells the story of how Daniel and several of his friends survived and prospered in the hostile environ ment of Babylon. It's fascinating to me to notice that Daniel
had all of the same traits identified in the
article about Trisha.

In the story in Daniel 1 we meet Daniel and three of his friends. They're four young men in a tight placetheir world has Men apart.They're captives of a hostile power. And they're being asked to violate the principles of their religionto deny their faith in God.

if they would stay true to their principles they would be blessed. So they went to the king's steward with a proposition: "'Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king's choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see'" (Daniel 1:12-13, NASB). Notice that they also exercised bravery here. They attacked their problem head-on. Believe me, it takes courageif you're a guest of the king (and especially if you're a prisoner/ guest)to turn down the king's food! These men were also living in the present They didn't sit around bemoaning their fate. They decided to try to make the best of the situation they were in, and to live their lives as a testimony to God's loving care in spite of
their circumstances.

Another of the "resilience" traits noted in

Trisha Midi's life was willingness to accept

helpfrom others. If it had been me in Daniel's situation, I might have been tempted to simply slip the objectionable parts of the meal into my pocket and hide my displeasure with the king's food. But Daniel and his friends were up frontThey went right to the king's steward
and enlisted his help in putting biblical dietary principles to the test.
And their efforts were rewarded. Verses

Today she travels the world, giving motiva tional speeches, inspiring people to follow the principles of life that have helped her not only cope, but prosper in spite of adversity. The
very same principles revealed in the Bible, in Daniel chapter 1.

18-19 tell us, "Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials pre sented them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and

Trisha's example inspires and encourages many people today. And the story of Daniel has inspired people for centuries. In our next chapter, we'll see how God used him, and the reputation for courage and wisdom he had gained, in a powerful way to deliver a message
to a monarch.

Azariah; so they entered the king's personal

service" (NASB).

These four young men, in dire circumstanc es, with their world falling apart around them, stood up for God and His principles. They demonstrated positive spirituality that leads

to life-changing growth, and God honored

and rewarded them. Because of their faith they
were able to bear witnessbefore the most

powerful king in the world at that timeto the power and wisdom of their God. The story of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah has come down to us in Daniel, chap ter 1, and it continues to inspire and encour age faith and faithfulness to this day.

The story of Trisha Mieli also has become an inspiration. In 2003, after fourteen years of silence, she stepped forward and revealed
herself to the world as the woman who had

been known only as "The Central Park Jogger."

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11

Chapter 2

The Reliable God

(Daniel 2)

Dc ' o you believe in dreams? Have you ever

gone to a dream interpreter to find out what

a particularly vivid dream meant? Or do you think of dreams as being just passing experi ences that evaporate as quickly as they come and have no particular significance?
One current theory holds that when we're asleep, our minds start sorting through all the accumulated experiences stored in memory and reorganizing them, tossing a lot of use less stuff in a recycle bin, and filing important pieces where they can be found again.
But what about dreams of the future? Have

you ever had a dream that you thought pre dicted what was going to happen tomorrow, or maybe even next year? How much stock
would you put in a dream like that?

Personally, I probably wouldn't put a lot

of stock in any dream about the future that

13

I might have. Every time I try to figure out what's going to happen next, I discover new evidence that I am not a prophet with a privi leged view of the future!
But there are several stories in the Bible

It no doubt gave Nebuchadnezzar some thing to think about.

In Daniel 2:29 we find Daniel telling the king,aAs for you, O king, while on your bed
your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future'" (NASB).

about people who had dreams about the future that actually proved to be true. In Genesis we read about the Egyptian pharaoh
who had a dream that he didn't understand

Maybe it was after a long, interesting inter

view with Daniel that King Nebuchadnezzar went to bed one night, pondering what all these prophecies could mean, and what the

until Joseph interpreted it. That pattern repeats itself in the book
of Daniel. There we find the stories of sev

future might hold. Then, while he was sleep ing, he hadadream. Andwhen he woke up,he
was sure that the dream had held the answer to his questions.

eral young Jewish men who had been carried away to Babylon as prisoners. In chapter 1 we read of their experience in standing up to the king of Babylon on matters of diet. In chapter 2, they face an even more troubling trauma. It all begins in the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar, probably about 603 B.C. Remember that at the end of Daniel l,"The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's person al service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consult
ed them, he found them ten times better than

Does that ever happen to you? You go to sleep with a troubling thought on your mind, and in your sleep the answer comes to you. You wake up with the problem solvedif you can just remember what it was that you
dreamed.

