Daniel 1:11-14 – “Sweet Spirits”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹And Daniel said to the overseer whom the chief of the court officials had appointed upon Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹²“Test, please, your servants [for] ten days and give to us from vegetables and we will eat and water we will drink. ¹³And let be seen to your face our appearance and the appearance of the children eating the food of the king and according as you see, do with your servants, ¹⁴and he listened to them to this matter and he tested them [for] ten days.

An enormous amount of ink has been spilt commenting on these verses, so I’m reluctant to say anything and add to the cacophony. But, since it’s my blog, there is one thing I think worth noting and that is Daniel’s gracious respectfulness with which he conducts himself.

First of all, we don’t really know why, having been refused by the chief, Daniel resorts to the boys’ immediate overseer. The only thing we know, at least from what is recorded, is that Daniel did not become belligerent. He simply retreated, regrouped and tried again by a different route.

The next place we see his respectfulness is even how he addressed the overseer. I translated his opening words, “Test, please, your servants …” That is as close as I can get in English to what he actually said (as recorded in Hebrew – who knows what language he spoke in actually?). The word I translated “please” is the Hebrew particle “nah,” which actually has no English translation. It is a word a Hebrew subordinate would inject when speaking with a superior, acknowledging his proper place. The closest thing I know of to explain it is how in America, when a subordinate is conversing with a superior, we will give our head a little bob, a sort of hint at bowing to them, to show respect. (Maybe I’m dating myself – I don’t know if anyone does that anymore, but I certainly learned to in my childhood, and I’m just old-fashioned enough to still think it is proper.) At any rate, the “please” is as close as I can come in a translation, but I hope anyone reading this can see that the Hebrew word picture is saying much more. Daniel is not being “militant.” He is not “asserting” himself. He is not “in anyone’s face.” He rather is very politely and respectfully placing his case before a superior who has the authority to grant his request.

Another thing to admire is the fact that Daniel didn’t present it as an ultimatum. He presents it as a test, and only a ten day test at that. The king himself won’t be seeing these boys for three years! Ten days is a very, very gracious offer. I would even suggest the idea must have been either a result of divine revelation to Daniel or enormous faith, because the truth is, good diet or bad, you wouldn’t expect any significant difference to show up in ten days. Maybe a month? Three months? But ten days??? That’s very gracious because it realistically isn’t putting anyone in danger (except the boys).

It is then also interesting that Daniel proposes to leave the conclusion up to the overseer. “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.” One has to wonder what Daniel would have done at the end of the ten days, had the overseer refused their request. Would it have then been off to the fiery furnace or into the lions’ den? We don’t know. What we do know is that even this is an expression of respect – that Daniel proposes the test with the idea that the overseer will in fact have the “final say.”

I’ve probably spilt enough ink myself but I’ll conclude by saying I don’t think our modern Christian culture teaches anything like what Daniel is doing. For one thing, we don’t even mention people’s jobs from the pulpit, and churches certainly do nearly nothing to actually equip our people and prepare them to live their faith in their almost totally pagan work environments. The sum total of American evangelical teaching for Christians in the workplace is that we should all pass out tracts and start Bible studies over lunch. That’s it. Nothing about being hard workers. Nothing about being dependable, punctual, skillful, considerate, or humble. And I’m afraid rather the undercurrent promulgated is to be “militant” – which, in the workplace, translates into “arrogant,” and only further alienates our bosses and co-workers from the very  faith we think we’re trying to share.

For all the barrels of ink that have been spilt on this passage down through the centuries, it is a shame the modern church has learned little or nothing.

Rather than encouraging our people (and young people especially) to be “militant,” we ought to be teaching them that the very essence of a Christian is to be a person who accepts authority and lives respectfully even under those who may not deserve our respect. We are not belligerent and we’d rather (like Daniel) die respectfully than live in spiteful arrogance.

Daniel’s example ought to shine in the hearts of every single believer as we go to work, go to school, participate in sports, serve in our communities and in our churches – anywhere we find ourselves under the authority of others. We ought to be “adorning the doctrine of God our Savior in all things,” rather than giving unbelievers “a reason to blaspheme.”

God help me to be a Daniel and may Your Spirit move across our nation to give our people sweet spirits, no matter what they face.

