Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Our Hong Kong mission team left Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in two vans to cross the Gobi Desert. After nine hours of bouncing across the gravel wilderness, we arrived in Mandalgovi. We planned to spend one night there but discovered we had two days until our next reservation. Unknown to us, our sovereign God had a plan.
One team member called an area Christian leader and asked if we could help with anything during our unexpected free day. The man was leading a training conference for fifty Bible study leaders from around the Gobi. When their speaker for the next day canceled, they stopped, prayed, and asked God to send someone. Did we have anyone who could help?
The next morning, my husband Harry stood before those Mongolian believers with his Tibetan Buddhist translator. Five minutes into his talk, she stopped him.
“Excuse me. What is faith?”
God answered the prayers of fifty Christians thirsty for training while arranging for someone to speak his love into the hungry heart of a young Buddhist woman. What we considered an accidental extra day became part of God’s intentional plan.
Daniel 1–4 reveals a similar thread of God’s sovereignty. Reminiscent of the relentless pursuit portrayed in Francis Thompson’s Hound of Heaven, God pursued a pagan king who neither knew nor sought him.
Table of contents
Daniel 1—God Delivered His Witnesses
In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem and carried Temple treasures and young nobles back to Babylon. Although the king took credit for the victory, Daniel tells us, “the Lord delivered… Judah into [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand” (Daniel 1:2 NIV).
Among the exiles were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused the king’s food and resisted attempts to erase their Hebrew identity. They excelled in their studies, and God gifted Daniel with the ability to understand dreams and visions. The Lord turned the Babylonians’ attempt at indoctrination into the advancement of his messengers. Nebuchadnezzar thought he’d brought four captives to Babylon. Instead, God had sent four witnesses to Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 2—God Declared His Sovereignty
Soon after the young men finished their training, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a massive statue with a gold head and a body of silver, bronze, iron, and clay. A stone, not cut by human hands, shattered the statue and grew into a mountain that filled the earth.
When the king’s wise men couldn’t relate and interpret the dream, Nebuchadnezzar ordered their execution. But Daniel and his friends prayed, and God revealed the mystery so Daniel could explain it to the king.
Daniel identified Nebuchadnezzar as the statue’s gold head, while the remaining sections represented kingdoms that would follow his. The stone foretold God’s all-encompassing and never-ending rule that would defeat all human empires.
Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged Daniel’s God as “the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries” (Daniel 2:47 NIV). Yet he missed the message that although he might be the head of gold, he was only the head. His kingdom wouldn’t last.
Daniel 3—God Demonstrated His Power
Nebuchadnezzar responded by constructing a monument not just with part, but with the entire image, covered in gold. Was he implying his honor and power trumped God’s, that he could overrule the limits God had placed on his kingdom? The king demanded that everyone bow to the monument when the music played or face the fiery furnace. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused.
Enraged, the king offered them a second chance, threatening them with death if they still disobeyed. “Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (Daniel 3:15 NIV).
God answered by meeting his servants in the fire and delivering them from the king’s power. The man who had dared God to rescue his children then praised “the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego” (Daniel 3:28 NIV).
Daniel 4—God Displayed His Sovereignty
God continued to pursue Nebuchadnezzar. Through another frightening dream, God warned the king he would lose everything he valued until he acknowledged “the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth” (Daniel 4:25 NIV). Daniel urged the king to turn from his sins and treat the oppressed with compassion. Yet Nebuchadnezzar refused to change. Still, God gave him twelve months to respond.
One year later, while boasting about Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar lost his position, power, and honor. Only after a prolonged period of humiliation did he raise his eyes toward heaven. God restored his sanity and kingdom, and Nebuchadnezzar praised and glorified the Most High.
Again and again, God revealed his sovereignty to a king determined to see himself as the ultimate power. The one who once challenged God to rescue anyone from his hand ended by confessing no one could restrain God’s hand. Nevertheless, neither Scripture nor historical records indicate Nebuchadnezzar abandoned his Babylonian gods.
Living Under God’s Sovereignty
Across four chapters, God pursued Nebuchadnezzar, who moved from being clueless about God’s sovereignty to fighting against it to eventually admitting it. Though we don’t rule kingdoms, we may travel a similar path when God’s purposes collide with ours. What can Daniel 1–4 teach us about submitting to God when our plans go awry?
1. Trust God’s purposes.
Nebuchadnezzar thought he was bringing Jewish captives into his court, but God was sending witnesses to the king’s court.
Our Mongolia mission team thought we had an unnecessary delay in Mandalgovi, but God answered the prayers of fifty Christian leaders and opened a conversation with a Buddhist translator. We rarely know what God intends to accomplish through unforeseen and unplanned circumstances.
2. Turn to God in prayer.
Daniel responded to danger with prayer rather than panic.
When the Mongolian conference speaker canceled, the group prayed for what some might call impossible—to send someone to the middle of the Gobi Desert. When we don’t know what to do, we can turn to the One who does.
3. Take the next step of obedience.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed God could deliver them but obeyed without knowing whether he would.
Harry had already prepared a message for Christian leaders at our next destination. God used his obedience and a lifetime of Bible study to reach a young Buddhist woman whose question opened the door to further conversations about the God who loved her.
4. Transfer control to God.
Only after Nebuchadnezzar lost what he thought he controlled did he acknowledge the Most High’s sovereignty.
Our mission team assumed we knew our itinerary, but God had a surprise appointment for us. We plan and prepare, then trust God to use us however he chooses.
Nebuchadnezzar thought four Hebrew captives, two troubling dreams, and one unexplained man in a fiery furnace were unrelated events. Daniel shows us the connecting thread—God was pursuing a king who wasn’t pursuing him.
Our mission team thought an extra day in Mandalgovi was a mistake, but our sovereign God saw fifty Christians praying and a Buddhist woman asking, “What is faith?” When our plans go awry, perhaps the first question we should ask isn’t, “How can I get my schedule back on track?” Instead, we might ask, “God, what are you doing here, and how can you use me?”
When Our Plans Go Awry ~ Can We Trust God’s Sovereignty? by @NancyLucenay on Nancyucenay.com Share on XJoin the conversation.
How have you seen God’s sovereignty revealed when your plans go awry? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the Comments box at the bottom of the page.
