Previously, we saw that the world of Daniel and his three friends were turned upside-down; they were taken from their homeland after it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. They were subsequently put into an indoctrination process in the country of Babylon, even going so far as to give the boys new names.
Daniel 1:5 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar assigned a
particular diet to consume as well as wine for the boys to drink. This arrangement didn’t sit right with Daniel. Verse 8 is a key part of this whole chapter;
it reads: “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor drink the wine which he drank;
therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile
himself.”
Many years ago, I was in a church service where a guest
preacher referred to this part of the text as “Daniel in the dining room.” I borrowed that phrase for the blog title
today. First off, why did Daniel refuse
the king’s food? While the text doesn’t
explicitly state the answer, it is interesting that twice in Daniel 1:8, the
word “defile” is given. Repetition is
important in the Bible. The narrator is
trying to emphasize for them to partake in this was a big deal. For the record, my view is this food and wine
had previously been offered to Babylon gods, and so for them to indulge would
basically be them endorsing the false gods.
Daniel drew a line in the sand, and he spoke up. He speaks to Aspenenaz, the chief of the
eunuchs; he requests to not eat the food.
I can imagine Ashpenaz’s jaw practically dropping to the floor like in
those old classic cartoons. I hear him
stammering, “You don’t want to eat the food because you don’t want to defile yourself?” Finally, he composes himself and he responds,
“I get that you have a conviction, but if the king sees you and your friends
looking frail and weak, he’ll kill me” (that’s my paraphrase of Daniel
1:10).
Note with me that Daniel could have spoken with anger and
rudeness. But he knew he was
representing God, even if he was in a pagan land. “Please test your servants for ten days,” he
says (verse 12). He makes a request, not
a demand, that they only eat vegetables and water. “Then let our appearance be examined before
you…and as you see fit, so deal with your servants” (verse 13). He spoke with courtesy and respect; what an
example for us today in our increasingly unkind world!
I toyed with the idea of ending the blog here to create
some dramatic tension, but these thoughts on Daniel have had enough delays already
– incidentally, just so you know, I’m thinking there will be one or two more
Daniel blogs after this. But the fact of
the matter is we read Daniel 1 with familiarity, yet no one knew what was going
to happen at the time. There had to be
some nervous energy. Finally the big day
arrived. Daniel 1:15 tells us that at
the end of those ten days, Daniel and his cohorts looked better than the other
youths who ate the king’s food. So they
let them continue on with their vegetables and water diet.
In conclusion, God’s supernatural power is on display in
the book of Daniel. We focus on how God kept
the boys safe in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3, and rightly so. As I said in a previous blog, that’s one of
the great scenes of the Bible. Furthermore,
it is right and appropriate for us to focus on God’s supernatural protection of
Daniel, in chapter 6, when he spent the night in a den of lions and there wasn’t
a scratch on him. What an incredible
account! But let’s not miss what God did
right here in Daniel 1. One resource
puts it well:
