THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
How can you say, "He was not afraid"? Scripture, on the contrary, says that when he heard, he was afraid. Therefore he sought safety in flight, fled, hid himself, and afterward remained in fear.
Attend more carefully to what is said. The words, "not fearing the wrath of the king," are spoken with reference to the fact that he afterward appeared before the king again.
If he had been afraid, he would not have appeared again afterward. He would not have taken upon himself the work of mediation. But if he took this work upon himself, it means that in everything he trusted in God.
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He did not say, "The king is seeking me and pursuing this, so I cannot return." Therefore even his flight was an act of faith. But why, you will say, did he not remain? So that he would not expose himself to a danger foreseen.
It belongs to one who tempts God to throw himself into dangers and say, "I will see whether God will preserve me." The devil said this to Christ: "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down" (Mt 4:6).
Do you see that it is the devil's work to expose oneself to dangers vainly and uselessly, and to test whether God will preserve us? Moses could not defend those who were so ungrateful for his benefits. Therefore it would have been absurd and senseless to remain there.
Yet he did all this because "he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." So also we, if we always contemplate God with the mind, and constantly remember Him, will find everything light.
Everything will be bearable for us. We shall endure everything easily and rise above all things. If, at the sight of a beloved person, or even at the remembrance of him, our soul is encouraged and our mind lifted up, then what follows?
We bear everything easily, being gladdened by that remembrance. What, then, of one who has in mind Him who has counted us worthy of true love, and who remembers Him?
Can he feel any grief, or fear anything dreadful and dangerous? Will he ever lose heart? Never. Everything appears difficult to us because we do not remember God as we ought, nor do we have Him constantly in our mind.
He could rightly say to us: "You have forgotten Me, and I will forget you." Thus a twofold evil occurs: we forget Him, and He forgets us. These two things, though closely joined, are still two.
It is a great thing for God to remember us, and it is great for us to remember Him. On the one depends the choice of the good, and on the other, progress in it and its completion.
Therefore the prophet says: "I remember You from the land of Jordan, and from Hermon, from Mount Zoar" (Ps 41:7). So speaks the people of Israel while in Babylon: "There I remembered You."
So must we also speak, like those who lived in Babylon. Although we do not live among foreign enemies, we too are among enemies. Among those people, some lived as captives, while others did not feel the captivity, such as Daniel and the three youths.
Though they were in captivity, they were more glorious in that land than the very king who had taken them captive. The captor bowed before the captives.
Do you see how great virtue is? In the very captivity, the king served them as masters. Therefore he was more captive than they. It would not have been so marvelous if he had bowed before them after coming into their homeland, or if they had reigned there.
What is marvelous is this: the one who had made them prisoners, taken them captive, and held them in his power before everyone's eyes, was not ashamed to bow before them and offer sacrifice.
Do you see how truly glorious the works of God are, while the works of men are darkness? He did not know that he was leading away his own masters into captivity, and casting into the furnace those before whom he would have to bow.
For them all calamities were like a dream. Let us then fear God, beloved. Let us fear Him. Then, even if we fall into captivity, we shall be more glorious than all.
Let the fear of God be present in us. Then nothing will grieve us: neither poverty, nor sickness, nor captivity, nor slavery, nor any other sorrowful thing. Even all this will help us attain the opposite.
Those men were captives, and the king bowed before them. Paul was a tentmaker, and people wished to offer sacrifice to him as to God. Here a question arises, and many ask it.
Why did the apostles reject the sacrifice, tear their garments, restrain the people from this intention, and say with tears: "Why are you doing these things? We also are men like you" (Acts 14:15), while Daniel did nothing of the kind?
That Daniel was a humble man, and no less than they gave glory to God, is evident from many things. First, it is especially clear from the fact that he was beloved by God.
If he had appropriated divine honor to himself, God would not have permitted him to remain alive, to say nothing of prospering. Second, it is clear from his saying with great boldness: "This mystery has been revealed to me, not because I am wiser than all the living, but so that the interpretation might be made known to the king" (Dan 2:30).
Third, it is clear from his being in the den for God's sake. When the prophet brought him food, he said: "You have remembered me, O God" (Dan 14:38).
