"As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in
all learning and wisdom:and Daniel had understanding in all visions and
dreams" (Daniel 1:17)

"As for these four
children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom:and
Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17).
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them
His covenant" (Psa. 25:14). This principle ever abides—it is seen in all
dispensations. It is first laid down by God Himself in the familiar words,
"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do . ..? For I know him, that
he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which He hath spoken of him" (Gen. 18:17-19). It appears also
in the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Colossians, "That ye might be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding" (Col. 1:9). It is abundantly plain, in other words, that
God gave these four "children" (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah) knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom because of their
separation in heart and life from the defiling evils in Babylon. It is ever
true, that the nearer we are practically to the Lord, the more fully He
communicates His mind to us; and, mark, it is not only in what is generally
understood as "His mind," but it is in all learning and
wisdom. The students of modern days, even Christian students, are too often
betrayed into the thought that for the acquisition of human "learning and
wisdom" they are solely dependent upon their own industry and power. The
consequence is that the years of their student life are often marked by
spiritual declension, if not by open backsliding. The example of the four
"children" might well teach a different lesson.

 

Daniel is singled out from his
fellows, undoubtedly in view of his special work and mission, for we are told
that he had understanding in all visions and dreams. Thereby, too, we are
taught that in all the circumstances and experiences through which God leads
His people, He is forming them as vessels for His service. From the human
standpoint it was a calamity that had befallen Daniel. From God’s standpoint,
as is plainly revealed, this seeming calamity was but the instrumentality which
He had chosen to form Daniel for his mission to carry His testimony into the
court of the mighty Gentile monarch. This testimony concerned the powers which
He had allowed to supercede His own direct government of the earth through Israel and through Jerusalem as His dwelling-place and throne. It is faith alone that can rise up
beyond all secondary causes, connect everything with the hand of God, and at
the same time peacefully rest in Him, assured of His infinite wisdom and love,
and assured that the issue of all events will be according to His own perfect
will.

 

At the end of their training
period all the students were brought into the royal presence, and
Nebuchadnezzar himself examined the students of his college:he "communed
with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah:therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom
and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm"
(vv.19, 20). They might each have thus adopted the language of the Psalmist:
"Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:for
they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers:for Thy
testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I
keep Thy precepts" (Psalm 119:98-100). Would that the lesson might be laid
to heart by all the young Christians of the present day!

 

FRAGMENT Some of the marks of
the power of the Holy Ghost in an assembly of saints gathered in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ are:worship, gifts developed, saints agreeing together
in the unity of the Spirit, earnestness, fervency, unselfishness, caring for
others, love to souls, fellowship in the gospel, and taking the place of rejection
with Christ.