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people of a greater standard

Daniel 1:17-21 (JDV)

Daniel 1:17 God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every class of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind.
Daniel 1:18 At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 1:19 The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend to the king.
Daniel 1:20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times smarter than all the soothsayer-priests and conjurers in his entire kingdom.
Daniel 1:21 Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

These fantastic four exiles provide a lesson for believers today. They have been taken out of their world and the world they live in is trying to conform them to it. It is ironic that Judah had been put into exile because its people wanted to be like the nations around them. But now these four heroes take a stand. They will live among the Babylonians, even taking on Babylonian names, but they will be distinctive. They will be different. Their standards will be higher than their world.

LORD, make us people of a higher grade, a greater standard.