Daniel 1:1-2 – God shapes through trials

Daniel 1:1-2 provide us with some backdrop to the deportation of Daniel and his three friends.

The king of Judah at that point was Jehoiakim, the son of King Josiah. He replaced his brother King Jehoahaz who was deposed by the Pharaoh of Egypt. His earlier name was Eliakim which the pharaoh renamed Jehoiakim. The intricate details can be found in 2 Kings 23-24.

Having conquered Assyria, Babylon led by King Nebuchadnezzar had to defeat Egypt in his conquest to gain more power and world dominance. But Judah was in the way. Jehoiakim, who owed his allegiance to the Pharoah of Egypt took side and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. So, in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign Babylon came and besieged Jerusalem.

This incursion of Jerusalem was the Lord’s doing. Verse 2 said that it was the Lord who gave Jehoiakim into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He together with some treasures from the house of God in Jerusalem were taken to Shinar. Nebuchadnezzar took the treasures taken from the Lord’s house and stored them in the treasury of the house of his own god.

The real reason that led to the siege of Jerusalem was the unfaithfulness of Judah, God’s people. If they had kept faith with God and walked in obedience, much of the headaches and heartaches would have been avoided. To deal with them God used the foreign nations to execute the discipline. God did it all to bring about their trust in Him and at the same time shape their holy living.

The lesson we can take away from these verses is that things do not happen to us by accident. They are the plan God has allowed to build our trust in Him and help us to cultivate holy living. Because all things including pressures are all designed to work to bring the best out of us. There are not there to embitter us but to better us.

We should like James 1:2-4 say, “Consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.”