DANIEL 1:19

Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. [Daniel 1:19 NKJV]

And the king spoke with them, and among all the young men he found no one equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king’s service. [Daniel 1:19 BSB]

Each one of us will get the privilege of being interviewed by the King Himself, and not just by the King's delegate. Such interviews is also an opportunity to enter into the King's Service for those who excel in the King's Judgment or Interview. In this Bible verse above is an example of a king who would choose to interview, judge and select, the candidates he wants into his king's services rather than delegating that task to a third-party recruiting agency or to some of his staff. If not for his pride and idolatry, I would have said Nebuchadnezzar is one of the wise kings I respect in the Bible. Basically, I appreciate it when the king himself, the president himself, the governor himself, the overall boss himself, the MD or CEO Himself, conducts the interviews for job applicants into his services, employments, or companies. But we have lazy leaders, who allow others select their workers, and those who do the selection or interview sometimes compromise, misjudge or are biased and bribed.

Away from focusing on the King's Wisdom in interviewing the candidates himself rather than assigning his staff or ministers to do the selection for him. Let us now focus on the four Candidates who excelled the king's interview and finally got employed into the king's service as public servants in royalty. These included Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Many were called, but few were chosen. Many were invited for oral interview with the Boss (King), but only few (four) were selected (chosen). The "few" was not determined by the number of vacancies available, but determined by the number of distinguished and excellent performers. Meaning, few were not chosen because the vacancies or available positions were few; rather few were chosen because the number of applicants that exceeded and impressed the king (to a degree he could not lose any of them) were just few (four) men. So supposing there were 100 men that had similar effect on the king, the king would have just employed all the 100 men or created positions for them because he would not want to drop any one of them. So when the Lord said, "Many are called, but few are Chosen," He was not implying scarcity of positions but scarcity of qualified.

You may have heard this popular saying, "God does not call the qualified, but He qualifies the called." That's true if it's "Calling," but that's false if it's "Chosing (Selection)." Many are called, but few are chosen. You may not qualify before God called you, but you must qualify before God chose you.

Nebuchadnezzar pre-qualified the calling of the princes and made provisions for them; yes, the king did not go himself to call them but sent the servants (Chief Eunuch) to call and qualify them. But when chosing instead of calling came, the king himself had to chose and not assigned chosing to his servants. The king chose the qualified. If you were not qualified before you were called, then there's Grace in your "Calling" (invitation); but if you were not qualified before you were chosen, then there's corruption (not grace) in your "Election" (selection). Therefore, calling does not require qualifications, but election requires qualifications for it to be faithful and true.

Let's learn from Joseph, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, how to go through Job Interviews in order to earn and secure the Jobs. Many of us only got invitations to Job Interviews but did not get the jobs, and we need to change that by learning from these five men who were privileged of being interviewed by wise Kings and they shocked those wise kings. Here are some of their secrets:

"They were not passing the kings' interviews to get the jobs or positions, but passing the kings' interviews to reach where no one else is like them in the entire kingdom."

If your target is to prove you are qualified for the job, if your target is to defend your qualifications or years of experience in your CVs, or if your target is to show you are better than your fellow candidates for the job, you are not yet like Joseph, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael or Azariah.

These men were beyond all those targets, which was the reason they were indispensable. They left no other option or comparison to them in the entire kingdom of those kings. Thus, the kings could not have found any one like them in their entire kingdom, even beyond those competing with them. Hear what Pharaoh said about Joseph before giving him the Job:

[Genesis 41:38-41] — "So Pharaoh asked his servants, “Can we find anyone like this— a man who has God’s Spirit in him?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has let you know all this, there is no one as wise and intelligent as you. You will be in charge of my palace, and all my people will do what you say. I will be more important than you, only because I’m Pharaoh.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I now put you in charge of Egypt.”"

Notice the king of Egypt said there was no one like Joseph in whom is the Spirit of God. So also, the king of Babylon found out there was no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. If you are going for interviews, let your target be that after the interview they can testify they have not seen or known anyone like you. Even if others are also good for the jobs, they should not be like you in excellence. Then they will not want to lose you. Remember that in Interviews, wisdom in communication exceeds wisdom in experience. If you have 20 years experience in the job, but your communication shows you have 2 years or 0 year experience, you have demarketed yourself. Have the experience, but build more on communication because interviews are more about communication than they are about experience. Joseph, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, had little or no previous years experience for those jobs the kings appointed them; yet they communicated in the Wisdom and Spirit of God, and shocked kings.