There is a song that has been in my heart and it goes like this,
“Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy.”
My time with Daniel, if nothing else, has been a beautiful testament to excavation. Meaning, returning to a scripture multiple times in order to carefully excavate multiple layers of encouragement.
Layer by layer and step by step, Daniel exemplifies for us a Christian (pre-Christ’s coming) who intimately knows his God.
In last week’s post, The King’s Demand is Impossible, we marveled over Daniel’s initiation of prayer to the Sovereign God, demonstrating his established faith that with God, nothing is impossible. Today, we examine what it really is he prayed for and what that tells us about the character of God that he knows so well.
Let me set the situation again, King Nebuchadnezzar has made an impossible demand. As his most astute magicians and enchanters fail miserably at this request, instead of moving into lenient grace, recognizing the faulty expectation of his command, Nebuchadnezzar throttles up into unrelenting. He orders all of the wise men of Babylon to be executed.
Daniel turns himself and his band of brothers to prayer. Had I been in Daniel’s situation, I think my prayer would have sounded like this, “PLEASE GOD, TELL ME THE SECRETS OF THE KING’S DREAM!”
That is the key, right? If I know the secret content of the dream, then I can get me and my buddies out of execution? I can save the wise men and their families? I can tame the wild with fear and enraged with anger King Nebuchadnezzar by answering his absurd riddle? I just need to know the content of the dream. Right?
But that is not what Daniel asks for, at least, not directly.
“[Daniel] urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” Daniel 2:18 NIV
I compared every translation that the Bible app readily offered of this verse:
“He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy….” (NLT)
“He urged them to plead for mercy…” (NIV)
“He asked them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy…” (MSG)
“that they might seek mercies…” (NKJV)
“in order that they might seek compassion…” (AMP - another word for mercy.)
“Then he said, ‘Pray that the God who rules from heaven will be merciful…” (CEV)
“urging them to ask the God of heaven for mercy…” (HCSB)
“and told them to seek mercy…” (ESV)
“that they would desire mercies…” (ASV)
Daniel prayed for mercy. I think that Daniel, in his humility, knows that anything we might ask of God is dependent upon his mercy toward us. I think that Daniel also knows, in his humility, that God is in the business of mercy. It is his very nature, it is consistent with his promises, it is evident in his works. Daniel might remember in Exodus 34:6 when God came down as a cloud and stood with Moses, announcing himself as,
“Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy!” (emphasis mine)
Asking God for mercy demonstrates a way of relating to him that is more than dispensing desired blessings. It is to know him to be merciful and to call on that relationship that Daniel has evidently already deeply established with his faith.
A few years ago I came across a quote from St. Faustina, that is taken from an apparent vision she had of Jesus. Notwithstanding the credibility of her witness, the words no less are supported by scripture to paint a true picture of the heart of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
“I am love and mercy itself. There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, either will misery exhaust it, for as it is being granted - it increases. The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I Myself take care of it.”
It has stayed with me because this image of divine mercy is so exceptional to any type of compassion or kindness we, ourselves, could boast of here on Earth.
I am encouraged to remember the words, “there is no misery that could be a match for My mercy,” because I look around at my personal suffering, the headlines of national and worldwide suffering, I see parents and children, men and women, entire cultures and countries enduring a scale of misery that is difficult for me to even imagine in my worst nightmares.
And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt these miseries will not have the last word. For there is “no match” for his mercy, no misery we could imagine could ever overcome it.
I am encouraged to remember “…for as it is being granted - it increases.” For most things I am familiar with, as they are used, they are known to decrease. Yet not so for the infinite mercy of our God. Even as he dispenses his mercy, his capacity for it only increases.
The only comparable example I could come up with was the theoretical ever expanding universe, that somehow no matter how fast and how far we are able to travel, the end of the universe would continuously elude us, not just in a way that is “unending” but that it is actually increasing in size and scope beyond all of our limited, finite understanding.
And I take great comfort that, “The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I Myself take care of it.” That I am and you are and they are and we are, as Christians, all indeed taken care of and the One who takes care of us is merciful.
And today, I was reminded by the lyrics of the humble hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain,”
“Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angels mind inquire no more. Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me.”
Let us, as Daniel, reorder our prayers to include first and foremost our humble calling upon and declaration of the mercy of God, as we desire to know it more and more.
And let us inquire no more with anxious dwelling about the miseries of this worldly life, instead let us rest in, as the hymn sings,
“Tis mercy all!”
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