Dreams can be like so many butterflies in a

flower gardenfluttering away as quickly as

you stop to look at them.

all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm'' (Daniel 1:19-20, NASB). Now, what do you suppose a man like Daniel talked with Nebuchadnezzar about?Don't you imagine that when the king consulted with

And that's precisely what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He woke up with a start, with an answer to his questions, and then as quicklyasit had come,the answer was gone. It's frustrating when that happens. And when
kings get frustrated, you can be sure that other people are soon going to be frustrated as well.

Especially if the king is the most powerful

monarch on earth at that time.

him, Daniel slipped in a bit of his knowledge of God, and of God's plans for the future? I
think he might even have mentioned some of

the Jewish prophecies about the future, and of the return of God's people to the Promised
Land.

Here's what happened next: "Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the

Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams" (Daniel

2:2, NASB).

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15

Put yourself in the king's counselors' shoes: They're gotten out of bed in the middle of the night, ushered into the king's bedroom, and
told to tell the king what he had dreamed.

out what somebody else had dreamed. Oh, sure if you shared a dream with them, they could come up with an interpretation. Anybody can

do that with a litde practice. But tell the king

what he had dreamed? Not a chance.

They don't have a clue about what he dreamed, let alone the interpretation, so they say, aiO king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the inter
pretation.'"

They tried stalling for time. But Nebuchad nezzar wasn't buying it. Once again, maybe
his conversations with Daniel had influenced

his view of his usual counselors, because

You're not getting off that easy, Nebuchad

nezzar says.

he replied, "'I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have
seen that the command from me is firm, that if you do not make the dream known to me,

"'The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me [both] the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rub bish heap. But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpreta tion'" (Daniel 2:5-6, NASB). Simple choice: tell me the dream and live, or
don't and die.

there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation'"
(Daniel 2:8-9, NASB).

Well, of course they couldn't do that. And

What would you come up with at two o'clock in the morning? I mean, if you fabri cate something and try to convince the king that's what he dreamed, that's probably a one way ticket to the limb-tearing department. If you don't come up with anything, well, the
results are identical. So, what do the wise men
do?

the upshot was the death sentence. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar didn't stop to think that when he sent his henchmen to round up his other counselors, the guards would go looking for Daniel and his friends as well. The king was really, really mad when he made the decree, and probably not thinking too clearly. And here's where we get to the good part

of the story. When the guards woke Daniel up

to take him to be torn limb-from-limb, Daniel didn't panic. Instead, he went home "and in formed his friends... about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God

These wise men, by the way, were a bit like

a president's "kitchen cabinet." Trusted advi

sors whose wisdom he sought. They probably included astronomers, astrologers, magicians, and priests who were adept at interpreting
omens.

of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon"
(Daniel 2:17-18, NASB).

But none of them had a clue how to figure

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Notice that Daniel knew exacdy where to

go for help in a dangerous, virtually impossible

situation:To the God of Heaven!

And God did not let him down. He revealed

to Daniel precisely what the king had dreamed.

And Daniel went in for another chat with Nebuchadnezzar "and said, 'As for the mystery

about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor divinersare able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and
He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar

what will take placein the latter days'" (Daniel

2:27-28, NASB). Since our focus in this book is on the stories,

rather than the prophecies of Daniel, I won't go into the details of what the dream meant. But the Voice of Prophecy website, www.vop.
com has some wonderful Bible studies that

will help you understand the prophetic partof this chapter. Look for the Focus on Prophecy
course. You can study it online at vop.com for free! You'll find an astounding, inspiring study there that will give you new confidence in God, in the Bible, and in the glorious future that God is planning for His children. The message of Daniel,chapter 2,is that God
is faithful to His children. He is reliable. He has

a plan for our lives,and a plan for this planet.

And we can trust His plan, just as Daniel and
his friends did.

King Nebuchadnezzar wasn't quite ready to accept that message yet, as the story in chap
ter 3 of Daniel reveals. But God has ways of getting his message through, even to pompous

kings, as we'll see in the next chapter.

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Chapter 3

Trusting God
(Daniel 3)

Is Ls your God big enough to save you when

the going gets tough? Do you expect too much, or too little, of
God?

The way you answer those questions may have a lot to do with how strong your faith is. And believe it or not, those who expect too much of God may actually be giving evidence of weaker faith than those who don't expect
as much!

