Sunday School Lessons

Commentary by Walter Albritton

August 24

In the End, God Wins, and His Servants Are On the Winning Team!

Daniel 2

Key Verses: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

-- Daniel 2:44

Life is hard. There are times when evil seems to win. We do the right thing but wrong prevails. Those who lie and cheat have the upper hand. We see a tiny light in the tunnel of our darkness, but it turns out to be a train that runs over us.

In such times, we are tempted to throw up our hands and quit. Why keep trying to do the right thing if our efforts amount to nothing? Doubt takes over and we wonder if the way of love really is the winning way.

When our faith is tested by the difficulties of life, we need to remember the faith and the example of Daniel.

The king gave Daniel and the wise men an impossible demand. He demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed and what the dream meant. The wise men gave up. No one could possibly know what the king had dreamed.

Daniel, however, turned to the Lord in prayer. He did not turn to his own cleverness; he turned to God. God answered Daniel’s prayer so Daniel could tell the king both his dream and its meaning. What an example for us! The challenge is to believe that God loves us so much that He wants to help us as much as he wanted to help Daniel.

When there seems to be no human solution, we must learn to turn to God. The world says, “Give up.” Faith says, “God will help you if you humbly turn to him and trust his guidance.”

Daniel believed what our Lord would teach us years later – “Nothing is impossible with God!” We must learn to ask God, and trust God, even when our situation seems utterly hopeless. No matter what the problem, God is able to help us.

Our friends in Zambia, Alfred and Muumbe Kalembo, had a problem. Their neighbors begged them to teach their small children to read and write. The only space available was a small room that served as Alfred’s study.

“If God wants us to have a school, he is able to make it happen,” the Kalembos said. So they decided to turn the little room into a school, naming the school the “God Is Able School for Children.”

Alfred’s study is now a classroom where Muumbe teaches ten children. They could enroll at least a hundred other children if they had sufficient facilities. Alfred and Muumbe believe what Daniel believed – God is able!

My friend John has been successful in business more than once. In fact, three times he lost everything and had to start over from scratch. What is important is that he refused to give up. While he lost everything financially, he did not lose his faith. He continues to believe that God is able to make him able to succeed again.

A sign in a churchyard expresses what John believes: “When you have nothing but God, you have everything.”

Many people have everything but God, and they are miserable. What they fail to see is that what they cannot see is what really matters. Things have no eternal value. The Bible teaches us that what is visible has no lasting meaning; only that which is invisible lasts forever!

In Alabama, people observed a man become so successful that he became known as the state’s most generous philanthropist. He had homes in several states. He had his own private jet.

Then his world collapsed. He was fired as CEO of the very company he had built. His success was achieved, his accusers say, through fraud and deception. His “kingdom” of wealth and extravagance crumbled, like a sand castle.

Daniel was not impressed with earthly kingdoms. They have no future. God, however, is building a kingdom “that shall never be destroyed.”

We may lose “the greatest job in the world.” We may lose our dream home. Our worldly treasures may vanish into thin air.

What we have invested in the Kingdom of God, however, we cannot lose. What we have given away, in the service of Jesus, will be ours forever.

When the world’s kingdoms are tottering and falling all around us, let us rejoice that we belong to an eternal Kingdom, the Kingdom of our Lord, the Kingdom that will remain when everything else has been destroyed.

Think about Daniel. We do not know if he wore expensive clothes, if he lived in a fine home, or if he drove an expensive camel. We do not know if he was a member of a Country Club or if he could dine in “The Club” in his city.

It is what we do know about Daniel that matters. He believed that God was able to meet his needs, and that God’s kingdom could never be destroyed.

We need to live with such faith in our time – no matter what our financial status may be. God is able! His Kingdom is eternal! By grace, I am on His Team! + + + +