The King's Demand is Impossible

“The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.” Daniel 2:11 NLT

Perhaps the most famous story from the book and life of Daniel, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, well exemplifies a common theme found even in the lesser thought of stories of his life: The Impossible.

Every chapter of Daniel outlines situation after situation in which Daniel or his band of brothers find themselves in high stake circumstances that seem impossible to overcome.

Right away we learn that the king of the time also operates quite impossibly. After a disturbing dream, King Nebuchadnezzar demands not only that his servants explain the dream’s meaning, but in a clever motive to ensure the integrity of their interpretation, he also demands they be able to tell the content of the dream.

We can be sure the most confident and well-versed astrologers, magicians, and enchanters of the time are at the king’s disposal, and yet even they have no smoke and mirrors to pull off this request. Coming up with an improvable interpretation is one thing, but conjecturing about the content of what the king dreamed? One wrong minor detail in their guess would mean immediate dismemberment and doom for their entire family. Their only defense is to confess to Nebuchadnezzar, “The king’s demand is impossible.” (Daniel 2:11)

And let us be clear, a “guess” is all that their explanation could be considered as, because they are merely human, and even with the most advanced scientific, astrological, or even spiritual attunement and wisdom, they are still limited when it comes to peering into the thoughts, heart, or subconscious of another human.

Daniel, on the other hand, is attuned to a different sovereignty, the Most High God, who knows all things. Not an illusion, not a system of creation, not a natural or even supernatural power, but the one and only, holy source.

Therefore, his confidence comes from the fact that his pursuit for answers is not a guess, but a prayer.

“Daniel went home and told his friends…what had happened. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret…” Daniel 2:17

The king’s demand is indeed impossible. No one could discern what another person has dreamt. But Daniel is not in the slightest deterred by this fact, for he believes with every fiber of his being that “impossible” is merely the grounds for where God is just getting started.

The human capacity for what is possible is limited. For most people, we learn to accept what is “normative” around us, and even our wildest dreams are still bound by invisible systems of conditioning and experience. But every once in a while, we see a breakthrough.

We see this in athletics, where records for speed or endurance are unattainable for a while - until someone breaks them, and then a phenomenon occurs whereby suddenly, many athletes are able to achieve the new record. It is as if someone just needed to prove it could be done for others to believe it was possible for them.

We see this in the breaking of generational cycles, where educational or financial barriers are broken only after someone in the family line sets a new standard, paving the way of possibility for their future descendants.

We see this in advancements made in fields such as science, technology, and medicine. Strides in these areas often require out of the box thinkers who are willing to persevere beyond doubt and sometimes point blank defy what is currently considered possible.

But Daniel did not stand around and wait for someone to prove that God could or would or should reveal the contents of an inner life. The condition of his faith was such that he already believed it was possible.

And here is where I desire for Daniel’s faith to crack mine wide open. No longer do I want to place parameters on what is possible for God. It is not that we mean to, but our human instincts for survival, both physical and social, tend to curb what we think is able to be achieved, particularly through prayer alone. Too often I have put God in a box and settled for an operational definition of his work in our world.

Meanwhile all around us, we see the sun is rising, the flowers are blooming, the sparrows are cared for, the ocean tides roll on, creation remakes itself after flood and fire, drought and monsoon, and season after season the natural world testifies POSSIBILITY.

Meanwhile all around us, tragedy strikes and communities flock to aid the vulnerable. Despite deep grief, we see mourners praise God for grace and salvation, we see the ones who have every right to be angry and vengeful choose peace instead. Hope and love persist beyond the horrors of our society in a way that testifies POSSIBILITY.

And I just wonder, if we could first admit the constraints we put on what is possible and second, release them, could we move from a posture of prayer that feels like a last resort hail mary, open to being surprised, “With God, all things are possible,” and into to a deep, intimate knowing, a statement of direct fact that we, like Daniel, believe as if we have already seen it with our own eyes,

“With God, all things are possible.”

As Christians, it is not “King Nebuchadnezzar,” or whatever governing authority we generally submit to, that defines what is possible for us.

As Christians, we let the scriptures guide what is possible for us with God.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26