Wishing You Were Like Someone Else?
[At our Sunday morning services we have begun to look at the Book of Daniel. It stirred a memory. Back in 2005 I had the privilege of addressing the graduating class of the Christian School of Grace Baptist Church, Carlisle PA, where I served as pastor. I had forgotten that I had written out the address. It is posted below, just as delivered. Much of it found its way into the first sermon of the series]
An address given at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Graduation of The Christian School of Grace Baptist Church, June 2005
I wonder how many of you have looked at a fellow student or at someone else and said to yourself, ‘I wish I was like him’, or, ‘I wish I was like her’? I won’t ask you to raise your hand, but I would be surprised if there are any of you who haven’t done that. It’s a very human thing to do – to look at other people and because of their looks or talents or personality or popularity or success to say to yourself, ‘I wish I was like him’, or, ‘I wish I was like her’.
I want to talk to you this evening about four young people whom many of you, I’m sure, would like to be like – at least in some respects. They were probably not much older than you are and, like you, were members of the same graduating class. Their names were Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Daniel, and for three years they had been studying together at King’s College, Babylon. There is an ancient and famous King’s College in Cambridge in England, but it wasn’t at King’s College, Cambridge they had been studying. These young people had been studying at King’s College, Babylon. They graduated somewhere around the year 600BC, and in the Old Testament book of Daniel, Ch.1, we learn three things about them.
I. They were strikingly GOOD LOOKING
Daniel and his three friends did not go to King’s College, Babylon, because that was the school that they themselves or their parents had selected. They were there because of orders given by the king of Babylon himself. He was looking for young men who would one day be able to serve in his palace, and Daniel and his three friends were amongst those who were picked.
And here is one of the reasons they were picked: they were strikingly good looking. The king didn’t want anyone serving in his palace who was ugly. Nor did he want anyone who was just ordinary looking. He wanted young men who had no physical defects and were handsome. And Daniel and his three friends were amongst those who were chosen.
So there’s the first thing that we learn about them: they were strikingly good looking. I wonder how many of you have said to yourself, ‘I wish I was like that’? You look at some movie star or some singer or a fellow student and they are very good looking and you say to yourself, ‘I wish I looked like him’, or, ‘I wish I looked like her’. Any of you ever done that? It’s a very human thing to do. Most people are not strikingly good looking and it’s very easy to look at those who are and say, ‘I wish I was like that’.
Then there’s a second thing that we learn about these young people –
II. They were extremely BRIGHT
You didn’t just have to be good looking to go to King’s College, Babylon. You had to be academically very able as well. The king’s students had to show ‘aptitude for every kind of learning’; they had to be ‘well-informed’; and they had to be ‘quick to understand’ (v.4).
Right at the top of the graduating class of 600BC were these four young men – Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Daniel. We are told that when ‘the king talked with them…he found none equal to’ them. In fact, ‘in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom’(vs.19&20). Imagine it! Ten times better than all the wise men in the kingdom! These were A-Honour Roll students with a vengeance! – young men who were all extremely bright.
And I wonder again how many of you have said. ‘I wish I was like that’? You look at one of your fellow students or at one of your siblings or at a favourite class teacher or at someone else whom you know and they are very bright. And you say to yourself, ‘I wish I was as clever and as knowledgeable as he is’, or ‘as she is’. Any of you ever done that? It’s a very human thing to do. I am now three times the age of most of you and I confess that I still do it! I look at fellow ministers whom I know are far brighter than I am; who know and understand far more than I do, and I say to myself, ‘I wish I had a mind like him. I wish that I had the knowledge and understanding that he has’. It’s a very easy thing to do – to look at those who are brighter than we are and say, ‘I wish I was like that’.
