Continuing our series to mark the 30th anniversary of the United Nations’ International Year of the Child.
Being young does not always mean being weak, as the story of Daniel and his three friends reminds us….
At the end of the first chapter of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament are the words, ‘Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.’ The word ‘continued’ covers a period of around seventy years. Daniel lived to see the end of the Babylonian kingdom and the beginning of the Persian kingdom.
Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, were Israelite teenagers when they were captured by the Babylonian army and taken to Babylon. There their names were changed, they were given a strict Babylonian education and every effort was made to make them forget Israel and Israel’s God. But from the beginning these four teenagers were determined they would not compromise their faith. They asked to be excused from eating the prescribed meals because they had been offered to Babylon’s gods. Instead they choose to live on vegetables and water. After a trial period they looked better and performed better academically than those eating ‘the king’s rich food’ (Dan. 1:15).
They had faced their first test and came through it triumphantly. Their second test came some time later. Refusing to bow down and worship Babylon’s gods when they heard the sound of music, Daniel’s three friends were thrown into a roaring furnace. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was astounded when the furnace doors were opened and the three Israelites stepped out alive and not even the smell of fire upon them. Again their deep faith in Israel’s God had brought them through.
Daniel’s wisdom and wise counsels were such that he was raised to high office but his enemies were busy. During a thirty-day period in which all prayers were to be offered to King Darius, Daniel continued his daily devotions to Yahweh, the God of his fathers. Thrown into a den of lions, he was protected by God’s power and even King Darius admitted that Yahweh was the one, true God.
The strong faith of Daniel and his three friends preserved them from teenage years through to old age. Children and young people must be given every assistance to find faith in God for themselves and every encouragement to develop that faith as the foundation for their lives.
A child shall lead them…