Daniel 1:8-10 – “People Business”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And Daniel set upon his heart which he [would] not defile himself with the food of the king and with the wine of his drinking, and he sought from the chief of the court officials which not he [would] defile himself.  ⁹And God gave Daniel to favor and to the affections to the face of the chief of the court officials. ¹⁰And the chief of the court officials said to Daniel, “I [am] one fearing my master, the king, who has appointed your food and drink. Which to what he [should] see your faces [being] ones troubled from the young men which [are] as your circle and you (pl.) will make guilty my head to the king?

I think it is helpful at this point to stop and consider the “people business” we see in this passage. In other words, let’s stop and consider what is going on in the hearts and minds of the people involved and hope it is instructive to us.

We have already admired Daniel for his brave resolve. As I noted earlier, the Hebrew actually says literally that Daniel “set upon his heart” not to defile himself. It wasn’t that Daniel was suddenly faced with some youthful temptation and had to “quickly think it through.” He had already thought it through and made a decision in his own heart. Ah, the unassailable citadel of a human heart. The heart – that part of every person which no one else can control. I don’t doubt that Daniel’s parents were very good, godly people who prayed hard and strove to teach their son to be a man of integrity. But for all that prayer and teaching, one thing yet remained – for the young man himself to embrace that teaching. The world can rise and fall around us, it can threaten us, tempt us, hurt us, help us, flatter us, demean us, applaud us or condemn us – but for all of that, there remains this person within, the “me” who lives inside here, who thinks, evaluates, and decides what I will believe, what I will and won’t do and be. It’s the “me” who finds himself alone with God (if I acknowledge His presence). As a parent myself, I confess that this was and is the place of my deepest, deepest fear – the hearts of my children – because I knew all along it was the one part of them I could not control. I knew that, for all my prayers, for all my teaching, for all my tearful concerns, it was the one thing that had to happen before anything I’d ever done would make any difference – they themselves had to “set upon their hearts.” And there was nothing I could do to make it happen. It would be (and is) between them and God alone. Now I add to that my own grandchildren, along with all my nieces and nephews and their children, not to mention the swirl of work associates, neighbors, and church friends I know.

No one can command a heart but the person alone. If you have enough power you can make people say and do anything, but you can’t change their heart. Daniel “set upon his heart” and therein is the real reason for his success. If you read back through the kings of Judah and Israel you will often find it written, “So-and-so did evil in the eyes of the Lord because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord,” then of others, “So-and-so did right in the eyes of the Lord because he had prepared his heart to seek the Lord.”

This is “people business” because it reminds us of the importance of other people’s hearts and the fact that we absolutely cannot control them. When we’re tempted to take up our verbal clubs and start beating other people into whatever it is we think they should do and believe, Daniel reminds us to just stop it. We need to win their hearts not bludgeon them into submission. The Islamic terrorists think they can tell people to convert or die, and then when the person “converts” they think they’ve won. The truth is that person hasn’t changed at all and first chance they get they’ll dart right back to what their own heart truly believes. You can change the outside, but you can’t change a heart. It is every human being’s unassailable citadel.

Then for ourselves, it reminds us that the all-important factor in our life is something no one else can control – our hearts. In that deep, dark place where I think and evaluate and decide, there is no one there but me and God. The person I am, the things I’ll think and do and be, are all a matter of how I “set upon my heart.” This is precisely why the Proverb admonishes us, “Above all else guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life.”

The next people business I’d like to note is how “God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel.” As many, many others have noted, there are actually two things going on here – one is that God Himself is putting it in the heart of the chief to “like” Daniel. The other is that Daniel’s behavior has everything to do with this favor. These same things happened with Joseph in Potiphar’s house and in the warden’s prison, to Nehemiah in Xerxes’ court, to Esther in the eyes of Ahasuerus, to David in Saul’s court and in Israel, and in later years to Daniel under Darius. In each case (and many others), the Lord brought these people into favor with their rulers, but, at the same time, you had people who were very hard workers, who were faithful and winsome.

