Lately I've been hearing and reading a lot about Daniel. At the leadership retreat for the BSM we talked about him, and since then I haven't gotten him out of my head. In fact others have been putting him there too. Like right now I'm getting ready for DNOW at my church this weekend, can you can guess who the study is over? If you said Daniel you're correct!
When you hear Daniel what's the first thing that comes to your mind? The lion's den right? I mean there are tons of movies about it. It's one of the standard Bible stories kids hear growing up. But yet, the lion's den was one night for Daniel. ONE NIGHT. Did you know there a 153 verses about Daniel's life before the night in the den? And 6 chapters after if? Yet only ONE verse about what went down in the den. The Bible stresses Daniel's life and yet we stress one moment in it. Isn't that how it always happens? We as people will plan, stress out about, and sooner or later have a freak out about one moment.
Let's look at weddings. They are in fact ONE DAY. Not even one day, just a few hours. And we spend thousands of dollars, and months planning them. Girls often spend a good deal of time researching wedding dresses before they are even dating someone, to wear a dress one time. When a girl looks at marriage her first thought is the wedding. Marriage will be her life, and yet she plans the day. We should spend more time thinking and planning for the life after the wedding. [I must admit I too have thought, and planned in my head for the day.]
Daniel's life lead up to the den. He chose to be set apart from a young age. He chose to follow God in a foreign land without knowing what would become of it. And he was rewarded for it. God blessed him and he became one of the king's trusted advisors. This job was hard to get, and pretty much impossible for a captive of war to get. Not only was he rewarded, people saw God through Daniel. While going over the lessons for this weekend I came across a sentence that I just really love. It says: Being set apart from the world means getting to be a part of saving the world. How awesome is that? How true is that? We can't be part of saving the world until we are out of the destruction ourselves. Look at Superman, or Spiderman, or any other super hero of your choice. Often they start off right in the middle of the trouble, but they can't save anyone until they themselves get out of it. They have to fly, or swing, away to truly see the problem before they can try to save Louis Lane or Mary Jane.
The point of all this was to say: why do we focus on one night of Daniel's life when he lived his entire life choosing to be set apart? And his story didn't end there. This are a 6 more chapters in the book of Daniel after his one night with the lions.
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