Year 6, Day 335: Daniel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Daniel always hits a very warm chord within me.  Some of the stories within this book were some of the first Bible stories I ever remember being taught.  As I look at this chapter through a more mature lens, I can understand why we teach these stories to our young people.  There are so many good lessons of faith contained within this book.

For example, take a look at what we can learn from this first chapter.  When we hear about the Babylonians, we typically have a visceral reaction because they were the people who took the Hebrew people into captivity.  But that isn’t how the Bible presents the Babylonians.  Sure, they did some very cruel things and got punished for it.  But they aren’t completely and totally evil, either!

The king of Babylon brings the gifted of the Hebrew people and surrounds himself with them.  What an incredibly shrewd move!  The king of Babylon values intelligent people who can think and respond.  It doesn’t matter what their race, color, or creed is; the king simply wants the best to be near to him.  The king knows that when we surround ourselves with exemplars, we tend to rise up to their level as well.

Also notice the openness and humbleness that we see in the king and his advisors.  Remember, the Babylonians have just routed the Hebrew people in battle at God’s will.  Thus, when Daniel comes with a plan to show the king of Babylon just how well God actually can provide for His people, we might expect the king to mock.  But he doesn’t mock at all.  Daniel’s plan is given a chance to succeed.  Not only does it succeed, but God is glorified through it!  The Babylonian leadership at the time of their conquest of the Hebrew people was shrewd and open-minded.  They are open to hearing about the power of God.

We’re going to see this throughout much of the first half of the book.  We so often think of the Babylonians as the enemy of the Hebrew people.  On some levels, they absolutely were.  But that doesn’t mean that they are pure evil, either.  Like all human beings, the trick is separating the sin from the sinner and learning that it is still possible to love the sinner.  That’s what Daniel begins to do in this chapter.

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