The testimony of Daniel was established. The rest of this book will tell how God used this lad to speak to a heathen nation, to show God’s sovereignty over all things, to prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, and to establish the lordship of Christ in human history. But it started with a small act of obedience.
When that happens, we become living testimonies for God. In the very hard places of life where we are led, the mysterious places where we don’t understand why the innocent suffer or why we suffer, it is in those places where small decisions are made to trust Christ regardless, it is in those places that we become living testimonies for others. Daniel had to be a testimony for those three young men. Every Sunday school child knows that Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego were going to have a challenge. But would they ever forget the strength of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar would know the strength of Daniel. They would all know the power of God at work in one teen-age boy who overflowed with the love of God in his heart.
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We see that this evil place, this place of paganism, became, for one tried and true young man, a place where other disciples were made. Daniel was a great evangelist; yet, he was in a foreign land. Daniel was a great theologian who taught others about God; yet, he was a slave. Daniel was a leader; yet, Daniel was just a lad. In Babylon Daniel stirred up the faith of his friends who would later need strong faith themselves. And he witnessed to a pagan king.
This reminds me of Paul in prison in Rome. He wrote to the Philippians to encourage them about his situation: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ” (Phil. 1:12-13).
Through faith in Christ, the hard places of life become sacred places.
You wouldn’t believe that cancer is a sacred place. The mere mention of the word makes us stop, like someone suddenly hearing a rattler and a hiss. But as awful as such a place is, I have witnessed sacred places in such times. A friend of mine is in a heroic fight with cancer. I talked to his wife on the telephone the other night, and she told me about how he came to view the awful menace facing him. When the doctor broke the news of an inoperable cancer, in a way it was like Jerusalem falling; it was like being led away to Babylon. She said that at the moment he came to understand what he was facing, it was as if God put His arm around her husband, and from that time on, the man of God she had known showed a depth of discipleship that she could never have imagined. I have talked to this man and prayed with him. His wife is not exaggerating. His faith is amazing. And hers is as well.