2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Today, the Lord leads me to continue discussing the issue of commitment by using the prophet, Daniel, as an example. Throughout looking at this man’s life, it is very helpful to see how God was able to accomplish great things through him because of his obedience even in the face of great danger. When Daniel was taken into captivity and dragged to the royal court in Babylon from Jerusalem to serve there, he was only fifteen years old. God needs to be given a lot of credit for placing him with parents who raised him for fifteen short years to have such enduring and obedient faith in Jehovah. Babylon was a pagan culture, and King Nebuchadnezzar along with his agents did all they could to assimilate Daniel and his Jewish captive friends into that culture-even to the extent of changing their names. Daniel’s true nature is revealed early on in DN 1: 8-9. “Daniel made up his mind not to let himself become ritually unclean by eating the food and drinking the wine of the royal court. So, he asked Ashpenaz [the king’s chief official who was in charge of the court captives] to help him. God made Ashpenaz sympathetic to Daniel.” Right away, we can see that Daniel was determined not to become defiled in God’s eyes and that God equipped him to carry out that goal. God not only made Ashpenaz sympathetic, but as we read further along in the same chapter, we find that by not eating the royal court’s food and drinking its wine, Daniel and his three friends who also followed his lead where seen to be in superior health to the others who didn’t go along with this plan. The Lord’s hand was really in this.
Daniel 6 is the familiar story of Daniel in the lion’s den. This chapter has some wonderful lessons for us that are a direct outcome of the commitment Daniel made to remain faithful to God. DN 6: 3-4, “Daniel soon showed he could do better work than the other supervisors or the governors. [He had been chosen by King Darius the Mede to supervise the others and look out for the king’s interests]. Because he [Daniel] was so outstanding, the king considered putting him in charge of the whole empire. Then the other supervisors and governors tried to find something wrong with the way Daniel administered the empire, but they could not, because Daniel was reliable and did not do anything wrong or dishonest.” Jealousy reared its ugly head here just as it does at times today. While this situation happened sometime between 539BC and 525 BC, its lessons apply to us today. The jealousy of these men spurred them to place Daniel’s life in mortal danger.
DN 6: 6-7, “They went to Darius and suggested he issue an order to be enforced strictly that no one be permitted to request anything from any God or man except the king for thirty days. Violators should be thrown into the lion’s den. This was to trap Daniel due to his worship of Jehovah.” Such a suggestion no doubt appealed to the short-sighted Darius’ ego. An interesting side light to this story is that Darius actually valued Daniel’s friendship and had some respect for him. That can be seen in his highly emotional efforts to prevent Daniel from being thrown to the lions later in the chapter. Now, look at how Daniel responded once he heard this order had been put through. (10) “When Daniel learned that the order had been made official, he went home. There were windows that faced Jerusalem. There, just as he had always done, he knelt down at them and prayed to God three times a day.” Not even the threat of physical danger deterred Daniel from his obedience to God. As the chapter proceeds, Daniel’s enemies saw him praying, they reported it to the king who had no choice but to cast Daniel, after trying in vain for a day to avoid it, into the lion’s den. They thought their plan would succeed in getting rid of Daniel for good. But, that was not God’s will. Now, look at what God was willing to do for his servant, Daniel.
DN 6: 22, “God sent His angel to shut the lion’s mouths, so they would not hurt Daniel. He did this because he knew that [Daniel] was innocent and had not wronged the king.” The lesson here for us is that when we obey God and put our trust in Him, He will protect us from evil. God had given Daniel a God-sized assignment and continued to equip him to carry it out. Verse 23 begins to reveal the impact of Daniel’s survival from his ordeal. “The king was overjoyed and gave orders for Daniel to be pulled up out of the pit. So they pulled him up and saw that he had not been hurt at all, for he trusted God.” Once this was accomplished, we see the most important lesson of this chapter revealed in (25-27). “Then King Darius wrote to the people of all nations, races, and languages on earth: ‘Greetings! I command that throughout my empire everyone should fear and respect Daniel’s God. He is a living God, and He will rule forever. His Kingdom will never be destroyed, and His power will never come to an end. He saves and rescues; He performs wonder and miracles in heaven and on earth. He saved Daniel from being killed by the lions.’“
I have spoken in previous messages about how God held Daniel in “high esteem.” [ See DN 10: 11]. At the end of this chapter in (28) we are told, “Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and that of Cyrus the Persian.” That is not the only way that God demonstrated his love for Daniel. He trusted Daniel to know the future-even things that are still in our future. Because Daniel wrote these things down, particularly in DN 7: 13-14 and DN 9: 24-27, we who love God are also being entrusted with this information. God was able to use Daniel to do great God-sized assignments. We need to ask ourselves can He use us that way too?
PRAYER: O Lord, You have given us the example of the prophet, Daniel, to demonstrate one way that you can use those willing to love you and be obedient to you to allow You to accomplish Your will. Through the example of the story of his ordeal in the lion’s den, You demonstrate to us that You will equip us to do any assignment, no matter how big or small, that You give us. When we obey You, we grow in spiritual maturity at the same time You get Your work done through us. We learn that our lives are blessed when we put our trust in You. You deserve our commitment to Your teachings, love, obedience, and reverent worship. To that end, we dedicate our lives to You. In Christ’s name, amen.
Dear Ones, the Lord does invite us to join Him in His work. No matter how small we think the assignment is, we should accept it with the same faith and diligence that Daniel demonstrated. When we do, we can rest assured the God will equip us to carry out that assignment and that we can earn the right to be people of “high esteem.” Our Lord loves us beyond human capacity to imagine. We are a blessed people to have Him in our lives. Revel in that today and know that each one of us is loved that way. Peter and I send our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn