The Viewpoint

How one man’s righteous life led an empire to God

“Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples… ‘I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end.’” Daniel 6:25-27

Take another look at that passage. King Darius, a pagan emperor, was proclaiming throughout his domain the holiness, sovereignty, and eternality of God – Daniel’s God. Why? How could such an incredible thing come to pass?

Flash back a few years. Date: 605 BC. Place: Jerusalem. Because of the Israelites’ disobedience to God, He sent King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against them. It was a tragic day for the Lord’s chosen people, a day of shame and desolation. A day when heathens destroyed the holy city of God’s temple, and the children of God were delivered into foreign oppression.
But God hadn’t forgotten the plans he had for his people. Even when they thought He had deserted his scattered and divided nation to the ravages of a foreign empire, He was with them.

Daniel, a young Hebrew captive, clearly evinces this truth. As he watched his homeland crumble into the hands of a pagan tyrant, he may have thought his life was over. He may have found it difficult to keep the faith as his captors dragged him with his countrymen to a hostile place.

Enter Ashpenaz, chief of Nebuchadnezzar’s court officials. His job was to choose handsome, intelligent, tactful men from among the Jews to serve in the King’s court. Daniel was one of these young men. Not only was Daniel a slave in a foreign place, but he was also forced to directly serve his people’s heathen oppressor in the palace. This was the center of Babylon’s pagan culture, false religions, and tyrannical laws. Daniel may have wondered what exactly God had in mind.

Yet in the midst of an idolatrous environment, Daniel managed to distinguish himself among his fellow servants. Without compromising his obedience to God, he was able to serve Babylon’s rulers from Nebuchadnezzar to Cyrus. Each of them noticed Daniel and, through him, saw and experienced God’s sovereignty. Ultimately, the entire Babylonian empire, a world power in its day, witnessed God because one man chose to remain faithful in spite of his culture.

It’s interesting to note the means of Daniel’s impact on his culture. He wasn’t standing at the palace gate, waving a scroll in the air and shouting at the top of his lungs. Instead, he was industriously working where God had placed Him and being the diligent and honest man God wanted him to be. Because of his blamelessness, he stood out from the other corrupt administrators. The Kings he served couldn’t help but notice him and wonder what made him different.

It was this same blamelessness that not only set Daniel apart from his peers but also caused his rivals to stumble into their own traps. Because Daniel proved to be one politician they couldn’t besmirch, they resorted to deceptive manipulation. This ultimately landed them in the same lions’ den they had prepared for Daniel. Daniel, however, emerged from the mouths of the lions unscathed. When King Darius witnessed the power of God to save Daniel, he published a proclamation stating that the one true God was real and powerful, and He deserved the people’s reverence and obedience.

Darius, of course, wouldn’t have known what reverence and obedience to God looked like unless he had seen Daniel’s faithfulness to the Lord. Ironically, the King respected Daniel because he refused to place his work, the King, or even his own life above devotion to God.

What did Daniel do when he heard Darius had signed a new law that forbade prayer to God? He promptly got down on his knees. What did he do when King Nebuchadnezzar threatened to execute all the wise men of the land because they failed to interpret his dream? Daniel prayed fervently for help and urged his friends to do the same. The foreign kings saw Daniel’s righteousness, and they too learned to turn to God.

Like Daniel, we Christians are strangers in a hostile society. God has charged us with the solemn responsibility of showing Him to a belligerent society. But it’s harder than it sounds. Some days we feel desolate, useless, and far from home in a hopeless world. We wonder if we’re really doing any good at all. Often we fail to realize we can transform our world simply by being transformed ourselves. God doesn’t work only through miraculous revivals and superhero evangelists. Sometimes He works through ordinary people who simply strive to live day by day for Him.

The truth is, our world is dark, confusing, and cruel. Things go wrong. People hurt each other. Nations rise and fall. But none of this, “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future” will be able to separate us from God’s love. No matter how far our culture spirals downward, we are still God’s people; we are still the church, built on a Firm Foundation. Nothing can change that, and that can change everything.

by Grace D. Williamson