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The Wonder of God's Preparation

Daniel 1

God's preparation of a person is a thing of wonder. It was so in Daniel's life, and it is so in our own. It is vital to remember that God is always more concerned about the worker than He is about the work. While we focus attention on the ministry, God is focused on the minister. We are enamored by what a man does; God is excited about what a man is. God knows that if a man is what he ought to be, then what he does will be right.

It was exactly that way with Daniel. God was beginning His work in the life of Daniel long before he ever came to the palace of Babylon. Daniel was born during the reign of the good king Josiah, the first good king in that kingdom in 57 years. For 55 years, Manasseh ruled in Judah and he was a wretched, wicked king. His son, Amon, followed him and was even worse than his father. He was so evil that the slaves of his own household conspired against him and killed him in his own house. The young son of Amon, Josiah, was placed on the throne of Judah when he was eight years old, and Scripture says that "he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David" (2 Kgs. 22:2).

One of the greatest revivals in history took place under Josiah's leadership. Second Chronicles 34 tells us that in the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek after God, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the idols that polluted the land. Josiah was convicted about the terrible condition of Solomon's temple, and he undertook to have it refurbished and rebuilt. While they were rebuilding the temple, they found a book—the Book of the Law. The Book of the Law quickly regained its place of authority in Josiah's time, and the people were led back into a godly lifestyle.

Idolatry was destroyed, homosexuality was obliterated, and the idolatrous priests were killed. The mediums and the wizards and images and idols were all broken down and destroyed. King Josiah reinstituted the Passover to such a degree that the Bible says, "Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah" (2 Kgs. 23:22).

Daniel was a little prince growing up in Jerusalem while all this was going on. There is good evidence that he might have been related to King Zedekiah, which would have made him a royal son—very much a part of the inner workings of Josiah's revival.

When we read of the great moral strength of Daniel and the courage of his character, we must remember that God in heaven had sovereignly ordained that he would be blessed by the influence of Josiah on the throne and Jeremiah the prophet in the pulpit. God's preparation and protection of Daniel made him ready to take his great stand against the corrupting influences of Babylon.

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