Let me explain what I mean by turning to

one of the most famous stories in the Bible.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the third chapter of the book of Daniel. First, let's put the story in perspective. Remember that in chapter 2, King Nebuchad nezzar of Babylon had a dream in which he
saw a statue of a man whose head was made

of gold, his chest of silver, his stomach of

19

bronze, his legs of iron, and his feet of mixed iron and clay. Daniel interpreted that dream to mean that God was telling Nebuchadnezzar what would come after his kingdomwhich was represent ed by the golden head. (Incidentally, Babylon wasn't the most "golden" of the kingdoms rep
resentedas far as wealth is concernedbut God told Nebuchadnezzar he was the head of

Well, when you're the king, and people are whispering behind your back, you have lots of options. Lopping off people's heads is one. Throwing them in a fiery furnace is another. But how do you figure out just which ones are bad-mouthing you? Nebuchadnezzar had the perfect solution. Build a statue out of just gold. A statue that would stand up in total contradiction to the
dream God had sent him. A statue that would declare in no uncertain terms: / don't care

gold, anyhow. Which maybe demonstrates that

even God understands about rulers' and CEOs'

need of having their egos stroked!) Daniel was very forthright with Nebuchad nezzar, telling him that after his golden king dom, other kingdoms would arise, including some that would be stronger than his. But the whole point of the dream came at the end,
when a stone smashed the statue and then

took over the whole earth. That stone rep

resented the kingdom of God, which would
endure forever.

That's the background to the story in Daniel 3, which begins this way: "Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon" (Daniel 3:1, NASB). Notice what the king's statue was made of. Gold. No subtlety here.
No doubt news about his dream of an

image whose golden head would give way to another kingdom had circulated through the gossip channels all over the kingdom. People were whispering about how the Jewish God had put Nebuchadnezzar in his place, remind ing him that no matter how big he thought he was, his kingdom would one day fall.

what you say God, my kingdom is the one that's going to lastforever! That's step 1. Step 2 is: Call in representa tives of all the provinces in your domain and demand that they bow down to that image. That they bow down to your vision of the future, rather than to God's revealed plan. No surprise here. That's how the story con tinues in Daniel, chapter 3. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to.... all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchad nezzar the king had set up.... Then the herald loudly proclaimed: 'To you the command is given...that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire'" (Daniel 3:2,4-6, NASB). This was Nebuchadnezzar's quick, easy test to see who was whispering behind his back,
and who was on his side.

The only problem was that Daniel's three

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friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom the king had renamed Shadrach, Meshach, and

obey my orders,"he said,"'you will immediate

Abednego) were among the group assembled on the Plain of Dura when the trumpet sounded and everybody was supposed to bow
down.

ly be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you
out of my hands?'" (Daniel 3:15, NASB). As you can imagine, the three young men had a ready answer to that question. The God of Heaventhe very God who had revealed that Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom would one day come to an endthat was the God who
would be able to deliver them from the blaz

Now these three fellows, as you may remem

ber, had been with Daniel when God revealed

the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream to

him.

They knew that the statue on the Plain of Dura was intended as a direct slap in the face
of their God.

ing fire!
But here, in their answer to Nebuchadnez

zar,is the heart of the story of Daniel 3. There

are some very significant words in Daniel 3:

And furthermore, they were faithful Jewish boys who had stood up for their religious principles in the past and been rewarded for

17 and 18. And they are very important to our understanding of God, and to our develop
ment of an unshakable faith in Him. Notice

it. Do you think they would find it easy, now, to abandon their principles and bow down to
an image that contradicted God's word? Not on your life.

how the men answered the king:

" 'Our God whom we serve is able to deliver

When everyone else bowed down, they stood tall.And it didn't take long for people to notice that they'd disobeyed the king's com
mand. Soon "certain Chaldeans came forward

us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set
up'" (NASB).

and brought charges....'There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men, O king,have disregarded you;they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up'" (Daniel 3:8,12,
NASB).

Notice what they said. Our God is able to deliver us. BUT even if he does not, we're not going to cave to your vision of the future. We

will be true to God, no matter what happens. Think about this for a moment: Do you
expect too much, or too little of God? How much did these three men expect of
God?

Boy, did that make Nebuchadnezzar mad!

Here were these men he'd invited into his

They knew what God could do. But they

didn't demand that He prove Himself to them. They were willing to accept God's will, what
ever it meant for them.

inner group of counselors, and they weren't

willing to submit to his vision of the future.

