Daniel

So, I began a study of the book of Daniel using the book by David Jeremiah call The Agents of Babylon.  The book begins each chapter with a fictional telling of what happens in the chapter of Daniel that is under study, and then moves into what the scriptures say and his comments about the book.  I am finding the book very fascinating and am discovering some extremely interesting facts not only about the Book of Daniel but also about the culture of the people during that time.

I was so amazed by how the story of Daniel starts because I never looked at Daniel as someone who had suffered because of his capture, march to Babylon, and what he underwent once he reached Babylon.  The fact that he was castrated never entered my mind even though I knew what the word ‘eunuch’ meant.  How many who read Daniel take in the fact that Daniel would have been very young at the time of his captivity and that he would have suffered the fact of being made less than he was at such a young age.  Not only was he faced with losing his family at the time, but he lost the ability to ever have a family.  According to tradition, those who served the king were made Eunuchs so that they could focus all their time on service to their king, but this also allowed Daniel to focus all his time on God – I had never thought about that before.  The beginning of the book did make me stop and think, very seriously, about Daniel, about his fate, about his future, and about the trust he had to have in God to help him survive and then prosper.

I have to say that Daniel faced a lot of trials in you early life; brutally ripped from his face, forced to leave his home and homeland, castrated at a young age (best guess is fourteen or fifteen years old), lost any future family he might have had, put into a rigorous training program, and then judged whether he was worthy to serve the king.  This does not include what he underwent while growing up and serving the king, for during that time there were men who hated him because he was above them in favor with the king, but those men never took the time to understand why Daniel was higher in favor then them.  Daniel did not only serve God faithfully, but he also served his kings faithfully, and the men who envied and hated Daniel were serving themselves and their own pride and position; had they served their king as faithfully as Daniel served both his kings, then they too might have been put in higher positions, but they did not.

It is something for us to remember, and something we should ask ourselves.  Are we serving God faithfully?  Are we serving those we work for faithfully?  How can we be rewarded if we are not faithful, trustworthy, and good servants?