There is a Man

The idea for this message is from a few sentences of a Doug Batchelor sermon.  The words are mine. 

Daniel and Joseph are my favorite Bible characters, and Jehoshaphat is my favorite Bible king.  Today, I am bringing stories from these characters that have meaning for us today. 

As a youth, Daniel was taken prisoner by an invading army, and his faithfulness was immediately tested regarding diet.  He became known as one who was ten times wiser than the other wise men.  Accordingly, Daniel was called to interpret the King’s troubling dream. 

Dan 2:25 – Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found … a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” 

Arioch said that there is a man who is uniquely qualified, better than all the wise men of Babylon who had failed.  This young man was surrendered to his God and had been proven to be faithful.  That is the highest qualification that anyone can have. 

Because God was with him, Daniel rose in influence within the foreign empire.  Finally, in his old age, it looked as if his working life serving the king was over.  But suddenly a crisis occurred when the blasphemous son of the king, who had been appointed co-regent in his father’s absence, saw supernatural handwriting on the wall.  He and his fellow partiers were filled with fear.  The king, Belshazzar, called in his astrologers and enchanters, but they could not interpret the writing.  But the queen, likely Belshazzar’s mother, arrives and says: 

Dan 5:10-11 – The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. 11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. 

In times of crisis, there is often a man, a godly man, who has, like the tribe of Issachar “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” 

Next is Joseph.  He proved himself faithful as a slave in Egypt, first in the situation with Potiphar’s wife and second as a trustee in the king’s prison.  When Pharaoh had a troubling dream, Joseph’s faithfulness was remembered.  The chief cupbearer to Pharaoh, who knew Joseph while he, himself, was in prison being benefited by Joseph’s gift of interpretation of dreams, said to Pharaoh. 

Gen 41:12 – A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. 

The cupbearer pointed out that there is a man who could interpret dreams.  When Joseph was called to stand before Pharaoh, he said, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” 

The final story is about when Ahab ruled over Israel and Jehoshaphat over Judah.  The two kings had a meeting, and Ahab asked Jehoshaphat to help him attack the city of Ramoth-Gilead to retake it from the Syrians.  Jehoshaphat wisely suggested, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord” (2 Chron 20:4).  Ahab brought in more than 400 apostate prophets who were paid to please the king.  King Jehoshaphat was suspicious and wanted to hear from an independent prophet who would be faithful to the word of the Lord. 

2 Chron 18:6-7 – But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord? 

The prophet Micaiah came and said, “As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak” (2 Chron 20:13). 

There is yet one more time I would like to mention in which someone said, in effect, “There is a man.” 

Job 1:8 – And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 

In this case, it was God, Himself, pointing out a faithful servant.  Can God say that about us?  Will someday someone say of one of us, “There is a man (or woman or child) who is faithful to God, who lives a self-sacrificing life of service to others, who speaks the truth of the Bible, who is humble and loving”?  Perhaps not at the level of the rise and fall of empires, but there are times when an individual must speak out and act with holy boldness.  You may be the only one on whom an eternal issue hangs.  Will you be called?  Will you answer the call? 

Ed 57 – The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.