He wanted to fire them. literally! "If you don't

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In chapter 1,1 mentioned a book called The

Survivor's Club. The author, Ben Sherwood,

A faith that was willing to accept whatever came their way, as being part of God's plan for
their lives.

has talked to survival experts all over the world, and learned what it is that helps people survive disasters. One key element that has

helped many people survive is faith in God. But it has to be the right kind of faith. There is a negative kind that can actually be detri
mental. Dr. Kenneth Pargament studies survi vors, and he has a pointed answer to an impor

And their faith was rewarded. You probably already know how the story in Daniel 3 ends, but if not, why not get out your Bible and read it right now? The book of Daniel is found near
the end of the Old Testament, and its stories

and prophecies make some of the most fas cinating reading you'll find anywhere in the
Bible.

tant question about faith. Sherwood writes:

Why do some people grow spiritually in a time of crisis while others struggle and decline? The answer, he believes, lies in the nature and maturity of your faith and how much you've integrated it into your life. Pargament says the key question is: "How big is your God?" By that he means,"Do you have an understanding of God or things sacred that's broad enough to encompass both the good and the bad in life? For some people, they've got a kind of sugarcoated picture of GodGod will always be there for them, God will never let anything

As for King Nebuchadnezzar, after the events of this story you might think he had learned his lesson about pride and resisting God's will. But he was a lot like me, I guess. I usually have
to learn lessons over and over again. It took yet another dramatic event to get through to the king once-and-for-all. That's the story in our next chapter.

bad happen to them, that kind of thing. And then when they end up faced with a trauma or tragedy they don't have anyplace to put
it...so something has to give." On the other hand, Pargament says, some people believe in a larger God "capable of encompassing both the most positive and the most awful experi ences in life. And they seem to be the ones who are more capable of assimilating terrible events, tragedies, and growing and moving on." In tough situations, Pargament says, people with the most mature, integrated, expansive
view of God seem to handle their challenges
the best.1

Dr. Pargament is describing the kind of faith

that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had.

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Chapter 4

The Perils of Pride

(Daniel 4)

really should have been no mystery to King Nebuchadnezzar, what the dream he had that night meant.
But he claimed he didn't understand it.

L It

And so he called in his advisors: the magi cians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers,
and asked them what it meant.

They too were stumpedor so they said. But the meaning actually was obvious. In modern terminology, the problem was that the king and his counselors were "in denial." Or at
least the king was in denial. The counselors

more likely were just in mortal fear of what the king would do if they told him what his
dream about a tree meant.

Mesopotamian dynasties had a long his tory of representing kingship as a tree.

Three centuries before Nebuchadnezzar's

day, King Ashurbanipal III of Assyria had a

27

huge tree painted in 3-D relief behind his

throne. According to Simo Parpola, writing in Archaeology Odyssey magazine:
A cosmic tree growing in the middle of the world and connecting heaven with earth was the best imaginable visual symbol for the

The beasts of the field found shade under it,

And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, And allliving creatures fed themselves from it. I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher,a holy one, descended from heaven.
He shouted out and spoke as follows:

king's pivotal position asthe focal point of the imperial system and the sole representative of god upon earth.When seated on his throne,
the king... merged with the tree, thus becom

"Chop down the tree and cut off its branches"

(Daniel 4:10-14, NASB).

ing, as it were,its humanincarnation.1

Furthermore, it should have come as no

How hard would it be to interpret that dream as some kind of warning that the king
was about to be cut down to size?

surprise to Nebuchadnezzar that if God was watching him from heaven, he would occa sionally receive dream warnings. The article in Archaeology Odyssey goes on to reveal that:
It was believed that the king's performance

The dream went on to predict that just a

stump would be left, and that the tree's heart

would be changed from a man's into an ani mal's for a period of"seven times." How hard, really, would it be to figure out that this dream was a warning to Nebuchad nezzar? I'm no soothsayer or magician, but I think I could have figured that one out all by myself. But notice what happened. When he awoke from the dream, Nebuchadnezzar called all

was being constandy watched from heaven and that the gods communicated their plea sure or displeasure with him through a system of signs transmitted in dreams, portents and oracles that could be interpreted and reacted to. Any royal error or act committed against
the divine will was a flaw calling for correc

his magicians and soothsayers to give him the

tion and, if perpetuated, divine punishment. However,no punishment was inflicted before the king had been notified of his error and had

interpretation, but they said they couldn't do

it.

been givena chanceto change his ways.2

So Nebuchadnezzar, as the king of Babylon, shouldn't have had any trouble figuring out that the dream described in Daniel 4:10-14 was a rebuke and warning to him. Here's how
he described the dream:

What's the problem here? Self-serving, syco phantic soothsayers, I'd say. Nobody wants to tell the boss he's doing a bad job.

Especially when the boss is the same guy we

met in Daniel 2 and 3, where he was threaten

Now these were the visions in my mind as I

ing to have soothsayers torn limb-from-limb,

and disobedient officials burned alive.

layon my bed:I was looking,and behold,there

was a tree in the midst of the earth and its

height was great. The tree grew large and became strong And its height reached to the sky...

So,who's going to have the courage to point out the spinach caught between the CEO's
teeth?

Thank God for prophets.

