Selfless service

Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation. – Daniel 5v17

‘Keep all of your gifts and rewards king.’

That was Daniel’s response when the king trued to pay him to interpret a mysterious dream. Belshazzar followed Nebuchadnezzar as king. Apparently Daniel’s ability to interpret dreams was still well known and Belshazzar had a dream than no one could interpret. When Daniel was called before him he offered great wealth and great reward for his interpretation.

Daniel told him that he could keep all of the rewards or give them to another, but he would still interpret the dream.

Daniel was in an interesting situation here. He was not ministering to God’s people who would have a responsibility to care for him. He was going before a pagan king to represent God. He had to be very careful about a financial reward. When someone is paying there is always to temptation to slant the message to suit them.

So Daniel did what was right. He simple refused payment. That way both he and the king would know that there was no bias in his interpretation.

It is easy to get caught up in reward and remuneration. There is nothing dogmatic in today’s thought. I was just reminded that we need to be careful that our service should never be motivated by money or reward.