On the one hand, that is hopeful to us believers – to remember that “the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.” As we go out into our pagan worlds, we can be assured that God goes ahead of us and is actually causing even wicked people to favor us. He’s certainly done that for me all these years. Everywhere I’ve gone most people have “liked” me, in spite of the fact that I know in my own heart I’ve done nothing to deserve it. On the other hand, it reminds us that we do have a part to play. If you’re sincerely trying to be a decent, considerate person, you’re already miles down the road. If you are sincerely trying to do good work, you’re already miles down the road. “Do you see a man who is skillful in his work? He will stand before kings” (Prov 22:29). One of the most frustrating problems in life is to have people working for you but to know you cannot depend on them. On the other hand, what we all want is to have people under us like Joseph:

The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, ... When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

I fear that too many Christian people totally don’t realize this. I’ve worked alongside too many professing Christians who frankly were lousy workers, who then can’t understand when their bosses don’t like them, and too often they write it off as “persecution” because they’re Christians. Christian or not, if you’re a lousy worker and a jerk, you shouldn’t be surprised when the world “doesn’t like you.” On the other hand, if, like Daniel (and Joseph and David and Esther and Nehemiah and …) you’ll just resolve to actually be what you should be, you can count on two things – there’s a good chance people will “like” you, and you’ll have the Lord Himself helping to make it happen.

We also can’t pass the opportunity to point out what our Daniel does, living in his pagan world, and being forced to do things against his conscience. He doesn’t jump up and shout “I’m not eating your dirty pagan food!” As a continuation of the last paragraph, Daniel continues to conduct himself in a winsome manner. Daniel is a living illustration of the old saying, “You’ll draw more flies with honey than with vinegar.”  We’ll visit this subject again in the next verse, but for now it is highly worth noting.

Finally, I’d like to note the chief himself. The man’s response is one of fear – which he readily admits: “I fear my master the king.” Should he? Duuuuuh, yes! Oriental kings are notorious murderers. Displease them in the slightest way and it’s “Off with his head!” Nebuchadnezzar is no exception – as Daniel’s friends will soon find out. This man has every reason to be very fearful. He has been charged by the king himself to take these Hebrew boys and make them into happy, healthy Babylonians. If he does anything less, he’ll face the king’s murderous rage.

Why do our bosses and co-workers do a lot of the things they do? Fear. Though today we generally don’t lop off people’s heads, we certainly fire them, demote them, consign them to the dirty jobs, the undesirable tasks. Do our bosses and co-workers have good reason to fear? Duuuuuh, yes. But in a pagan world, do they have a God to trust? Not that they know of. You and I get to coast along and, although we certainly have reason to fear too, yet we have that hope always that our God is in control. They don’t.

As we’ll see in the following verse, Daniel next went to the man below the chief. We don’t know if there was any more conversation between Daniel and the chief but obviously, whatever Daniel did, he did nothing to worsen the situation. Somehow he was sensitive to the chief’s fears and chose a further path that didn’t make the man angry.

I think there is a “people business” lesson for us here – to realize and to be sensitive to other people’s fears, especially in the work place. Again, you and I have a God to trust. They don’t. Whatever is going on, I would like to try to be more aware when the people around me are fearing and to do whatever I can to help them be assured. Even if I’m myself in one of those “draw the line” situations, I hope I’m not so self-consumed I can’t see how I’m affecting the people around me. God’s job is to run the universe. Our job is to love. Always. Even when I myself may be struggling with fear.

People business. It is our business. Love God, love people – that’s what we’re all about. Daniel is doing a really good job with the “people business” in his world. May we all be encouraged by his example. Daniel did well in his day. May we do well now that it’s our turn up to bat.

Daniel 1:8 – “Questions”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And Daniel set upon his heart which he [would] not defile himself with the food of the king and with the wine of his drinking, and he sought from the chief of the court officials which not he [would] defile himself.

In my last post, I admired Daniel’s integrity and noted how we live in the same world, where we sometimes have to make decisions and “draw lines.” I also noted that, at those times, others can question whether our “issues” are really that important. I even find as I think back over my life that I question my own decisions. Maybe it simply wasn’t “that important.” What matters for all of us is that, at the time, if we are convinced we must draw lines, then we simply must. And in the end it really doesn’t matter if others agree with us. It is our own integrity, our own relationship with God, which is at stake.

