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D-7824
Let me ask you a question: do you thoroughly like and enjoy everyone you work with and for? I hope so; that would be ideal. But the facts are most of us in the workplace have certain coworkers who aren’t so easy to like.
Daniel had some very difficult coworkers too; people who were out to do him harm; people who were very jealous of him; people who wanted to bring him down. In spite of their attitudes, Daniel kept his attitude right.
- Daniel had a compassionate heart for his “co-workers.”
When Nebuchadnezzar was ready to kill the wise men of Babylon because they could not interpret his dream, Daniel went to Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, and interceded for these men. “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” he asked. Now, these men meant nothing to him personally, but he had a compassionate heart and he knew it was wrong to execute them. So he went to his trusted fellow-Israelites—Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah—and urged them to pray for these men. God then revealed the meaning of the dream to Daniel, and the next day he asked Arioch not to kill the wise men, but instead to take him to Nebuchadnezzar because he could interpret the dream.
Talk about sticking your neck out! Daniel was a man of great courage as well as great compassion. He cared about these men, even though they were not fellow-Israelites; in fact, they were astrologers, sorcerers, and enchanters—men who were doing things directly opposed to God’s principles.
Sometimes it’s not easy to have compassion for people, is it? Especially those who are antagonistic toward us, who have no clue about true spirituality, and whose lifestyles are sinful and against all we know to be right. Just as God placed Daniel in the midst of this kind of people, he likewise does the same with us today. God does this so we can show His love and compassion to people who have no clue what it’s all about.