The court tales of the book of Daniel provided for intertestamental Jews (and for the early Christians) a pattern for encounter with foreign rule and also great comfort that the invincibility of the empires of the middle east was largely an illusion. Daniel and his friends witness in each case to the provisionality of the ruler’s rule, but do so in service of the ruler himself! The humour of the stories derives from the depiction of human power over-reaching itself and being thwarted, while Yhwh’s representatives appear completely unruffled. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue with feet of clay (Dan 2) is mysterious to his magicians and sorcerers and terrifies the mighty king who need fear no-one. It is the man of God to whom is given the insight and wisdom to interpret the meaning of the dream to the king: his role as a service to the king is to remind the king of his personal and political mortality. In the end, this king accepts this verdict, remarkably:
Daniel 2: 46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. 47 The king answered and said to Daniel, "Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery." 48 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court.
No doubt to hear Yhwh’s praises on the lips of a pagan tyrant was a delight to the book’s first audiences. There is no refusal from Daniel of the king’s homage, nor any sense that Daniel is merely out to protect the interest of the Jews in accepting his high position. Two stories (coupled together in the books chiastic structure) narrate the vulnerability and even the fall of pagan rulers (chapters 4 and 5). In chapters 3 and 6 we are given the two narratives of most interest to our theme: the fiery furnace and the lion’s den. In each instance, the ruler is tempted in his vanity to over-reach himself and demand not just homage but worship from his subjects. This is exactly what the servants of Yhwh cannot give him, though the cost is potentially very great. Their insistence on the truth that the sovereign Lord is the only appropriate focus of human worship in this way is a lesson gratefully learned by the rulers, who then decide that the truly loyal ministers of their government were in fact these Israelites – and that the native Babylonian advisors were finally deserving of the very punishment they had wished for Daniel and his friends. At issue, notably, is right worship, not a merely moral challenge of some kind. The young men give witness to the truth and reality of Yhwh’s rule, specifically. They do not go into the furnace, or into the lion’s cave, in order merely to critique and expose tyranny in its egotism and corruption. This indeed they do, but only as a corollary to their standing for the ultimate power and authority and worthiness of Yhwh as the supreme and sole object of human worship.
1 comment:
How do you see the visions in Daniel 7-12 relating to the narratives in 1-6? There are certainly many shared themes (the priority of the kingdom of the Most High (intgerestingly, 'Yhwh' is only mentioned in chapter 9), the beastliness of other kingdoms, the necessity of waiting for God's vindication, the hidden meaning of history, etc, etc).
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