Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; For wisdom and might are his.
Daniel and his three friends had prayed about a secret no one could recover — a dream the king had forgotten and would kill for. God answered in a night vision, and Daniel's first move was not to the palace but to praise.
Daniel now had the answer the king had demanded. Where does he go first?
As Daniel in faith took the initiative, though all four joined in prayer, God singled out Daniel. What happens then? Does he at once rush off to the king? He turns to God in thanksgiving. "Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven." As he had looked to Him alone, so he renders the glory to God only.
One writer turns this into a warning for anyone who has just received what they asked for.
When blessings come there is often a tendency to fall at once to enjoying them instead of tracing them back, as Daniel did, to the heart of God.
The Bible reports that Daniel prayed but never gives us the words. His thanks are a different matter.
God so values the gratitude of His people that, although He has not revealed the words of the prayer, He has left on record the exact words of the praise. As in the prayer the Lord gave His disciples at a later day, so in Daniel's praise, the Name of God comes first. "Blessed be the Name of God forever and ever," says Daniel; "Hallowed be Your Name" are the words of the Lord.
Daniel gives a reason for the blessing: wisdom and might. Weigh those two words against the men in the story.
Then Daniel ascribes to God "wisdom and might." Nebuchadnezzar had a measure of might but lacked wisdom. The Chaldeans had a measure of wisdom but no might. With the God of heaven there is absolute wisdom together with absolute might.
Another writer draws out what follows from that, and why Daniel sets no end date on the praise.
He wants the praise he offers to be eternal, "from eternity to eternity," as what is due to Him who gladly revealed Himself to His people. He then gives a reason — "Wisdom and might are His." A simple statement, but how deep! For if wisdom and might are God's, you will find them nowhere else, and it is useless to turn to anyone but God for them.
Daniel was a captive. Read his praise against the history that put him in Babylon.
He was living in an age when God had been changing "the times and the seasons." God had also been removing kings and setting up kings. This showed that wisdom and might are His. God had removed the kings of David's line and set up Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel bowed to this and even blessed God as he acknowledged it.
The answer came to Daniel alone, in a night vision. His thanksgiving does not keep it that way.
"You have made known to me now what we desired of you." Mark that little word "we." He had sought the fellowship of his companions in prayer. In his thanks to God he includes them. He has a deep sense in his soul of how good it is to have to do with God.
Another writer listens to the opening line and hears what Daniel thought the task would cost God.
"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might." This was Daniel in effect saying to God, "This is a simple matter for you." God revealed the dream and gave the interpretation. What an instant answer this was to the prayer.
- Prayer — Daniel asked with his friends; the answer came to him alone, and his thanks still said "we."
- Pause — the answer could have saved his life at once. Daniel blessed God before he went to the king.
- Name — the first place in his praise goes to God's Name, as it does in the prayer the Lord later taught.
- Wisdom and might — Nebuchadnezzar had might without wisdom. The Chaldeans had wisdom without might. Both belong to God, so it is useless to seek them elsewhere.
- Forever — a captive blessed the God who had removed David's line and raised up Babylon, and asked that the praise never stop.
And it is he that changeth times and seasons; He deposeth kings, and setteth up kings; He giveth wisdom to the wise, And knowledge to them that know understanding.
God has just shown Daniel the king's forgotten dream. Before he takes the answer to the palace, Daniel stops to bless God — and his praise is not about his own rescue but about who runs history.
Daniel's first move after the answer came was worship. God took note of it.
God places great value on the gratitude of His people. He has not revealed the words of the prayer, but He has left the exact words of the praise on record. As in the prayer the Lord gave His disciples at a later day, Daniel's praise gives the first place to the Name of God. "Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever," says Daniel; "Hallowed be Your Name" are the words of the Lord.
The verse credits God with removing and installing rulers. One writer draws out what that leaves for the rulers themselves.
Next, he ascribes to God universal sovereignty: "He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings." The rulers of the earth may claim absolute power. Men may depose monarchs and set up governments by force of arms, or even by political movements. But neither the power nor the wisdom is theirs. They are only the blind instruments of God's will. Once you recognise the sovereignty of God, as Daniel did, you can rest in perfect peace, whatever the times you live in and however threatening public affairs look.
Daniel's own book records one such change of ruler, and it happened in a single night.
Kings may be powerful, mighty and strong. They may boast in their strength, their armies and their wealth. But God can remove a king overnight and replace him with another, as He did in Daniel 5:30-31. How small man is in the presence of God!
