“Through all of this, God conferred upon these 4 young men superior abilities in literature, language, and wisdom. God had given Daniel an additional gift, too: the ability to interpret visions and dreams. When the 3-year period of training and conditioning, as set by the king, was over, the king sent for the candidates; the chief of the royal eunuchs himself escorted them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king interviewed all of them and found that none of the candidates were any better than Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they were each assigned an important place in the king’s court. “
Daniel 1:17-19 VOICE
This verse alone with Proverbs 10:7 (the memory of the righteous is blessed) are the two promises that I stand on for my academics. However, Daniel 1:17 in context of the full chapter gives context for why God gifted them superior abilities.
Daniel’s country was conquered and he and his friends were sent to Babylon. It was custom for conquering nations take the ‘cream of the crop’ from nations that they conquered. Daniel and his four friends were to be trained for three years in preparation for serving the King’s court.
Part of that training included a “royal diet” which consisted of foods that did not adhere to the Israelite diet. The quadruple refused to eat and asked their guard to give them a vegetarian diet for ten days as a test. If their physical condition deteriorated after those ten days, then they would eat whatever the guard saw fit.
After those ten days, their condition was actually better than the men who were eating the royal diet! It is then, that the scripture says that God gifted the quadruple extraordinary mastery of all things under the sun! When they were willing to go over and above, so was God.
I do not believe that we have to earn things from God because He is good all the time. However, I do believe that He honors our efforts to serve Him to best of our abilities!
Weekend Wellness Tip
Until Midweek Musings,
