To Live is Christ — trusting in God’s sovereign power

Knowing God is sovereign changes my view of oppression. I dare not say this too lightly. I live in the free world under a democratic government. My community encourages freedom. The neighbors are good people. My husband does not beat on me. I can vote. I know very little of oppression by experience. But I can make that statement because of what Daniel knew.

Daniel was one of the thousands taken from ancient Israel into captivity in Babylon. Because he found favor, he was placed in the palace to learn Chaldean customs. Because God gave him and his three friends knowledge, skill and wisdom, Daniel was given special privilege. However, he was still a captive and still under the thumb of a foreign ruler.

Daniel could have grumbled and resisted. He could have bad-mouthed the king of Babylon and refused to do what was asked of him. However, Daniel did not do this. Maybe he remembered the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. (Jeremiah 29:4–7)

Daniel’s understanding of God’s thinking came out when he became the only one who could interpret a dream of the king and the only one able to save the lives of the king’s “wise men.” As the story unfolds, Daniel was quick to praise God for revealing the dream and its meaning to him . . . 

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; 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 demand. (Daniel 2:20–23)

One line in this prayer of praise explains Daniel’s view of God’s sovereignty concerning his oppression, “He removes kings and raises up kings.” He knew that the king was there by the design of God. That meant any treatment received under that hand of that king found its first source in a sovereign God who could dethrone that king anytime He wanted. Instead of seeking freedom and captivity, Daniel relied on God to use this situation in ways that would bring Him glory.

This dream was not the only instance where God’s sovereignty played a part in Israel’s oppression. Later, under the same king, Daniel’s three friends were tossed into a blazing furnace. However, they were not hurt. Not only that, the king said, “Look, I see four men loosed, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” When the three were released without even a hair singed, the king declared, 

Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this. (Daniel 3:28–29)

Two kings later, Daniel is still around but still oppressed. This time he was thrown in a den of hungry lions because the king had been tricked by his governors to pass a law against prayer. He was not happy that Daniel had violated that law and would die. He said, “Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you” (Daniel 6:16).

God did deliver Daniel. The king “was exceedingly glad for him” (6:23) and made a decree that, “in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel” (6:26).

Because Daniel held firm to his faith in the sovereignty of God, even while in captivity and under threat, the kings that held him captive became aware of the power of God. The third one, Darius, said, “For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, and has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (6:26-27)

I may never be tossed into a furnace or a den of lions, or suffer any sort of oppression like Daniel and his friends did, but if I do, I want to remember that God sets up those in power and also removes them. I can trust Him to take care of anyone or anything that seems to have power over me because, like Daniel, I know the One who is in control over all things, including oppression and oppressors.