Contemplative Bible Reading

Daniel 1:9 (New Living Translation)

Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel.

The story of Daniel is widely known. There is the lion’s den. There are the three friends who are thrown in the fiery furnace and walk out unharmed.

Sometimes we forget that Daniel and his friends were war slaves captured and carried off to serve a pagan nation. Somewhere in this tragic story we find that the start of Daniel’s successes in Babylon is a simple chief of staff who respected and liked Daniel.

The source of this respect and affection were not because Daniel was a good guy. The source was God. Gad gave the Babylonian this respect and affection. God moved the outcome of human history with a slight touch of a government official whose name we do not know.

God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.