The Life of Daniel - Chapter 1

Background / Context

Verse One:

Daniel's story doesn't begin with much background or context. I suppose if you are rather familiar with the Israelites' (Daniel was an Israelite) story as a whole, you will have more context. However, if you just picked up this book and read it (which I highly recommend), you will find yourself immediately in the midst of a great siege. It's like going to the theatre and after the opening credits have rolled, you are immediately bombarded with a battle. You don't even know who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are yet. All the first verse tells us is that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon has besieged Jerusalem - the homeland of the Israelites.

Verse 2

The opening battle scene soon drifts to a glimpse in the past, an explanation for what is happening and why. In this verse we discover that God Himself allowed Israel to be overtaken by the Babylonians. While it is not clear from the text alone, this was done because Israel had chosen to not follow the commandments of God. Their hearts had drifted away from Him. Don't take this verse lightly. Much of the Old Testament is dedicated to God's chosen people - Israel - fighting for a place to call home. If you know the Exodus story - how Moses rescued the Israelites from hundreds of years of slavery - then you know how blessed these people were to at last have a homeland. They had their own king, their own property, and they were free to worship God however they pleased. Yet, they chose to follow their own path, and not that of their true rescuer, God. So God, in an act of punishment, allowed Israel to lose their freedom once again.

The battle resumes. This is the part where you grip your armrests, you forget altogether of the popcorn in your lap, or even that this is just a movie. The choir sings a lamentation as you watch children taken from their weeping mothers - all in slow motion. It's gripping.

Verse 3

The King of Babylon instructs a man by the name of Ashpenaz (unfortunate name) to a select group of people to bring back to Babylon with him (the rest were allowed to stay in Israel under Babylonian rule). These three groups were:

1. Nobleman

2. Royalty (descendants of the Israel's king)

3. Children

Verse 4

This verse gives some specifics on the characteristics of the people brought back to Babylon. Pay close attention to these characteristics.

1. No blemish: Physically they had no (or at least very few) flaws.

2. Good looking: Whatever that meant back in the B.C. days. My guess is about 5'9" with long brown        hair and freckles.

3. Gifted in all wisdom: This doesn't mean they were given some vision as children that allowed them to possess all knowledge. It means they went to school. They studied hard and knew their stuff.

4. Possessing knowledge and quick to understand: They were quick learners. They listened well and memorized. You didn't have to tell them the same thing twice.

5. Had the ability to work in the king's palace: Let's face it. Not everyone could work in a king's palace. These young people were very respectable, submissive to authority, and well-behaved.

6. Literate with good speaking abilities: These were young people the Babylonians knew they could teach to read, speak, and write in a new language.

We aren't told this until verse six, but Daniel was one of these men. He had been taken from his homeland, his friends, and his family. He had been thrust into a new country with a new language, a new king, and new gods. Why? He was a smart, good-looking young man. Makes me think twice about whether or not I should care about looks and grades.

Story

We now have the background and context of Daniel's first adventure in Babylon (he had several of them).

Verses 5-16

King Nebuchadnezzar was not a terrible king. He was very powerful, yes, but he treated the nations he conquered with much kindness, allowing them to live in peace, simply under his rule. The people he took captive, such as Daniel, he treated even more kindly. Verse 5 says that he supplied Daniel (as well as the others) with "daily provision" from his own delicacies. It's like being taken away from your mom's great cooking only to find out that your kidnappers are going to feed you Old Country Buffet. You'd rather have Mom's cooking, but this isn't half bad either.

Verse 6 brings Daniel, and three of his friends into the story. There were others, of course, but for whatever reason, the book of Daniel focusses on these four young men.

In the eighth verse of this book, Daniel runs into his first of many predicaments. His religion (if you want to call it that) did not allow him to drink and eat of the food the king was providing. The specifics of why it wasn't allowed aren't important here. The important thing is that he thought he would "defile himself" if he ate and drank the provisions the king was offering. This brings one more part of Daniel's past to light. Despite being part of a nation that had chosen not to follow God, Daniel had purposed to be different. He had chosen the narrow road of following God. Perhaps his parents taught him this. Perhaps his parents' disobedience had caused him to see a better way. We don't know, and quite frankly, it doesn't matter.

Needless to say Daniel is in a pickle. Here he has been presented with the opportunity to serve the greatest king on earth, but his faith in God ( a God the king does not know) has gotten in the way. I imagine two thoughts running through Daniel's mind.

1. I am far away from my homeland, in a country that does not know the laws of my God. Surely God has placed me here for this situation and will understand that it is impossible for me to follow this one simple rule.

2. I am member of God's chosen people. Perhaps God has chosen me for this very moment to live for Him in the midst of a people that does not know Him.

Neither decision is easy. Both have consequences. So what does Daniel do? Initially, Daniel decides to follow God. Don't take that decision lightly, it could have been the death of him quite literally. But something interesting happens next, that sheds a little more light on the character of Daniel.

