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Daniel Chapter 1

Daniel resolved not to defile himself

8th February 2007

Daniel 1:1-2
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure-house of his god.

Some people struggle to accept this: God delivered Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. Back in the days of Moses, God promised that if His people turned from Him and His ways, judgment would come. And now, hundred of years later, it was happening. Why are we surprised when God executes judgment on His people? The Bible says He's slow to anger but if we go in sinning, He does get angry eventually. And watch out when He does!

And God was prepared to take personal hit for executing judgment. It was His temple that was despoiled, and His people that were disgraced. God's top priority for us is our character, and He will do whatever it takes to get our character right. He will even bear non-believers laughing at our pitiful state, if it will result in our repentance and growth.

Daniel 1:3-6
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility - young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 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. Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

These four young men were uprooted from their homes. They lost girlfriends, or maybe wives. They lost land, power and influence. They lost their expectations for their future careers. They lost homes, parents, religious fellowship. They had to learn a new language, and read some books that they'd rather not read, and they lost their freedom.

We don't know how they felt about it. Maybe they felt much as the author of Psalm 137 did:

Psalm 137
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!"
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us -
he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

On the other hand, like some young people, being freed from parental and religious restraint, being educated in a foreign land, in the most powerful city in the world, fed from the King's own table, educated to serve in the royal palace, they might have thought this was great. Either way, a time of testing was coming for them.

Daniel 1:7
The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

Part of the process of training these young Jews for the Babylonian civil service was to rob them of their identities. They were given Babylonian names. They were taught the Babylonian language. They were to eat Babylonian food. And the Enemy of our souls uses the same tactics today. When a young Christian leaves home - whether to go to university or to find work, their Enemy is working in their minds, "You're free now, you don't have to live like a Christian any more - you can live like everyone else - just forget your heritage, forget who you are, forget what you've learnt of God's ways" and, sadly, many are drawn away from the Lord, at least for a time.

Daniel 1:8
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 in this way.

Just as we don't know how Daniel and his friends were feeling, we don't know why Daniel was so concerned about food. Some people think it was because the food wouldn't conform to the Law of Moses - for example, it might contain pork. But, if that's the problem, why would Daniel refuse wine? Some think it's because the food would have been offered to idols. But wouldn't the vegetables he was prepared to eat (see verse 12) also have been offered to idols. Some think that to accept food from the King's table would have been an expression of friendship that wouldn't have been appropriate. But Daniel was prepared to accept other food, as well as clothing, accommodation, education and, I expect, money from the king. To repeat, we don't know.

Just as the Holy Spirit is careful to include in scripture everything that He wants to be there, in the same way He's careful to exclude from scripture everything He doesn't want to be there. When the Bible is vague, that's because it's supposed to be vague. It's enough for us to know that Daniel believed that it would have defiled him to eat food from the king's table. We don't even know for sure that he was right. But here's the point this week: Daniel did what he believed was right - he acted with integrity.

I used to advise people to do what God wanted them to do. Now, I'm more inclined to suggest that they do what they think He wants them to do. And here's why I draw the distinction: We're not wholly wise and we're not wholly holy. Thus, sometimes we do what we believe to be right, but it's wrong. And sometimes do something we believe to be wrong, but it's right. Just as we don't always want to obey God, we don't always know what God wants from us anyway. And sometimes we think we know, but we don't.

After all, the only alternative to doing what we think God wants, is doing what we think He doesn't want, which makes no sense at all. And if we wait until we're perfectly wise before doing anything, we'll never do anything (this side of the grave). So we should obey our consciences, and seek God's blessing in healing and developing our consciences:

If we accept that we're fallible in the way I've just said, then what are we to do? We should:

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Get it? We offer ourselves to God and, at the same time, we seek to be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind. We do our best to get it right today, by obeying our consciences, and we seek to do better tomorrow by developing better consciences. I hope I don't need to say as well that we start with if the Bible says do it, do it - if the Bible says don't do it, don't do it. Our consciences as Christians should already have got us that far in our thinking.

So Daniel did what he believed God required of him - he refused to defile himself by ignoring his own conscience.

Daniel 1:8
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 of 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. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
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.
At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

God vindicated the righteous. He prospered those who acted with integrity. And He will do the same for us. If we stand up for what we honestly, before God, believe to be right, then He will reward us.

How many Christian people have missed their destiny because they compromised over seemingly small matters. Jesus tests us in small things to prepare us for big things. He said:

Luke 16:10 (NKJV)
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

And one day He will say to some of us:

Matthew 25:21
...Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things...