The Life and Times of Daniel the Eunuch

As you can see, the title of my sermon is, The Life and Times of Daniel the Eunuch. Daniel the Eunuch. Not many people call him that. I want to make the case today that it is a correct statement. But my focus today is on the character of Daniel. Not just the physical man or the persona himself, but the mindset, the spiritual makeup, the true character of this man Daniel, who is in our Bible. This is Martin Luther King, who once said that he hopes there would be a day when people are judged by the content of the character. That is something we should strive to do ourselves and be judged by that character, as David was talking about earlier. But Daniel was an interesting individual. I want to go into a little bit of that today. But his character was on display for all of Babylon to see. His character was on display in the largest, most fantastic visual city on earth at the time, Babylon. A week ago, I was in New York City for my first trip. Never been to a city of 12 million people before. Don't know that I want to go back to see 12 million people again. I enjoyed some of the sights, but there's nothing like Home Sweet Home.

It is a concrete jungle, and it was an amazing thing to see with so many people, so many buildings.

Can you imagine being taken to a city like that as a slave? The rushing of emotion that must have gone through Daniel at that time as a 15, 16, 17-year-old young man at the time is what most scholars think. Daniel was quite an inspiration. I know even Ezekiel, who lived during the same time, was a little younger than Daniel, but lived in the same city, just lived a little further away in Babylon from Daniel.

He was so inspired that he categorized him with Noah and Job as some of the greatest men in the Bible, as he talked about in Ezekiel 14.

But I would like to go today and look at the first chapter of Daniel. If you'll turn there to the first chapter of Daniel, we will stay mostly right there today because I hope that I can get you to picture in your mind as I was going through this first chapter for the last week or so.

What an incredible epic movie this would make.

When you understand the history and how much is really in the background of that first chapter, I think we need to know a couple of things before we go into it, because we're going to read through it and I'll comment on different things. Because I want you to understand that to me, the whole theme of Daniel is two words. Obey God. Obey God. Sounds simple, but I don't know about you, but it's not that simple for me. I want to, but I don't always do it. I try. I get up every day. I strive for perfection, but I always seem to come up a little short, which makes me go back the next day and try again.

Think about the book of Daniel. Everybody in here who has all read it, I'm sure, more than a few times. Daniel, the man himself, I cannot find anywhere in the Scripture a flaw.

The inspired word of God speaks volumes of the character of this man. That's why I wanted to go there, because that character didn't start late in life. That character was there from a child for all those raising their children, and we're going to get a chance to see that in a few weeks as their presentation during Bible study time will be from the book of Daniel.

I'd like you to go to chapter 1 of Daniel and to lay just some background first. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. The time we're talking about here is 605 B.C. 605 years before Jesus Christ came on the scene. The time was 15 to 20 years before the city of Jerusalem was plundered and destroyed. And all the entire city and nation of Israel at that time was taken to captivity to Babylon. 605 B.C. Now, for those that don't like history, that probably won't mean much to you. But I did want to say that one of the greatest heroes in the Bible to me, of all the kings up there with David, was, of course, Hezekiah and Josiah. Josiah, you can read about the reforms. You can see what he did. And what a fantastic individual he was. He changed an entire nation so that they would follow God. And he worked hard at it. He defied logic many times because of what he did. He defied the people of his day to get them to follow God.

And it was amazing because this individual, Josiah, which could have two or three sermons alone on him and what he did. Please read that this week if you haven't. It's in Kings and also in Chronicles.

But Josiah had four sons. Four sons. And all the reforms that Josiah had done in Jerusalem, he made a mistake.

Josiah, you can make one mistake in your life and it can be ever-changing.

He decided without taking God into consideration because he had the nation of following Him, he decided he would go to war without consulting God.

And he decided that this Pharaoh over in Egypt named Niko, he'd just take care of him.

And it ended up he was very young. He was killed in a battle by Niko.

It wasn't even his fight as Egypt was fighting Babylon at the time because Babylon was becoming... Babylonians were becoming this powerful nation. They were beginning to take over that gap left by the Assyrians when the Assyrians were conquered by the Babylonians.

And Egypt came up and found some Assyrians and some Assyrians and wanted to have this battle to hold their land since they basically were over seeing the land of Palestine at the time.

And for no reason really given, Josiah decided to jump in the battle and he was killed the very first day.

At which time Nebuchadnezzar, his father had just died and he left the battle, pulled back, and went back to Babylon to claim his rulership.