So what do "times and seasons" cover? Two passages tie the phrase down.
Daniel 2:21 shows us that "the times and seasons" have to do with God's government of the earth. Acts 1:6-7 shows that they have to do with the restoring of the kingdom to Israel.
Daniel did not merely accept the fall of David's royal line. He blessed God for it.
He was living in an era when God had been changing "the times and the seasons." God had also been removing kings and setting up kings, showing that wisdom and might are His. The removing of the kings of David's line and the setting up of Nebuchadnezzar had been acts of God. Daniel bowed to this and even blessed God as he acknowledged it.
That handover opened a long era, and it shaped even the name Daniel uses for God throughout his book.
As soon as the people had gone into captivity, God hands the "sword" of government over to the Gentile king, and the "times of the Gentiles" begin... During the times of the Gentiles, God takes the title "God of heaven." We see this all through the Book of Daniel, which deals with these times.
Why would God give wisdom to people who are already wise? One writer notes that this half of the verse, not the toppling of thrones, is where Daniel's heart lingers.
In his outburst of praise he brings out the mind of God. This is not so much about His power, though it is true that "He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings." What his heart dwells on is this: "He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding." I call your attention to the words... Daniel is speaking of His ways with those whose hearts are towards Him. For them the Lord's principle is: "For to everyone who has will more be given... but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
If God changes times and removes kings, the obvious question is whether anything stands still.
It is well for suffering saints to know that God holds the reins... In working out His ways, He may change the times and the seasons and remove kings and set up kings. He may even go back on what we speak of as the laws of nature, but never for one moment has He changed His word.
- He changes — times, seasons and thrones are all in God's hand. Rulers think they move history; in fact God moves them.
- He changed — the fall of David's line and the rise of Nebuchadnezzar were His acts. They opened the era in which He takes the title "God of heaven."
- He gives — the same God who moves empires hands out wisdom, and He gives it to hearts already turned toward Him.
- He never changes — nature may bend and kings may fall overnight, but His word has never once been withdrawn.
- So bless Him first — Daniel worshipped before he went to the king, and God kept the exact words of that praise on record.
It is he that revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
Babylon's whole class of wise men could not tell the king his dream, but God gave the answer to Daniel. Before he goes near the king, Daniel sings, and this verse is the heart of his song.
The verse sits inside a list of things only God can do:
God is sovereign. He can change the times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. If He wills, He can also give wisdom and knowledge to others, and reveal "deep and hidden things." Nothing is hidden from Him, for He knows all things: "He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him."
That "if He wills" matters. No one can force God's hand:
The deep and precious things of eternity are stored in the treasury of the Father's house. No human eye has seen them, and no human heart has known them. All "the secret things belong to the LORD our God" (Deut. 29:29), who reveals at His pleasure what He will to whomever He will.
The men closest to the throne could not produce the dream. A captive could. One writer shows why:
The magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans lived in the king's presence day after day. Yet they were all in the dark about the royal dream… But there was a God in heaven who knew all about it. He could unfold it to those who had faith enough, devotion enough, and self-denial enough to separate themselves from Babylon's pollutions, even though they were caught in Babylon's captivity. The mazes, the tangles, and the riddles of human affairs are all plain to God. He can make them plain to those who walk with Him, and He does.
The same writer traces this back to what God is:
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." So if we want light, we can find it only in His presence. And we can only know the power of His presence as we take, in practice, the place of separation from all the moral pollutions of earth.
The second half of the verse says more than "God sees well." One writer shows how far it goes:
He knows what is in the darkness, and the light itself dwells with Him: He dwells in it (1 Tim. 6:16); He is it (1 John 1:5); and He alone can command it to shine (2 Cor. 4:6). Daniel is in communion with the One who knows all things. So the dream and its meaning are no secret to him.
The same writer explains why trained minds so often miss what God says:
Anyone who hears it declared can understand repentance and forgiveness of sins, on the ground of the work of the cross. If the world did not have such a hold on people, they would believe it. But to enter into the deep thoughts of God, where true and eternal wisdom lies, needs a work done in the soul by the Divine Spirit, and the indwelling of that Spirit.
Daniel had the answer, and the king was waiting. He went elsewhere first.
He does not go directly to the king, nor even to his companions, to tell them that God has made known the dream to him. The first thing he does is to go to God. The God who has made known the secret is the One Daniel at once owns. He is in the place of one who worships God. And let me say, this is the grand object of all the revelations of God.
