A Study of Daniel: God is Bigger Than Any Authority

Romans 13:1 "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."           

"The Wisdom literature, then, teaches that what is wrong is what deviates from God's righteous path. Folly is the failure or refusal to reverence Yahweh (Prov 1:7). Departing from the fear of Yahweh is to take the path of folly, which leads to destruction in all of its forms. Proverbs 3:5 contrasts trust in Yahweh (the path of wisdom) with leaning on one's own understanding, an insistence upon human autonomy that is at the root of folly and wickedness (cf. Gen. 3:6; Jer. 17:9)." [1]

God is Bigger Than Any Authority

Read Daniel 1:3–7. Nebuchadnezzar had ordered Ashpenaz, the chief official, to bring some of the young Israelite men into his service. But from the rest of Scripture, we know that God was sending them to Babylon as his representatives to serve him. 

When your company sends you to China or Chicago on business, God is sending you to China or Chicago to serve him on his business. When circumstances move you to a new neighborhood, city, or job, realize that deeper down, God is sending you there to serve not the human "king" but the King of Kings.

Nebuchadnezzar intended to convert these young men into Babylonians in every sense of the word. Today, like Nebuchadnezzar, the world pressures us to conform to its ways.

The verse says the men were young—our best historical guess is 15 years old. For Daniel to be as faithful as he was, I imagine his mom and dad did some serious training with him, and they must have been fantastic role models of faith. How are you preparing your children to go to their "Babylon"? When God sends your son to college or your daughter to a new city, how will you have prepared them to wisely and faithfully serve God there?

Daniel and his friends studied economics and read love poetry and sorcery, including astrology and how to interpret the future from sheep's livers. Daniel did not resist the study. Sometimes we pull so far out of the world that we resist studying secular literature. Daniel demonstrated that you can be faithful to God while studying pagan thought and working in a pagan place. 

Wise Daniel and his friends demonstrate submission to human authority without compromising their ultimate Authority. They knew that God was bigger than any other authority.

[1] Estes, D. J. "Wisdom and Biblical Theology." Ed. Tremper Longman III and Peter Enns. Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings 2008: 857. Print.