Daniel 1 - Undefiled

God made you holy in Christ - don't let the world defile you.

Daniel 1 (NASB95)

Choice Young Men

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

² The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

³ Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,

⁴ youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

⁵ The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.

⁶ Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

⁷ Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.

Daniel’s Resolve

⁸ But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

⁹ Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials,

¹⁰ and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.”

¹¹ But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,

¹² “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

¹³ “Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

¹⁴ So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

¹⁵ At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

¹⁶ So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

¹⁷ As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸ Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹ The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service.

²⁰ As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.

²¹ And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 86

Q. We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it: why then must we still do good?

A. To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by his blood.

But we do good because

Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself,

so that in all our living

we may show that we are thankful to God

for all he has done for us

and so that he may be praised through us.

And we do good

so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits,

and so that by our godly living

our neighbors may be won over to Christ.

Summary

After a couple of weeks reading through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, we're catching back up with the narrative regarding God's people Israel, and this week's opening sentence sets the stage for a sad scene: Jerusalem has been besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's forces. And even worse, it's not just Judah's king that falls into his hands, but vessels of the house of God, which end up stowed away in the treasury of Babylon's god.

But lest you think that God has finally given up on and abandoned His rebellious people, Daniel reminds us that the Lord remains firmly in control - for it was the Lord who gave all this into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. As will become increasingly clear over the next few weeks, all of this is going exactly according to God's plan. Keep this in mind the next time you're feeling like God's abandoned you!

Nebuchadnezzar wastes no time, immediately doing to God's people what he's done to so many other countries he'd conquered: he finds the best of them - those who are good looking, intelligent and wise - and begins conforming them to the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Step one: change their names, giving Daniel (the LORD judges) the name Belteshazzar, an Akkadian name that means "Bel (their god), preserve his life). Step two: the way to a man's heart is through is stomach, so the king changes their diet.

Daniel didn't seem to mind what name he got called by. It was his diet where he puts his foot down: He would not defile himself with the king's choice food. It wasn't that there was something intrinsically wrong with this choice food, but Daniel knew that by allowing himself to become accustomed to it, he'd never want to give it up. He'd end up choosing the choice food rather than his choice identity as a man of God.

Daniel's diet was his line in the sand that kept him from being conformed. What's yours?What's the most effective lure Satan and Sarx have to pull you away from the Lord?

  Dig Deeper  

Daniel certainly gives a master lesson in remaining faithful to the Lord, but that's not the primary point of this story. The primary point here, as it is in every chapter of the Bible, is the LORD's faithfulness to His people.

As Daniel preserved his distinctiveness, he prospered. But don't miss why: it was God who gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. In fact, the king found Daniel and his friends ten times better than even his own staff advisors.

So Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah entered the king's service. Notice there that they're referred to by their Jewish names, not their new identities the state had tried to impose upon them.

Remember, your salvation remains firmly in the hands of your faithful father. He'll never abandon you, just as He never abandoned His covenant people in Babylon. The LORD has set you apart to be holy in Christ - that is, distinct and different from the world around you. Like Daniel and his friends, cling fiercely to this distinctiveness and do not be conformed to the pattern of this world.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who always remains faithful and in control;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will continually resist the world's ongoing attempts to conform you to its sinful pattern;

  ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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