Faithfulness At An Early Age

Transcript

GR1901
11/9/2014
Faithfulness at an Early Age
Daniel 1:1-21
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Daniel so you can turn there in your Bibles. We started our study by looking at the background information and we are just going to review that again, overview it. I think one of the difficulties that people have with the Old Testament is that it’s a collection of books. But how does it all fit together? So I will just review a little bit of what we have done which puts Daniel in its context which is very important for appreciating and understanding of what is going on in the book.

Why don’t we start with the chart of the books, sort of a synthetic chart overviewing the books of the Bible and if you were here you remember those top books. I believe that 11 of them are the books that move the history along. They are not more important than the other books but if you want to get the flow of the history of the books of the Old Testament you would just read those books. I would encourage you to do that sometime, several times. It’s one way to work your way through the Bible so you get the flow of the history fixed in your mind and then the other books can fit into their place. You appreciate more the ministry of those books. For example: the prophetic books are on the bottom of the chart in the white box. You get some context of where those prophets were carrying out their ministries.

You will note the Old Testament as we have noted, in its entirety just about, is focused on Israel. We start with the book of Genesis and the first 11 chapters precede Israel, the creation, the fall, the flood of Noah then the development of the nations out of the sons of Noah. Chapter 11 gives the descendants, the lineage of Shem coming down to Abraham and with chapter 12 we pick up with Abraham, the father of Israel. And from Genesis chapter 12 all the way through the rest of the Old Testament, God is working in His redemptive way with the nation Israel. The other nations are dealt with as they relate to the nation of Israel. Israel is the focus of what God is doing. We noted that Abraham would be about 2100 B.C. Sometimes we round it off to 2000 because he lived for 164 years so he was living in 2000 B.C. as well so 2100, 2000; Moses lived about 1500.

We have the next chart which I think has some of those dates. You have Abraham there at 2100, Moses around 1500 with the exodus being in 1446 B.C. Then since we are talking about events with Israel in captivity you have the kingship of Israel that starts with Saul. As you move through the history books you remember that after Numbers you went through Joshua. They went in and conquered the land. Then you have the period of the judges which is a time of chaos if you will in the nation Israel when “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” God raises up different judges but there is no unified king or kingdom there. It’s sort of in disarray.
We move from the time of the judges and we come to the establishing of the kingdom with Samuel and then we will have Saul in I Samuel and so you have the dates. The only three kings that rule over a united kingdom are Saul, David and Solomon in all of Israel’s history. You have the dates there for Saul, for David and for Solomon. Each of those men reigned about 40 years.
Then 931 the kingdom will divide under Solomon’s time into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom comprised of 10 tribes, southern kingdom of 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin. So sometimes we talk about Israel as referring to the northern kingdom because after 931 there is no united kingdom. We refer to the southern kingdom as Judah; the northern kingdom in its existence from 931 to 722 B.C. The Assyrians conquer and carry away into captivity the northern 10 tribes and that is the end of them as a united entity. There will be remnants that come back but they are scattered throughout the other parts of the Assyrian empire.
Then you have the fall of the southern kingdom and that’s identified at 605 B.C. which is where the book of Daniel begins with Daniel being carried away. We have three steps in that because Nebuchadnezzar had to come up and deal with Jerusalem and the southern kingdom three times. The final time in 586 he carries away the last king and that’s the end of the kingdom. Judgment has come on the nation.

We’ll have the 70 year captivity, the 70 year Babylonian captivity, and then we will have Ezra, Nehemiah and that’s followed by what we call the 400 silent years which carry us to the New Testament; so that’s something of an overview of Israel’s history.

