Scriptorium Daily
Why so many Christians but so little impact?
Perhaps one reason is that we have been taught courage without endurance. We have learned only part of the lesson of the life of the Biblical prophet Daniel.
When I was a kid, there were only three things we really thought we knew about Daniel. First, lions had refused to act the part of an ancient ACLU and keep him from praying in public spaces. Second, young Daniel had gone to public school and refused to eat the King’s food. He had stuck to the moral code of the Jews in a pagan court despite the risks. Finally, Daniel wrote a blessedly short book (compared to endless Ezekiel) chock full of weirdly cool images that predicted the pattern of human history.
Over the years, though I have learned a good bit more about Daniel (and Ezekiel!), most of the lessons I have learned have held up. Daniel taught me that my faith, not the state, was my primary allegiance and that God is capable of protecting His children. God’s providence in history is not always easy to see in newspaper, but over the centuries His guiding hand is evident.
The strange beasts Daniel describes are still very cool.
“Dare to be a Daniel!” Christian culture told me and that was good inspirational advice. There are not too many better role models for a Christian heading off to college and graduate school like I was. Daniel studied astrology in the court of a pagan king. He studied paganism without becoming one. If there was ever a role model for those of us reading classics, Daniel is he.
However, my own overly short attention span caused me to miss something else important about Daniel. I heard sermons and Bible studies on autobiographical highlights, but those events comprise very little time in his long life. The verse that struck me recently came after his training as a young man in the Babylonian court. It read, “And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.”
Daniel could dare the lion only because first Daniel endured. He stayed at his post for decades serving a series of rotten rulers. He survived without becoming a sycophant, throve without thieving, and contributed to Babylon without compromising his status as a faithful Jew.
In many ways, these were greater accomplishments than surviving the lions.
Daniel was ready for the great moments of his history, but only because he survived the daily temptation to become less than Daniel. He began with a determination to serve his God and the tyrant that ruled his people and he accomplished both every day for years. The young man grew old, as he knew he must, waiting to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem Judah. The Captivity wore down his body into old age, but it never crushed his princely spirit. The slave became the most valuable man in the empire and helped keep his people alive as a people when so many others disappeared in exile.
Daniel’s greatness may be beyond us, but his lessons are not.
When tempted to despair about present rulers, dare to endure like Daniel.
When tempted to compromise in small things, dare to endure like Daniel.
When tempted to weariness by pagan culture, dare to endure like Daniel.
When tempted to doubt God’s promises, dare to endure like Daniel.
When tempted to flatter our rulers, dare to endure like Daniel.
When tempted to withdraw from public life, dare to endure like Daniel.
Daniel did his duty, daily, faithfully, fully.
Can there be a generation this persistent in living Christian lives? Is there a generation that will live for Christ and so restore Christendom? These young men and women will be willing to grow old doing their duty. They will take the time to study, sink deep roots in difficult places, and get to know the elite of our present age so as to persuade even these wicked tyrants to a better course.
If Daniel can deal with Nebuchadnezzar for years, surely we can winsomely influence an anti-Christian human resources manager. If Daniel could thrive under Belshazzar, surely we can tolerate our hedonistic neighbor. If Daniel could wait seventy years for God’s deliverance, surely we can wait a bit longer to see His promises fulfilled in our lives.
We are an age where every Christian with a keyboard and an Internet connection fancies himself a prophet. We cast doom casually, but forget that few are called to issue jeremiads and the few that are called will weep like Jeremiah wept for the people he loved. Too many times we should endure and love our enemies, but instead we hurl the easy truth at them and leave. Duty sometimes demands such a prophetic role, but most often our duty is like Daniel’s: we must be patient and persistent.
I pray this year that God grant me the gift of Daniel during these trying times.