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Throughout the Bible we meet a few good men and good women who have the courage to stand up and say what needs to be said, with no thought of personal consequences.
Daniel was a man like that.

righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity (Daniel
4:20-27, NASB).

And because he was, Nebuchadnezzar

Now, remember: It wasn't unexpected for kings in those days to receive dreams warning
them to reform or suffer the consequences.

learned an important lessonwhich I'll point out a bit later. But first let's finish the story. When the king's usual counselors couldn't (or wouldn't) interpret the dream for him, who do you suppose he called on? Daniel, of
course. Daniel was the one who had revealed

Precisely what was the reform that Neb

uchadnezzar needed? Daniel suggested a cou

ple of things at the end of his interpretation: do righteousness, show mercy to the poor.
But what the king really needed is found a bit earlier: "'until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and
bestows it on whomever He wishes'" (v. 25).
Nebuchadnezzar did OK for the next several

the king's dream and interpretation a few

years earlier. Daniel comes in, listens to the king's account of the dream, and then he has the same

dilemma as the other counselors. How do you

tell an egomaniacal, narcissistic, self-absorbed

months. But the warning didn't stick with him

potentate that he's not the most potent peon in the paddock? Daniel decided to be diplomatic: "'My lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries!'" he said (Daniel 4:19, NASB).
But then he went on to tell the truth as he
saw it:

past a year. Twelve months later, he couldn't help gloating over just how big and tallhis tree
had become. Walking around the palace one

day he was heard to say,a4Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for
the glory of my majesty?'" (v. 30, NASB). Two simple words: T and "my" were the downfall of the king.

The tree that you saw...is you, O king....In that the king saw an angelic watcher...say ing, "Chop down the tree and destroy it; yet leave the stump"...this is the interpretation,
O king, and this is the decree of the Most

Instantlywhether he had a stroke or what, we don't knowhe lost the power of speech,
he became like a beast of the field, and his

power was taken away from him, until he became willing to acknowledge that the God
of Heaven was the one who had given him his power in the first place.
That's the lesson Nebuchadnezzar had to

High... that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field...until you recognize that the Most
High is ruler over the realm of mankind and
bestows it on whomever He wishes.... There

fore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing

learn over and over again. It was pointed out to him in the dream of Daniel 2. Then in chap ter 3, when he rebelled against that lesson and

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built a statue all of gold to represent his eter nal kingdom, God used Shadrach, Meshach, andAbednego and a fiery furnace to bring him
up short and remind him that God is the one who decides who gets to rule the world.

And he had to learn the lesson again, here in chapter 4. At the beginning of the chapter he acknowl
edges that he's learned his lesson. AGAIN!

There he affirms that only God's "'kingdom is

an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is

from generation to generation'" (v. 3, NASB). Finally Nebuchadnezzar understood, once and for all, that even he was subject to the
power of God.
It's a lesson we all could stand to learn from

time to time. Maybe not in so dramatic a fash ion as what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. But it will do us all good to remember that "'the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind
and bestows it on whomever He wishes.'"

The fascinating fact is that Nebuchadnezzar wasn't the only Babylonian king who received shocking revelations direct from the hand of God. The last king of his nation was also privi leged to see the handwriting on the walllit erally. But for him it was already too late. That's the story we'll take up in chapter 5.

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Chapter 5

The Importance of Spiritual Insight

(Daniel 5)

lith Thammasaroi was not a popular ^mit man in Thailand on Christmas Day, 2004. In fact he'd been disgraced six years earlier and forced to step down from his post as head of the nation's meteorological departmentaccused of being a prophet of doom who was ruining the country's tourist industry.
One week after Christmas, however, Smith

got a call from Bangkok, and he was appointed

as a vice minister ofThailand, responsible for creating a whole new department of the gov
ernment.

What made the sudden change in his life? More about that in a moment, but first let's

look at a story from the Bible that parallels

Smith's experience.

Prophets who warn of impending disaster usually aren't terribly popularoften they're ignored, sometimes they're killed, and some-

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times they're just "put out to pasture." That seems to be what happened to the prophet Daniel, sometime after he interpreted the dream we looked at in chapter 4 about King Nebuchadnezzar being put out to pasture in a
very literal way

Nabonidus is making claims about the power

of his god Sin, Daniel is sitting there in the king's council, warning him that if he doesn't give proper respect to the God of Heaven, things will not go well for the kingdom. "Remember what happened to Nebuchadnez zar!" I can hear him saying. And pretty soon King Nabonidus says, "Where's this guy from, anyhow? Why do
we need him in the council? Give him a nice

That interpretation was fulfilled a year later. Those events took placethirty or forty years before the story in chapter 5, which we can
pinpoint to October of 539 B.C. And a lot of

waterhadgoneunder the bridge in Babylon in the meantime. Twenty-three years ago in 562, Nebuchadnezzar died after a 43-year reign. Things fell apart pretty fast for his dynasty after that. A son ruled for a couple of years before being overthrown by his brother-in-law, who reigned for four years and was replaced by his own son,who was quickly overthrown
in another coup that placed an unrelated ruler from northern Mesopotamia on the throne.
His name was Nabonidus.

retirement, and give us a little peace around

here!"

