By Todd Paetznick, October 24, 2024

In our lives, we often face difficulties that have nothing to do with anything we have done. Yet, we suffer and struggle because of something someone else did, someone we may never have met, and sometimes even people who lived generations before we were born.  It may not seem fair or right, but it is the circumstance we sometimes find ourselves in.  

People living in other parts of the world often experience struggle and oppression at a level most of us living in the United States have never and will never experience.  But we must remember that people born into difficult circumstances do not choose their difficult situations any more than we choose our path of privilege.  It is easy to wonder where God is when there is suffering, but it is just as easy to forget about God when circumstances are good.

Daniel lived around 2,500 years ago; he grew up in Jerusalem and lived most of his life in Babylon.  Like others throughout history, he was also caught in a life circumstance he did not choose.  Daniel, along with other Jewish young people, was forcibly taken from his family and his home as a captive and slave of the nation of Babylon.  According to the Bible, Daniel’s circumstance was caused by the evil done by the generations of his people living in Judah before he was even born.  He did not choose to become a slave for his entire life, and it was not his fault.  From his perspective, Daniel must have wondered how God could have been on his side or cared about him at all.

At the time he was taken as a captive, Daniel was a teenager, not yet a man but not a boy either.  He had been prepared enough for life to have been selected by the Babylonians.  And, he had been educated in the ways of God, a knowledge that would sustain him for the remainder of his life.  In captivity, Daniel did not have access to libraries of books on theology and did not have the opportunity to attend church regularly.  And yet, he was known for being a man of faith and prayer.  So much so that Daniel’s habits were used against him by his political enemies; he was thrown into the lion’s den because he was caught praying.  Daniel’s enemies created a law that made prayer a capitol offense.  They knew of Daniel’s character and that he would not break with his routine of praying to God three times per day (Daniel 6).

Despite Daniel’s captivity and challenges, he is a model of how to live a life of faith in God.  He was also a prophet specially gifted by God to interpret dreams; God even shared a vision of the future with him. Daniel understood the spiritual reasons he and Judah were in captivity.  His prayer for the forgiveness of the people is recorded in Daniel 9:3-19.  

Daniel rose in status to become a trusted advisor to the Babylonian king.  He also survived the fall of Babylon and became an advisor to the conquering king of the nation of Persia.  Daniel’s service was valued and free from the type of political entanglements that would likely have eliminated him from service to the Persian king (A good lesson for everyone in the working world: do good work and avoid politics).  However, we cannot forget that Daniel was not alone; God enabled his success.  God was on His own side and empowered Daniel, miraculously at times, to survive and succeed in an oppressive and violently hostile environment.   God was glorified through Daniel’s captivity in Babylon and the miracles that resulted in repeatedly saving Daniel and his friends.