Reason why I’m doing this

Continued Discussion on What God has Entrusted Me With

I’m not even going to pretend like I am a good steward of any of the things that God has entrusted me with. I am so, so, so far away from God, and the depth of my sin and willful disobedience is so great that I despair daily at the person that I am. When I reflect upon my flaws and my sin, I don’t even know where to start. Without the cross, without grace, I cannot cross the chasm that separates me and my creator, and I am forever endebted to Christ. All that I feel I can do is spend time with God, and obey Him, so as to let Him do His work in my broken soul.

Faith and Innocence

A little tidbit of New Testament-esque justification by faith can be found in Daniel as well, if I’m interpreting this correctly.

“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.’” (Daniel 6:22)

“The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” (Daniel 6:23)

The logic of the statements follows as so:

• Daniel was saved from death because he was found innocent in God’s sight. (Daniel 6:22)
• Daniel was saved from death because he had trusted in God. (Daniel 6:23)
• Daniel could not have been truly sinless, so his innocence had to come from somewhere else. His trust/faith could have been credited to him as righteousness. Maybe it’s a stretch, since the 2 verses do not logically tie together like that.

God’s Faithfulness

Finally, God is ultimately the one who enables, and God is the one who saves. Daniel’s excellence is a result of his character (also developed by God), and also a result of God-given excellence. If Daniel was simply an excellent administrator, political intrigue would have killed him at the beginning of his career. Furthermore, regardless of skill, you cannot rise to the top of any organization, much less a large empire without an abundance of luck or divine providence. The fact that he stayed on top of the ladder for many many years amidst changing regimes and government officials jockeying violently for authority is proof of God’s faithfulness towards Daniel. God is the one who saves, God is the one who shows His faithfulness.

Interesting Note: No Community

Some prophets had wives and children. It doesn’t seem like Daniel did. As the book of Daniel progresses, his friends fall out of the picture for whatever reason, and he becomes the sole focus of the story. He probably did have a spiritual community of some sort, but it isn’t mentioned. I wonder how he did his faith life, because it almost seems like he did it alone.

End Note:

I very much dislike reading about the end times, because I sometimes fear that my name is not written in the book of life. I don’t want eternal punishment. Also, it makes me realize that I’m but a drop in the sea, and I have no power or control over these fated happenings. I barely understand what is even being described in these visions, and it still troubles me. Poor Daniel.

#slave2christ

Reason why I’m doing this

So most of this stuff doesn’t actually relate to why I started reading Daniel in the first place. It’s mostly about the crazy visions that Daniel has about the near future of regional geopolitics and the end times.

But there are still many things to be taken from the text in relation to the topic – “How can I live as a slave to Christ?”

Consistency

First off, Daniel is nothing if not consistent. His life, all the way up to the end of his life, is dedicated towards God, and everything else is secondary. God never rebukes Daniel for the sin in his life (at least in the Bible), and God continually saves Him. I’m not saying Daniel is sinless, but clearly, he never let up in his relentless pursuit of God. He practices spiritual discipline daily. He prays 3 times a day, even in the face of death for prayer.

“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” (Daniel 6:10)

What’s notable about this is that it mentions that he gives thanks to God daily. This is incomprehensible without a transcendental trust in God, and an attitude of abandon towards his own life. Daniel’s life was rife with political intrigue, and there are likely many more plots against him that didn’t make it into the Bible. But it doesn’t seem like they swayed his heart at all. His trust towards God did not falter, and his faith stood the test.

This cannot be explained but by the grace of God. For who can live like this with their own strength? I need to ask God for grace, that I may be as consistent and unrelenting in my pursuit for God as Daniel.

Lives a Life Blameless Before Others

Second, Daniel’s life is blameless before others. King Darius’s administrators and satraps tried to dispose of Daniel, and investigated every nook and cranny of his life as a public servant. But they could not find a single charge against him in corruption, negligence, or lack of excellence in work. He was easily the best amongst all of them. So much that King Darius put him on a fast track for promotion.

I make so many mistakes at work, some due to my own negligence. I’m also inexperienced, and have a lot to learn. I need to step it up. I’m not representing myself, I’m representing God. But for this too, I must ask for God’s grace. For who can gain ability on their own if God does not allow it?

Trusts God

Third, Daniel is distinguished in his trust towards God.

“The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” (Daniel 6:23)

I’m not sure if it was intended to be interpreted in this manner, but in the English NIV translation, the verse seems to imply that Daniel was saved because he had trusted in God. So does that mean that if Daniel did not trust in God, he would not have been saved? Not necessarily, because that logical relation does not mean that he would not have been saved for another reason. But still, this trust seems to be important.

Daniel’s life is full of obstacles. God places before him various trials the moment he arrives to Babylon, and they only increase in difficulty. At each obstacle, God seems to be asking, “No matter if I save save you or not, will you still follow me? Do you still trust in my goodness? Do you love me more than you love life itself?” For us reading the Bible, and for us familiar with Daniel’s story, it seems so obvious that God had a plan, and God would continually save Daniel, proving his faithfulness. But Daniel had no idea. At every trial he faced, there was no guarantee that God would save him yet again. After all, God allows even faithful people of God to die.