So Daniel was put out to pasture. And things did not go well for the kingdom. By 539 B.C. the end was in sight. Cyrus, the king of the Medes and Persians, was chasing the ragged remnants of the Babylonian army all over northern Mesopotamia, handing them one defeat after another, and Babylon itself was in danger of falling.
That's when Prince Belshazzar, who was

About a year after Nabonidus, who was a worshiper of the moon god Sin, took the

co-regent with his father, decided to throw a

party.

throne, there was a lunar eclipse, which he took as an omen that he ought to devote all
his religious attention to the moon instead of to Marduk, who up till then had been the chief god of the Babylonians.

You've heard of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned. Well, as the Persian army

approached Belshazzar's palace, he spent the night drinking himself under the table.
And that's when the God of Heaven decided

Sometime during all that political turmoil, Daniel was shoved aside, put out to pasture, and told that his services were no longer needed in the government. Likely because

he had continued to speak up for the God of

Heaven during a time when there was a lot of

to "speak up for Himself" one last time in the Babylonian palace. Only this time He didn't "speak up," but "wrote up." Daniel, chapter 5 describes the scene at Belshazzar's party this way: "They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood
and stone.

religious conflict associated with the change

of dynasties.

I can almost hear Daniel, can't you?When

"Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lamp-

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stand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing" (Daniel 5:4,5, NASB). Now, even when you're drunk, an adrenaline rush can make you feel sober for a bit, I guess.

Daniel, you probably can guess what hap

pened next. Daniel was invited to the party,

and he read the handwriting on the wall. There's a fascinating tidbit hidden in this

So I don't doubt that Belshazzar was suddenly

pretty sober.

What happened next is like a litany from earlier chapters in Daniel. This scenario plays
out over and over again. Belshazzar calls all his wise men and soothsayers, but they won't tell him what the handwriting on the wall means. Apparently it was written in pretty plain Aramaicthe national language of Babylon. But the king's wise guys couldn't (or wouldn't?) figure out what it meant. They had a pretty poor track record anyhow, when it came to interpreting omens that bore bad news for the monarch. They weren't exactly the most cou rageous bunch of counselors a king ever had.
A situation like this called for a man of real

story that most people don't notice. Daniel 5:3 says that while the Babylonians were partying, they brought the golden items that had been taken from the Jewish temple in Jerusalem 47 years earlier,and actually drank out ofthe holy
vessels. And notice this: in verse 5 it says that

the mysterious fingers began writing opposite the lampstand. What lampstand? Most likely
the seven-branched candlestickthe meno-

rahthat had been brought from Jerusalem.

There's a special significance to that, I think. The Babylonian wise men weren't able to dis
cern the handwriting on the wall, even though it was illuminated by God's holy lampstand. But when Daniel came, he was enlightened by

courage. A man with a prophet's candor. A

man like Daniel.

Belshazzar, however, had to be reminded

about Daniel by the queen-mother. She told her son:""There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father... the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans
and diviners. This was because an extraordi

God's Holy Spirit, and he could read the writ ing illuminated by the same lamp. There's a powerful spiritual lesson here, about being in tune with God's Holy Spirit, don't you think? And not only was Daniel able to read the writing, he wasn't afraid to tell the king what it meant. In fact, even before he read the words, he rebuked the king for exalting himself and not honoring the God of Heaven.
Then he turned to the words on the wall

nary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpreta tion of dreams, explanation of enigmas and solving of difficult problems were found in
this Daniel.... Let Daniel now be summoned

and read,"*Now this is the inscription that was

written out:"MENE, MENE,TEKEL, UPHARSIN."

and he will declare the interpretation'"(Daniel

5:11-12, NASB). Well, if you've read the earlier stories about

This is the interpretation of the message: "MENE" God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. "TEKEL"you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. "PERES" your kingdom has been divided

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and given over to the Medes and Persians'"

(Daniel 5:25-28, NASB).