All that said, I would like to visit the “issues” involved in this passage and record some thoughts I have. In the end what I’ll probably propose is just a bunch of questions. But these are things I often wonder about as I study the Bible and try to live my life. After nearly 40 years of knowing the Lord and studying His Word, there are still some things that make no sense to me at all. I know, if I live long enough, the Lord will explain some of it to me, but for now I just want to record my questions.

My question really boils down to a Jewish person’s relationship to the Law when they’re living outside of Palestine. Notice how the Lord spoke in Deut 6:1: “These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, …” Notice they were to observe them “in the land.” 12:1 is similar: “These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.”

I could multiply examples of this throughout the Pentateuch. In fact, I would suggest the very nature of the Old Covenant required that the people be in Palestine. In Deut 12:4ff, the Lord told them, “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, …”  The entire system of Jewish worship centered around Jerusalem. Three times a year, every Jewish male was to appear before the Lord at Jerusalem. What is my point? My point is that, in order to keep these commands, a Jewish person had to live in Palestine. What if they lived in Alaska or Australia? Today they could perhaps fly there, but at great expense. Certainly throughout history, travel to Jerusalem would be impossible except for those who lived very nearby. My point is that, when or if a Jewish person was to live their life far from Jerusalem, the fact is they simply could not “keep” the Law.

If I could belabor this point, it is also critical to understand that “the Land” is an integral part of the Law itself. Clear back in Genesis 12, what the Lord promised to Abraham were three things: 1) that He would be their God, and they would be His people; 2) that He would greatly multiply their numbers, and 3) that He would give to them the land of Palestine forever. For Abraham’s descendants it was always a bad decision to leave “the Land.” It was the worst judgment of all for the Lord to “spew them out of the land.” The very reason why Daniel is not “in the Land” is because the Lord has brought down judgment on the people. And what is their great hope? That this exile from “the Land” will only last 70 years. And then what will the Lord do? Send them back to “the Land.” My conclusion would be that, for Abraham’s descendants, being “in the Land” is a critical part of the Law itself.

The Mosaic Law is, in reality, a national Constitution. If one reads it carefully, you can’t help but realize it is actually a very complete system of government, of how a nation is to be run. It only “works” if you’re talking about the Jewish people living together in Palestine. Again, I am observing that the very essence of the Law, of the Old Covenant, of Jewish life required that the Jewish people be “in the Land.”

And that brings me back to my question: “What if they’re not?”

Daniel is not “in the Land.” He cannot keep the entire Law. He has no choice but to keep parts of it while not keeping others. But what is it to keep “parts” of the Law and not others? Is that not, by definition, to violate the Law? I’m suggesting that, for a Jewish person to live outside “the Land” is for him to be a law-breaker – unless the stipulations of the Law are only binding when that Jewish person is actually in Palestine. The hard, cold fact is that you simply cannot truly “keep” the Law unless you are actually in Palestine.

Where I’m going with all of this is to ask what would have “defiled” Daniel from the king’s food and wine? We could answer that the food might include unclean meat. But is it “unclean” if Daniel isn’t home in Palestine? Does the “clean/unclean” even matter outside of “the Land?” I’m seriously doubtful that it did. On the  other hand, would a young Jewish man have thought this all through long enough to realize these things? Not very likely. And so, perhaps, that is exactly what he was concerned about.

I wish I could talk to the old Daniel at the end of the book, and ask him if he still thought it had been that important. I strongly suspect he would say something like, “No. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize those are not the important things in my relationship with God. I’ve learned that the kingdom of God is not about food and drink, but about things like faithfulness and kindness and love.” I think he would say at the time, he really did think it was important, and obviously the Lord knew his heart and honored his commitment, but looking back, it simply wasn’t one of those places where he really needed to “draw a line.”

I don’t know. I wish I did know. It’s one of those things I wonder about and never seem to come to any conclusion.

The whole discussion, on the other hand, is not far from your heart and mine. We’re not Jews and there is no insistence at all that we all move to Israel. But we are followers of the Lamb living in an almost totally pagan world. Though we do not have “the Law” bearing down on us, we still have our desire to live lives that are pleasing to our wonderful Lord. And that means, we too have to think through and make decisions about what we will and won’t do. Jesus actually wants us to be “in the world” though not “of it.” He does want us to be in it.  He wants us to go to work. He wants us to live in neighborhoods and buy groceries and mow our grass and go to our daughter’s dance recitals. He wants his people to be “in the world.” But somehow we can’t be “of it,” and that puts us in exactly the same place as Daniel – making decisions how to strike that balance.

