The Ten Times Better Standard Text: Daniel 1:17-21
Introduction: Competence as a Stumbling Block
We live in an age where the church has grown comfortable with being second-rate. In a misguided pursuit of humility, or perhaps out of simple laziness, we have accepted the world's narrative that Christians are to be intellectually soft, artistically clumsy, and professionally mediocre. We are told to be nice, but not necessarily competent. We are encouraged to retreat into our pietistic enclaves, leaving the universities, the halls of government, and the centers of culture to the pagans, contenting ourselves with being a subculture that is largely ignored and easily dismissed.
But this is a profound betrayal of our calling. The world does not dismiss us because our standards are too high, but because they are too low. They do not stumble over our radiant competence, but rather they scoff at our cultural irrelevance. The book of Daniel is a potent corrective to this entire pathetic mindset. Daniel and his friends are not exiles in a bubble. They are exiles on the front lines, enrolled in the top university of the most powerful empire on earth. They are tasked with mastering a pagan curriculum in a hostile environment. And the result is not assimilation or compromise, but rather a stunning, undeniable, God-given excellence that forces the world to sit up and take notice.
This passage is about the collision of two worldviews, the worldview of Jehovah and the worldview of Babylon. But it is not a collision of equals. It is the collision of the ultimate reality with a cheap imitation. The story of these four young men is a master class in how faithfulness in the small things, like what you have for lunch, becomes the foundation for God to grant excellence in the great things, like advising the most powerful man on the planet. This is not a story about how to be nice boys in a bad world. This is a story about how God equips his saints to conquer the world, not with carnal weapons, but with Spirit-empowered competence.
What we are about to see is the result of their earlier stand. They resolved not to defile themselves, and God honored that resolve. But He did not just honor it by making them healthy. He honored it by making them brilliant. He honored it by making them the sharpest minds in the empire. This is the biblical pattern: faithfulness first, and then God-given dominion follows.
The Text
And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and insight in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.
Then at the end of the days which the king had spoken of for bringing them in, the commander of the officials brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they stood in service before the king.
And as for every matter of wisdom in understanding which the king sought from them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his kingdom.
And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.
(Daniel 1:17-21 LSB)
The Fountainhead of Excellence (v. 17)
The first thing we must establish is the source of their astounding ability. The text is unambiguous.
"And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and insight in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams." (Daniel 1:17)
Notice the verb: "God gave." This is the absolute presupposition of all Christian competence. Their intellectual firepower was not the result of a superior diet, though their diet was an act of obedience. It was not the product of a higher natural IQ, though they were clearly sharp young men. It was a gift. It was a sovereign endowment from the God they served. This is the great leveler of all human pride. We are to work, study, and strive with all our might, as though it all depended on us. But when the results come in, when the insight dawns, when the problem is solved, we must confess with all our hearts that it was a gift. God gave the increase.
This is the interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. They had to do the homework. They had to learn the Chaldean language. They had to read the pagan literature. But the "knowledge and insight" was something God breathed into that process. And this is why Christians must never fear engaging with the world's learning. These young men were immersed in "every branch of literature and wisdom" from Babylon. This was not the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This was the curriculum of a pagan, idolatrous, and imperialistic culture. But because their foundational loyalty was to Jehovah, they could plunder the Egyptians intellectually. They could take the raw data of Babylonian astronomy, literature, and statecraft, and filter it all through a biblical worldview. They could eat the fish and spit out the bones because they knew what bones were.
A Christian worldview does not mean ignorance of other worldviews. It means having the ultimate framework by which all other worldviews are to be judged. Daniel and his friends were not afraid of pagan books because they knew the Author of the ultimate book. And to Daniel specifically, God gave an additional gift: understanding "all kinds of visions and dreams." This was a prophetic gift, setting him apart for the specific task God had for him later in the book. God equips His people for the specific challenges they will face.
The Final Examination (v. 18-19)
After three years of intensive education, the time came for the final exam. This was no written test. This was a personal interview with the king of the world.
"Then at the end of the days which the king had spoken of for bringing them in, the commander of the officials brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they stood in service before the king." (Daniel 1:18-19 LSB)
Imagine the pressure. They are standing before the absolute monarch who held the power of life and death in his hands. He was the man who had destroyed their country and brought them there as captives. And yet, they stand before him not as trembling sycophants, but as men of substance. The king "talked with them." This was a rigorous oral examination. He would have probed their knowledge of history, law, military strategy, and court etiquette. He was looking for the best and the brightest to serve in his administration.