This probably wasn't exactly a news flash to Belshazzar. Everyone in town probably knew by then that the Babylonian kingdom was on its last legs. In fact, it's likely Belshazzar threw the party described in Daniel 5 as his final hurrah, know ing there wouldn't be any more chances to party after that night. And he was right. That very night the city fell to the invaders, and Belshazzar lost his life. But only after exalt ing Daniel to the rank of third ruler of the kingdom. Remember, Belshazzar was coregent

spiritual insight. And we need to be coura geousdare to be a Danieland stand up for what we know is right. Daniel did that throughout his long life, and he was rewarded both by God, and by earthly monarchs, for being the kind of man, and the
kind of counselor, who could be trusted. But

daring to be a Daniel can be dangerous, too. As

Daniel learned in the story found in chapter 6.

with his fatherhe was only second ruler himself, and that's why he made Daniel the third most powerful man in the kingdom. For one night only. Because the kingdom fell that very night.
Now, I promised at the beginning, to tell you why Smith Thammasaroi had an experi ence that parallels Daniel's. Smith, also, was a bit of a prophet of doom. He was put out to pasture in 1998 for issuing a warning that
forced evacuation of Thailand's beach resorts

after a tsunami hit New Guinea. Fortunately for Thailand, no deadly wave hit that time. But unfortunately Smith was criticized and driven out of office for issuing the warning. But in 2004, you probably remember, the story was different. Thousands died when a massive tsunami swept over the beaches
around Phuket, Thailand. And Smith and his

warnings suddenly had new value.

Predicting the future is difficult. It's best left

up to God, and people with spiritual insight

like Daniel. But as Christians we need to seek

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Chapter 6

A Life Well Lived

(Daniel 6)

' o you have any idea what it's like to be Do

devoured by a lion? How about what it's like to be eaten up in office politics? We're looking at stories about the biblical

prophet Daniel, and in chapter 6 we find one

of the best-known stories about this famous

Bible hero: the story of his adventure in the

lion's den.

I have a feeling Daniel had a pretty good idea what it might feel like to be eaten by a lion. It seems tossing people to big cats may have been a regular sport in ancient Babylonwhy
else would the lion's den be there? So the idea

of being devoured by one of the felines wasn't just an academic curiosity to the people. They'd probably heard the screams coming from that neighborhood on a regular basis. You've probably heard the story: When Daniel insisted on praying to his God even

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though it was against the law, he was faced with the very real prospect of becoming the
main course for a pride of pretty hungry cats. Just to give you a little feeling for what Daniel was facing, here's a bit of a description
of what it feels like to be attacked by a moun tain lion, taken from the book The Survivor's
Club:

square inch. If you clench really hard, you can increase the pressure to 170 pounds. For com

parison, a Labradorretriever bites with a force

of around 150 pounds. Now consider a moun
tain lion, which has a bite force of around 940

I'm in big trouble. Those were Anne Hjeiles first thoughts when she saw a flash of fur over her right shoulder. Mountain biking along a twisting trail in Foothill Ranch, California, she thought she had startled a deer. If only. In a streak of speed and force, a creature pounced
on her from the brush, knocked her off her

pounds. Typically, cougars kill smaller prey with a death bite at the base of the skull, snap ping the neck and spinal cord. If that doesn't work, they go for the jugular and windpipe. Their victims usually bleed out or suffocate,

bike, and plunged its fangs into the back of

her neck.

The impact was incredibly powerful. Anne weighed 125 pounds, and she would later
learn the lion was 122 pounds. Cougarsas

and it's over very fast.l That's scary. Scary enough to dissuade me from doing most things that might get me thrown to the lions. But not scary enough to make Daniel stop praying. I wonder if I would have had the courage of Daniel if it had been me in his sandals. I hope I would have. Daniel, however, wasn't actually eaten by
lions. But he didn't know for sure that he

wouldn't be, that night when King Darius had

him thrown in the den.

they're also knowntake down big prey with a body slam. Anne was thirty years old, five foot four, a personal fitness trainer and a selfdescribed tomboy, but in the animal's clutches she felt like a rag doll. "He's got complete power over you," she says. On the ground,
the lion attacked the back of her neck below

her bike helmet and quickly worked its jaws toward her face. She felt its fangs open and close, shifting slighdy each time, angling for
her throat and the kill.

