Love to Tell the Truth

Daniel 4:18-19 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me what it means, for none of the wise men in my kingdom can interpret it for me. But you can, because the spirit of the holy gods is in you.” 19 Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you.”
Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!”
 
DO you like giving bad news to someone you respect? I’m sure none of us do. Nor do we even like telling bad news to strangers. Perhaps that’s why we refrain from telling people of sin. That’s bad news! But we all must know the bad news, so we can know the good news is eternally good. Yes, the truth is difficult to speak, isn’t it? That’s why Daniel hesitated for a time to tell the dream’s meaning to Nebuchadnezzar. 
    You would think Daniel, captured and enslaved by the king, would rejoice at this sign of the king’s demise. Yet, the prophet had a loving heart. He was living into God’s way as Jesus declared in Matthew 5:44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. I know Jesus spoke about 500 years after Danie lived, but remember Jesus is the eternal Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) God’s Word is always alive in his anointed servants.
    Daniel grieved over the dream’s meaning for the king. Such spiritual sadness was a characteristic of God’s prophets. Daniel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, is known as the weeping prophet because of his great grief of God’s judgment and the Jews’ refusal to repent. But the prophets also knew their words were actually a loving kindness to warn. The Jews needed to know the bad news, so they could hear the good. Daniel was the LORD God’s ambassador to speak the truth.
    We once again learn from this prophet of long ago how we represent God on earth today. The Bible tells us to love and pray for our enemies. If you hesitate, remember God so loved you, he came to tell you the truth, the bad news and the good. Otherwise, how would you know you need a Savior? How would you know Jesus is the Savior? How will others, even strangers, know if you keep the news to yourself?
 
Ephesians 2:4 But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much 5 that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead-only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved. The Living Bible