One writer presses the verse onto ordinary life:
"He reveals deep and hidden things." If we apply this to our own lives, are we resigned to the idea that there can be no improvement? Are we resigned to the idea that we cannot gain more power, or make more spiritual progress? Do we accept the weakness and failure that is there, or do we trust in the living God, because He can change things?
- Secret held. The deep and secret things belong to God; He gives them out at His pleasure, to whomever He chooses.
- Secret hidden. Babylon's best experts were in the dark. The puzzles of human affairs open only to those who walk with God.
- Secret sought. Entering God's deep thoughts is not a matter of ability; it needs a work done in the soul by the Spirit.
- Secret revealed. Nothing hides from Him in the dark. Light is not a tool He uses; it is where He lives and what He is.
- Secret answered. Daniel's first move was praise, not the palace. Worship is the aim of everything God reveals.
I thank thee, and I praise thee, O God of my fathers, Who hast given me wisdom and might, And hast made known unto me already what we desired of thee; For thou hast made known unto us the king's matter.
The secret had just been revealed to Daniel in a night vision, and the king was waiting. What he did with that moment says more about him than the answer itself did.
Daniel's course is beautiful. First he got hold of his brothers and had a prayer meeting. "He made the thing known to his companions" (v. 17). But his resource was God. Then he does not go straight off and tell everyone what he had learned. Instead, he has what I may venture to call a worship meeting. He comes and thanks the Lord. Very fine, this. There is a great moral lesson here.
The order matters. Thanksgiving came before the answer was put to work.
Fifthly, Daniel not only prays, but he gives thanks. He does not proceed to use the answer to his prayer without first giving thanks for this mercy.
Wisdom and might rarely sit in the same hands. Babylon had just proved it.
Then Daniel credits God with "wisdom and might." Nebuchadnezzar had a measure of might but lacked wisdom. The Chaldeans, Babylon's wise men, had a measure of wisdom but no might. With the God of heaven there is absolute wisdom with absolute might.
If both belong to God, that settles where a person in trouble should look — and where it is useless to look.
He then gives a reason — "Wisdom and might are His." A simple statement, but how profound! For if wisdom and might are God's, they are nowhere else to be found, and it is pointless to turn for them to anyone but God.
Daniel calls God "the God of my fathers." He says it as a captive, at a moment when that past looked finished. His nation's kings were gone, and a foreign king ruled him.
He was indeed living in an era when God had been changing "the times and the seasons." God had also been removing kings and setting up kings, showing that wisdom and might are His. The removing of the kings of David's line and the setting up of Nebuchadnezzar had been acts of God. Daniel bowed to this, and even blessed God as he acknowledged it.
The title he chooses is more personal than the one he started with.
In his thanksgiving he moves from the address "God of heaven" to the more intimate title, "God of my fathers." The God his fathers had known, and who had rescued them out of their troubles, is the One who had now stepped in for him.
The answer came to Daniel alone in the night, yet his thanks keep saying "we." He had gathered his three companions to pray, and he will not now take the answer as private property.
"You have now made known to me what we asked of You." Notice that little word "we," will you? He had sought the fellowship of his brothers in the matter of prayer, and in his thanks to God he takes his brothers in.
He does the same thing later in front of the king, and it exposes something rare in a gifted man.
He links his companions with himself before the king, just as he had already done before God in his thanksgiving. This is very lovely. It shows the unselfish humility and the generous heart of this "man greatly beloved."
Behind the thanksgiving stands the choice Daniel made hours earlier. He asked for time — not to think, but to pray.
The moment his life was at stake, the instant this difficulty came upon him and his companions, he says, "Give me time." For what? That they might make supplication to the God of heaven! They are dependent; they go to God about it… We behave far too much like Jacob. He made every arrangement with the skill of a tactician. He made himself perfectly safe first, as he thought — and then went and prayed! That is exactly what we do.
- Asked — Daniel prayed when nothing else was left to try. He bought time to go to God, not to arrange his own rescue first.
- Answered — The secret came in the night. Daniel's first move was to give thanks — before he used it, and before he went to the king.
- Attributed — Wisdom and might belong to God alone. The king had might without wisdom; the wise men had wisdom without might.
- Shared — He thanks God for what "we" asked, folding his three companions into an answer given to him alone.
- Anchored — In exile he calls God "the God of my fathers." He blesses the very God who removed his nation's kings and set up Nebuchadnezzar.