Would I be able to say yes to God even when staring down the barrel? My little unfounded theory is that God doesn’t just present trials out of the blue to a believer. It doesn’t mean that trials will never not jump in difficulty and only linearly increase in difficulty, it’s just that God gives us opportunities, even small ones, every single day, to say “yes” to Him. He builds us up in faith and character using these small opportunities, and uses us accordingly. If only we say “yes” to all the small things, I have hope that He will use even the smallest things to give us the strength to say “yes” to him when the stakes become higher. This thinking is based on the following verse.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Luke 16:10)

Every little small thing God has entrusted in my life I need to give my utmost attention to. So what are the things in my life that God has entrusted to me?

Largely,

• a job
• my church
• friends
• family
• my extra time
• my intellect
• an Internet connection
• etc.

So God has given me each of the following things for a reason, and entrusted me with them. Without Him in the picture, these are all good things that I wouldn’t know what to do with. But with Him in the picture, I now know that He has entrusted me with each of these things for a reason, and I need to understand that reason, and in joy, prayer, and petition, fulfill God’s plan in each of these areas, as a child uses a crayon to fill in the outlines given by a coloring book.

Even when reading through Daniel, I am resoundingly sure of the fact that I have not even understood 1% of the significance of this book, and of Daniel’s life. But I hope that God will use this insignificant effort of mine to understand what it means to live for Him in a great way. I look forward to the day when God shows me how He used this time spent before Him.

#slave2christ

Reason why I’m doing this

Maybe it’s the way that the story’s told, but I get the sense that Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego really don’t care about anything other than pleasing God. One reason it feels this way is because the writer of the Bible didn’t care to show how Daniel and his friends felt or reacted when faced with certain death. There’s no mention of fear, of worry, or hesitation. I’m sure they felt some kind of fear, since they are only human too, but the main focus is on the way they choose to respond to the situation, and not so much their emotions.

Because it’s written this way, I can’t help but imagine Daniel and his friends possessing an aura of nonchalance as they continually face certain death and danger in what I imagine to be unstable and abusive living conditions. King Nebuchadnezzar is at the very least, bipolar. He threatens to literally rip you into shreds, then prostrates himself before you and heaps riches upon you five seconds later. His gut reaction to minor inconveniences is to kill the people causing the minor inconveniences. Most people would live cowering in fear in this kind of environment. But Daniel and Co are not afraid of death in the slightest however, and so Daniel’s friends’ reaction to death threats from a man that very well means it is:

“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16b-18)

But despite how nonchalant Daniel and Co are, none of them are ever disrespectful or rebellious to the king. It’s not “Our almighty God will save us from you, shove an umbrella up your ass and open it,” but “The only thing I care about is my relationship with God. I’m not afraid of death, and I’m not afraid of you. But I will still treat you with the respect that a human deserves.”

Daniel and Co do not fear because their trust in God is so great, and because they, unconsciously, or consciously, know that the only thing that matters is living a life pleasing to God, which they do.

Also, the concept of career advancement does not seem to exist in their brain. I’m sure, because they seem to be smart and diligent people, that they would give it their all at the role they are placed in. But they don’t work thinking about “I need to gain more power” or “I need this promotion.” They simply do their job well, and focus on pleasing God. Then God randomly gives them a promotion via divine intervention, placing them at the top of the corporate ladder that many would kill to be at.

So a couple things stuck out to me today:

1. There’s nothing to fear but God

2. Please God

3. Do your job well

4. Be kind and respectful to others despite not being too attached to what they think of you

#slave2christ

Reason why I’m doing this

There’s a couple themes to point out.

Fate

• There’s an aspect of fate to all this. Daniel and his friends were chosen from all of Israel to serve in the courts of Babylon. They were good lookin’, smart, and all that. I’m sure there were others in Israel that could be chosen, but they were the ones. What I’m saying is that they were probably fated to be chosen.

Disciplined Commitment to Holiness

• Daniel and his friends decide at the get go that they aren’t going to eat the food sacrificed to idols. They decided it was sin, that they weren’t going to do it, and they decided to eat raw vegetables instead (pretty bad food tbh).
• The guy in charge was concerned that they would not develop properly, and grow up to be good servants of the kingdom. Then they told the guy in charge that they weren’t going to do it, and that he should test them.

Trusting in God for the Results

• Daniel and his friends trust that God is going to deliver them from having to eat food sacrificed to idols when they ask the guy in charge to test them. They would not ask the guy in charge to test them if they had no trust in God to deliver them.
• I’m sure that even if they did not pass this test, God would have given them a different way out.

Leadership

• I’m sure Daniel and his friends all led exemplary lives before God. But the spotlight is on Daniel. He seems to be one leading his friends, and they follow really well, but he does seem to be that calls the shots. But he does it in a way that is pleasing to God.
• Someone has to step up and lead.

God-given competence and excellence

• In the text, it says that God gives them all wisdom, knowledge, and discernment over the years that they study. This shows that ability is ultimately given by God. Even if we don’t receive the same talents that Daniel and co received, we can rely on God for the ability to be excellent and competent in whatever work we do, so that He will be glorified when people look at us.

#slave2christ