Daniel and the Office Job

Serving God in the 9-to-5

By Meg Christian

My small group recently decided to undertake an in-depth study of the book of Daniel. If I’m being honest… I wasn’t particularly excited. I was hoping for something more uplifting and relatable, like maybe Galatians or Philippians.

But Daniel? You mean that book filled with confusing prophetic dreams, fiery furnaces, and indecipherable messages about “the end times?” What does that have to do with my own average life and boring 9-to-5 administrative job? What does that have to do with serving?

While we don’t know exactly how old Daniel was when he found himself carted off to Babylon with the other Jewish exiles, he was most likely a teenager. Once there, the Babylonian ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, forced Daniel and his friends into the royal workforce. Daniel spent the rest of his life in this position, meaning that he probably served a foreign government for around 70 years.

Yes, it’s true, during that time Daniel did have several fantastical experiences and moments of supernatural intervention. Yet, if we take into consideration the many, many years that Daniel was employed by Babylon and, eventually, Persia, decades went by where Daniel did nothing but show up to work each morning to serve the very government that had destroyed his homeland and mocked his religion. In those decades, as far as we know, Daniel saw no active signs of God’s hand.

That’s not the part of Daniel that gets made into children’s books or movies. It’s, well, boring.