So, in the end, I’m still wondering if Daniel needed to draw the line about the king’s food and drink. But then on the other hand, even the question itself is practically instructive to us. It teaches us to expect that, living in a pagan world, we will have to make decisions, that sometimes those decisions may not be as crystal clear as we wish they were, that we simply have to stick to our convictions at the time, that the Lord knows our heart and will probably honor even our immature decisions, that others may question whether it is really “that big a deal,” that we ourselves may later on question whether it was really “that big a deal,” and it’s all simply a part of being a believer, living in a pagan world. It’s part of being “in the world but not of it.”

And may I add one last thought – perhaps if we really realized this and understood it, maybe we wouldn’t be so hard on our fellow believers. They may make decisions that we deem “overly scrupulous and unnecessary,” or we may conclude they’ve “gone liberal!” Maybe we ought to realize it is a difficult quest to sort out exactly where we need to draw our line. And maybe we should let them make their decisions, value them as fellow believers, and then get on with the challenging task of living our own lives in a pagan world?

Lots of questions.

But I suspect Daniel teaches us that’s not all bad. It’s just part of it.

Daniel 1:7,8 – “Integrity”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷And the chief of the court officials set to them names and he set to Daniel, Belteshazzar and to Hananiah, Shadrach and to Mishael, Meshak and to Azariah, Abednego. ⁸And Daniel set upon his heart which he [would] not defile himself with the food of the king and with the wine of his drinking, and he sought from the chief of the court officials which not he [would] defile himself.

Well, here we are at Daniel 1:8. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.” Literally volumes have been written on this verse.

I said when I started this study that it particularly interests me because Daniel, like us, has to live in a world that could care less about God. Most of the Old Testament and a good part of the New is written about people living in Israel, where there was at least an outward assent to issues of right and wrong. When the church left Palestine and headed out into the Roman world, it went to an utterly pagan place with no respect for God. Now, in a limited sense, our Western culture has mimicked Israel’s theocracy for several hundred years. In the America I grew up in, the Bible was respected and even wicked people thought about heaven and hell.

But of course, in these last 50 or so years, Western culture has nearly repudiated the Bible and cast itself on the sea of moral relativity. We are quickly becoming again (and perhaps have become) the same pagan world in which the church had to proliferate, and the same kind of world Daniel and his friends had to live in. That said, there is much to learn from Daniel, simply by watching what he does, listening to what he says and prays, and learning from his example.

Interesting to me, first of all, something in the Hebrew from verse 7 to verse 8. In verse 7, Ashpenaz is giving the boys Babylonian names, while in verse 8 Daniel is “purposing in his heart.” In my translation above, you’ll note that in both verses the Hebrew says something like Ashpenaz “set to them names,” while Daniel “set upon his heart.” It’s the same verb and I suspect it is deliberate. Ashpenaz thinks he can “set” on the boys names that will turn them into Babylonians. Daniel responds by “setting” on his heart that he will not. And can we inject that this kind of resolve, this setting on our hearts, is the stuff that heroes are made of.

It is also interesting to note that, even in Babylon, this name Belteshazzar wouldn’t stick on Daniel. Although the king himself might refer to him as Belteshazzar, he calls himself Daniel (7:15; 8:1,5; 9:2; 10:2,7), the angel Gabriel calls him Daniel (9:22), the Angel of the Lord calls him Daniel (10:11,12), the Queen mother calls him Daniel (5:12), and even the king himself in 6:20 calls out to him, “Daniel …!”) In the ancient world, as with the American Indians, names were very important and reflected a person’s character and life. The fact that this Babylonian name “didn’t stick” is probably because everyone knew that Daniel had nothing to do with the Babylonian god Bel, and it made no sense culturally to call him by a name that didn’t apply. Everyone knew he was Daniel, “God is my Judge.”

