Editor’s note: Margaret Feinberg’s new book The God You Need to Know is the book on the power of the Holy Spirit that we didn’t know we needed! In it, we learn about the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament all the way to Pentecost and learn to seek His presence and power today. Enjoy this excerpt.
*
Growing up, I loved the adventures of the Hebrew prophet Daniel and his friends. It seemed like they were always finding themselves trapped in another escape room. Whether engulfed in a blazing furnace or chilling in a den full of lions, they kept making miraculous exits with mere moments to spare.
As I grew older, I gleaned the more practical takeaways from their escapades: the importance of trusting God, growing in faith, and living in rhythms of obedience. But I never heard anyone highlight the work of the Holy Spirit in these stories. The Old Testament book that bears Daniel’s name is steeped in miracle upon miracle, yet somehow the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar noticed the work of the Spirit long before I did.
On our road to Pentecost, we enter a new era in Israel’s history — God’s people are living in exile. That’s when we meet Nebuchadnezzar, who ranks among the worst villains in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture doesn’t tell us anything about the ruler’s childhood, but I sometimes wonder when little Nebby’s mother first noticed her child’s cruel streak. Perhaps it was when his siblings let out bloodcurdling screams, or when a string of servants started showing up for work with missing fingers, or when the family pets met sudden deaths or mysteriously vanished.
By the time we meet Nebuchadnezzar, he’s become famous for torturing, terrorizing, and taking life. In one episode that would make a riveting true crime podcast, King Zedekiah of Judah makes an agreement with King Nebuchadnezzar to stave off additional bloodshed, then breaks the treaty. Rather than issue a diplomatic warning or swift military response, King Nebuchadnezzar hatches a plan of utmost cruelty.
First, he sends his Babylonian army to camp outside Jerusalem and build a wall around it. After months of sleepless, anxiety- riddled nights spent wondering when the city will be attacked, King Zedekiah realizes the assault has already come, as the last crates of food and supplies dwindle to nothing. The Babylonian army waits until the people waste away to hollow frames of skin and bone before breaking through the city walls. King Zedekiah and his weakened soldiers attempt to flee to the Jordan Valley, but the Babylonian army chases them down and captures poor Zedekiah.
Granting Zedekiah a quick death would have been far too kind for the bloodthirsty King Nebuchadnezzar, who finds great pleasure in dragging Zedekiah’s sons before him. One by one, he butchers them with gruesome instruments until the final, haunting scream. Then Zedekiah’s eyes are punched out, so his sons’ deaths are the last thing he sees.
Whatever psychological diagnosis you’re tempted to assign King Nebuchadnezzar, you’d never, ever want him as a boss. But after the Babylonian army conquers Jerusalem, they look for attractive, healthy, well-educated quick learners to serve in the king’s palace. That’s when a foursome known as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are selected.
These palace refugees are thrust into a PhD program on Babylonian culture. Syllable by syllable, they learn the language, perfecting verb tenses and pronunciations. They stay up until the wee hours memorizing history and folklore for pesky pop quizzes. They even receive Babylonian names: Daniel becomes Belteshazzar, Hananiah becomes Shadrach, Mishael becomes Meshach, and Azariah becomes Abednego.
Somewhere along the way, they realize they’re not being educated; they’re being indoctrinated. The whole program was designed to strip away their most precious commodity — their identity as children of Israel’s one true God.
Like the children in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia, the longer they remain in this foreign land, the harder it becomes to remember their true home.
The foursome draws a line by asking for one exemption from the program requirements. Some of the king’s food isn’t kosher, meaning it fails to meet Jewish dietary laws. Worse, the king’s plenty is gained through injustice, lack of mercy, and cruelty to the poor. This original God Squad asks to substitute basic veggies and water for the king’s rich, calorie-dense tasting menu. Their academic advisor grants the request, and ten days after adopting their diet of vegetables and water, the foursome actually gains weight.
Following this expression of dogged obedience, a divine gift descends:
God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind.
- Rather than remove the foursome from their circumstances, God meets them in their circumstances.
Together, they receive exceedingly more of what they’ll need, not just for that moment but for what is to come.
These spiritual gifts aren’t brand spanking new to the four young men. Remember, they were initially selected because they’re “suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable.” The Spirit enhances the gifts already placed within them. The Spirit doesn’t waste anything.
This spiritual enrichment becomes impossible to miss. When the king examines the young nobles three years into their training, Daniel and his friends are the superstar candidates:
In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
The king appoints them to his court, establishing Daniel as governor of Babylon with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego serving alongside him. And the timing could not have been more perfect.
