Daniel (One): What Do I Take In?

Good morning

In the next few messages we are going to look at Daniel’s life as well at those of his four friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah or otherwise known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The Bible tells as that they were among those who were taken to Babylon. What separated these four, of whom Daniel was the leader, from the other young men was that they honoured the Lord in everything they did. They did not compromise.

One of the first challenges they faced was whether they were going to live in the comfort and lush surroundings like princes, or whether they were going to stay true to their calling as citizens of God’s chosen nation.

We read in Daniel 1:5, 8-15: “The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.’ Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.”

Was this about becoming vegetarian? Many of us would suddenly have to choose between our nice steaks and living holy if that was the case. It was not about the food, but about making a statement. Back in Israel their lifestyles were geared on serving the Lord by keeping the law and the prescribed sacrifices and fasts. In Babylon they were about to be conditioned to live gluttonously and become like the Babylonians. We read above that they were to be trained to enter the king’s service.

However, our four friends under Daniel’s direction started off right. They resisted the influence of the status quo of the time and made the statement through their behaviour that is was the Lord they were serving and Him only – He alone will determine their actions. The result of this courageous act was that “God had caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel” (verse 9), and “to these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds,” (verse 17).

Daniel proved the Lord right by challenging the authority to test them. It was a courageous act, for Daniel had to believe the Lord for favour in the first place, since he had no evidence of what the official’s reaction to his offer was going to be. For all he knew he could have ended up in jail or worse, be killed. Secondly he had to believe God for the result.

What do we do to stand out? Do we just compromise and become like our friends at the club, at work and in social circles, doing the same kinds of things they do, or do we honour the Lord by living according to Jesus’ instructions regardless of the potential consequences. Do we ‘eat’ the Word of God and ‘drink’ the pure water of the Holy Spirit and stay spiritually strong and healthy, or do we defile our minds and bodies by ‘eating’ too much of the negative and destructive information that the world presents to us. Even listening to the news excessively or watching too many secular movies, drinking in the carnal messages that they subtly portray, create in us a negative or corrupt mindset. For instance, how many sinful sexual relationships are portrayed or at least hinted at in the movies, which we essentially approve of by watching such entertainment, and how much good news do we actually hear on the news programs? It must affect our thinking.

Lord, help me to make a statement for you by what I take in.

 Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.

Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.