The Southern Kingdom, Judah (from which we get the name “Jews” today), had some Godly kings and some ungodly ones. The king we read about in the first verse of Daniel, Jehoiakim, was the son of Josiah, Israel’s last Godly king – 2 Kings 22-23. Though Josiah had followed God, he had not taught his sons to do so.

Why is history important? In 1 Corinthians 10:6 and following we are told that these things happened, and were recorded, as examples for us so we would not want to follow evil as people before us had done. Daniel certainly knew the history. Why would he have known? We are not specifically told who Daniel’s family was, but we know from these first four verses in Daniel 1 that the royal family and the nobility were specifically targeted as the “youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace.” They were chosen as captives. Daniel and his friends were among these. It is also interesting to note that David’s wife, Abigail (1 Chronicles 3:1, and 2 Samuel 3:3), was the mother to David’s second son – named Daniel, probably the ancestor of this Daniel.

This could tell us why Daniel was as educated as he was before he was kidnapped and taken to Babylon. It could also explain his Godly heritage when David’s other offspring were not faithful to God. It would certainly explain, having been trained from infancy to be part of the royal household, why he knew how to talk with even a captor-king in such a way that he could receive what he needed. Of course, God also gave Daniel favor in the eyes of King Nebuchadnezzar.

What does this mean for our lives today? We do not have to be someone important by this world’s standards to be used by God in powerful ways. Daniel, though probably a teenager when he was kidnapped, remembered and honored the things of God he had been taught by parents who surely followed God. We who are raising children now must teach our children the Bible and God’s ways. The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 that we are to train our children in His way, and the promise is that “when they are old, they will not depart” from what we have taught. For those of us who are young and just stepping into our lives as adults, it is our responsibility to remain true to Jesus even though the world around us has a great many temptations to set aside the things we have learned about Jesus as children.

*Memorize: Proverbs 18:15 - An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.