God's Gifts

We know the term, "a gift from God." Parents might use the term while cuddling their newborn. Believers use it when counting their blessings. Nice things -- "God things" -- that come from God. God is a giving God. So in Daniel we aren't surprised when we read how Daniel decided not to defile himself with the king's food, so he asked for an exception, and the text says, "And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs" (Dan 1:9). Favor and compassion from his masters -- a gift from God. And we smile and nod because our God gives good gifts.

It might be jarring, then, if we back up a few verses where we read the background of the story.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. (Dan 1:1-2)

Did you see it? Jehoiakim was a king of Judah ... you know, part of God's chosen people. A pagan king besieged Jerusalem and you might have expected something like, "The Lord gave them victory over the Babylonians," but it's not there. What did the Lord give? He gave the king over to Nebuchaddnezzar and He gave some of the vessels of the house of God, too. Gifts ... from God ... to a pagan king ... over against God's people.

The book of Daniel gives no hint that these gifts from God -- in the "right" direction or the "wrong" direction in our estimation -- were anything less than God's doing or anything less than good. The book of Daniel includes amazing stories like the three young men thrown in the fire without being burned or Daniel in the lion's den. Gifts from God. Over and over Scripture refers to the pleasant and the unpleasant as God's doing. Since we know God is Sovereign and we know God is good, we can only conclude that all those things are both from the hand of God and good. So, how about you? When is the last time you regarded an ache, a pain, a loss, a frustration, a difficulty as "a gift from God"? They are. Every last one of them.