Unshakeable In A Shaky World

as high of a divorce rate as society at large. That’s shaky!
However, in the midst of this shaky world, there is hope. Thank God for the Bible because not only does it show the pain, anguish and ugliness of this world, but it offers hope as we face this world. There are many in the Bible who can be examples of an unshakeable life, but one to me stands out very strong – Daniel. Since Daniel couldn’t be here today – busy feeding his lions – I will step in for him. We can look at his life and get encouragement to be unshakable. Daniel was an Israelite from Judah. In chapter 1 we see that Daniel and the other Israelites were taken from Judah to Babylon as King Nebuchadnezzar had taken over Judah. He took articles from the temple of God, but he also took some of the Israelites captive – one of which was Daniel. Neb ordered that the Israelites be trained in the language and literature of the Babylonians so that after 3 years, they could enter the king’s service. At this point in Daniel’s life his whole world is turned upside down as he is taken from all that is familiar to him and put in a situation that would rock any of our worlds.

Like the slaves in Africa being taken and brought to America, imagine if everything that was familiar to you was taken from you instantly? Your family, your house, your church, your hairdresser? You see we are in a shaky world but still get to experience those things that are close and familiar to us – while Daniel, on the other hand, was stripped of everything even down to his name – Belteshazzar. Some of us would benefit from a name change (i.e. Shaquita).

We get a glimpse of Daniel’s unshakable life in chapter 1 as Daniel was determined not to defile himself with the king’s royal food and choice wine. He took a stand and told the chief official “give us vegetables and water for ten days and at the end of the ten days we will look better than the men who eat the royal food and wine. Daniel passed up “pig feet and chitterlings and chose the vegetables” When it was all said and done, after ten days Daniel, Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego looked better and healthier than the men who ate the king’s food. As a result, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego had distinguished themselves before the king and he found none comparable in the whole kingdom. In Every matter of Wisdom and understanding the king found them ten times better. Those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, how does our work compare to those who don’t know Jesus. Would our boss say that our attitude is different? Do we show greater effort? Are we putting in the amount of time we should be? (CONVICTING!) Daniel was also given the ability to interpret dreams and as a result of interpreting the king’s dream in chapter 2, he saved his own life and the lives of others in Babylon because if the king could find no one who could interpret his dream he was going to have all wise men of Babylon killed. God gave Daniel the ability to interpret the dream. As a result he was placed in a high position in Babylon – He was put in charge of all the wise men and even helped Shadrach, Meshcach and Abednego get high positions in Babylon. That’s what I call moving on up in a shaky world! As we look at chapter 6, we see that Daniel is still one of the leaders in the kingdom even though there are new leaders that have taken over the land (King