Such was his humility and contrition. He was in the den for God's sake, and he considered himself unworthy that God should remember him and hear him.
But we, daring to commit countless impure deeds and being more guilty than all, fall away from God if only our first prayer is not heard.
Truly, the distance between them and us is great, like the distance between heaven and earth, or even greater. What are you saying, O prophet? After so many struggles, after the miracle that took place in the den, do you consider yourself so lowly?
Yes, he says. Whatever we may do, we are "unprofitable servants" (Lk 17:10). Thus he fulfilled the evangelical commandment even before it was spoken, and considered himself nothing. "God has remembered me," he said.
Look also how full of humility his very prayer is. So too the three youths said: "We have sinned and acted lawlessly" (Dan 3:29), and they always showed their humility.
Daniel had countless occasions for exalting himself. Yet he knew that all this belonged to him because he did not exalt himself, and he did not destroy the treasure.
All men and the whole world glorified him, not only because the king fell down before him and offered him sacrifice. They glorified him because one whom they themselves considered the god of the world acknowledged him as a god.
This is clear from the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "He who clothes the earth as with a garment." And again: "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar My servant" (Jer 27:6).
It is also clear from his writings that Daniel was admired not only where he lived, but everywhere. When he bore witness in writings to the bondage and the miracle, he became more renowned than if the other nations had seen him among themselves.
Likewise they marveled at his wisdom. "Behold," says the prophet, "are you wiser than Daniel?" (Ezek 28:3). And after all this he was so humble that he was ready to die a thousand times for the Master.
Why then, with such humility, did he not reject both the king's worship of him and the sacrifice? I will not answer this. It is enough for me only to pose the question, and I leave the rest to you, so as to stir your mind at least in this way.
Therefore I exhort you to undertake everything in the fear of God. You have so many examples showing that we shall certainly receive present goods also, if we sincerely seek the future ones.
That Daniel did not act from pride is clear from the words he spoke: "Let your gifts remain with you" (Dan 5:17). Here another question arises.
Why, after refusing in words, did he accept the honor in deed and wear the chain? Herod heard the words, "The voice of a god and not of a man" (Acts 12:22), and did not give glory to God.
He was torn apart so that his inward parts came out. But Daniel accepted divine honor, and not only in words. Here it is necessary to explain what this means.
There the people could fall into greater idolatry, but here not. Why? Because when Daniel was regarded in this way, the honor referred to God, as he himself had said beforehand: "This mystery has been revealed to me, not because I am wiser than all the living" (Dan 2:30).
Moreover, it is not evident that he accepted the sacrifice. Although the king said that sacrifice should be offered, it is not evident that this was carried out.
But there, bulls had already been brought for sacrifice, and one apostle was called Jupiter, the other Mercury. Daniel accepted the chain in order to make himself conspicuous to others.
But why, invisibly, did he not reject the sacrifice? There, the sacrifice had not yet been completed, but was only being begun, and nevertheless the apostles hindered it. Therefore here too the matter should have been stopped. Besides, there it was the whole people, but here the king.
Why the prophet did not turn it away I have said before. It was because the king offered it to him not as to God, to the harm of true worship, but on account of a great miracle.
How so? He issued such a command because of God, confessing thereby His dominion. Therefore he did not take honor away from Him. But those people did otherwise. They regarded the apostles themselves as gods, and therefore they were restrained.
Moreover, Nebuchadnezzar first bowed down, and only afterward acted thus. He bowed to Daniel not as to God, but as to a wise man. In any case, it is not evident that he offered sacrifice. If he did offer it, he did so against Daniel's will.
Again, why did Nebuchadnezzar call him Belteshazzar, by the name of his own god? The pagans had so little respect for their gods that the one who commanded everyone to worship various and diverse idols, and who honored the dragon, gave this name even to a captive.
Moreover, the Babylonians were far more senseless than the Lystrans. Therefore it was impossible to bring them to understanding immediately. Much more could be said here, but for the present this is enough.
Therefore, if we wish to receive all good things, let us seek the good things of God. Just as those who seek worldly goods lose both kinds, so those who prefer the good things of God receive both kinds.
Let us then seek the latter, not the former, so that we may be counted worthy of the promised good things in Christ Jesus our Lord.