One night, the king, who has been a nightmare to others, has a nightmare himself. The dream begins peaceably enough, with a towering tree reaching toward the stars, laden with fruit. Under its shady leaves, creatures of every size and sort find shelter and nourishment. Then, in the dream, a holy messenger prophesies that the branches will be hacked off, the leaves stripped, and the trunk reduced to a stub. The mangled stump will morph into a wild beast and roam among the animals of the field and sun-cured grass of the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar sits bolt upright in bed, tight-chested, gasping for air, grateful to still be alive. Overwhelmed with dread, he summons his band of Babylonian wise men — a lineup of sorcerers, conjurers, astrologers, and diviners versed in the dark arts. Gathering at the palace, they each take a turn at interpreting the king’s frightful dream.
But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t interpret the dream or make Nebuchadnezzar feel better again. That is, except for one. God’s supernatural wisdom and understanding empower Daniel to interpret every vision and dream.
I wonder if Daniel paused to gulp a breath before speaking, since the king had never been one to take bad news well. Daniel explains that the tree represents the king, who is about to lose everything, including his sanity. Just as God can make losers into leaders, God is about to make this leader into a loser.
Daniel begs the king to accept his advice: Dump your shares in evil and invest in all that is good. Replace your cruelty with compassion and show mercy to all.
Even a pagan king like Nebuchadnezzar can see what’s going on here. Three times, he recognizes the Spirit in Daniel:
The ruach of the holy gods is in him.
I know that the ruach of the holy gods is in you.
The ruach of the holy gods is in you.
Raised in a culture steeped in many gods, Nebuchadnezzar hasn’t yet grasped the full reality of the one true God when he makes these observations. But his repeated acknowledgments reveal he recognizes the Spirit of God working within Daniel. Yet Nebuchadnezzar remains far too sure of himself to heed anyone else’s advice — even when he asks for it. Months later, he’s still so self-centered that he describes Babylon as the place “I have built” with “my mighty power” and for “my majesty.”
Sooner or later, self-absorption brings out the worst in all of us. Surrounded by “yes people” who treat him like a god, Nebuchadnezzar convinces himself that he is one. And this hubris leads to his most harrowing nightmare coming true. He’s driven away from the people, akin to Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden, reduced to a Gollum-like creature trotting on all fours. He roams the fields with wild oxen until his hair becomes a tangled mess and his nails yellow and dull, like old bird claws. Whenever he nears the palace, the people avoid eye contact and hush their whisperings about what has happened to their once-great king.
At the appointed time, the human-turned-wild-beast comes to his senses and praises and honors the true King of kings, the Lord of lords, the One who lives forever. Nebuchadnezzar soon hears his vertebrae snap and pop, and for the first time in as long as he can remember, he stands upright, then walks upright, and, most importantly, can now live upright before God.
With his mind and body fully restored, it’s time for a long- overdue shower, haircut, and mani-pedi. King Nebuchadnezzar returns to the throne a different man, transformed by the Spirit of God who doesn’t waste anything. Even a bout of severe mental illness and a foray into the wild kingdom become the ore the Spirit refines into humility and genuine worship in the heart of a pagan king. It stands as one of the Bible’s most remarkable stories of repentance — a murderous dictator coming to know the one true God.
Sometimes we can believe that what we possess is too ordinary for the Spirit to use.
That our knowledge or interests are so commonplace, they can’t possibly amount to anything significant. That the framed accolades or certificates we’ve earned are nothing more than dust collectors or ego boosters. That our observations and hard-won life lessons are just basic life hacks. I don’t know the subjects you’ve studied or the stories you’ve lived. I don’t know the geography you’ve traversed or the people you’ve met along the way. I don’t know the skills you’ve honed since childhood or those you’ve cultivated in adulthood. But this much I know:
The Spirit doesn’t waste anything.
Daniel and his friends remind us that the Spirit leverages what we consider ordinary — our know-how, experience, and circumstances — and puts it to extraordinary use. The Spirit rummages through the pantry of our lives, pulls out everything we’ve lived and learned, and mixes it all into a delectable divine dish that nourishes the world. Because the Spirit of the one true God does not waste anything.
Excerpted with permission from The God You Need to Know by Margaret Feinberg, copyright Margaret Feinberg.
* * *
Your Turn
Do you believe that what you have is too ordinary for the Spirit to use? It’s not when it’s in God’s hands. Remember, the one true God does not waste anything! ~ Devotionals Daily
