No challenge is too great, no question too difficult, when you pray for wisdom from the revealer of mysteries.
Sometimes we will ask God to give wisdom for impossibly difficult things. Think for example of a medical researcher who seeks a cure for cancer or a mother who is raising an autistic child or a small business owner whose company is in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars and hampered by an economy dealing with COVID.
One government official in the Bible faced an impossible situation. Daniel was one of the wise men of Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. The king had a dream that disturbed him so much he felt he had to be absolutely sure of its interpretation.
No doubt he had told many of his dreams to the wise men before, and they had offered various interpretations, most of which struck him in the end as guesswork. So for this extraordinary dream, he decided on a test that would reveal the level of inspiration in the interpreter. He would require the interpreter of dreams to tell him both the dream itself and the interpretation.
Nebuchadnezzar called in the wise men and gave them the ground rules. Then he added some motivation: “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins” (Daniel 2:5).
That is how a king gets things done. What a motivational speaker!
Pray for wisdom from the revealer of mysteries
Daniel and three of his Jewish friends were part of that group of advisors, under the threat of an imminent, grisly death, but they unlike the others were true men of God. They sought him for mercy, and that night Daniel had a vision that gave him all the required information. Then Daniel blessed the Lord, and his words are important for you and all who seek wisdom for impossible situations:
“20 Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. 21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; 22 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. 23 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.” (Daniel 2:20–23)
Notice six truths from this passage that will give you faith to pray for wisdom from the revealer of mysteries.
1. Wisdom and might belong to God.
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might” (v. 20). Wisdom and might belong to God; that is, they are inherent to him; they are who he is in himself. He did not receive them from someone else. He did not have to learn them. Infinite wisdom and infinite might simply belong to him. There is no limit to them, and so there is nothing impossible with him.
Wisdom and might go together, for wisdom gives might. God’s infinite wisdom gives him the ability to do unimaginably difficult things, such as creating the universe and every form of life on earth from nothing. No problem we can face on earth approaches the difficulty of that divine accomplishment.
So he knows how to cure cancer. He knows how to raise an autistic child or turn a failing business around. He knows how to fix a car no other mechanic can fix. Such situations may seem impossible to us, but for the God of all wisdom and might, they are as simple as one plus one equals two.
2. He can give us wisdom for impossible challenges because he also has unlimited power over those situations.
Verse 21 says, “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings.” These two powerful divine actions noted by Daniel were not random. They both pertain to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its interpretation. God was revealing to the king how he would work in the future to change kings, kingdoms, and governments, raising them up for a season and then removing them from the world scene. The dream revealed God as the sovereign Lord of history past, present, and future.
So when God gives you wisdom about an impossible thing, he is not at the mercy of someone else’s control, such that the wisdom might not work because someone else more powerful than he is might do something unforeseen. When you pray for wisdom from the revealer of mysteries, you are praying to a God bigger and more powerful than you can comprehend—a sovereign God.
3. He is often willing to share his wisdom and knowledge with us.
Verse 21 says, “He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.”
He gives it, and in fact he is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. No one has come to understand how to do anything or solve any problem apart from God. People do their part to think, study, research, and so on, but ultimately they are cooperating with God, and without him they would know nothing.
God delights to give the world wisdom, but he also chooses to maintain many mysteries at least until an appointed time.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”
Because God keeps secrets, humanity has not yet found the cure for cancer. But that does not mean we will never find the cure. We may wrongly assume that present mysteries are permanent mysteries, that God cannot or will not reveal the answer to them.
But God has revealed the cure for many diseases and will reveal many more, in his time, in his way, according to his will. For many impossible situations, the wisdom we seek is like diamonds buried in the earth, just waiting for someone to dig. For other situations, God may never reveal his secrets, for reasons of course that are always perfect and good.
However, as Daniel experienced on that dangerous night in a divine vision, God is often willing to share his wisdom and knowledge with us for solving great mysteries, and we should pray, believe, and assume he wants to do this for whatever inquiry we bring to him, for it is his nature—his pleasure—to give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
4. God reveals the deepest of deep things.
“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” (v. 22)
Daniel knew that what he had just experienced was extraordinarily extraordinary. It was like going down, down, down into a cave without a torch or any source of light. He had gone where it was humanly impossible to go. He had been in pitch darkness, unable to see or know anything, and suddenly God had turned on his light.
He learned firsthand that God “reveals deep and hidden things.” Deep. Hidden. He reveals things that a brilliant person with an IQ of 250 and a thousand PhD degrees could not know.
So do not be daunted by the size of your challenge. God knows everything that to you is now in pitch darkness. The light that enables him to penetrate such darkness dwells with him. He created the blazing sun and carries it into whatever dark mystery he wants to enter.
5. When God gives you his wisdom, he gives you his might.
“You have given me wisdom and might” (v. 23).
In verse 20, Daniel praised God for his wisdom and might, and now he says that God had given him wisdom and might. Though we are utterly powerless in our human selves, the wisdom that comes from God makes us powerful for God’s purposes and glory. When Daniel went into mighty King Nebuchadnezzar’s throne room and unveiled the mystery, the mightiest man in the room was not the king—it was Daniel.
And the king knew it. “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel” (2:46).
6. To God be the glory.
Daniel 2:46 also says Nebuchadnezzar “commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him [Daniel].” The overwhelmed king treated him like a god. When God gives you extraordinary wisdom, some people will want to give you credit, and your flesh will want to join in that falsehood.
But when God revealed the mystery to Daniel in the vision of the night, Daniel prayed, “To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise” (v. 23). Although wisdom gives might, we must be careful not to seek it for our own glory and power, similar to how Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with a wrong motivation. Daniel sought and gave the glory to God alone, and the entire Book of Daniel never speaks of his falling into the sin of pride.
When you pray for wisdom from the revealer of mysteries, be careful to maintain a pure heart of humility, for God opposes the proud and self-ambitious but gives grace to the humble.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)