Then there’s a third thing that we learn about these young people –
III. They were deeply DEVOTED TO GOD
Now this was not one of the qualifications for studying at King’s College, Babylon. You did have to be good looking and you did have to be bright but you didn’t need to be deeply devoted to God. But Daniel and his three friends were. Even though they had come from Judah where most people were worshipping false gods, Daniel and his three friends were deeply devoted to the living God. It’s what they were in their student days; it’s what they were afterwards.
It comes out, for example, in a decision they made about dining. These four young men resolved that they were not going to eat the royal food and drink the royal wine – probably because it would involve the honouring of Babylonian gods. Rather, out of devotion to God, they chose to survive on vegetables and water.
More famously, their devotion to God comes out in the later events of Daniel Ch.3 and the events of Daniel Ch.6. In Daniel Ch.3, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – or to give them their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – were told to bow down and worship a golden image on pain of being thrown into a blazing furnace. And they wouldn’t do it. Out of devotion to God they chose to be thrown into the blazing furnace rather than worship this golden image.
Then in Daniel Ch.6 we read of an order being given that no-one pray to anyone other than the king of Babylon on pain of being thrown into a den of lions. And Daniel wouldn’t do it. Out of devotion to God he chose to be thrown into a den of lions rather than pray only to the king of Babylon.
You see then what they were like – these four young members of the graduating class of King’s College, Babylon. Both in youth and in manhood they were deeply devoted to God.
Now the question that I want to ask you is this: how many of you have said, ‘I wish I was like that’? You’ve looked at your parents, perhaps, or at a class teacher or at some missionary whom you’ve read about or some other Christian whom you know, and they are deeply devoted to God. God comes first in their lives. And they are not wimps! They are strong Christians – the stuff of heroes – ready to do the will of God even when it’s costly. And I ask you – have you ever said, ‘I wish I was like that’?
When I talked to you a moment ago about wanting to be good looking, or wanting to be very clever, I said that that’s a very human thing to do. Sadly, that is not how it is when it comes to wanting to be devoted to God. Quite the opposite. As human beings who have sinned against God it is actually the most natural thing to not want to be devoted to God. And some of you can identify with that. It would be nice to be strikingly good looking, and it would be nice to be extremely bright – but to be deeply devoted to God? No. If that’s what others want that’s fine – but it’s not for you.
I want to say to you, however, that the deep devotion of these four young people to God was actually their most attractive and important quality.
It was their most attractive quality. The king of Babylon would have looked at these four young men and said, ‘what fine looking young men they are!’ And they were. But the most attractive thing about them was not their face or their shape or their skin or their teeth. It was their deep devotion to God.
And that is wonderfully encouraging. You may look at yourself in the mirror and think, ‘I’m not particularly good looking’. Believe me, I’ve done the same! But if you are deeply devoted to God; if you love the Lord Jesus Christ; you have the best kind of beauty, the loveliest kind of loveliness in all the world. There are no lives more beautiful than those that are devoted to God. And the more devoted you are to him, the more you love the Lord Jesus, the lovelier you will be in the truest and highest sense. Remember that in a world where so much is made of the physical, where people are so obsessed with how they look. The best kind of beauty, the loveliest kind of loveliness, belongs to those who are deeply devoted to God.
But these young people’s deep devotion to God was not only there most attractive quality. It was also their most important quality.
A day is coming when all of you who are here this evening will be together again. I’m thinking about the Day of Judgment when all the world will be gathered before God. On that day it will count for nothing if you have been good looking. It will count for nothing if you have been clever. The one thing that will count will be the relationship with God that you had when you were here on earth. Were you deeply devoted to him? Did you love and serve the Lord Jesus? That’s the thing that alone will ensure you enter heaven. That’s the thing that alone will count for eternity.
Members of the Graduating Class, I sincerely congratulate you on your hard work and achievements. You have done magnificently. I wish you well as you go on to High School. I only plead with you that whatever else you do in coming days you seek with all your heart that quality that is more attractive than any other, that quality that is more important than any other – that deep devotion to God that comes through believing in Jesus Christ. God bless you.