Daniel's Parents

When I get to heaven, the people I’d really like to meet are not Paul, Peter, Moses, or any of the other famous heroes (the line to talk to them will be too long anyway). The ones I would really love to sit down and talk with are the parents of Daniel.

Think about it for a moment. Daniel was every parent’s dream son. Not only was he handsome, but he was smart, possessed of good judgment, and unfailingly polite. Morally, he was a paragon of virtue. Above  all, he had a rock-solid faith in God. His parents obviously did a good job of raising him. But what makes their feat all the more remarkable was the climate in which they accomplished it. Daniel was carried away to Babylon in the reign of Jehoiakim, very near the end of Judah’s history (Dan. 1:1- 2). By that time, the nation had become a cesspool of evil. Idolatry and immorality were rampant.

Parents were even giving up their infants as burnt offerings to Baal. Jeremiah, an older prophet  contemporary with Daniel, said concerning the population of Judah during those days, “they are all stubborn rebels . . . they are all corrupters” (Jer. 6:13).  All, that is, except the parents of Daniel.

Young people like Daniel, you see, are not accidents. Raising someone like Daniel in a moral and spiritual vacuum like Judah has to rank as one of the most amazing examples of parenting of all time.

So what do we know about Daniel’s parents? Virtually nothing. The record says that Daniel came from among the nobility of Judah (Dan. 1:3), so we assume they were among the aristocracy of Jewish society. But beyond that, we do not even know for certain that they made the trip to Babylon. All we know is they did a fantastic job of raising their son in a very difficult time.

That’s why I’d like to meet them. I’d like to ask them how they did it. What kind of rules did they set, and how did they enforce them? How did they monitor little Daniel’s relationships with his friends? Surrounded by so much corruption and hypocrisy, how did they manage to instill in their son a sincere respect for God? More importantly, how did they manage to set a good example themselves? What price did they have to pay to “swim upstream” in such a decadent society?

Parenting is tough in any age, but especially so in today’s climate of moral relativism. I truly sympathize with godly young parents today who are struggling to raise their children the right way, with so few positive role models to help them. But the story of Daniel’s parents gives me hope that, despite the challenges that face them, these young parents can be successful in that endeavor. Who knows? There may be another little Daniel out there somewhere being groomed to make his mark on the world—by parents like Daniel’s. 

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