What Daniel did experience was something that's still familiar in the world today: Religious persecution, and office politics. He was swal lowed up in an office coup that went way over the top. Here's a little background: After the events related in chapter 5, the kingdom of Babylon was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. And there was a short interval during which
a manidentified in Daniel as Darius the

The lion's two upper fangs broke her nose and punctured her upper lip. The bottom fangs pierced her cheek closer to her ear. "As he clamped down," she says,"I knew that he just basically tore my face off.... If you bite into an ear of corn, the masticatory muscles in your jaw compress your teeth to exert around sixty-eight pounds of force per

Medewas placed in charge of the city, appar ently before Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, took on the title of King of Babylon. Daniel refers to him as King Dariushe may actually have been a Median general who briefly ruled Babylon.2 Things were no doubt moving very fast

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as the government was reorganized under

Darius. History reveals that the citizens of Babylon actually welcomed their Persian con querors as liberatorsthe religious turmoil of recent years when they had a king who didn't honor their chief god Maixluk had led to a lot of dissatisfaction with the government.

Here's what happened: "Now when Daniel knew that the document [forbidding peti tioning anyone but the king] was signed, he
entered his house (now in his roof chamber

Many of the Babylonian officials probably transitioned directly into positions in the new
dynasty Daniel was included, and he soon

he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously" (Daniel 6:10, NASB).

found his way to the very pinnacle of power.

Here's the account from Daniel 6: "It seemed

Daniel was probably close to 80 years old by this time. Why would he change his habits, just
to avoid being eaten by lions?

good to Darius to appoint 120 satrapsover the

kingdom...and over them three commission ers (of whom Daniel was one)...Then this

Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire king dom" (Daniel 6:1-3,NASB). That's when the office politics kicked in. The other officials started digging for dirt on Daniel. But they couldn't find any. The
one thing they noticed about him was that he prayed three times a day to the God of Israel.

There's an old question that I think about from time to time: Ifyou were placed on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convictyou? It's a question worth pondering. If you're a Christian, what is there about your life that distinguishes you from people around you? What distinguished Daniel was his totally
consistent walk with his God. His faithful

And they decided to try to use that against him. Going behind his back, they persuaded Darius to sign a decree forbidding anyone
to present a petition to anyone but the king
himself.

prayer life. His devoted thankfulness to the King of the Universe that couldn't be hindered, even by a decree from the King of Babylon. You can imagine what happened next. Daniel's enemies reported his clandestine petitioning of God to the king. And try as he might, the king could find no loopholes in the law. He had no options but to obey the decree he himself had signed. He had to throw Daniel
into the lions' den.

Then they staked out Daniel's apartment.

What do you suppose Daniel did? We've seen his courage demonstrated in each of the

He and Daniel hadn't been acquainted for

very long, but Daniel must have had some

good talks about God with Darius. Because at the mouth of the den, just before they tossed Daniel in, Darius gave a testimony much like the one Daniel's three friends gave before they

earlier stories in the book of Daniel. Do you

suppose he would cave under that kind of

pressureeven if he had to risk being thrown

in the lions' den?

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were thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). He said,atYoiir God, whom you serve continu ally, He will deliver you'" (Daniel 6:16, NKJV). Daniel spent the night in the lions' den. The king was so worried about him that he didn't sleep a wink, and he was up at the crack of dawn looking for his favorite servant. And
his faith in Daniel's God was rewarded. When

Notes

he called down into the den, Daniel quickly answered back:"'0 king, live forever! My God
sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have committed no crime'"

Chapter 1: What to Do When Your World Falls Apart 1. Marilyn Elias,"There's a recipe for resilience," USATODAY,
6-2&05.

2. Ben Sherwood, The Survivors Cluh.TheSecrets and

Science That Could Save Your Life, Grand Central Publishing, eBook edition, January 2009, location 1950.

Chapter 3: Trusting God

1. Sherwood, The Survivors Club, location 2085-2094.

(Daniel 6:21,22, NASB).

Daniel was a man of faith. He had served his

god faithfully all his life. And he had served

Chapter 4: The Perils of Pride

each of his monarchs faithfully, even though he had been taken away from his own king dom and enslaved at an early age. He never resorted to negativity or revengeeven when office politics turned really dirty. There's an old song I used to love to sing as a child. The chorus went something like this:
"Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone. Dare

1. Simo Paropla,ttSons of God,"Archaeology Odyssey 2, no. 5

(1999).
2. Ibid.

Chapter 6: A LifeWell lived

1. Sherwood, The Survivors Club, location 1872-1913.
2. See William H. Shea,"The Search for Darius the Mede (concluded) or The Time of the Answer to Daniel's

Prayer and the Date of the Death of Darius the Mede,"

to have a purpose true, and Dare to make it

known."

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 12,no. 1

(Spring 2001): 97-105.

Have I lived up to that song's challenge? Not always. But I still sing it in my heart.

And I still purpose, like Daniel, to always

stand true to my God. It's a worthy goal. One I recommend to you, as well, even if it seems like the world is Ming apart all around you. You can still stand true to God. And you'll be glad you did.

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