And Niko said it when they withdrew. Niko, the Pharaoh over Egypt, said, Well, guess what? I just killed your king so now you're going to be my vassal state.

Be a vassal state. You're going to serve me. As a matter of fact, I'm going to put in the king.

And so he chose one of Josiah's sons. He had four. He didn't choose the oldest. He chose next to the oldest. He put him in. He didn't do very well. In three months, he drug him off and threw him in prison in Egypt.

So then he appointed the oldest son, gave him a different name, and called him Jehoakim. Jehoakim. You know, you have Jehoakim, Jehoachim, Jehoa-Chin, Jehoa-everything in that family. But there were four boys that he named. Jehoahaz was the oldest, and that's the one that went and was prisoner.

Then Jehoakim was next, and then Jehoachin after him, and then Zedekiah met an eye after that. And that, basically, we're looking at the last few years of Jerusalem and Israel as we knew it before they were taken away by the Babylonians.

So the interesting part was that Niko put in Jehoakim. He was 25 years old at that time. And just when he had put him in, bam! Babylonians took over that area, and Niko ran and hid in Egypt.

Stayed away. So then, Babylon was over the Holy Land.

And they expected tribute, money, to be paid, which Jehoakim did for the first couple of years.

And then he decided, why should I pay them? And guess what happened?

Nebuchadnezzar brought his army to Jerusalem, showed the force, took it over, and we come to Daniel 1, chapter 1.

So let's go there and look at this situation here.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

All they had to do was surround it with this incredible army. And they knew they couldn't do anything. So Jehoakim, he'd have been, what, 28 years old at this time. Nebuchadnezzar on the outside probably could have hurt his knees knocking at that time, inside the walls.

It was 605 BC. This was the first confrontation that Nebuchadnezzar had as a ruler. He had just taken over.

So you want to make sure people understand there's a new sheriff in town.

There's a new tough guy, and I'm him, and you're going to obey.

Let's go down to verse 2. And the Lord gave Jehoakim, look at that, the Lord gave Jehoakim, king of Judah, into his hand.

So it wasn't just Nebuchadnezzar. It was the Lord decided.

What? You're not going to obey?

By this time, they had already thrown aside all the reforms that Jehoakim's father, Josiah, had put in.

They were already turning back and not worshipping God.

And God says, okay, you want to do that? You're on your own!

I'll remove that hedge.

As so many of us have found out, we want to do things our own way in the past. But here it is alive and well for us here.

The Lord gave Jehoakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God. Was it the Ark of the Covenant? No. But was it some of the things that were made, the cups, the vessels that were used in the temple? Yes. What were they made of? Gold.

Pure gold. Can you imagine holding a cup or eating out of a bowl that was gold?

Silverware, gold. It was worth a lot of money, but it was prestigious.

Articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, which is where Babylon was, to the house of his God. And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. It was a custom of that time.

He came in because they had disobeyed. I'm sure they had to pay up the money that he was owed. But then he decided, I've got to teach you a little lesson.

So I'm taking some of these things, so he went into the... he sent his men into the house of God, and took these expensive things, and he was going to bring them, as was the custom of the time, into the worship center in Babylon, which they had many gods, but Baal was one of them.

Baal by all, whatever you want to say. But they like putting these things that people worship, or held for worship, and take them from this God that he didn't believe in, and put them into the house of his God.

There's a way to show when somebody went through, well, look here, I conquered this, I conquered this, I conquered this. This is from this God that was supposed to protect these people. And I went in and I just took it, because I could, because my God's bigger, stronger, and he's with me.

Ha! Look at these people, worshiping just one God.

Verse 3, Then the king instructed Ashpanas, Ashpanas, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel, and some of the king's descendants, and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace, and in whom they might teach the language and the literature of the Chaldeans. So here they were coming in and taking dozens of the sharpest-looking young guys.

And their job was they were going to serve in Babylon in the royal court.

It was 500 miles from Jerusalem to Babylon. You think they put them on a nice cart and let them ride since they were part of royalty or really the smartest? No. According to their tradition, they tied their hands together with a rope, they let them, and they walked them 500 miles in the heat, giving them just enough water to survive, making them realize. We have some young men here today, young ladies here. Can you imagine in a few years being taken as slaves, as prisoners, by this mighty army?

15, 16 years old. They had a purpose for you. Except there was something different, that's why I want to make the case today for it. That's not really brought out that much in churches. I thought some of the younger people would be in your class today, so I cannot be as graphic as I would once want to be. That the adults could understand a little more, but I think by the time you will understand. Imagine yourself as a 15 or 16 year old young man. You've grown up in the court. You're very educated in the ways of God, in the ways of Hebrew language, even knowing Samara-Mak.

