MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
In our studies of the patriarchs - leaders in ancient Israel - we began looking to them as examples of faith. What we ultimately found was that their lives and stories were more about God and His faithfulness than they were about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David or others. Tying that thought with another idea from Revelation - serving God above all others - led to a look at Daniel.
The history of any time period helps us see how God intervenes, and how He has brought redemption through various people and events. Daniel entered the scene when God's plan seemed to be in jeopardy: Babylon invaded Israel in 605BC and took hostages from the nobility, including Daniel, to assure that the Israelite king Jehoiakim would cooperate. Through a series of military actions, Nebuchadnezzar in 597 and 587 fought in Israel, and finally destroyed Solomon's temple and sacked Jerusalem (events predicted by Israel's prophets and documented in 2 Kings and the Babylonian chronicles). Nebuchadnezzar's successes against Jerusalem might leave one wondering whether Yahweh, and His covenant with Israel, had failed. But Daniel 1:2 explained it another way, “The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his [Nebuchadnezzar's] hand.”
King Nebuchadnezzar pillaged the wealth of Judah and carried away its most promising young men, intending to put them through a three-year reeducation program. He even gave them new names: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah became known as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. However, not even such drastic measures changed their identity or their identification with the God of Israel. Often throughout Daniel's life, he was still known as Daniel, rather than his Chaldean name. What the king didn't consider was that these young men's culture was interwoven with their faith.
When faced with a spiritual challenge, too often we are tempted to compromise or confront rather than seek God’s way to address dilemmas. Daniel 1:8 reads, “Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.” Notice here his resolve not to compromise, but also the wisdom and lack of confrontation with the official. Behind this kind of approach lay Daniel's confidence in his own King.
Daniel proposed a short-term experiment, that the official allow him and his companions to eat simple, nutritious food rather than the king's unclean offerings, and after a period of time the official could evaluate their progress. Even at that, I had the question, why would the overseer accept a proposition that could have held such danger to himself? The next verse hints at the answer. "Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials" (Daniel 1:9). We're reminded of Joseph in the sight of Potiphar and the chief jailer; Ruth in her interactions with Boaz; and Esther with King Ahasuerus. God grants graciousness to those who serve him; they share the gifts of the Spirit with others, and people around react in kind.
The result of Daniel's proposal was that he and his companions appeared healthy and fit after ten days of not partaking of the king's food. Then at the end of their specified period of education, Nebuchadnezzar "talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm" (Daniel 1:19-20). God had granted them not only goodness, kindness and compassion, but also gifts of discernment that were highly valued by their foreign captors.
Knowing and trusting in God who is faithful helped these four remain faithful to all He had directed them regarding what to do and not do. Like Daniel, we can choose to seek God and trust Him to provide what we need to walk in righteousness. Like Daniel, we can choose God above all others to rule our lives. Then we have confidence to face challenges without compromise and unnecessary conflict. Daniel knew his God was the God he could trust.
This could bring us to our present situation, when many wonder whether God is working today. Soon in the US, we will choose a new leader. We can face the future knowing that the significant choice for us as individuals, and as a country, is to acknowledge God and choose to serve Him as king.
C. S. Lewis explained in The Screwtape Letters, “the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.” So, for any current age, Lewis suggested that we use what's happening today to consider the eternal: “...obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.” We may look at Daniel as a chosen person, but his most important example is that he chose to serve the one true, living God.
