His whole life, Daniel had to cope with being the right person in the wrong place. He’d been a Jew in exile, promoted to a high rank in a foreign land, first serving Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of Babylon and then Darius or Cyrus of Persia. It had been a very long time since he lived in his own country, worshipped in the Temple at Jerusalem, enjoyed his own culture and familiar ways of life. All through his life, he had served these Babylonian and Persian kings to the best of his ability, and he had to make hard decisions of conscience. He constantly had to ask himself, “Do I live, eat, worship as these people do, or do I continue to live a life faithful to God, even in this strange land?” Several times, Daniel’s life had been on the line, and yet he decided every time to live faithfully, even if he lost his earthly power or his precious life.
The last perilous situation Daniel found himself in was in his older adulthood, when he served Cyrus of Persia. Daniel’s jealous enemies at court had orchestrated a test he would surely fail: all citizens were to pray to the King. (It is notable how often the politics of the Old Testament were centered around petty personal grievances that became national law.) Of course, Daniel continued to pray to God. The punishment for non-compliance was to be thrown into a lion’s den. Daniel must have known it would come to this.
And yet, his life was spared. He was rescued alive and well.
All these stories of Daniel and his Jewish friends Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego pose the same question: will we be faithful to our God, even in a strange land, in a strange time, when we have no Temple, no priests, no larger faith community? Will we be faithful when the whole culture conspires against us to single us out, to persecute us, for our faith? Will we be faithful when it would be so much easier, such a relief, to put our faith quietly to one side and comply with what is demanded of us by this culture? (We don’t even have the excuse of persecution, and we have a really hard time not going with the flow of our culture at times!) It is hard to be a person who does not go with the flow of one’s culture.
Like Daniel, will we persist in being faithful to our God, even if our lives (or more likely, our reputations, our friendships, or our work) are at risk? Will we continue to do excellent work as faith-filled people, even when we are different? Maybe some hearts will be softened by the way we behave. Could we be held up as examples of faith in our time of trial? Maybe some minds will be changed by our character under pressure. Do we do our best to benefit the non-believers that we work for or with, or do we refuse to bless anyone who does not believe as we do?
Daniel remained completely himself as a faithful Jew, as well as serving foreign courts and kings with excellence. May we also remain faithful as we serve others in a culture that is at times hostile or indifferent to God, and to us as Christians.