Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Sep 12 2019 - Daniel 2:1-23 – Nebuchadnezzar's dream

Nebuchadnezzar was having troubling dreams. He wanted to understand what they meant, but it seems that when he had asked his "magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers" on previous occasions to provide him with the meaning of his dreams they had responded with a lot of misleading nonsense (v.9). The king therefore hit on a plan to test whether they really had an understanding of mysteries or were just charlatans. He called them in and demanded that they tell him both his dream and its meaning. If they can do this he will know that they have supernatural knowledge and will trust their interpretation and reward them richly. If they cannot tell him his dream, he will have them cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble.

The "magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers" protested that what the king asked of them was impossible:

There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans. (verses 10-11)

So the king ordered that all the wise men of Babylon should be put to death.

It is interesting to note that Daniel and his companions were not among the king's "magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers", but were counted among the wise men of Babylon. So when Daniel heard of the king's decree and understood why it was being enacted, he "went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him". He hoped not only to save his own life and those of his friends, but also the lives of the "magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers" of Babylon.

The magicians etc. had told the king that no-one could tell him his dream. Only the gods could reveal such a thing, "and they do not live among humans." What an admission for them to make. For all their pretence to spiritual knowledge they have to admit that the gods are unknown to them. Daniel, on the other hand, knows the living God, the God who created heaven and earth and who sustains all things by his own mighty power. He knows that his God can reveal the king's dream and also reveal its meaning. So he asks the king for time to speak with God.

Daniel asks his friends to join him in seeking God's face in prayer. There is power in the united, corporate prayer of the people of God. God answers their prayer by making known to Daniel the dream that he, the living God, had given to the king. Not only that, he reveals its meaning. Daniel then praises God for his wisdom and power (vv.20-23).

Now we should not imagine that all dreams are intended as revelations from God which require only that we have the wisdom to understand them. I sometimes have very strange dreams which are clearly the product of my fevered brain in weaving together scenes and people from my life in the past with odd imaginations and fears concerning the future. This dream, however, was given by God to the king and, like those given to Pharaoh in the days of Joseph, was given for a reason.

We have even more cause for praising God than Daniel. We rejoice that God has not remained far off and unknowable but came to live amongst humans in the person of Jesus Christ. He has made God known and demonstrated that the living God loves us, cares for us, and wants us to know and love him. He calls us to give the lie to the opinion of this world that the gods do not live among humans; Christ calls us to share the good news that God has loved us and come to us in Jesus.

Father God, give us the wisdom to speak to those who do not know you. Give us the words to speak and the ability to speak with grace of you and of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Use our words to save many from fear and from death.

Sep 12 2020 - Matthew 15:1-28 – The tradition of the elders

The Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus why his disciples did not observe the tradition of the elders; they did not ceremonially wash their hands before they ate. In reply, Jesus exposes their hypocrisy. He shows that they have developed traditions which undermine the commands of God and excuse people from their obligations towards family, obligations that God has laid down in his word; "Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Matthew 15:6).

We all have our traditions. We have ways of reading the Word of God which have been handed down to us, ways of reading which we have learnt or absorbed from others. This is not a bad thing, it is inevitable. Indeed, those who treasure Scripture most will be those whose traditions are most highly developed – they are our "theology", our way of reading the Bible. We do not read the Bible alone; we read it from within the community that has read it down the centuries and is reading it with us today. We read and hear it with the eyes and ears of our community of faith – how many will tell you that "the eye of a needle" was a very small gate in the walls of Jerusalem?

This is both a blessing and a danger. It is a blessing inasmuch as we learn from and with those who have gone before us. We are the heirs of their collective wisdom, and for this we give thanks to God. But it is a danger inasmuch as it is all too easy to blunt the edge of the Word of God through the myriad of explanations and qualifications that are passed down to us. The voice of God may become muffled, sometimes even silenced, by the overlay of our traditions.

We need to seek continually to hear the word of God afresh. We need to be like the Bereans who listened to the preaching of Paul; to value those who have helped us to understand the Word of God, but also to be always searching and studying the Scriptures to check that what they have taught us is faithful to the word – that it acts as a hearing aid rather than ear protectors.

Sadly, the re-examination of our traditions can often be viewed as threatening by those who cherish them most. To question how our party has interpreted the Word of God on a particular matter may be seen by the party faithful as the questioning of God himself. It is desperately sad when such party-spirit prevents people from allowing God to speak for himself – he must always speak through his self-appointed spokesmen.

The need to hear afresh what God is saying is never more necessary than when we come to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus says difficult things which continually challenge our settled lives. He will not allow us to become comfortable in our traditions; he demands that we examine the character of our hearts and the way we act towards and speak with one another. He calls us to be a pilgrim people, a transformed, transforming and transformative community. We need always to listen afresh to the words of Jesus and seek the help of his Spirit to hear his voice and go on following him.

Open my ears, Lord, to hear what you are saying to me from your Word. Let me feed on the crumbs that fall from the master’s table and dare even to sit at the table and feast with you. Keep me from a critical spirit that easily dismisses the views of others. Help me rather to continually re-examine my own heart that it may be cleansed by your Spirit and that it may be the source of words and actions that reflect the beauty and grace of your own life within me. Keep me following you closely in the fellowship of your disciples.

Peter Misselbrook