Was reading this morning about the man after whom we named our oldest son. John Mark and I scoured our name book sifting through various combinations full of meaning. Daniel we selected for its meaning. Charles was in honor of both my father and John Mark’s father. Then, of course, the family name, Allen, had to be included.
Daniel, according to our book, meant God is my judge. I wanted my son to be a man who, like Daniel in the Bible, would always do the right thing, because he would honor God above all others. I wanted him to stand up, not in a haughty, in-your-face manner, but in a God fearing and respectful way.
This is what the Bible says about Daniel. “He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy.” The description is not that of other Jews. No, this was the way his fellow administrators described him. The queen mother of Belshazzar said, “[He] has within him the spirit of the holy gods.”
I admire Daniel’s attitude toward King Nebuchadnezzar. “I wish the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you!” The king did not honor God. The nation was an enemy to Israel. Nebuchadnezzar himself had wiped out Jerusalem and exiled Daniel’s people, yet Daniel showed him honor.
Surrounded by people that bowed to many gods and worshiped their king as a god, Daniel’s regular habit was to pray in his home three times a day only to the one true God. When it became known that his prayer life could land him being torn limb from limb by lions, he did it anyway. He could easily have closed the windows, but no. He had always prayed with the windows open. His way of standing was to do just what he had always done. This was not flaunting his prayer life. It was simply being faithful.
I want to be that kind of faithful.
To the Ends of the Earth 