You’d think that after 65+ years in the land, he’d be recognized as one of them. That after being trained among the king’s elite; after having risen meteorically within the king’s courts; after being retained as a top official by not just one, but two subsequent kings, that he’d no longer be referred to as if he were an outsider. Well, evidently, he still was.

I’m reading in Daniel 6 this morning. It’s a new era in Babylon. The Medes, having overthrown the Chaldeans (Dan. 5:30), are now running the show. Darius, the new king, puts in place his administration — 120 governors to provide regional rule under the oversight of three high officials, “of whom Daniel was one” (Dan. 6:1-2). Not bad for a kid from Judea.

But this kid from Judea was no longer a kid. If he was in his mid to late teens when first brought to Babylon, the dude is now in his 80’s. But still going strong. Still serving at the highest levels of government. And, as pops for me this morning as I read, still “one of the exiles.”

Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

(Daniel 6:13 ESV)

One of the exiles . . . One of them, not one of us. A neighbor, but not a native. A foreigner, not really from around these parts.

Come on! After over six decades, you’d think he’d be a little more assimilated, a little more accepted. Like I said before, evidently not.

This is the third time Daniel’s been referred to like this in the book that bears his name. Once for every king. When King Nebuchadnezzar gets a bit grumpy over a bad dream, it’s Daniel, “found among the exiles”, who’s brought before him to make known the dream and its interpretation (Dan. 2:25). When King Belshazzar gets a bit loopy and starts to see the writing on the wall (literally), it’s Daniel, “one of the exiles from Judah”, who is called to read the writing and translate it (Dan. 5:13). And, under King Darius, when Daniel’s peers get a bit crafty and seek to submarine Daniel’s promotion “over the whole kingdom” (Dan. 6:3b) by feeding him to the lions for praying to his God (Dan. 6:11-12), he’s still referred to as “one of the exiles.”

Hmm . . . I read that and it sticks (not just with him but with me). But then I read this and it makes sense.

Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

(Daniel 6:19-20 ESV)

After almost seven decades in Babylon, how did Daniel remain distinctively “one of the exiles”? Though he was singled out by king after king after king, he never ceased distinguishing himself also as a servant of the living God. Though in Babylon he sought “the welfare of the city” (Jer. 29:7), he never stopped serving His God continually. Thus, Daniel would always be known as one of the exiles.

Though Daniel was in the world, he was not of the world (John 17:13-14). Though he faithfully stewarded his talents well in the world’s system, he didn’t fall in love with the world’s ways or the world’s things (1John 2:15-16). If he had he would have lost his distinctiveness as “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14), as a servant of the living God, the Creator of the world.

One of the exiles . . . even after a lifetime in a foreign land.

Only by God’s grace. Only for God’s glory.