Introduction
This paper is about how Daniel honors God. We will see several incidents where Daniel stands out from the crowd. He’s not trying to stand out. But his commitment to follow God, and honor Him, caused him to do things a little different. We will be looking at the first two chapters of the book of Daniel.
Background
The Book of Daniel starts right when the Jewish nation had been taken captive by the Babylonians. The Babylonians took some of the important young men from the Jewish families in order to indoctrinate them in the Babylonian culture. The indoctrination period was a three year program of language and literature. At the end of the program, these young men would join the group of wise men in the king’s service.
Daniel Honors God
The Choice Food -Incident 1
The first incident happened at the start of the indoctrination period.
Part of the indoctrination was for the participants to be given the king’s choice food and wine. But early on in the program, Daniel and three of his companions, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, declined the special diet. They did not want to defile themselves with the food and wine, but sought to honor God. God granted favor to the four youths in the sight of their commander, and he allowed them to have vegetables and water only.
After a trial period, Daniel and his companions looked better than the others in the program. Daniel 1:15 tells us,
“And at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.”
Daniel did not defile himself, and honored God.
Top of the Class -Incident 2
The next incident happened at the end of the indoctrination.
Daniel, chapter 1, tells us that at the end of the 3 year education, Daniel and his three companions were at the top of the class. Not just top of the class, but even better than all the existing wise men. In fact, Daniel 1:19-20 says,
“And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.”
Daniel and his companions excelled in their study and honored God.
The King’s Dream -Incident 3
This incident occurred just after the king had a troubling dream.
Right at the time of Daniel’s graduation, King Nebuchadnezzar had a very disturbing dream. The king called for his wise men to not only interpret the dream, but to recite the dream itself. Daniel chapter 2:9 reveals that the king did not trust his wise men. The king tells them,
“For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.”
The wise men could not do as the king demanded, and tried to argue their way out of the situation. The king become furious, and decided to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. The king sent Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, to destroy them all.
The Dream revealed
When Daniel learned of the situation, he and his companions prayed that God would disclose the dream and its meaning. God revealed the mystery to Daniel in a night vision.
When it came time for Daniel to tell the king of the mystery, Arioch tried to take credit. Arioch said to the king, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!”1 It is as if Arioch had said, “I knew it was important to the king, so looked all over and found a man…”
When Daniel told the mystery to the king, he gave God the glory. Daniel explained to the king that no man is able to know, “However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”2 He also told the king that it was revealed because of who God is -not because of Daniel’s wisdom.3
Thus, Daniel was able to honor God by praying with his companions for God’s mercy. Also, Daniel honored God by giving God the credit for revealing the mystery. (I explore more of how God was working in the life of Daniel in my article, God Uses Daniel.)
Conclusion
We saw how Daniel honored God in these three incidents from the first two chapters of the Book of Daniel. Daniel chose to not defile himself with the king’s food; to excel in the work God gave him to do; and to seek God in prayer. Daniel honored God.
Appendix
I have wondered this: Why didn’t Arioch just come up and execute Daniel? Instead, he conversed with Daniel about the matter. Arioch also allowed Daniel to request time from the king to interpret the mystery.4 Arioch had the authority and the ability to destroy Daniel, but hesitated. I think there are perhaps several reasons.
First – Daniel had established his reputation with the commanders over him as we see in the first incident. The news of this certainly spread among the other officials in the king’s court. Daniel treated them with respect, and he earned their respect.
Second – Daniel graduated the indoctrination school with top honors. He demonstrated more wisdom and understanding than all the existing wise men in the kingdom. I think that this enhanced his standing in the eyes of Arioch.
Third – Perhaps Arioch knew that the God of Daniel and his companions was powerful. Later in the book, in Daniel 5:11-12, another interpretation was needed. This was for King Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar. The queen remembered Daniel, and said,
“There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, illumination, insight, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners. This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation.”
This is conjecture on my part, but maybe in Arioch’s eyes, Daniel had already achieved the reputation chapter 5 talks about. Or maybe Arioch already thought that Daniel was a representative of a very powerful god. Add to that, Arioch was probably superstitious and did not want to offend any of the gods. If you were superstitious and told to kill the “representatives of the gods”, what would you do? I don’t think you would rush into it!
1 Daniel 2:25
2 Daniel 2:28
3 Daniel 2:30
4 Daniel 2:14-16 “Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; he answered and said to Arioch, the king’s commander, ‘For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?’ Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king.”