Week 29 Daniel
While I was reading Proverbs last month I started listing the characteristics of Solomon’s Types of People. His uncomplicated bi-partite division was that in this world there were Wise People and there were Foolish People.
One of the differences between the two was in the area of anger-control management. Proverbs said things like:
Those who control their anger have great understanding
It is better to have self-control than conquer a city
People with good sense restrain their anger
Short-tempered people must pay their own penalty
Keep away from angry, short-tempered people
Those who are wise will calm anger.
So I remembered some of those proverbs when I read the story about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream – the one where the king couldn’t dope out his dream and so he called his soothsayers-and-magicians. But they were stumped too.
The result was that: the king was furious when he heard this, and he sent out orders to execute all the wise men of Babylon.
The other magicians were putting their affairs in order. But not Daniel: Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion.
On one side there was Nebuchadnezzar’s fury.
And on the other there was Daniel’s wisdom and discretion.
I thought back to Solomon’s two contrasting Types of People.
Nebuchadnezzar’s anger was awesome and terrifying and potentially deadly. And it also held up a big sign about where the king fit on Solomon’s Wisdom-Foolishness Scale.
Note: quotes from & Proverbs 14:29, 16:32, 19:11, 19:19, 22:24, 29:8 and Daniel 2:12, 14 (NLT).