Larry Love, an associate of Billy Graham, saw an unusual and
striking piece of advertising in a London railway station. It pictured
a copy of a very exclusive and expensive magazine. Beneath the
picture were the words, "Read by an overwhelming minority." It is
a catchy and clever idea that is so often true. History is so often
most exciting just at those points when the action is in the hands of
the overwhelming minority. The majority rules in the business
meetings of men, but in God's business it is often the overwhelming
minority that rules.
Noah was practically alone in his stand for righteousness and his
labor for God, but he was an overwhelming minority who won the
day. Joseph was alone against his brothers who easily overwhelmed
him and sold him into slavery, but it was he who came out on top in
the end. Gideon had only a drop in the bucket force compared to
the Midianites, but with his overwhelming minority he put them to
flight and gained the victory. Elijah was an obvious minority when
he withstood hundreds of the prophets of Baal, but it was his prayer
that was heard, and fire fell from heaven to give him the victory. It
is a popular saying that one man and God are a majority. The
meaning is true, but technically they are still only 2. It is more
accurate to say that one man and God are an overwhelming
minority.
Emerson said, "All history is a record of the power of minorities
and of minorities of one." The whole history of the church is in this
category. Luther did not face his inquisitors with arms outstretched
pointing to the army beside him saying, "Here we stand." He stood
solitary and alone and said, "Here I stand. I can do no other-God
help me." God did help him and he became an overwhelming
minority.
Dorothy Dix was a 33-year-old school teacher in Cambridge,
Mass. when she became aware of the terrible conditions under
which the insane had to live. She decided to do something about it
even though the majority were indifferent and thought of them as
beasts. She was strongly opposed by those who profited from
human misery. She gathered data on the conditions and presented it
to the state legislature. If shocked them into action. She kept it up
all across the country, and she saw more than 110 mental
institutions built before she died at age 87. After 33 years of being
among the complacent majority she spent 54 years as an
overwhelming minority.
Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl who became a world
traveler, was asked by Queen Victoria of England, "How do you
explain the fact that even though you were both blind and deaf you
were able to accomplish so much?" Without hesitation she replied,
"Had it not been for Anne Sullivan the name of Helen Keller would
be unknown. Anne gave of her life to teach Helen and develop her
skills and personality. One person who cared enough changed her
life, and then her life changed that of millions. One who cares
enough can do what millions of the uncaring can never do. There is
tremendous power in being an overwhelming minority.
Carnegie free libraries are over the United States giving every
person in our society the opportunity to read and learn. This did
not happen because of some great movement of the masses. It all
started with Major Anderson of the Revolutionary War fame. He
owned a library when few did, and he was not selfish with it. He
opened it up for young boys who wanted to use it. Every Saturday
morning the young Scottish lad Andrew Carnegie came and spent
the day reading in his library. He went on to become one of the
richest men in America. He was ever grateful for one man whose
generosity opened up new worlds to him. He gave millions to make
this possible for others by setting up free libraries all across the
country. Multiplied millions have been blessed and enriched
because of one man who shared his resources. Great things seldom
start with crowds. They start with one person, or a few persons
doing what is wise and right.
In 1619 the Virginia House of Burgesses met. It was the first legislative
body in America. 22 men had been elected. As soon as
they met they were interrupted by 6 Polish men who were respected
in the colony for their craft in making pitch and tar. Being Poles
they had been denied the right to vote. Only Anglo-Saxons, or those
of English heritage, were granted this right. There was a dispute
and the Polish workmen were granted the right to vote. This
minority group won that right for the millions of Poles who would
come to America. William Jennings Bryan was right when he said,
"The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in the armor of a
righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error."
Not all minorities, of course, are overwhelming, and not all who
are, are so in a good sense. There have been victories of evil
minorities also, and many good minorities struggle just to survive,
and others are crushed by the majority. The fact is, however, that
God's greatest instrument in the past has been the overwhelming
minority. This ought to challenge believers today to recognize that
they are a minority group that God can use to have an impact on
our secular society. It is an obligation to try whether we succeed or
not. Our attitude is to be that of the poet who wrote-
"You say the little efforts that I make will do no good.
They never will prevail to tip the hovering scale
When justice hangs in the balance.
I don't think I ever thought they would,
But I am prejudice beyond debate
In favor of my right to choose which side
Shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight."
We are not responsible for success, but we are fully responsible
as to where we put our weight. We are responsible to be loyal to
God and His Word no matter how futile such loyalty seems to be in
the face of majority opposition. We want to look at the life of one of
the most loyal of all overwhelming minorities of history in the hope
that a consideration of his stand might challenge us to dare to be a
Daniel in our day.
