Thursday, February 07, 2008 - Work Principles from the Life of Daniel
Do you thoroughly like and enjoy everyone you work with and for? I hope so; that would be ideal. But the facts are, most of us in the workplace have certain coworkers who aren’t so easy to like.
Daniel had some very difficult coworkers too, people who were out to do him harm. People who were very jealous of him and wanted to bring him down. But in spite of their attitudes, Daniel kept his attitude right:
Daniel had a compassionate heart for his “co-workers.”
When Nebuchadnezzar was ready to kill the wise men of Babylon because they could not interpret his dream, Daniel went to Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, and interceded for these men. “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” he asked. Now, these men meant nothing to him personally, but he had a compassionate heart and he knew it was wrong to execute them. So, he went to his trusted fellow-Israelites, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, and urged them to pray for these men. God then revealed the meaning of the dream to Daniel and the next day he asked Arioch not to kill the wise men, but instead to take him to Nebuchadnezzar because he could interpret the dream.
Talk about sticking your neck out! Daniel was a man of great courage as well as great compassion. He cared about these men, even though they were not fellow-Israelites and indeed were astrologers and sorcerers and enchanters—men who were doing things directly opposed to God’s principles.
It’s not easy to have compassion for people sometimes, is it? Especially those who are antagonistic toward us, or who have no clue about true spirituality. Those whose lifestyles are sinful and against all you know to be right. But as God placed Daniel in the midst of these kind of people, so He does us today as well, and He does it so we can show God’s love and compassion to people who have no clue what it’s all about.
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