Incidentally, a great deal has been written over the years about the meanings of the Babylonian names. For my two cents worth, I think the bottom line is that no one knows. No one really knows exactly what each of the names means or with some of them, even what god they’re referring to. What is obvious, however, is the simple attempt to Babylonianize the boys. And that is precisely the battle we all face living and working in our pagan world – everywhere we go, everything we do, everyone we talk to would have us Babylonianize. They want us to be like them, to eat like them, drink like them, talk like them, think like them. They would “set” to us the names of their gods. But we have to “set” upon our hearts that Jesus is Lord.

Another aspect of this passage about which a great deal has been written is the question of exactly what Daniel and his friends were concerned about. Some have suggested they were concerned about the laws of clean and unclean meats or the prohibition to eat meat that was left with the blood still in it. Others suggest the problem was that the meat had possibly been part of a sacrifice to a Babylonian god and even the drink itself could have been dedicated to a god. Still others suggest that perhaps it was simply an effort on the boys’ part to resist their being “Babylonianized.” Perhaps they were wise enough to know the power extravagant foods and drinks can have over a person and just wanted to maintain an element of self-discipline. Others have even suggested the possibility that they were being overly-scrupulous, as young men tend to be once they do get on a cause.

I think the bottom-line is that no one knows. The text doesn’t say. It could be any one of these things or even “all of the above.” I think, seriously, what we all need to take from it is just the lesson in and of itself – that when we are called to live and work in a totally pagan world, there will be points in time where we have to draw lines. In itself, I find instructive the very ambiguity of Daniel’s decision. What I mean is that we can sit around all day and try to decide what exactly Daniel was concerned about and whether it was really that big a deal or not – but the bottom-line is that, in his own mind (and that of his friends), there was some kind of an issue and they were convinced they must draw that line. That question of “Is it really that big a deal?” is the ever-present specter that haunts a believer’s mind as he maneuvers his way through his pagan world. But then, sometimes things just convict us, “I’m not going there” over issues about which others may question our judgment. But in the end each of us must make those decisions, implore the Lord’s help, and stand for integrity in our pagan worlds.

I remember one young Christian husband and father who was told he would have to drive around the entire night-shift with a very attractive young woman. He drew the line and said he would not, that his marriage and family were too important to even risk putting himself in that kind of temptation. Another young woman was told by her sales manager, “Tell people whatever you have to in order to get the orders. If they want it by Friday, tell them you can have it by then. Whatever it takes, just get the order.” She drew the line and said, “I will not be dishonest with my clients. They call me precisely because they trust me.” She wasn’t fired and in fact went on to have the highest sales in the company. I was once told to fill out some paperwork and lie about some illegal activities that were going on. I simply had to draw the line and tell them, “I cannot put down information I know is not true, and then sign it.” Another time I was asked to change the dates on some samples and again, had to refuse. Somewhat like the young father, I once had a very attractive young saleswoman come to my plant for something, then wanted me to go out to lunch with her. I knew that she was way, way too attractive for me to be out with her alone, so I declined her offer.

Such is life living and working in a pagan world.

Our commitment to the Lord means we can and must be people with integrity. We must be people who are guided by the right. Most of the time that actually wins the favor of our bosses and co-workers and others, but sooner or later it means we’re drawing lines, often at the peril of losing our jobs or relationships. Esther had to “break the rules” about entering the king’s presence uninvited. Her last words before she went in were, “If I perish, I perish.”  Resolve. Joseph wouldn’t yield to Potiphar’s wife and it got him in prison.

Integrity. It’s something that usually fares us very well in this world, but can also get us in a lot of trouble.

Daniel and his friends had only been in Babylon a short time and already they were having to make integrity decisions. Today we admire their virtue and their courage. But the truth is, we live in the same world. And we have to make the same decisions.

Daniel’s message down through the ages is, “Stick to your guns. Be a person of integrity. Draw lines when you must.”

God help us.

