Then the king interviewed them, and among them
all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they
served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about
which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the
magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. Thus Daniel continued
until the first year of King Cyrus. – Daniel 1v19-21
So how did Daniel and his three compatriots do in their little test? It
must have been a bit scary as the days passed by and they were not preparing for
the king’s meeting the way he wanted them to. What did he expect? What would happen
if they failed? There were a lot of Jews in Babylon and surely he has plenty of
other to choose from.
But when the time came the king found them ‘ten times better than all the
magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm,’ and because of that,
Daniel gained his position as official in the king’s government.
I think the thing that encourages me here is that God can use all kinds
of situations to do His work. Sometimes God is glorified and His purpose served
and hearts are turned to Him when His servants and poor and suffering and
enduring trials (we will see that later with these four men) and sometimes His
cause is best served when His people rise to the top.
For example, in Genesis God used a prisoner to interpret a king’s
dream. Here He uses a member of the king’s cabinet.
It is possible to take pride in our weakness and foolishness and
baseness. We can look to those Christians who become household names and be
critical of them. We think that they must be compromising something to be that
well known and that well liked.
The truth is that we need to stop questioning how God does things and
who He uses it what way and just rejoice that His work is getting done.
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