Clarence Macartney, the great biographical preacher, said,
"Daniel may be described as the most influential man of the Old
Testament, for he has exerted more practical influence upon readers
of the Bible, and especially upon young men, then any other Bible
character." Plato said, "To be ignorant of the lives of the most
celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all
our days." If this be so, then God forbid that we remain ignorant of
the life of Daniel, for he is indeed one of the most celebrated men of
antiquity. Ezekiel, who was his contemporary, and who was carried
captive just a few years after Daniel, all ready in his lifetime classed
Daniel as one of the three greatest men of faith. In Ezek. 14:14 God
speaks of His wrath against the wickedness of the land and says,
"Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it,
they would by their righteousness deliver only their own lives."
Daniel had gained unique favor with God, and he was the hero
of his people during their captivity. It was, no doubt, his loyalty to
God as a leader in high places that kept many of the Jews faithful
during their 70 years captivity. The Jewish Talmud pays him the
highest respect when it says, "If all the wise men of the nations were
in one scale of the balance, and Daniel in the other, he would
outweigh them all." And Daniel chose to put all his weight on the
side of loyalty to God, and that is why he is a classic example of an
overwhelming minority. We want to consider his forced captivity
and his free conscience. First look at-
I. HIS FORCED CAPTIVITY.
Daniel was not carried away captive to Babylon because of his
own sin anymore than Jesus was nailed to the cross because of any
personal sin. Daniel was among the loyal and righteous minority,
but the innocent minority must often suffer because of the folly and
corruption of the majority. When Josiah was king and Daniel was
just a little boy it looked as if there was going to be a revival, and a
great turning of the people back to God. It did get a good start
when Josiah became king and at age 16 began to seek after God. By
the time he was 20 he had become to such conviction and
commitment that he began an all out destruction of the system of
idolatry. In II Chron. 34:4 we read, "And they broke down the
altars of the Baals in his presence, and he hewed down the incense
altars which stood above them, and he broke in pieces the Asherim
and the graven and the molten images, and he made dust of them
and strewed it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them."
Daniel was born in a day when an overwhelming minority was in
control, and there was strong devotion to God, and repulsion from
idolatry. Like so many revivals, however, this one only influenced a
few in any permanent way. Josiah was killed by the Egyptians and
his sons who took his place, and especially Jehoiakim, did that which
is evil in the sight of God. In a few years the people went off the
road of revival into the ditch of degradation and God gave them into
the hand of the king of Babylon in 606 B. C. This marked the
beginning of the 70 year Babylonian Captivity of the Jews.
Nebucadnezzar had to come against Jerusalem two other times in
force, and the third time in 588 B. C. he destroyed it and the temple.
The first time when Daniel was taken was mild in comparison.
The temple was not destroyed, but just the cream of the crop of the
youth was carried away.
Daniel was among this cream of the crop youth. Unlike many of
the heroes of the Old Testament Daniel was not a shepherd boy. He
was a rich kid from a high-class family with the best training and
education of his day. Daniel's story is not that of the poor boy on the
wrong side of the tracks who rose to fame. His is the story of a boy
who had every natural advantage for success from the start. He had
money, noble birth, brilliant mind, and a strong handsome body.
Daniel's glory consists in his loyalty to God in spite of all the
advantages he had to be a success and to be popular with the world
without God. God can and does use men from the scrap heap of life,
but Daniel is an illustration about how God also uses the cream of
the crop for His glory. We have a good description of what Daniel
was in his background and personal appearance in verses 3-5.
Jewish tradition says, "He was of a spare, dry, tall figure, with a
beautiful expression." He was tall, dark and handsome and a brain,
and he was only about 14 years old when he was carried away to a
strange land. There they changed his life as much as they could to
absorb him and his companions into the Babylonian culture.
They began to indoctrinate him in Chaldean lore and
knowledge. They changed his name from Daniel, which means
God's judge, to Belteshazzar, which means Bel's Prince. Bel was the
god of Babylon. If ever a young person lived in a day of change
where the pressure to forsake the true God for a false faith was
pushing on every side, it was Daniel. No minority was ever nearer
the brink of extinction than was Daniel and his companions in the
captivity of Babylon. Yet in that captive setting all of the pressures
and all of the changes had not captured Daniel's heart, mind, and
soul. He was in a forced captivity, but his conscience was still free,
and we want to look at that now.
