GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 2:21-23
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Daniel’s prayer continues as he praises God (1) for his absolute authority over time, seasons (or eras), and over kings, (2) for his distribution of wisdom and knowledge, (3) for revealing what is hidden, (4) and for giving him, Daniel, the answer to the king’s request: The dream of the king and its meaning.
21 He changes the times and the seasons;
he removes kings and he sets kings up.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who show understanding.
22 He reveals deep things and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and light dwells with him.
23 I thank you and praise you,
O God of my fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me now
what we asked of you,
you have made known to us
the dream of the king.”
God has absolute authority over time, seasons (or eras), and over kings. We have already remembered in our study of Daniel that we are to be obedient to the secular government because it has been established by God (Romans 13:1). There is no government that is not from God. But here and in a few other places, the government is taken down a peg, being reminded that God is also the one “who removes kings” and sets others up in their place. And Jesus said to Pilate, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). So while mankind owes obedience to its earthly rulers, those rulers must humbly submit themselves to the Lord. They must delight in servants and advisors that are wise, not just those who will agree with everything they say (Proverbs 14:35). They must strive for justice and stability and not be greedy for bribes (Proverbs 29:4). They must judge the poor and helpless with fairness and not with an iron fist (Proverbs 29:14). They must not be foolish and ignore warnings (Ecclesiastes 4:13).
God is the one who distributes wisdom and knowledge. The wisdom of God is, at its center, the salvation of mankind; the redemption of our sins through Jesus Christ. This was known in an incomplete and shadowy way in the Old Testament, but his people knew that he would rescue them from sin through a Savior who would defeat Satan and his power (Genesis 3:15), and that this Savior would come from the line of Jacob (Numbers 24:17) and indeed from the line of Judah and from the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2-5). But God’s wisdom is not limited (if we may use such a phrase) to our salvation, for his wisdom was in operation and one of his attributes before the Fall and even in eternity. Therefore God’s wisdom also means (1) God sets complete purposes and complete means for the accomplishment of those purposes (some of these are in the lives of mankind, but some deal with plants, animals, minerals, the waterways, and the stones, gasses and ice of other worlds and stars), (2) God created man for the two highest purposes, that man should be blessed by God, and that he himself should be glorified, and (3) in the creation of man in the image of God (but not equal with God) there was what we might call a distant possibility of the fall, although this was not his intention. Nevertheless, like a parent observing that his toddler might toddle and tip and fall down, he destined a possibility to reach the original purpose of mankind, for all people, in the provision of redemption. In Scripture this is praised as the fullness of the highest wisdom (Romans 11:2; 11:33).
God reveals what is hidden. This includes man’s sin (Psalm 69:5, “my guilt is not hidden from you”), and every deed, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14). He will also expose men’s motives for the things that they say, think and do in the final judgment (1 Corinthians 4:5). But Daniel is speaking of the dream in this case, something provided by God but not understood by man until it was revealed at a later time. This sort of hidden knowledge is first seen with God teaching Adam and Eve that there was a better way to clothe themselves than with leaves (Genesis 3:21), and continues through every development and so-called discovery to this day, social, intellectual, linguistic, culinary, scientific, mechanical, and in all other things.
God gave Daniel the answer to the king’s request: The dream of the king and its meaning. Daniel praises God by calling him “God of my fathers.” As a Jew, that is, a man of Judah and of noble birth, who does Daniel count as his ancestors? We do not have his genealogy before us. Still, Psalm 68 pictures “the great throng of Judah’s princes” (68:27). What man of Judah would not be willing in some way to count David as an ancestor, spiritually if not actually a physical ancestor? But it’s likely that David was a physical ancestor of Daniel the young prince turned wise man. And therefore the wise men of Judah who loved and served the Lord also include Jesse, Boaz, Judah himself, and without a doubt Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, all of them great men of faith.
The young prophet’s delight in God’s answer to his prayer is a model for us to learn from. Would that we all would understand just how miraculous it is when God answers our prayers, sometimes by something as ordinary as helping us find our lost keys, but other times as spectacular as giving to us a loving spouse, a living baby of our own, an animal that looks to us and adores us and depends upon us, or even a divine call into the holy ministry. His name shall be praised for all eternity, for he has forgiven our sins, and given to us a place with him forever in heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Something extra
Listen or watch Bible classes online. https://splnewulm.org/invisible-church/
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 2:21-23 The wisdom of God