“Living Among the Giants”
TOPIC:“Daniel's Amazing Faithfulness”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Daniel 6:4
“forasmuch as he was faithful”
In the last letter written to Vance Havner, famous Bible teacher of the 20th century, by his wife on the day she entered the hospital, she wrote: “You have always been so faithful.” Havner wrote: “I'd rather have that line than anything else she could have written.” Here it again: “You have always been so faithful.” What a magnificent compliment to be given to any husband, let alone any wife or any Christian. We happen to live, I believe, in a very unfaithful world. Husbands are unfaithful to their wives. Wives are unfaithful to their husbands. Believers are unfaithful to their churches and their responsibilities in those churches.
Is it any wonder, then, that God not only DESIRES, but He ADMIRES this virtue in those of us who claim to be His disciples. Faithfulness, this old fashioned loyalty, is the one requirement of His followers for which they will both be praised and rewarded. Listen to what the supreme Judge will one day say: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “But the Lord is faithful” (II Thessalonians 3:3), and this same God wants us to be faithful as Paul declared to the Corinthians: “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (I Corinthians 4:2). Daniel was an inspiring example of living a faithful life in a sinful world. For seventy years he faithfully served God in a hostile, foreign land without compromising his faith and without worrying about the consequences. Let us now take a closer look at the faithfulness of this man Daniel.
I.
Consider, first of all, that Daniel was a man of UNCONTAMINATED PURITY. And this brilliant flame of purity started way back in the days of his youth. We read in chapter 1 verse 8 these words: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's food, nor with the wine which he drank.”
Now in order to understand where we are in the life of Daniel at this point, permit me to give you some background material. Daniel and thousands of his countrymen had been taken captive and deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in his siege of Palestine . . .