Deported as a captive when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in B. Daniel had a bit of an identity crisis. His Hebrew name, Daniel, means "God is Judge.
Daniel was a vegetarian teetotaler Daniel Yup, long before tofu was trendy and Stevia reigned, Daniel and his friends shunned meat, sweets, and wine. Daniel was a skilled negotiator. When ordered to eat foods that offended his conscience, he made a humble appeal to the steward in charge. At that time, the church was started purely for political reasons.
I prefer to read as much as I can to learn for myself. The idea that Daniel was a mythical or at least mythicized character is an interesting one to me. If you can contribute on this matter without being rude, please do. I heard that ancient Babylonion records actually mention Daniel by his Babylonion name Belteshezzar.
The Book of Daniel makes so much more sense if you read the full version, left out of the Protestant Bible for some reason which I cannot comprehend. The part left out lays the groundwork for how Daniel became so prominent in the land. It was included until about What happened? Because the apocryphal books are anachronistic and deceptive writings, that are NOT written by the authors that are claimed… they contain information that undermines what is in the actual canon of Scripture.
Whatever the case, he makes a good choice to pick Daniel. Daniel is a good-looking dude. Explore the Bible with us! We create research-based articles and handy infographics to help people understand the Bible.
Get the good stuff! Bob W. Anthea on July 27, at am. Chris on July 12, at pm. Well done for this good work. Jan Plank on January 21, at am. Jeanne Markham on November 27, at am. Well done. I love how you write!
May God bless the gift he gave you! Jeffrey Kranz on November 27, at pm. Femi Ogundele on October 27, at am. Simplied; Precise; Inspirational. Many thanks for this great article. Jeffrey Kranz on October 31, at am. Daniel Esterhuizen on September 16, at am. Please contact us or click here to learn more about how to enable JavaScript on your browser.
Follow us:. Listen Now. While still a young man, Daniel travelled to Babylon with a group of young Israelite nobles, men of promise whom the conquering power felt could be of use in service Daniel —4. Once Daniel arrived, the leadership in Babylon renamed him Belteshazzar in an effort to more closely identify him with his new home Daniel recorded his experiences and prophecies for the Jewish exiles during his time in the Babylonian capital, where his service to the king gave him privileged access to the highest levels of society.
His faithful service to the Lord in a land and culture not his own makes him unique among almost all the people of Scripture—Daniel stands as one of the only major figures in the Bible to produce a completely positive record of his actions. There is no way to escape secular workplaces other than withdrawing to insular communities or choosing to work in Christian-only institutions such as churches and Christian schools. Many secular workplaces but certainly not all offer a variety of opportunities for personal gain, such as good pay, job security, professional achievement and stature, comfortable working conditions and interesting, creative work.
In themselves, these are good things. But they tempt us with two serious evils: 1 the danger of becoming so enamored of the good material things that we become unwilling to risk these things by standing up for what God requires of us; and 2 the spiritual danger of coming to believe that the good things come as a result of our own labor or genius, or as a result of our service to some power other than God.
Moreover, the workplace often demands accommodations that in themselves are not good, such as deception, prejudice, mistreatment of the poor and powerless, pandering to unwholesome desires, taking advantage of others in their moments of need and many more. Was it good or at least acceptable in God's eyes for Daniel and his friends to study astrology? Could they learn to use knowledge of the skies without becoming ensnared by the superstitions in which it was couched?
Is it good for Christians to study marketing? Can we learn to use knowledge of consumer behavior without becoming ensnared in the practice of deceptive advertising or exploitative promotions?
The Book of Daniel provides no specific guidelines, but it suggests some vital perspectives:. Christians can embrace education, even if it is conducted outside the bounds of Christian accountability.
Christians can embrace work in non-Christian and even hostile work environments, with suitable safeguards. Christians who work or study in non- or anti-Christian environments should take care to avoid uncritical assimilation into the surrounding culture.
