Continuing Thanksgiving - Daniel 6:1-10

Each year, we set apart a special day to give thanks for God's provision. We celebrate as a nation in remembrance of how native peoples provided much-needed food for foreign colonists on the verge of starvation. These native peoples taught them to plant maize, squash, and beans, including strategies to fertilize the ground for better crop yields. We pause to remember a little of this history and give thanks to God for the blessings we continue to enjoy today, however, that provision might have been made.

Often as not, we make or hear of lists of things for which to be thankful. We watch friends and loved ones post things for which they are grateful throughout the month of November. We join them and are right in doing so. It is too easy to fail in counting our blessings and miss the many reasons for which we should rejoice and be grateful. It is in our thanksgiving that we pause to recognize our dependence upon God and put life's difficulties in a more proper perspective. What do we do with our thankfulness when we are not being so reminded to thank God for the blessings which surround us?

Daniel was in a relatively dark place. He had been ripped out of his homeland and carted off into exile to serve the world's superpower. This was not exactly the dream job for an Israelite. He had no desire to be in Babylon, much less serving the emperor of the nation who had invaded his homeland and forced him away from all he knew and loved.

Despite the difficulties of his exile, Daniel had risen within the ranks of those pressed in service to the emperor. He had risen enough to have made enemies along the way, men who were jealous of his power, position, and privilege. They were concerned enough with Daniel to devise a plan to force him into a position of disgrace before the emperor, such that Daniel would be sure to be put to death.

They determined that Daniel was above any question of reproach in regard to his character or actions in service to the emperor of Babylon. They knew they had no hope of bringing any justifiable accusation against him, except in regard to Daniel's commitment to honor and serve Yahweh as his only God. They knew Daniel had a custom of praying before an open window of his home that faced the city of Jerusalem. He would regularly pray there three times a day, giving thanks and praise to Yahweh. They took that as the basis of their plan to trap Daniel and be assured of his condemnation.

While Daniel had been wrenched from Israel along with the upper crust of his people, he had not failed to honor, praise, and thank Yahweh continually. By any reasonable understanding, he should have just accepted that the gods of Babylon had shown themselves superior to Yahweh. By the definitions in play throughout the Ancient Near East, he should have accepted that Yahweh had either abandoned his people or had lacked the power to overcome the attack of Babylon and its deities. Instead, Daniel had clung to an assurance that Yahweh was had orchestrated his nation's exile, disciplining them over their failure to live up to Yahweh's ideals. He continued to thank, honor, and praise Yahweh, even amid his own anguish and loss.

The jealousy of other officers of the court was firmly stacked against Daniel. They pushed the emperor to sign an edict that no one should pray to a deity or any other person than the emperor himself over a period of thirty days. They were sure they would easily catch Daniel in violation of such an edict. Daniel had proven his faithfulness to honor, praise, and thank Yahweh in all the circumstances of his life along with a flat refusal to honor any other deities.

Without fail, Daniel found his way back to the widow of his upper room facing Jerusalem, where he continued to bow his head in prayer to Yahweh as he had been in the habit of doing. This was more than just his routine. It was his way of life and an integral part of his worship of Yahweh.

Daniel knew his life was in jeopardy when he knelt before his open window. He was well aware that the emperor's edict meant he would be thrown to the lions. He was well aware of the jealousy of the officers surrounding him. He understood they had devised this plan in order to trap him and seal his doom. Rather than using that as an excuse to change his pattern of worship, he determined to continue to give thanks, honor, and praise to Yahweh as the only acceptable and faithful course of action.

He was placing his life once more in the hands of Yahweh. Giving thanks for him was not simply an issue of counting off all the comforts, the security, and the goodwill that surrounded him. Indeed, his life was devoid of much of that. He was living in exile. He did not have freedom of movement. He had just lost the freedom to openly worship Yahweh without repercussions. His life was being spent in the service of an emperor who had enslaved him along with the upper class of his nation. What did he have for which to be thankful?

Life was a hardship for him. His service to Babylon was understood to be service to the deities of Babylon. That service was viewed as part of Yahweh's failure and the power of Babylon's gods. His may have been a high position in the administration of the empire, but he did not serve out of free will. It was a conscripted position. It was a daily reminder that Babylon had taken control of Israel and Judah and he was now employed in service to an enemy nation.

This was no position from which to give thanks. This was not a life in which one would expect to find an abundance of gratitude and praise. Even so, that is exactly what we find as Daniel returned to his house for prayer three times a day. He knelt by the open window facing Jerusalem to give thanks and praise to Yahweh.

Daniel returned to his home to pray, well knowing the emperor had signed the edict against such prayer. He understood that even though Yahweh has apparently been shown to be unworthy of his thanks and worship that Yahweh was worthy despite those appearances. While humanly speaking he had every reason to doubt the appropriateness of his worship and thanksgiving, he was convinced it was only right that he continue to honor Yahweh and Yahweh alone.

Daniel's thanksgiving did not flow from an abundance of comfort. His thankfulness did not begin with security and safety. His praise to God did not come from circumstances that spoke clearly of Yahweh's power, authority, and care. His thanks came out of a sense of hope and confidence that despite the circumstances in which he lived, Yahweh would see him through. He thanked God out of recognition that God deserved his praise and that as one of Yahweh's people it was his responsibility to bow in God's service despite his circumstances, day after day after day.

He well knew that his prayers of thanks to Yahweh might result in his own death. He was well aware that continuing to praise, thank, and petition Yahweh might invoke the wrath of the emperor. He understood the danger, but he also understood and accepted his responsibilities before Yahweh as more important than the potential downside of his faithfulness.

Our own thanksgiving needs to extend beyond the expectations of a society and the norms of a culture. It needs to carry us beyond those limitations. It needs to carry us into our responsibility to serve God without reservation and despite appearances. If we are only thankful when we are expected to give thanks, can we honestly pretend it is real?

—©Copyright 2017, Christopher B. Harbin  http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 

My latest books can be found here on amazon