Character revealed by trial.
Critical moments are tests of character, In this incident the leading features of three distinct classes of character are clearly revealed.
I. THE CONDUCT OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR REVEALS THE EVIL CHARACTER or TYRANNY.
1. It is selfish. Though the charge of a vast empire is entrusted to him, the king exercises, is irresponsible power of life and death simply for his own convenience.
2. It is unreasonable. Nebuchadnezzar not only asks for the interpretation, he demands the recovery of his forgotten dream. Whenever great authority is not balanced by an equivalent intelligence, the result must be some such issue of most unreasonable commands.
3. It is cruel. For failing to meet the king's preposterous demand, the Chaldeans are to be hewn in pieces. Even those junior members, such as Daniel and his three companions, who were not consulted, are to suffer the same fate. Thus the isolation of supreme rank and irresponsible power tends to destroy that sympathy which is dependent on the feeling of fellowship.
4. It is suicidal, in the madness of his disappointment, the king is about to kill the man who subsequently proves to be his best friend. Selfishness is often blind to its highest interest. Cruelty reverts on the head of its author.
II. THE CONDUCT OF THE CHALDEANS EXPOSES THE WEAKNESS OF PRETENSIONS TO MAGICAL POWER. If the dream had been given, these men would have offered an interpretation, though probably one of Delphic ambiguity. But when the demand is for the exercise and test of a distinctly supernatural faculty, they fail. We may note, in reference to the pretensions to second sight of such men and their modern successors, that:
1. They fail before the crucial test which plainly requires supernatural powers. They are too vague for this.
2. They are of no practical interest. Trivial secrets may appear to be revealed, but mysteries of serious importance remain unsolved.
3. Instead of increasing religious faith, they discourage it. The Chaldeans say that what the king requires can be done only by "the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh," thus implying that these gods make no revelation to men, and have no contact with them. Contrast their godless divination with Daniel's higher power of divination, which he attributes solely to the revealing grace of his God.
III. THE CONDUCT OF DANIEL EXHIBITS THE EXCELLENCY OF DEVOUT WISDOM UNDER SEVERE TRIAL.
1. It has immediate recourse to prayer. Daniel deer not pretend to solve the mystery by the force of his own wisdom. He at once invokes the help of God. In the method and object of his prayer his action is a medal of devout wisdom. Thus
2. Devout wisdom finds its greatest strength in the greatest trial. If it had not been for the king's savage threat, Daniel might have been long in developing his gifts and realizing his mission. The danger brings him out of obscurity, and compels him to exercise the Divine faculties which are entrusted to him. If we have the right spirit in us to appreciate the opportunities they afford, we shall often find that the extremities and emergencies of life are, under the providence of God, the very means by which his best gifts and graces are made to fructify. Their greatest excellency is in their capacity to shine brightest under the hardest trials.