When You Don’t See God’s Hand

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself” Daniel 1:8

Is there really a God? Is He loving? Is He good? Is there a God I can turn to and trust? Am I crazy to believe “yes” to all these things?

When things are going fine in your life, you might not find it hard to believe in a God that is good and who loves you, but if something devastating has recently happened that makes you ask, “How could a loving God allow this?” Then you will understand Daniel’s story.

If you need some perspective and hope in your circumstances today, then you need to turn the channel and watch a couple scenes from Daniel’s life. Across all the pages of Scripture that detail his story from teenager to old man, you can write “Sovereignty at Work.” God was directing Daniel’s life—get this—whether Daniel saw it at the time or not.

So now you know where we’re going. Let me give you some context before we travel too far. Way back when He rescued His people from Egypt, God made it clear. “If you guys live the way I tell you to live and obey My commands, you’re gonna get blessed. But if you turn your back on Me and follow other gods, you’re gonna be in for a world of hurt.” Sadly, most people chose the latter and God allowed His own people to be judged. That’s what was happening when Daniel was a teenager. One bright day in Jerusalem, Daniel was captured in his enemy’s net and his world turned upside down.

But Daniel’s captors were working a strategy. They singled out the best, young people—the All -American teenagers with the highest SAT scores and the ones voted MVP and Most Likely to Succeed (Daniel included)—and brought them to their capital city near modern-day Kuwait. They said, “We’re gonna brainwash these kids and teach them to lead our program.” So Daniel was given a foreign name, Belteshazzar, and was forced to learn a new language and culture. They even got a new diet.

Here’s where the story turns. Daniel 1:8 says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat.”

“But Daniel.” (I love the “buts” in the Bible.) Just when things were headed downhill, God found a person who would stand for Him. Daniel said, “My world just got rocked, but I’m all for God—I won’t do that thing that would dishonor Him.” (Read Daniel to understand why eating the king’s meat was such a big deal.)

Had Daniel decided what God was like by looking at his circumstances, he would have become a disillusioned, confused, angry young man. Ripped from his homeland, forced into slavery, most likely castrated to become a eunuch in the palace, Daniel still had his eyes on God. Don’t gloss over this like it’s some made-for-TV movie—this story is true in every detail. Imagine the suffering connected with his circumstances. Yet Daniel went through the fire . . . successfully. And you can too.