But you're taken to a land of Babylon where, as Jeremiah says, as he predicted, they're going to take you to a land where you do not even know their language.

So you're taken somewhere where they can't even understand what you're saying, or if they do, they don't care. And you're going to have to learn their language. They're going to walk you through this time, and you're going to walk 500 miles, tied up like an animal, because you will walk like the rest of the animals that they took.

And you're going to come into the outskirts of Babylon after a couple months of walking.

And when you get there, even a few miles outside of Babylon, you all of a sudden can't believe what you're seeing. Is it the wall that you're... is that a wall that they're seeing that seems to go on forever and ever? Because Daniel and his friends were seeing one of the seven wonders of the world, besides the gardens. They would see the wall of Babylon. The wall is a Babylon, which you could see. Herodotus was a historian. He lived about 400 B.C., about 150 years after this event took place. And as we know, the Babylons were eventually conquered by the Persians, and Persians conquered by the Greeks and Alexander the Great. So it was during this time that Herodotus, this historian, went and visited and wrote down as he was there what it looked like in Babylon.

What Daniel, his friends Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego would have seen as they were being led to this incredible city, this New York City of its day. Herodotus said, I saw Babylon. I am standing now in a spacious plain surrounded by a wall, 300 feet tall, 56 miles in length, so broad across that a four-horse chariot could be driven along the top, and enclosing an area of some 200 square miles. Imagine that wall. Now, Jerusalem had a wall, but it was nothing compared to this. Herodotus said, well, they found out later, this wall was not only 300 feet tall, the walls of protect Babylon, that they had dug down 35 feet deep, and started the wall 35 feet deep so nobody could tunnel, so no one could tunnel under it. What an awesome sight! But can you imagine a young man of 15 looking like, wow, what is this? And somewhere in the middle, you didn't know what it was, you'd heard of a ziggurat, but you didn't know what it was, but somewhere in the middle of it was this building that spiraled up, and it went almost into the clouds, and they would have remembered the story of the Tower of Babel, because that's what they were looking at. All these things they had heard about, just dreamed about, and they were brought into this city that we now, in the English language, we think of Babel, and the English word meaning confusion of language or just to talk on to Babel, but that's not what the Babylonians meant. It meant to Babylonians, it meant the gate of God. That's what their city was known. The gate of God. It was the gate of their God. And here, Daniel would have grown up just in the last years of Josiah. He would have known what righteous rule was. He would have known all these things. He was trying to follow these things. And he was about to enter a city. He had no idea what it was like. They didn't know it was God, and they didn't care. It's interesting that Alexander the Great is quoted when he entered and went and visited the city as he did conquer it. But it said, even Alexander the Great was shocked by the morals of Babel, because some of their richest citizens were prostitutes. And Alexander the Great knew something about debauchery, and even he was shocked. It's interesting that that is a city in which he died in from drinking too much, they believe. They know he died in Babylon. But imagine you're Daniel, and you've had this visual overload. You're scared. You can't understand the language. And then they take you into the city, and they bring you into the palace. And you're actually overseen by another eunuch. And without knowing it, what was going to happen, you feared the worst. You didn't know if they would kill you because you didn't mean anything to them. You were a slave. But they had vision. Nebuchadnezzar had a vision because he did this with other countries and brought their best in. Because he was looking at world domination, he could train them their way, and then they could be working with those countries and serve him too. So it was ingenious by Nebuchadnezzar. But you're 15 years old. They brought you in after cleaning you up, showing you around. They take you to a room. They give you a drink. You have no choice but to drink it. It's alcohol.

It's very strong. Your mind is even a little dizzy. And then they completely strip you naked. And they have a type of drug, or it's a type of from leaves that can make you numb on your skin. They strip you naked, and they take you in. They take the lower part of your body, and they coat this, your genital area, with this type of drug. And they hold you down and tie you down as a 15-16 year old boy. And they take someone with a knife, and they castrate you. They remove your testicles. Then they have a way to sew you up. Shocking? Yes. Would you want to know if you were like them where your God was? I think I would.