And the result was decisive. "Out of them all not one was found like" these four Hebrews. Their excellence was not a secret. It was not something they kept to themselves in their prayer closets. It was manifest, public, and undeniable, even to a pagan king. This is a crucial point. Our faith is not meant to be a private hobby. It is meant to work its way out into every area of life, producing a quality of work and character that the world cannot help but notice. When the world sees this kind of excellence, it is confronted with the reality of the God who gives such gifts. Their competence was a form of apologetics. And because of it, "they stood in service before the king." They were given positions of influence at the very center of power.
The Ten Times Better Standard (v. 20)
The text then gives us a startling quantification of their superiority. It was not a marginal victory.
"And as for every matter of wisdom in understanding which the king sought from them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his kingdom." (Daniel 1:20 LSB)
Ten times better. This is not 10 percent better. This is an order of magnitude better. This is the standard of Christian excellence. We are not called to be just a little bit more honest than the world, or a little more diligent. We are called to bring a transcendent quality to our work that flows directly from our relationship with the Creator of all things. The "magicians and conjurers" represented the established intellectual elite of Babylon. They were the court advisors, the Ivy League professors, the esteemed experts. They trafficked in the occult, in demonic wisdom, in the counterfeit knowledge that the kingdom of darkness always offers.
And in a straight-up contest of "wisdom in understanding," the four boys from Judah routed them completely. Why? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The magicians started from a false premise, that reality is ultimate chaos and that knowledge is a tool for manipulation. Daniel and his friends started from the true premise, that "in the beginning God created," and that knowledge is a tool for exercising faithful dominion under Him. A true starting point will always lead you to a better destination than a false one. A biblical worldview is not a handicap in the real world; it is an insurmountable advantage. It provides the intellectual and moral framework to make sense of reality in a way that paganism and materialism simply cannot. We should be aiming for this "ten times better" standard in our own callings, for the glory of God and as a witness to the nations.
A Long Obedience (v. 21)
The chapter concludes with a simple, quiet, and profoundly powerful statement that spans decades.
"And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king." (Daniel 1:21 LSB)
This is more than just a biographical footnote. Nebuchadnezzar brought Daniel to Babylon around 605 B.C. The first year of Cyrus, when the Jews were permitted to return from exile, was around 539 B.C. This one sentence covers a career of over sixty-five years. Daniel did not just have a good first week. He did not just pass his final exams. He maintained a long obedience in the same direction, serving in the highest levels of government through the entire duration of the Babylonian empire and into the beginning of the Persian empire that conquered it.
Empires rose and fell, but Daniel remained. Kings came and went, but Daniel endured. This is a testament to the sustaining grace of God. God did not just give him gifts for the first three years; He sustained him through a lifetime of faithful service in a hostile land. This verse is a quiet thunderclap of God's covenant faithfulness. The book begins with Nebuchadnezzar, the agent of God's judgment, carrying God's people into exile. And this first chapter ends by pointing to Cyrus, the agent of God's deliverance, who would end the exile. Daniel's life bridges the entire period. He was a living monument to the fact that God had not abandoned His people and that His purposes would stand.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Daniel
The pattern laid out here is a pattern for all believers. God calls us to faithfulness in the midst of a hostile culture. He calls us to engage with the world's knowledge without being captured by the world's worldview. He calls us to a standard of excellence in our work that is so undeniable that it commands the respect of the world. And He promises to sustain us, not just for a season, but for the long haul.
But we must see that Daniel and his friends are but a type and a shadow. The ultimate Daniel is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who perfectly embodied the wisdom of God. He came into the hostile territory of a fallen world, the ultimate Babylon. He was examined by the kings and rulers of this age, by Pilate and Herod, and they found no fault in Him. He confronted the magicians and conjurers of His day, the scribes and the Pharisees, and He was found to be infinitely better, speaking as one with authority and not as them.
And His obedience was the longest obedience of all, an obedience that took Him all the way to the cross. But unlike Daniel, He did not just outlast an empire. He defeated the ultimate empire, the kingdom of darkness, and rose again on the third day. And He now stands in service before the ultimate king, His Father, ruling and reigning until all His enemies are made His footstool. Because of our union with Him, we are now called to this same pattern. God has given us knowledge and insight in the person of His Son. Let us therefore go into the world, not in fear, but with a holy boldness, aiming to be ten times better, all for the glory of the one who continued for us, and who continues with us, even to the end of the age.