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Education
Babylon; that the king of Israel was himself a prisoner in the hands of
the Babylonians, was boastfully cited by the victors as evidence that
their religion and customs were superior to the religion and customs
of the Hebrews. Under such circumstances, through the very humilia-
tions that Israel’s departure from His commandments had invited, God
gave to Babylon evidence of His supremacy, of the holiness of His
requirements, and of the sure result of obedience. And this testimony
He gave, as alone it could be given, through those who still held fast
their loyalty.
To Daniel and his companions, at the very outset of their career,
there came a decisive test. The direction that their food should be
supplied from the royal table was an expression both of the king’s
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favor and of his solicitude for their welfare. But a portion having
been offered to idols, the food from the king’s table was consecrated
to idolatry; and in partaking of the king’s bounty these youth would
be regarded as uniting in his homage to false gods. In such homage
loyalty to Jehovah forbade them to participate. Nor dared they risk the
enervating effect of luxury and dissipation on physical, mental, and
spiritual development.
Daniel and his companions had been faithfully instructed in the
principles of the word of God. They had learned to sacrifice the
earthly to the spiritual, to seek the highest good. And they reaped the
reward. Their habits of temperance and their sense of responsibility
as representatives of God called to noblest development the powers of
body, mind, and soul. At the end of their training, in their examination
with other candidates for the honors of the kingdom, there was “found
none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.”
Daniel 1:19
.
At the court of Babylon were gathered representatives from all
lands, men of the choicest talents, men the most richly endowed with
natural gifts, and possessed of the highest culture this world could
bestow; yet amidst them all, the Hebrew captives were without a peer.
In physical strength and beauty, in mental vigor and literary attainment,
they stood unrivaled. “In all matters of wisdom and understanding,
that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all
the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”
Daniel 1:20
.
Unwavering in allegiance to God, unyielding in the mastery of
himself, Daniel’s noble dignity and courteous deference won for him
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in his youth the “favor and tender love” of the heathen officer in whose