For those who partake of my morning meal regularly, you’re probably thinking I’ve been fasting lately. Not many meals shared over the last couple of weeks. Alas, life with two little boys in the house has been busier than usual lately and they too, apparently, are becoming, more and more, morning people. Thus, finding the time to type a few words after reading in the morning has been hard. So thankful that, for this morning at least, I get a few minutes to chew on some things.

A double reading in my reading plan this morning, so I covered the reign of Nebuchadnezzar according to Daniel (Daniel 1 thru 4) — a reign marked by bad dreams but some pretty good revelation. Lessons learned that would serve this pagan king well forever . . . and I do think “forever!”

Bad Dream No. 1 sets the stage for Nebuchadnezzar to encounter the God unlike any other god he had been familiar with or worshiped before — the God whose dwelling IS with flesh.

Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. . . . The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. . . . Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” . . . The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

(Daniel 2:2a, 5, 6b, 10-11 ESV)

The gods whose dwelling is not with flesh . . . that’s the phrase the popped.

Over the years, Nebuchadnezzar would, because of divine insomnia, come to know and worship Daniel’s God — the God and King of heaven (Dan. 2:18, 19, 37, 44; 4:37). And that because Daniel’s God, unlike the many gods of Babylon, had determined to dwell with flesh.

Until the exiles of Judah came into their midst, the gods of Babylon were, at best, the distant gods of nature — gods who were perceptible but not present. At worst, they were inert, unpredictable gods of wood and precious metal fashioned at the hands of every day, run of the mill craftsmen. Either way, they were unknowable gods to be feared and appeased and coerced into showing them favor, not a God of fellowship and adoration making Himself known in order to communicate His favor. So, when Nebuchadnezzar insists on being told only what the gods themselves could know, his wise men wisely say, “No way. That would take the gods. And those gods are not willing to dwell with flesh.”

Though they were charlatans for the most part, Nebuchadnezzar’s cohort were speaking truth in this instance — no one can reveal the mysteries birthed in heaven except the God of heaven, and only then if He purposes to be a God willing to touch down on earth. That’s what Daniel & Co. had brought with them. As pieces of the temple were transported into Babylon, as people faithful to the temple were assimilated into Babylonian culture, the God who had determined to be in the midst of His people had been imported too. The God who so loved the world had purposed to make known that love by being a God who would come into the Babylonian world — a God whose dwelling IS with flesh.

Cue Jesus.

Trigger thoughts of “Immanuel (which means, God with us)” (Matt. 1:23).

Ignite fresh wonder at a God of mysteries who has condescended to reveal mysteries to those who bear His image (Dan. 2:28), and to do so by being a God who would empty Himself (Php. 2:5-7) in order to come into our space and dwell among us (Jn. 1:14). To speak to us in these last days, and that by His Son (Heb. 1:2).

Worship the God of heaven, the God who dwells with flesh. By His Spirit. Through His Son.

O, what a Savior!

What grace!

Worthy is He to receive glory!

Amen?