This week we continue our look at Daniel and how God used him to influence the culture in which he was exiled. As we see in the first chapter of Daniel, he was identified as being “skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent,” (Daniel 1:4).

Now, Daniel could have been just crushed that he was given all of these gifts from God but yet now they would be wasted as he was part of a conquered people. But, he didn’t pout! He was faithful to God in all he did and then when the king assigned to him the king’s portion of food and wine (which I imagine would have been like eating at 3 and 4 star restaurants everyday) “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank,” (Daniel 1:8).

Nebuchadnezzar’s plan was to slowly replace Daniel’s God by making him so comfortable that assimilation to the Babylonian culture would just kind of happen slowly over time. Could this be a lesson for us today? He gave him free education here, some great food and wine over there, and he figured that soon Daniel and the other Israelites would form a growing dependence to the royal court.

It would take a conscious effort by Daniel and his friends to remain undefiled in this lifestyle. Denying himself helped Daniel to be reminded that he was an exile living in a foreign land and that he belonged to God and not Babylon.

Another important point we can learn from Daniel is that he was respectful of his captors. He didn’t post satirical memes on his Facebook page and tweet out pro-Israelite messages to antagonize his captors (or whatever the equivalent to that was for his time!) More on this point another time!

Daniel acted this way because he was able to see the larger picture at a time when the current picture was about as dismal as ever for his people. Anwar Sadat, who as president of Egypt helped broker the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel said, “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Think of the importance of that statement for both Sadat (who was assassinated for his part in making peace with Israel) and for Daniel (who was a captive in a foreign land). Instead of focusing on what had been, or what was lost, they had to think about what could be possible in their situations. They were transformational thinkers and doers. Do we have these type of transformational leaders in the church now? I think we do but we need to cut through all the noise so we can hear them. Leadership nowadays is so much based on who can get the best sound bite or the best quip that will “go viral” on social media. Daniel, on the other hand, was a man of deep integrity who served God in a humble and deep way.

Let us all seek to be more like him as he sought to be more like Him!

More to come…
Jeremy