Daniel—the captive prince
Introduction: Daniel is one of the most well-known people in the whole Bible. Phrases like “the writing on the wall” and “thrown to the lions” are based on events in Daniel’s life—and he actually lived through these events, and more. He had the chance to reject the God of his past, but chose to live for Him even though he was a captive and likely never saw his homeland during the rest of his natural life. His faithfulness in a very difficult time is an inspiration for me, and I hope will be an inspiration for all who read his book.
This first message focuses on one significant event in Daniel’s life, probably not long after he and other captives had arrived in Babylon. Daniel may not have known it at the time, but when he decided to live God's way in a foreign land, God would bless him and use him in ways he may have never dreamed of. May we, too, remain faithful to God, no matter where we might be.
I Daniel’s background
Text: Daniel 1:1, KJV: In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. 3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; 4 Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
Daniel was one of the Israelites carried captive to Babylon during the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, hinted at in 2 Kings 24. This captivity happened several years before the final captivity during Zedekiah’s reign (see 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 39 for details). Daniel was a member of the royal family, but his father’s name was not revealed (Daniel 1:3). He survived the capture, the journey to Babylon itself, and was chosen to be part of the Babylonian king’s staff. Later the sons of Zedekiah, plus other nobles of Judah, met an awful fate, when they were put to death by Nebuchadnezzar’s men at Riblah (Jeremiah 39:6-7). At the very least, this shows that God had a very special plan for Daniel.
Yet, one thing about Daniel has never been documented, at least as far as I can find in the Scriptures, and that is when he became a believer in the True God of Israel. Daniel at the very least lived during the same days as Jehoiakim, son of Josiah and Scripture records that Jehoiakim “did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done (2 Kings 23:37).” Before that, Josiah was one of the best and sadly the last good king Judah ever had. This may show that the efforts of Josiah to bring Judah back to God bore some fruit (see 2 Kings 23), but, sadly, not among his own offspring: the last kings all did evil in God’s eyes.
This, then, gives us a bit of Daniel’s background: he was a member of the royal family, he was spared from death both at Jerusalem and during the long march to Babylon, and somehow he had become a believer in the God of Israel. Even so, he was a captive in a foreign, pagan land, and I’m sure he wondered, just what am I going to do now? What’s going to happen next?
II Daniel’s challenges
Sure enough, Daniel and some other captive youths were selected (!) for a special training program. The king of Babylon, like many other monarchs of the time, had absolute power and a person risked a lot if he said “No” when the king said “Go (this can be readily seen in the next few chapters)” Here is a brief description of this training program, taken from Daniel 1:
Daniel 1:4, KJV: Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans (this verse repeated for emphasis)
Daniel was not the only Hebrew youth, apparently, who met this first “screening” process: he had no obvious blemishes, he already had some knowledge of knowledge and science, and he knew how to conduct himself in the king’s palace. Clearly not every youth would have met those standards, and it would be interesting to discover what kind of rubric or measurements were used to select Daniel and some others, rejecting the rest. But that is not available in the text.
So far, it seems, so good. Daniel and others might have been selected to attend one of the best colleges or graduate schools in the known world at that time. He and the others would simply be building on the foundation of what they had already learned in the arts and sciences. But now, here comes the first real challenge: these youths were also going to be trained in the “learning and tongue (language) of the Chaldeans”.
Learning the language would be expected—these youths had no idea when, or even if, they would return to Jerusalem and it would be normal and wise to learn the language of their new homeland. Plus, becoming bilingual, they could translate things written or spoken in Chaldean or the Babylonian language (assuming these are identical) to their parents and/or peers who may not have understood very much of it. That didn’t seem to be that much of a challenge, really.
But something else is mentioned in the verse that may have been very troubling to Daniel and his fellow believers in the God of Israel. Part of this training involved being educated in the “learning” or knowledge, literature, and the like of the Chaldeans. This material could have involved all kinds of information. Some of it was most likely truly innocent, such as the mathematics, science, and so forth—but there was another underlying factor. And that underlying factor was the emphasis placed on the Babylonian religion.
It would seem nearly impossible for a city/system like Babylon’s to separate the religion or religious aspect of nearly anything involving educating the people. Several people mention or are familiar with the Babylonian “Epic of Gilgamesh” which contains part of the story of Creation and the Flood, but with a background of idol worship. Compare this “epic” with the story of Noah in Genesis and the differences are clear.
Besides any other “learning . . . of the Chaldeans”, something to remember is that Babylon was most likely the site of man’s great rebellion against God. Moses wrote very briefly about this in Genesis 10:8-10 but other, more recent authors such as Alexander Hislop in “The Two Babylons” and David W. Daniels’ book “Babylon Religion” give much additional information. There is also a link to a study on Nimrod himself on-line at
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/LibrarybyTopics/NimrodTheRebelliousPantherbyNoelSmith1954/tabid/247/Default.aspx
Daniel, an Israelite who was exiled, a captive in a foreign land, chosen for what could be a bright future, had a lot of things to look forward to, but he was now facing at least one and possibly more challenges. How would he respond?
And before he had time to consider, he was facing another, more serious challenge. In addition to being selected to a course of study leading to a position of honor, maybe power, he had to weigh the burden carefully of keeping his faith and knowledge of the True God while learning a lot of pagan material as well. This new challenge was more up close and personal, though, than anything he was about to learn.
This was about his diet! The king gave each of the students a daily allowance of food and wine, (1:5), apparently the same kind of food that he consumed. The text does not specify what the king’s food was, exactly, but it most likely was not prepared according to the Law and surely it would not have been offered to the LORD, God of Israel. Daniel now faced this second challenge, could he eat the king’s food, or not? What could he do?
To Daniel’s credit, he refused (“purposed in his heart”, verse 8) to give up his strongly held beliefs, even in his diet. Instead, he simply asked one of the officials for a ten-day trial for a change of diet. The official, of course, was concerned about losing his life—ah, his job—but agreed for a ten-day trial. Once the trial period was over, Daniel and his three friends were evaluated, and found to be in better shape than the others. All this was due to Daniel’s commitment to the LORD, God of Israel. Daniel faced at least two challenges, and stood firm in his beliefs and faith. He survived all these challenges because the LORD was with him.
III Daniel’s reward
In His wisdom, God does not give many details about Daniel’s rewards after facing these challenges. Besides finding favor—dare we say grace?—in the eyes of the Babylonian court, Daniel plus his three close friends, all of whom stayed true to the LORD, these young men were “ten times better” than all the other leaders (“magicians and astrologers”, 1:20, KJV) in the kingdom. The next few chapters give additional details about these young men and how they used not only their training, but their faith in God, in various occasions.
For us, we may not face the same challenges as Daniel and his friends, but let’s remember that the world is not any friendlier to believers in God now than it was in Daniel’s days. But whenever we encounter these challenges, we can remember the God of Daniel is with us, just as He was with Daniel. And even though we may not receive the same rewards Daniel did, we can rejoice that our Lord will never let us labor in vain.
Thank You, Lord, for Daniel and his friends. And thank you, Daniel, for giving us an example for all believers to follow!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