I bring this up, not to shock you, not to just make a story, but research this in history, because eunuchs, they were making them eunuchs, as so many kings did. It was a custom of the day. For one thing, you were going to be around the harem. You were going to be around women that were princes and everything else, and you were not to have any relations with them. I also did it so that your focus would be more on what they gave you to do instead of some affair or looking at some young lady. You had no choice. The Cummings Museum Collection in New York Academy of Medicine Library contains over 1,200 references on making people eunuchs around the world in the history of it.

It was very, very common. Even up until the last few centuries in China, there will be a million to two million young boys that would be castrated just to serve in the different dynasties, the Ming Dynasty and these various things. So when it's brought out, we have to understand. For one thing, it was considered a procedure that is performed for punishment of prisoners of war.

That was done quite often. These young men first were prisoners of war. They had a purpose. The Chinese, looking at statistics, had a third to half of all the young boys they did it to, bled to death. Babylonians, about only about 2%. But you can imagine the shock, the shock of this happening.

Because even the word itself, even the word itself, translated E-U-N-E, the etymology of the word, means deprived of mating. It also means to be a bedkeeper, also official of the king, because this was what your job would be after this thing happened. You would be trained. Even Jesus Christ himself talked about eunuchs. There's eunuchs, men who are born to eunuchs. There are men who are made eunuchs by other men. And then there are eunuchs for God, as we understand Peter. I mean, Paul was.

So this was something that's understood. But until you understand that mindset, and there's a great argument in it in the theological world, that says, oh no, well that probably didn't happen to them. All you have to do is study history. History books, and you see, it was real. It would be an anomaly if it didn't happen. Evidence of Daniel being a eunuch? Number one, it was the customs of the Babylonians and of most pagan nations. This is what they did. You read Daniel 1 as we're getting into, and you see that Daniel and his friends were put under the care of the chief eunuch.

And you can go back to the time of Isaiah, who prophesied in 2 Kings 20, verse 17 to 18, when he warned Hezekiah, who had just defeated, or God had defeated for him the Assyrians. And so he got a little bit too big for his britches after God had brought him and gave him extra years of his life, and he brought in the Babylonians, some emissaries there, to show off. And what did he do?

He came and Isaiah said, what were they here for? Oh, they just came to get to know me, to see all the great things that we have. And he said, what did you show them? Isaiah knew. Isaiah knew. It didn't take a genius to realize that one of the fastest growing armies was Babylonians, and before you can fight a battle, you better make sure you've got enough gold to pay your soldiers and to get everything done.

And he said, oh, I showed him everything. And God inspired Isaiah to tell him, this is what's going to happen, those Babylonians, not in your time, but your grandsons are going to see it. Your great-grandsons are going to see it. They're going to come in and they're going to take all this gold. Then they're going to take your sons and they're going to turn them into eunuchs. It wasn't a good prophecy. It was a warning to him, and this is exactly what happened.

And to make that the fourth example of it is you see the time of Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. And even Daniel, when he was cast into the lions then, remember that story? He was cast in alone, wasn't he? When the lions didn't eat him, then the people who had accused him, who did they cast in? They cast them in with their entire families. There was no family. So there's, in my estimation, in my research, there's no way he wasn't a eunuch. But imagine the mindset.

What happened in that incredible minds of those young men that they had to go through this? Let's go back to the Scripture now, as I hope you can begin to see that story. And it says that they will be serving the king's palace in verse 4, on whom they might teach the language and the literature of the Chaldeans.

The Babylonians, they were leaps and bounds above other places in the world. They're the ones that came up with the calendars. They came up with 360 day. They came up with the 60-minute hour. They were the ones that had this incredible medical research they had done. They were on the cutting edge of everything.

They were going to teach this to those men. They were going to study. They were going to study their history. They were going to study Hammurabi, the laws of Hammurabi. They were going to have to know all this stuff, the study of the stars that they were very much into. And it said in verse 5, The king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of wine which he drank and three years training for them.

So they were about to go to college. It was going to be the College of Babylon. And they were going to study. That was going to be their job. That was going to be their fun. That was going to be everything they were for the next three years. So that at the end of that time, they might serve before the king. Brought slaves in, brought some really sharp young guys in. Imagine those who were able to do the job, were very sharp.

You take the best of the best is what you came in every nation that you conquered. And you brought them in. Imagine some of those young men who didn't do well. They had some more walls to build. And sure, they were cast out to serve as slaves on the outside walls. Verse 6, Now from among those in Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He named Daniel Belchazar. To Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. All those names. Daniel meant God is my judge. His name was changed to Belchazar, favored by the guy. So they had to change their names. They had to accept the names that they were used there.

