Whom You Serve Continually

From: June 19 – 25, 2012

TOPIC: Whom You Serve Continually” Daniel 6:15 – 22 Daniel was a noble young man, between 12 and 15 years old, who was taken captive together along with his Israelite compatriots to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar's army. Daniel lived in captivity in a great city full of greatness and power. Of course, he arrived in chains as a slave with many humiliations and great material and sentimental losses. Like him, all those Israelites arrived at Babylon missing relatives, without properties, without honor and all the honors lost. They lost their beloved and their great religion learned from what they received by Moses. Their religion was with them for centuries, hundreds of years. They knew very well that the disobedience towards God brought upon their nation great ruin and all those great embarrassments. Daniel was a great young man in his nation Israel (Daniel 1:3-6), he was an irreproachable youngster, well-looking, full of wisdom and science, with great skills. He was selected by order from Nebuchadnezzar among the other young Israelis to be in the royal palace in Babylon. He was chosen because he was capable of behaving in that sumptuous palace, and with the purpose of being taught and to learn the lyrics and language of the Chaldeans. Now, Daniel would show if he was vain or if he was an inflexible young man and tenacious with his God. Depending on his behavior it would be known if there was anything there that would fulfill him that would make him capable of abandoning his God for all that great radiance of that nation which was rising with much power. He would be serving beside King Nebuchadnezzar during 45 long years in the midst of great human glories. Later he would continue to serve under the government of the other kings to come; now it would be known if he was doing it for God or for himself. King Nebuchadnezzar ostentated the power of leading the largest empire of his time and although he lived full of ambitions, he was never able to contaminate Daniel with any of his offerings. He offered him the best meals, but Daniel refused to eat it for they were unworldly meals for the Israelites; that young man did not allow anything to contaminate him (Daniel 1:8). He was very young, but very inflexible with what he acknowledged which was God and how to please him in his daily life. He did not allow in any way to become contaminated with the king’s splendid food. Daniel proposed in his heart not to become contaminated with anything he was living thru in Babylon. God would be testing him and forming him for what he was about to live. There was a great empire with an unworldly king, but there was a young man who would become old without abandoning his principles. Daniel was like some compare him to saying: he had 2/3 parts of oak and the rest of steel! The dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar are read in the Bible. There weren’t wise men, or magicians, or astrologists capable of revealing the significance of his dreams (Daniel 4:7). Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:9) asked Daniel to help him interpret the dream, because he acknowledged that Daniel was a man with revelations from God and to whom no mystery was hidden. Nebuchadnezzar told his dream to Daniel and he gave him the interpretation. God was revealing to the king thru that dream the terrible things that would occur to the king in the future,

because of his great pride and ostentation while having the greatest empire in those times (Daniel 4:25). And that’s exactly how it happened. Daniel continued to be that man inflexible to his belief and fidelity to God. Nebuchadnezzar died and more than 45 years had passed since Daniel and his nation were captured and governed by that magnificent king. After Nebuchadnezzar, five other successor kings reigned. The last one of them, King Belshazzar, had to find someone who was trustful to help him in the new government. Who else but that same Daniel, now old, but always faithful to his kings? God also revealed himself to King Belshazzar by means of a writing on the wall of his royal palace, and no one was able to interpret what was written by God’s finger (Daniel 5:5-7). When Daniel is taken to the king, he offers Daniel gifts so that he may interpret the writing on the wall, but Daniel refuses to accept the gifts (Daniel 5: 16,17). Daniel continues to be like a strong oak in his more than 80 years of age; there was no one who could make him yield or prostrate before the vainglory of that unworldly empire. That same night Belshazzar was dead, just as it was interpreted by Daniel. Then, Darius the Meden took over the kingdom (Daniel 5:30, 31). Daniel continued to be a faithful man to these new kings, now he was with Darius and was also appreciated and loved by this king (Daniel 6:2-3). In this kingdom several wicked men came against Daniel and by means of a trap they were able to take him to the pit of lions ordered by Darius himself, although against the kings will (Daniel 6:4, 7, 13). They wanted to put an end to the old man who had been honest all his life, firm and constant before his God. The other governors of Darius’s kingdom, who had organized the trap, knew of Daniel's wisdom and integrity and wanted to test him by means of a law that prohibited praying to Jehovah. Daniel opened the windows so that everyone could see him. Those windows were facing his Jerusalem. He did not ask the king for mercy, he opened the windows of his room and prayed three times a day. He was being watched to be accused. They were able to accuse him and sentence him based on the proclamation signed by the king; a proclamation to throw anyone who prayed to other gods or men other than the king to the pit of the lions. Darius was unable to sleep because he was worried about that righteous man. In the morning Darius went and asked Daniel: "... Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?" "O King live forever...," responded Daniel without any resentment (Daniel 6: 20, 22). What faith, what courage, what a brave old man! He responds: "My God sent his angel, who shut the lions’ mouth so that they would not harm me, because I was found innocent before him." The king was overjoyed, because in his conscience he did not want to have that burden for something as unfair as watching an old man who walked with God die in that way. To harm that old man was like harming God who called him and made him a wonderful instrument for Him. Daniel was faithful to kings like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. Being idolatrous kings, Daniel’s testimony and his life with God led them to esteem and love him. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, in his last days he said: "I praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble." Daniel was inflexible by being faithful to his God and so left his footprints in the lives of many. And you, do you continually serve God as Daniel did? Amen.