The overseer of these new captives comes to Daniel and begs him to change his mind. Why? Why didn't the overseer report that Daniel wasn't accepting the king's generosity? Perhaps to save his own neck. Nobody wants to approach the greatest king on earth with ill news. There is a larger reason, however, you will find in verse 9. It says that "God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill" of this overseer. How? Did God magically make the king's overseer like Daniel? Maybe. But I doubt it.

We've already seen how great the character of Daniel was. Daniel was probably good at making friends, winning people over. When Daniel was taken captive to a land far from home he didn't spend his days complaining and crying. He got to work right away making allies within the king's court. This doesn't mean that he was telling everyone about God. He probably wasn't telling anyone about God. He was simply being an outgoing, upstanding, hard-working person. He was attractive. Not just physically. He was a person people liked and wanted to be around.

Being a follower of God doesn't mean we have to be awkward people always holding a Bible and witnessing. We don't have to tell people they are going to hell, hold picket signs, or avoid all things secular. There was very little in Daniel's life as a young man that hinted at anything religious. I'm not saying he didn't have a prayer life. We find out later in this book that Daniel was willing to risk his own life to follow a daily prayer routine. My point is that outside of his time alone with God, his work life had very little "Christianness" to it. He lived in a country that worshipped other gods, worked for people who knew nothing of his God, and the work he was doing had nothing to do with spreading the word about God. He was not known as "Daniel the nice Godly young fellow." He was known as "Daniel, the attractive hard-working young fellow." Let's continue.

All that being said, Daniel eventually had to make a stand for God, but his good standing with the overseer made it easier. Since Daniel had this relationship, he asked the overseer to do him a favor. Daniel asked for a 10-day trial. You've heard of Netflix's 30-day trial. It's a short time-period to test whether or not you want to follow through with a monthly dose of cheap DVD's delivered straight to your mailbox. Daniel asked the overseer to give him and his friends 10 days to consume food and drinks allowed by God instead of that offered by the king. The overseer complied, and I cannot stress enough how Daniel's good standing with this ungodly overseer was vital to anything good that happened from this point on.

You see, after the 10-day trial, Daniel and his three friends actually looked better than everyone else, and they were never asked to eat or drink the king's provisions again. If Daniel had not had the relationship he had with the overseer, and he had still chosen to follow God, he and his three friends would most likely have been killed. Food for thought.

Backtracking just slightly, it is also interesting to note that Daniel's three friends (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) were not the one's who had good-standing with the overseer. You see, Daniel was a leader. He took initiative. He did the dirty work of befriending this man and asking for a trial - not just for himself - but for his three friends as well. Now, don't think Daniel's three friends weren't Godly or brave. They were, but something they were not was prepared. Daniel was. He had done the "secular work" necessary to complete a religious task.

Ending

Verses 17-21

What was the conclusion to the story? Not only were Daniel and his three friends allowed to eat and drink the provisions of their choice, but God blessed them as well with additional knowledge and wisdom. God blessed Daniel slightly more than the others, however, and gave him the ability to interpret visions and dreams (this proves significant later in the story).

God blesses us when we choose to live for Him, but He also blesses plain ol' hard secular work.

At the end of three years of training, all the people taken from Israel were brought before the king for a final interview. Let me just quote verses 19-20. They sum everything up much better than I can.

"Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm."

This is a very exciting part in the movie you are watching. Your hand is shoving popcorn into your mouth faster than you can swallow. The orchestra is composing a heart-pounding symphony. The music is building and building. Four young men are kneeling before the king who holds the power to kill them or make them four of the greatest men in the world. The king stands and declares in a voice that echoes through the city gates that these four young men, who have received merely three years of training, are more knowledgeable than all the greatest men in the entire kingdom and will serve him directly.

Your popcorn goes flying. Cheers ring throughout the theatre. They did it. They won.

You leave the theatre, get in your car, and drive home excited. It's on the way home that you begin to think of the deeper meanings of this movie, and you discover that there is more to it than meets the eye. This movie wasn't just an inspirational story about four young men rises from the ashes (literally) to attain greatness.

This movie is about one young man, Daniel, who had lost everything, yet had chosen to excel in every area of his life, that those he cared about most, might survive. The story isn't about attaining greatness, or winning friends, or gaining popularity.

You see, if you had stayed through the credits, you would have watched a hidden scene. You would have been taken to Daniel's room in the king's palace. You would see him surrounded by wealth, but you would not see him rejoicing. The camera would bring us to Daniel's bed where he lie weeping, begging God to bring him back to his family. Begging God that this was all a bad dream, and that he would wake up the next day in his bed. That he would wake up home.

Daniel didn't excel in every area of his life to attain greatness. He didn't do it out of some competitive nature to be the best he could be. Throughout this chapter, and throughout his entire life, Daniel did his very best in every single task, because he knew that was what God expected of him. That was what God required.

It's not a happy ending. It's quite bittersweet.