What does a discipled man look like? In addition to my friends Erich, Andrew, Glenn, Walt, and others – a look at the biblical leader Daniel is a tremendous example.
Daniel was the man who funded Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus when he had to take his family and hide in Egypt for four years. How did he do that? That’s part of the remarkable story of a man who got stronger under pressure.
Pressure always magnifies. Pressure causes the flaws of life to appear.
The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on reentry over Texas on February 1, 2003, and disintegrated into thousands of pieces. I was standing in a parking lot at 7:00 am as the explosion rocked north Texas and heard the blast, felt the vibrations. Seven astronauts died in the disaster. Inspectors spent two years combing through the wreckage to discover the reason it happened.
It was a piece of foam. A 27-ounce piece of foam the size of a small satchel. It had been blown off the bipod of the craft under the pressure of liftoff on January 16. It hit the carbon wing and caused a crack that no one saw. Two weeks later, the pressure of reentry to the earth’s atmosphere caused the small crack to explode. Pressure caused the problem with the foam, the crack in the wing and pressure killed seven people.
Daniel was a man under pressure. He was a teen man captured during warfare and taken as a slave to Babylon. This is approximately 700 BC. He had three friends, and together they held on to the faith they had been taught as young men. When presented with temptation after temptation, they held firm.
Pressure showed their character.
Eventually, Daniel was placed in charge of the school of the Magi. A secular Babylonian university that eventually was about 10% Hebrew in makeup. Those were the men who continued to look for a sign of the Messiah. Those were the men who arrived in Bethlehem. There may have been dozens that made the journey … wasn’t three kings – that’s a song.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, they brought gold and costly spices. Joseph was able to use that money to escape to Egypt for a few years, then make his way back to Nazareth and even start his own stone mason business, which his sons worked with him.
Some of the struggles of Daniel and his friends are legendary … not eating the king’s food, the lion's den, the fiery furnace, prison, and a life filled with challenges.
But this man had been discipled.
We don’t know who his father was, we don’t know what city in Israel he was captured from – and he spent his entire life in a land of captivity.
But Daniel’s character, faith, and resilience were instrumental in the life of Jesus as a baby, in giving Joseph money to help his family – and later for Mary to have resources after Joseph died and her son Jesus went on the evangelistic trail.
What you do today will affect generations of men coming behind you … what you do right now will carry eternity for a man you’ve never met. Seven hundred years after Daniel was alive, his legacy touched the life of Jesus!
That’s why we go, give, engage, equip and inspire men for the cause of Christ.
That’s why we’re passionate and persistent and never ceasing to push. One more man discipled, one more family saved, more children with a loving dad – it makes a difference.
Thank you for being a friend. For supporting this ministry, we are engaged together in.
What you do will produce results. Those results are men like Daniel. Men who change the future of the world.
Trust your Christmas will be superb. Filled with love and hope, and joy.
Jesus, Daniel, and 3 Kings in Bethlehem