And it was all about the pagan gods. Hananiah was Jehovah is gracious. Mishael, who belongs to God. Azariah, Jehovah helps. And now they were all going to be named after other gods, the pagan gods. They didn't have any choice with that. It's what they had to accept. Daniel proposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portions of the King's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. No matter what, he had gone through this thing, and he was still obeying God. Any wonder that's the theme of Daniel? No matter what you go through, obey God. He's there in the valleys, he's there in the peaks. Obey God. He has a purpose. He has a purpose for everyone in this room, even the young people in here today. He has a purpose. Now, God had brought Daniel into the favor and the good will or kindness of the chief of the eunuchs.

Who did? God. Because he kept God first. You got problems? Keep God first. Is it going to be answered tomorrow? No, probably not. But it will be answered. He wants to see. It was interesting. The Hebrew word for eunuch is saris. S-A-R-I-S. S-A-R-I-S. And it can mean official because most of the eunuchs, remember the one that was baptized in the New Testament, served under Candace, Ethiopia? He was a eunuch. He served in that purpose. I found it interesting, just a side note here, interesting that the first time the word saris is used, they didn't say eunuch, but a royal official. And it was the word used for potifer.

Potifer. The one who later had a wife who didn't seem to be satisfied at home? Coincidence? I don't know, but it's interesting that that's used. So he found favor with the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my Lord the king who has appointed your food and drink, for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age?

Then you would endanger my head before the king. It was my head, and he had no problem cutting people's heads off. When he finished with Zedekiah, you remember the story when he finally did finish with Zedekiah? He brought all Zedekiah's sons out and set them before him, and as historians say, the Bible says he just killed them, but they said he had his men go through and chop their heads off as they had Zedekiah tied there and had him watch him slaughter his sons in front of him.

And then he had a man come in and gouge Zedekiah's eyes out with his bare hands. So the last thing he saw was his sons being slaughtered. Nebuchadnezzar was not a man who played. He's a man who demanded and got what he wanted. So this head of the eunuchs was seeing, and he said, No, I'm not going to endanger my head. So Daniel said to the steward, he was the man under Ashpenaz, and his name was Malzar. He was the eunuch directly over Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.

So he said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah, Please test your servants for 10 days. Let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenance be examined before you and the countenance of the young men who eat the portions of the king's delicacy, and as you see fit, so deal with your servants. He knew he was still a slave.

He said, Try this. Look at us and see what we're going to do. It was common at that time that they ate from the king's table. This is still food, whatever was prepared for the king's table. When you go back, which I did, I have a book in my car out there on the diet of the Babylonians. Most of the diet was barley, it was sheep, it was goats, it was beef, it was fish.

It was all the young going, What's the deal? Why was this thing? But there was also swine, turtle, and horse meat. One of the most popular dishes at that time in Babylon was, and they still have now, copies of it in Kineoform tablets of over a hundred recipes of soup. My wife's a soup person. She loves soup. I don't know if you like soup, but, you know.

They ate a lot of soup, and they put in that soup whatever was caught or fresh that day. So it's not like they had a lot of chol, here's a soup, you eat it. So why did he do this? He wanted to make sure. He still had, he's still going to obey God. Any way, shape, or form he could. He was going to do everything he could. And drinks? Bible didn't condemn wine. But you shouldn't drink it every meal. And you study from the Persians, the Babylonians, they drank a lot of wine and a lot of beer.

A lot! So you can imagine if you're a young man, you start down this road. For one thing, you're going to put on quite a bit of weight. But is your mind, if you're constantly sitting there every meal, you're having wine, beer? Daniel knew there's a bigger purpose. Verse 14, So he consented with them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

At the end of ten days, their cantoners appeared better and fatter. Well, wait a minute. Fatter? I thought they weren't. I've never seen a fat vegetarian. You know? No. The translation of it, translation, and the newer versions have that translation, is healthier. It's healthier. They were healthier. They weren't looking just, uh, and you're feeling kind of, hmm? So Daniel and his friends looked healthier in flesh than all the young men who had ate the portions of the king's delicacies.

Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. Controlled diet. As for those four young men in verse 17, what's the word say? God. As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all the visions and dreams. Visions and dreams. It's a gift for God. Why? Why did God gift them these things? Why were they smarter than everyone else?

Why did they have all this stuff? Why were they blessed with all this? Obey God. They obeyed God. They put God, even in the worst conditions, even when they strapped you to that table, and that had to be wake up, and I know most of us men could wake up just reading about making eunuchs. It didn't make me sleep any better that night. You, as a young man, you would have, you would have, hmm, how many times? You would have said, where were you, God? But they didn't. They kept their focus on obeying God.

