READ Daniel 5:11–12
There is a man in your kingdom who is endowed with a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father he was found to have enlightenment, understanding, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and diviners, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.
Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God!
MEDITATE
I squirmed in Mrs. Shreck’s first grade classroom. She barked, “Sit still, John!” Then, exasperated, she pleaded, “Sit on your hands!” That way, I guess, I wouldn’t bother other students, and I would, in theory at least, develop the skill of sitting still. (It never took. I never did.)
To this day, when I hear the words, “Be still, and know that I am God,” from Psalm 46, I can’t help but think of Mrs. Shreck’s classroom. My wife, Priscilla, doesn’t have a similar reaction to this psalm because she is much better behaved than I am and doesn’t share my lifelong struggle with squirming.
Just this morning, Priscilla and I were talking about those words, be still, from Psalm 46 because she is preparing to lead a retreat titled “Into Stillness.” As we talked, Priscilla asked me the meaning of the Hebrew verb that is translated be still. To my relief, the Hebrew word doesn’t mean “Sit still, John!” but let go, abandon.
That is exactly what Daniel, of lion’s den fame, did. He let go and abandoned. Here’s what I mean.
Daniel was taken into exile by the Babylonians, who planned to train him and a cluster of other men to take charge of the captive Israelites. For three long generations, Daniel astonished Babylonian and Persian rulers, who acknowledged that Daniel had an excellent spirit in him. This length of time—three generations—tells us three things about the Spirit.
First, the Spirit’s not intermittent, a divine presence that comes and goes, arrives and leaves again and again. The Spirit doesn’t pop in, pull off a miracle, and head out. The Spirit is the durable presence of God from first breath to last.
Second, in a person such as Daniel, who’s obviously taken hold of the right end of the stick, this lifelong Spirit-breath is excellent. Now excellent doesn’t mean A+ work. It’s not the kind of excellent penmanship that would have prompted a dour Mrs. Shreck to stick a little red adhesive star onto the top of the page. (I saw this happen, just not to me.) Excellent (yattira’ in Aramaic) means something else: to the nth degree. The fiery furnace, for example, was excellent or excessively (yattira’) hot—super hot. The statue of Nebuchadnezzar was excellent, excessively (yattira’) bright—super bright or blinding in its brilliance. In a vision, a fourth beast was “terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong—super strong—and “exceedingly (yattira’) terrifying”—super scary. The Spirit in Daniel was excellent (yattira’) as well—super Spirit, Spirit as Spirit was meant to be, the essence of Spirit—full, pure, wise—Spirit to the nth degree.
The third insight we garner about the Spirit is that Daniel was still. None of the ways in which we typically talk about the Spirit applies here. The Spirit isn’t poured out on Daniel. The Spirit doesn’t rush or rest upon him. He doesn’t pray for the Spirit, request it, yearn for it, or even receive the Spirit. The Spirit takes no action in the book of Daniel—except to be in him.
The Spirit in the book of Daniel is unhinged from accomplishment, unattached to achievement. In fact, what Daniel does is the opposite of achievement, the undoing of accomplishment: when the Babylonians ply their princes with royal wines and royal foods, Daniel declines. No, thank you. Keeping kosher, eating vegetables—these will do just fine. For a person of such simplicity, for whom basic food laws trump the promise of imperial leadership and the allure of success, the Spirit is a reservoir of wisdom that suffuses Daniel’s character over the course of three generations and two empires.
Daniel let go and abandoned—which is certainly different from … sitting still!
REFLECT
PRAY
Holy Spirit
I have nothing to ask of you
Nothing to request from you
Nothing to yearn for
Nothing but this—
To let go of ambition
To abandon acquisition
Nothing to yearn for
Nothing but you
Amen
