SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD
I am wondering, dear brethren, if Daniel 6, verse 10, gives us the secret of Daniel’s faithfulness from the very beginning. He was carried away in the first captivity, that is, he went through the whole seventy years of the captivity. He must have been about ninety, I suppose, when the recovery took place. But he is one of the princes, one of the nobility, not only was he born one of the nobility but he was morally one of the nobles of Israel. He was carried captive, a teenager I suppose, a youth, and his faithfulness was remarkable all through. What caused him to refuse the king’s delicate food and to prescribe the pulse and water? I think we get the secret in this chapter 6, where it says, “he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem”. That is, they would not be windows like we have now, they did not open as windows, these windows apparently were always open toward Jerusalem, he had this kind of outlook. Jerusalem was not destroyed when Daniel was carried captive, it was not destroyed until some years afterwards due to the unfaithfulness of the king Zedekiah. So he would recall Jerusalem as he left it, and no doubt the house of God was intact, but his windows being open toward Jerusalem, that was his outlook, and it says, “he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God”.
That is, he had Jerusalem in mind, but then he knew his God, and that is a very important matter, he came before his God. They found no fault with him except in his relations with God, he was known as one who knew God. Now that is the most important thing we have, the knowledge of God. I remember a brother visiting another brother a few hours before he died, and his last words were, ‘The only thing we take with us is the knowledge of God’. How true that is! Daniel “kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime”. He had been accustomed to praying to his God. And it says, “But those men came in a body, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God”. That is piety, knowing God, living in the fear of God, living consciously under the eye of God, that was the secret of Daniel’s course; why he refused the king’s delicate food; why he selected the pulse and water; how he was able to approach God with his companions, and then get the secret of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The secret was that he had a secret link with God. When I was young we used to hear often about soul history with God. We do not hear so much about it now, and that is a pity. Daniel had soul history with God and nothing replaces that, nothing makes up for it. I suppose our knowledge of God is really our measure. We know God by being close to Him, by speaking to Him, praying to Him, getting answers to our prayers, depending on Him. Daniel knew his God. Paul in the shipwreck said, “an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve”, Acts 27: 23. Can we all be like that, more and more alone with God, and get to know Him, as Daniel did?
No doubt he increased in this. He began faithfully as a noble, a prince of the land, not only naturally but morally; he appeared before his God, and his outlook was Jerusalem. All these seventy years, he must have been interested in Jerusalem, in all that was going on there. But then later on he understood by the books that the time was about to come for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem, and he was before his God in chapter 9 in humility, he represented what the nation ought to. This is one who knows God and his aspect is toward Jerusalem. I suppose Jerusalem for us would be God’s chief interest. We often say it is the assembly. Then the assembly abstractly is one thing, but we are living in times of public confusion, public fragmentation. I suppose Jerusalem would be for us, “let us go forth to him without the camp” (Heb 13: 13), it is where the Lord is, where the Spirit’s voice is heard and where the Lord’s rights are recognised, where God is rightly and suitably served. I suppose for us that would be Jerusalem; that is to be our chief interest, the centre of our interests, and to govern us in all our activities.
So may the Lord help us, especially in this matter of our knowledge of God, growing by the true knowledge of God and having this outlook. We often speak about the assembly abstractly, but then there is nothing for the Lord’s heart in what is abstract. What is for the Lord’s heart is in what is actual, in affection and reality. Let us be interested with our outlook toward what the Lord is doing at the present time. The Spirit is operating in order that the Spirit and the bride may say, Come. We are living in the last days of the dispensation, I am sure, when the Spirit is putting the finishing touches to the assembly. Let us have our outlook in that direction and increase in the knowledge of God, for the Lord’s Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
14th December 1993
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