Safeguards include:. Constant prayer and communion with God. Daniel prayed three times daily throughout his career Dan. How many Christians actually pray for the specifics of their work lives?
The Book of Daniel constantly shows that God care about the specific details of daily work. Firm adherence to material markers of the faith, even if they are somewhat arbitrary. We could argue whether this particular practice is universally required by God, but we cannot doubt that a living faith requires live markers of the boundaries of faithful behavior.
Chick-fil-a draws the line at opening on Sunday. Many Catholic doctors will not prescribe artificial contraception. Other Christians find respectful ways to ask their colleagues for permission to pray for them. None of these can be taken as universal requirements, and indeed all of them could be argued by other Christians.
But each of them helps their practitioners avoid a slow creep of assimilation by providing constant, public markers of their faith. Active association and accountability with other Christians in the same kind of work. But few Christians have any forum where they can share concerns, questions, successes and failures with others in their field. How are lawyers to learn how to apply the faith to law, except by regular, intentional discussions with other Christian lawyers?
Likewise for engineers, artisans, farmers, teachers, parents, marketing managers and every other vocation. Creating and nurturing these kinds of groups is one of the great unmet needs of workplace Christians.
Formation of good relationships with non-believers in your workplace. Daniel cooperated with God by respecting the official and looking after his welfare Dan. Daniel managed to walk the tightrope of partial cultural assimilation without religious and moral compromise. The stakes were high. The food laws in their technical detail may not have been the issue since wine was permitted by Jewish law, and since later we learn that Daniel did find suitable meat to eat in Babylon Having set up in detail the life-situation faced by Daniel and his friends, the Book of Daniel now in Daniel 2 begins the first of the three themes that form the chiastic structure described in the section above "The Big Picture of the Book of Daniel".
This theme is that God will overthrow pagan kingdoms and replace them with his own kingdom. Although Daniel was prospering and serving God in the midst of hostile territory, Nebuchadnezzar was becoming uneasy ruling his own land, even though his power was unchallenged.
His dreams became troubled by his worries about the security of his empire. In one dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a towering statue consisting of several elements made of different metals. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon were the paragon of pride. But Daniel gives the king two shocking messages:.
Your kingdom is not the result of your own doing. So all your pride is foolish and vain. Your kingdom is doomed. The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter.
Although this is not to happen in your time, it will bring all your supposedly mighty accomplishments to nothing. Daniel disclaimed any personal ability of his own. Nebuchadnezzar even came to some kind of belief in Yahweh. God will bring the arrogance, corruption, injustice and violence of all workplaces to an end, although not necessarily during the time we work there. This is a source both of comfort and challenge.
Comfort, because we are not responsible for correcting every evil in our workplaces, but only for acting faithfully in our spheres of influence, and also because the unfairness we may suffer at work is not the ultimate reality of our work. Challenge, because we are called to oppose the evil within our spheres of influence, costly to our careers as it may prove.
This illustrates both the possibilities and the dangers of applying the Book of Daniel to our work lives. At times we recognize that to be faithful to God, we must challenge people in power.
The metals of the image in chapter 2 and the bestial kingdoms in chapter 7 are parallel references to the succession of these four earthly kingdoms: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome; the alternative view that presupposes the work is second century contends for Babylon, Median, Persia, and Greece.
Unlike in the first and second chapters of Daniel, in chapter 3 their faithfulness to God led to their suffering. Yet even in the midst of their suffering, God rewarded their faithfulness. The edifice signified the resurgent pride of the Babylonian king.
After years of successfully bridging the tension between the pagan environment of the Babylonian court and their fidelity to God, they faced a situation where no compromise was possible without violating their integrity. Previously, they served as models of how to thrive by following God in a hostile environment. Now they had to serve as models of how to suffer in the same environment.
This they do with gusto. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up. But we could be ordered to do something that we cannot do in good conscience. We should expect to suffer for doing so.
0コメント