II. HIS FREE CONSCIENCE.
Verse 8 says that Daniel was resolved not to defile himself with
the king's food and wine. Most all agree that because the kings
provisions were first offered to his pagan gods it would be a
compromise with idolatry for Daniel to eat of it. He and his
companions refused to compromise with idolatry. On the state
capital building in Sacramento, California these words are inscribed:
"God give us men to match these mountains." Daniel
was just such a man in his day. He was a match for the
mountainous obstacles to loyalty to God in captivity by a pagan
society.
We need to stop complaining that the world is so strong, and
that non-Christian forces around us are dragging us down. They
drag no one down but those who stoop. Daniel stood erect in his
day. His convictions did not melt under the fires of pressure and
persecution. His loyalty did not fly away with the fleetness of a dear
for fear of the lions of opposition. Right from the start on the very
first point of where he was tempted to compromise, he said "No!"
They could change his location, his education, and his occupation,
and even his name, but his conscience they could not change. It
remained free from their captivity, and stayed loyal to God. He
refused to defile his conscience regardless of the actions of the
majority.
A doctor examined a patient and told him he had a serious
condition. The best thing to do he told him was to give up smoking,
drinking, and fast living. The man thought for a minute and then
asked, "What's the next best thing?" The next best is what the
majority shoots for. The best is too hard and calls for absolute
allegiance to the Almighty. Only those among the overwhelming
minority choose to stand with Daniel for God's best. He had 3
companions who stood with him on this matter of conscience. The
implication is that the majority of the Jewish youth in captivity
operated under the philosophy-when in Babylon do as the
Babylonians do.
I can just imagine one of them surprised at Daniel's decision to
refuse the kings food, and saying, "What is with you Daniel? All of
the guys are doing it and why not? This is a time of war, and
besides, God certainly doesn't care now. He let you get captured
didn't He? Why should you worry about Him? Live it up Danny
boy, it's later than you think. Junk this religion bit and get with the
times. Nobody keeps those old fashion rules anymore, for times
have changed radically." Young people face this type of argument
in every age. Only the few dare to be Daniels and dare to stand alone
in their loyalty to God, but these few are the overwhelming minority
that God uses to accomplish His will in history.
Daniel refused to be taken captive in conscience, and he won the
battle by remaining faithful. Scripture says, "He that is faithful in
that which is least is faithful also in much." Daniel made a good
start, and then continued all his life to the end of captivity in loyalty
to God. The result was that he was used marvelously of God, as no
other man in history, as an adviser to some of the greatest rulers in
history. God's people were scattered and in captivity, but God
continued to work and speak through His overwhelming minority.
"Minorities since time began
Have shown the better side of man,
And often in the lists of time,
One man has made a cause sublime."
The tragedy that overtook Daniel, which was not due to any sin
of his at all, did not fill him with resentment. God could use Daniel
because he was a man who did not let life's rotten deals fill him with
bitterness. Overwhelming minorities are persons who do not let
life's unfairness rob them of their loyalty to God. Studies indicate
that numerous people who get a raw deal in life, and who suffer
unjustly, become bitter and resentful against God. It is only the
overwhelming minority who can, like Daniel, suffer terrible injustice
and still be a powerful force in the world for God. Edmund Cooke
wrote-
"Oh, a troubles a ton, or a troubles an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?"
The tragedy is that many Christians facing what Daniel did
would be filled with anxiety and much resentment. Resentment puts
the whole mental system of a person in a state of civil war. Life is
filled with things to resent, and not a day goes by in this life where
we are immune to being hurt by friend or foe. We are most often
hurt by those we most need and love. Christians are seldom hurt by
those who are not Christians. All of the petty things we endure in a
lifetime are not to be compared to being hauled off into captivity, yet
we often find it hard to keep resentment from taking us captive. It is
so hard to surrender and leave it in the hands of God as Daniel did.
Christians have breakdowns at the same rate as non-Christians
because they do not learn to deal with life's burdens the way Daniel
did. They rob themselves of power and health because they will not
let go of their resentments. They would not dream of contaminating
their bodies with drugs or alcohol, but they let resentment fill their
life with destructive chemicals and emotions.
If anyone had just reason for complaint, it was Daniel. He could
have been filled with hate toward all the idolatrous Jews whose
wickedness led him to become a captive in a pagan land. Daring to
be a Daniel is to put all of the bad breaks and rotten deals that have
ever happened to you behind, and press on into the future with a
determination to put the stubborn ounces of your weight on the scale
of loyalty to God. By so doing you join that group that God uses to
change the world, which is the overwhelming minority.
