There’s a reason the ‘mystery’ genre is so popular across all forms of media; who doesn’t love a good thrilling tale of someone encountering an impossible scenario and deducing their way to the truth? The draw of fiction’s most apt detectives & crime solvers is undeniable. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Humphrey Bogart’s performances as Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, Hanna-Barbera’s Mystery Inc. – all figures revolving around their keen sense of navigating danger & unraveling complex mysteries. I’d say one of the genre’s more satisfying qualities as well is the resolution – arriving at the solution at the end of the tale, and having the conflict wrap up nicely. If only real life worked the same way – if we were able to scrap together some clues and come up with a solution to any problem on our own. Unfortunately, as we all know, real life is not as smooth as these tales.
In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar is struck with a dream in his sleep that troubles him; he knows it is important, more than just an everyday dream, but he can not place his finger on what it means. He calls all the mystics in his kingdom to help under threat of punishment upon failing to prescribe its meaning, but they’re all as in the dark as he is. Ultimately, the task falls upon the resolutely faithful Daniel, held prisoner as a refugee of Babylon’s siege on Jerusalem. Daniel has one response to this request: turn to God, and seek the answers to the unknown in Him. And as Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, blessed with the wisdom from God to help, in Daniel 2:29: “To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and He who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be.”
How often do we come across questions in life that we can not answer on our own? Whether it be us having to ask ourselves the questions of how to handle our insurmountable problems? How to move on when we don’t know where life will take us nest? Or even where to get the motivation to get out of bed and face another day? When tasked with a burden we either don’t know how to handle, or know we can not handle, how do we solve the problem before us? Nebuchadnezzar’s mystics all reacted to this mysterious dream the same way: faced with something they could not overcome, they panicked at the newly revealed ignorance of things beyond their own understanding. Therein lies the doomed discovery of those who search for answers in this broken world: life is full of mysteries, difficult questions and answers that seem unfair and unreasonable… and if you rely on your own understanding, you will not find an answer, no matter how hard you look.
What a great example Daniel sets for us here, showing the difference between how we in Christ, and those not in Christ, can face such uncertainties. Tasked with something he could not understand on his own, Daniel knows wisdom in discerning truth beyond one own’s understanding can come only from God. His prayer of thanks in verses 20 to 24 elaborates beautifully upon what God reveals to His believers:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.
To you, O God of my fathers,
I give thanks and praise,
for you have given me wisdom and might,
and have now made known to me what we asked of you,
for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”
In our faith, when we must find answers to tough questions, we know when we come to God in prayer, He can provide a wisdom beyond our own. That movement in your heart that follows prayer, when you know God is telling you something important; listening for God’s word in those moments can stir us in a way our own rationale never could. We could never hope to understand from our own efforts, as Paul calls in Ephesians, “the mystery of His will.” Attempting to parse this meaning ourselves that only He could know surely results every time in the result Nebuchadnezzar’s mystics found: silence, fear, and threat of a hopeless death. But when we recognize and humble ourselves before God’s sovereign wisdom, we know He will equip us with understanding to see us through all of life’s mysteries. As Nebuchadnezzar puts it upon this realization: “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries.”