They weren't in their nation. Nobody was going to see them. Their parents weren't going to see them. Nobody was going to see them. They could go ahead and just join in and do whatever, because what were they? Slaves. But they did not do it. Why?

Because they wanted to please their God. Used to have a, in my school, principal used to have this right above his, right next to his office when you'd walk by it. He'd say, it was a little sign that said, you can truly tell what a person really is when no one is watching, when they think no one is watching them. Meshach, Shadrach, and Midagoh knew God was watching, and they cared about it. You ever realize Daniel lived to be in his late 80s or 90s, served four different kings?

That's a long time to serve in a pagan country, isn't it? A long time to be away from your people. But what did he do? Well, you can see through the book of Daniel that he lived a righteous life. Didn't matter where he was, didn't matter what city you live in, whether it's Miami, whether it's Fort Lauderdale, whether it's New York City. We have the same responsibility. It never says a word about Daniel's parents. You think they were good ones? I think so. By the time they were 15, their focus was on being God. And Daniel kept that for 90 years. Let's go and finish this up now. Verse 18, Now at the end of the days when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Why did he bring them in? Because they were ready. That eunuch had worked with them for three years. Imagine if you had this group of young men, and you had others over here that was, Oh, when did I bring in my wine for lunch today? Where's my beer? It's Beer 30. Where's that food? Need my food. And you had these four individuals? You're going to say, because who's going to get credit for that? You bet that eunuch is. He wasn't going to say, Oh, those boys, you know, they came in really good. Oh, no. It was chief of the eunuchs. So he brought them in. Then verse 19, Then the king interviewed them, and among them all, that's all the young men who had been brought in, all had that three-year training, was found, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Meshal, and Azariah. Therefore, they served before the king. He tested them. He examined them. He didn't just let them off, because he didn't really care if they were going to be able to serve him, they were going to be the top, or guess what? Just go cut their head off. I can find 100,000 of them down the road. This was big stuff. This wasn't little bitty things that come in. Okay, we get to take this test today. Ah, the king interviewed them, tested them, to see if they were worthy to be working for him. Talk about a job interview. Whoa! And what did they do? There were none even close, close to what they were. Because what? Because of them? Yes, but because it said God. God gave them this. And 20. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, about which the king examined them, he found them a little better? Ten times better. Ten times! Boy, I wish when I had a company I could bring in their guy, and they were ten times better than anybody I had seen. Wow! Wouldn't that have been great? You can imagine how excited Nebuchadnezzar was! Ten times? Wow! Better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. He controlled most of the known world at that time. By this time, he had already conquered so many. And these 20-year-old, 19-20-year-old, four of them, were ten times smarter than all his wisest guys that he had in the entire world. Pretty impressive. Obey God. Why could they do this? God was with them. But they also had a biblical history. They would have understood from knowing Scripture, how the world began, the understanding of how it was put forth. There are incredible parallels to Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. To not only Moses, who learned, he too was taken to have raised in a pagan country. And he rose to the top, as did Joseph. What did they all have in common? Same God. Same belief. What do we have in common with them? Same God. Same belief. Thus, Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus, when he was almost 90 years old.

It is an incredible story. It's an incredible story for us, no matter what we have to go through, no matter what we've gone through, no matter where we are now. Daniel inspires us. Obey God. And he will take care of you. Through the highs and the lows, Daniel believed and trusted in God. Like Daniel, we have those too. We need to trust in God. This life has its challenges. Daniel had tough ones that we've never had to take. Imagine what he went through as a young man. Then imagine when you're 80 years old, they decide to throw you into some lions. Ones that we know from the story that when they threw the other people out, when they pulled him out and they threw the other ones in, they got the family and the bodies never hit the ground.

Because I read a story somewhere telling fallacies from the Bible, the fallacies of the Bible, and that was one of them. And they're making believe that it really didn't happen, that they were made up for it. They said, well, you know, different times lions are not that hungry. And so they had already been fed, so they put this man in and they just really didn't want to eat him. But then the next day, the next morning, they pull him out, he's okay, and they throw these people in there and they ate him all up. People do not want to do what? Obey God. So let's make up stories. Let's not believe this book. Obey God. That's where we're headed. So it's just one chapter, one incredible story of faith in a valley. Brethren, this week, let us remember and learn from the life and times of Daniel the eunuch.