GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 2:24-25
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Not every meditation on a passage of God’s Word will lead to a more thorough understanding of God’s saving plan. There are times when a pair of verses that serve to do little else than carry along an historical account will seem unimportant to many readers. But led by someone with some insight into the text and, by the grace of God, a small part of Godly wisdom, we can be led to more greatly appreciate the Word of God as a whole through such a study– for example, Daniel 2:24-25.
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said this to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Bring me to the king, and I will explain his dream for him.” 25 Arioch immediately brought Daniel to the king and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can explain the dream to the king.”
What a delight to be permitted to meditate on these verses today and to discover something I had never before considered (although I have in the past written a conference paper on the Aramaic text of this very chapter). When Daniel tells the hatchet man Arioch that he can both reveal the forgotten dream and explain it, Arioch promptly brings him to the king.
The word “immediately” should catch our eye. This curious word (an infinitive used, as usual, as a noun) carries the idea of a frightened haste, visually depicting the hurrier as one who suddenly tries to go two or three places at once, running this way and that way in his agitated state; it is a theatrical word (see also Daniel 3:24 and 6:20). The use of “immediately” tells us that he didn’t wait until morning. Daniel came right away, and without pausing the high executioner took the young Jew to see the king.
It is here that my “aha” moment struck today. Arioch introduces Daniel as “a man from among the exiles of Judah.” In the past, I have made it a point to show that “exile” here in Aramaic is our word “galoot,” a greeting among wandering Jews in the days of the American wild west (and certain cartoons). But far more important is the way Arioch introduces Daniel. As a member of the king’s royal police force and the chief executioner, he was not about the assume that this foreign child was known to the great King of Babylon, and therefore he does not bother to say anything that implies this. He is, in a word arrogant.
Here in Daniel this arrogance is something we simply pass over in the jumble of awkward and elaborate phrases in the often flowery Aramaic (it takes three words simply to say “then” in verse 24). But let’s remember this little lesson and turn back to 1 Samuel. After David kills Goliath, Saul’s men act like they have no idea who this child is. Abner haughtily proclaims, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know” (1 Samuel 17:55). Yet in the previous chapter, written by the same author (there is no reason to embrace any theory of multiple sources), Saul made David his armor-bearer because whenever a spirit would trouble Saul, “David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Such a strange inconsistency is best explained by the arrogance of the warriors in Saul’s service. Boy? What boy? What difference does a youth make? There’s no sense in getting to know a boy who has not yet proved himself in battle.” The important men of Israel are described as “the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night” (Song of Solomon 3:7-8).
David learned from watching these arrogant men all around King Saul. He himself embraced humility, always given credit to God and not to his own strength. “May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts” (Psalm 119:78). And the proud and the arrogant say, “ ‘How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?’ This is what the wicked are like” (Psalm 73:11-12).
The point I am trying to make is that the arguments that the critics use to make cracks in the walls of the sacred Scriptures are not based on evidence, not on the text, but on theories and sleight-of-hand. For two hundred years many of the greatest minds in Christianity fell into that bear trap or skepticism and text-criticism. For us, the result is a stronger and firmer faith in the Holy Word of God. The Bible stands, without error, without contradiction, the sacred Gospel of the forgiveness of mankind’s sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. “I have found a man among the exiles” indeed, O Arioch. Even your arrogance is useful to the Holy Spirit to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 2:24-25 When might arrogance be useful to God