Daniel 1:8-10 – “People Business”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And Daniel set upon his heart which he [would] not defile himself with the food of the king and with the wine of his drinking, and he sought from the chief of the court officials which not he [would] defile himself.  ⁹And God gave Daniel to favor and to the affections to the face of the chief of the court officials. ¹⁰And the chief of the court officials said to Daniel, “I [am] one fearing my master, the king, who has appointed your food and drink. Which to what he [should] see your faces [being] ones troubled from the young men which [are] as your circle and you (pl.) will make guilty my head to the king?

I think it is helpful at this point to stop and consider the “people business” we see in this passage. In other words, let’s stop and consider what is going on in the hearts and minds of the people involved and hope it is instructive to us.

We have already admired Daniel for his brave resolve. As I noted earlier, the Hebrew actually says literally that Daniel “set upon his heart” not to defile himself. It wasn’t that Daniel was suddenly faced with some youthful temptation and had to “quickly think it through.” He had already thought it through and made a decision in his own heart. Ah, the unassailable citadel of a human heart. The heart – that part of every person which no one else can control. I don’t doubt that Daniel’s parents were very good, godly people who prayed hard and strove to teach their son to be a man of integrity. But for all that prayer and teaching, one thing yet remained – for the young man himself to embrace that teaching. The world can rise and fall around us, it can threaten us, tempt us, hurt us, help us, flatter us, demean us, applaud us or condemn us – but for all of that, there remains this person within, the “me” who lives inside here, who thinks, evaluates, and decides what I will believe, what I will and won’t do and be. It’s the “me” who finds himself alone with God (if I acknowledge His presence). As a parent myself, I confess that this was and is the place of my deepest, deepest fear – the hearts of my children – because I knew all along it was the one part of them I could not control. I knew that, for all my prayers, for all my teaching, for all my tearful concerns, it was the one thing that had to happen before anything I’d ever done would make any difference – they themselves had to “set upon their hearts.” And there was nothing I could do to make it happen. It would be (and is) between them and God alone. Now I add to that my own grandchildren, along with all my nieces and nephews and their children, not to mention the swirl of work associates, neighbors, and church friends I know.

No one can command a heart but the person alone. If you have enough power you can make people say and do anything, but you can’t change their heart. Daniel “set upon his heart” and therein is the real reason for his success. If you read back through the kings of Judah and Israel you will often find it written, “So-and-so did evil in the eyes of the Lord because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord,” then of others, “So-and-so did right in the eyes of the Lord because he had prepared his heart to seek the Lord.”

This is “people business” because it reminds us of the importance of other people’s hearts and the fact that we absolutely cannot control them. When we’re tempted to take up our verbal clubs and start beating other people into whatever it is we think they should do and believe, Daniel reminds us to just stop it. We need to win their hearts not bludgeon them into submission. The Islamic terrorists think they can tell people to convert or die, and then when the person “converts” they think they’ve won. The truth is that person hasn’t changed at all and first chance they get they’ll dart right back to what their own heart truly believes. You can change the outside, but you can’t change a heart. It is every human being’s unassailable citadel.

Then for ourselves, it reminds us that the all-important factor in our life is something no one else can control – our hearts. In that deep, dark place where I think and evaluate and decide, there is no one there but me and God. The person I am, the things I’ll think and do and be, are all a matter of how I “set upon my heart.” This is precisely why the Proverb admonishes us, “Above all else guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life.”

The next people business I’d like to note is how “God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel.” As many, many others have noted, there are actually two things going on here – one is that God Himself is putting it in the heart of the chief to “like” Daniel. The other is that Daniel’s behavior has everything to do with this favor. These same things happened with Joseph in Potiphar’s house and in the warden’s prison, to Nehemiah in Xerxes’ court, to Esther in the eyes of Ahasuerus, to David in Saul’s court and in Israel, and in later years to Daniel under Darius. In each case (and many others), the Lord brought these people into favor with their rulers, but, at the same time, you had people who were very hard workers, who were faithful and winsome.

On the one hand, that is hopeful to us believers – to remember that “the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.” As we go out into our pagan worlds, we can be assured that God goes ahead of us and is actually causing even wicked people to favor us. He’s certainly done that for me all these years. Everywhere I’ve gone most people have “liked” me, in spite of the fact that I know in my own heart I’ve done nothing to deserve it. On the other hand, it reminds us that we do have a part to play. If you’re sincerely trying to be a decent, considerate person, you’re already miles down the road. If you are sincerely trying to do good work, you’re already miles down the road. “Do you see a man who is skillful in his work? He will stand before kings” (Prov 22:29). One of the most frustrating problems in life is to have people working for you but to know you cannot depend on them. On the other hand, what we all want is to have people under us like Joseph:

The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, ... When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

I fear that too many Christian people totally don’t realize this. I’ve worked alongside too many professing Christians who frankly were lousy workers, who then can’t understand when their bosses don’t like them, and too often they write it off as “persecution” because they’re Christians. Christian or not, if you’re a lousy worker and a jerk, you shouldn’t be surprised when the world “doesn’t like you.” On the other hand, if, like Daniel (and Joseph and David and Esther and Nehemiah and …) you’ll just resolve to actually be what you should be, you can count on two things – there’s a good chance people will “like” you, and you’ll have the Lord Himself helping to make it happen.

We also can’t pass the opportunity to point out what our Daniel does, living in his pagan world, and being forced to do things against his conscience. He doesn’t jump up and shout “I’m not eating your dirty pagan food!” As a continuation of the last paragraph, Daniel continues to conduct himself in a winsome manner. Daniel is a living illustration of the old saying, “You’ll draw more flies with honey than with vinegar.”  We’ll visit this subject again in the next verse, but for now it is highly worth noting.

Finally, I’d like to note the chief himself. The man’s response is one of fear – which he readily admits: “I fear my master the king.” Should he? Duuuuuh, yes! Oriental kings are notorious murderers. Displease them in the slightest way and it’s “Off with his head!” Nebuchadnezzar is no exception – as Daniel’s friends will soon find out. This man has every reason to be very fearful. He has been charged by the king himself to take these Hebrew boys and make them into happy, healthy Babylonians. If he does anything less, he’ll face the king’s murderous rage.

Why do our bosses and co-workers do a lot of the things they do? Fear. Though today we generally don’t lop off people’s heads, we certainly fire them, demote them, consign them to the dirty jobs, the undesirable tasks. Do our bosses and co-workers have good reason to fear? Duuuuuh, yes. But in a pagan world, do they have a God to trust? Not that they know of. You and I get to coast along and, although we certainly have reason to fear too, yet we have that hope always that our God is in control. They don’t.

As we’ll see in the following verse, Daniel next went to the man below the chief. We don’t know if there was any more conversation between Daniel and the chief but obviously, whatever Daniel did, he did nothing to worsen the situation. Somehow he was sensitive to the chief’s fears and chose a further path that didn’t make the man angry.

I think there is a “people business” lesson for us here – to realize and to be sensitive to other people’s fears, especially in the work place. Again, you and I have a God to trust. They don’t. Whatever is going on, I would like to try to be more aware when the people around me are fearing and to do whatever I can to help them be assured. Even if I’m myself in one of those “draw the line” situations, I hope I’m not so self-consumed I can’t see how I’m affecting the people around me. God’s job is to run the universe. Our job is to love. Always. Even when I myself may be struggling with fear.

People business. It is our business. Love God, love people – that’s what we’re all about. Daniel is doing a really good job with the “people business” in his world. May we all be encouraged by his example. Daniel did well in his day. May we do well now that it’s our turn up to bat.