Daniel 1:3-6 – “When It Gets Personal”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³The king said to Ashpenaz the chief of his court officials, “Bring in from the sons of Israel and from the seed of the royalty and from the nobles ⁴children whom not in them [is] any blemish and good of appearance and having understanding in all wisdom and knowing knowledge and understanding learning and whom in them [is] strength to stand in the palace of the king and to teach them the writing of and the tongue of the Chaldeans, ⁵and the king assigned to them a portion of a day in its day from the food of the king and from the wine of his drinking and to cause them to grow three years and from the end of [them] they stand to the face of the king,  ⁶and it was among them from the sons of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

As we’ve been following along in the opening two verses, the world is falling apart around Daniel. His good king Josiah died four years earlier only to have his wicked selfish son Jehoiakim take the throne. Then suddenly the city is besieged by the most powerful king of the day and the great Jerusalem falls. Then the pagans start carting out the vessels of the temple to haul them away. It is a time that would call for great faith from people like Daniel to believe that God is still on the Throne, that He is still the Adonai, the Master of it all.

But it gets worse. Suddenly Daniel himself is called out. Suddenly it gets very personal.

No one knows for sure why and it’s somewhat risky to speculate, but I personally think Nebuchadnezzar is being a brilliant administrator when he directs Ashpenaz to select out of the captured city their brightest and most promising young men to enroll them in Babylon University and prepare them to serve in his court. It of course has always been the usual procedure of conquering kings to kill everyone they might consider a threat (like royal families). But Nebuchadnezzar, I believe, had a better idea – let’s turn them into Babylonians! Let’s bring them to Babylon, wine them and dine them, teach them our language and our customs, and let them strengthen our nation! I suspect it would have the further advantage that the people “back home” would be more easily subjugated if they think their youngest and brightest actually serve in the palace and are, from there, watching out for their people. It’s “dangerous,” in a sense, for Nebuchadnezzar if he thought these bright young men might rise to subvert his kingdom. But, again, I think he is being a brilliant administrator. I think he realizes that isn’t human nature. Especially for young men, to offer them wealth and power if they only “conform,” is an almost irresistible temptation.

And so that’s the plan. And that’s when it gets personal for Daniel. Suddenly he finds himself called out with his three friends (and probably many others). This man Ashpenaz calls them out and then informs them what’s ahead. Suddenly Daniel is torn from his family, his home, his city, maybe even his girlfriend, from the Lord’s temple and the Promised Land. One can only imagine the heartbreak of Daniel’s parents. No doubt they were very good godly people to have such a fine son – but now he’s going to be drug 1500 miles away to the far side of the Fertile Crescent to be made into a Babylonian! To be robbed of their son had to be bad enough, but they would have feared greatly for him spiritually. What will become of him? Will he let the Babylonians lure him into their immorality and the worship of their gods? Is he not only gone forever physically, but have we lost him spiritually? One can only imagine their tears and heartache.

But, as we said earlier, this is Daniel’s world. He doesn’t get to choose whether he wants to be a part of this world, only what kind of person he’ll be in it.

And again, I find great comfort in realizing that this Daniel lives in a world very similar to ours. He lives in a world that couldn’t care less about our God and certainly couldn’t care less about what He says is right and wrong. He is enrolled in Babylon U. He has to go to a school that not only doesn’t respect His God, they have no intention of it. He’s to learn the language and writings of Babylon. He will have to sit in classes and “learn” things he’d rather not hear about. Every single day he’ll face things that challenge his beliefs and his morals.

And he has no choice. That’s the way it is.

Kind of like us.

And once again, who does Daniel tell us in verse 2 is making all this happen? Adonai. The Master.

Faith is always a pleasant subject when we get to see it tested from afar. I’m always brave “when the battle is distant.” It’s another thing when the troubles of this world get personal.

But who is behind it all? Our Adonai. Our Master. The good, the wise, the kind King of it all, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the One who died for us all. “He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” It is interesting to me that in verse 5 the words “the king” appear three times. It’s “the king” who assigns them a portion of food and wine from the table of “the king” and they’ll be trained three years to stand before “the king.” The king, the king, the king. Pretty important guy, yes? Pretty powerful, yes? … It certainly seems that way. But who is really behind it all? Adonai. The King of kings and Lord of lords. Our Adonai. Our King of kings and Lord of lords.

Oh, God. Give us eyes of faith to see Your hand behind the events of our lives. Though people and events seem so ominously powerful and threatening. And not just when the “battle is distant,” but when it gets personal, when we ourselves are caught in the crossfire of this world’s endless churning. Help us see the hand of our Adonai … like Daniel, so that is our faith that rules our hearts and our decisions … like Daniel.