I think the next chart we have is the kings of Israel, the last kings of Israel. I mentioned these last time but they’re put up in chart form so you could get the dates of these kings. We started with Josiah because Josiah was the last godly king in the southern kingdom. As I mentioned in our previous study there were no godly kings in the northern ten tribes from 931 to 722. The 20 or so kings that ruled over the northern tribes, there was not one godly king. So when you get a Biblical exam and they say name the godly kings of the northern kingdom you are home safe but in the southern kingdom there were godly kings like Hezekiah at an earlier period but we start with Josiah because we just want to bring us to the Babylonian captivity and we put the dates that he reigned. You can read about these kings if you start in 2 Kings chapter 22 and read to the end of 2 Kings. That will carry you through these various kings and you can see two of the kings’ reigns were very short, three months; Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim is important to us because that is where the book of Daniel begins. So the one in the middle there, 609 to 598 you can see his dates, 605 is when Nebuchadnezzar will come up. Nebuchadnezzar will come back and reassert his authority in 597. Jehoiakim will die while Jerusalem in under siege. How he died we are not told. He could have been murdered. At any rate he dies. Jehoiachin comes to the throne, he is the son of Jehoiakim but Nebuchadnezzar dethrones him and carries him to Babylon. He is the last officially recognized king by the Jews although there is another king, Zedekiah put on the throne. He is an uncle of Jehoiachin and he will reign until his rebellion is crushed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 and at that stage Jerusalem is destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. He has had his fill of dealing with these reoccurring rebellions.

Why don’t you put up the map if you will. I know you remember all of this but you can see Ur of the Chaldees. That is where Abraham was from and then he left there and journeyed up to Haran. See it up at the top where the “M” on Mesopotamia, you see Haran. That’s the journey that Abraham took and then after his father dies he comes down into the land that God promised him. Just northwest of Ur you see Babylon. Now the Assyrians ruled. The capital of Assyria is Nineveh. You go up the Tigris River, north of Babylon and you come to Nineveh. That was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The king of Babylon, the one who would rule the Neo-Babylonian Empire was able to assert his control in Babylon and that begins a process.

In 626 he asserts his control. We will go through those Babylonian kings in a moment. So he drives the Assyrians out of Babylon. Then in 612 he is able in an alliance with the Medes (you see Media there) to defeat the Assyrians in Nineveh. The Assyrians retreat to Haran where he follows up and in 609 they are defeated in Haran. Then they retreat to Carchemish, the remnant of the Assyrians army. The Egyptians come up to try to reinforce the remnant of the Assyrians at Carchemish. You see Carchemish there near Haran. There is where King Josiah, the last godly king (the first one we put on our list) attempted to block Pharoah-Necho from coming up from Egypt to help the Assyrians. Why he did that we don’t know but it results in his death. He may have wanted Egypt to get any more powerful but at any rate the Egyptians go up. In 605 there is a major battle where Nebuchadnezzar successfully defeats the Egyptians along with the remnant of the Assyrian army. Interestingly in 1956 they found a clay tablet and that clay tablet said that in 605 after he defeated the Egyptians and the remnant of the Assyrians at Carchemish he swept down into what was called Hautiland which is Syria, Israel, that region and that’s when he sweeps down and in 605 conquers Jerusalem for it because for many years unbelievers, unbelieving scholars said, “Well there is no record that Nebuchadnezzar after Carchemish went down and conquered Jerusalem.” Well we did have a very accurate record. It was in the Bible but of course for those who don’t believe the Bible that is not acceptable. Interestingly in 1956 a tablet, a clay tablet that God had kept preserved and hidden was discovered and there it recorded Nebuchadnezzar coming down and he drives the Egyptians back into Egypt and they won’t come back out again and at a future time Nebuchadnezzar will even the Babylonian armies will come down into Egypt. So that is a little bit of the picture that we are dealing with.

Maybe you should put up the Babylonian kings in case you are looking for some different names for your sons that won’t be repeated. Nabopolassar and you could call him Nabo. He is the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. There was a previous Babylonian Empire from about 1830 to 1550 so about 300 years. We mentioned Hammurabi was a most prominent king in that empire but there is a revived Roman Empire so you will read of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. That is because there had been an empire, a Babylonian Empire at an earlier date. He is the one who establishes this empire in 626 when he drives the Assyrians out of Babylon. That is the beginning of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. You can see he reigns until 605 and as we noted Nebuchadnezzar is leading the Babylonian armies at Carchemish and then he comes down and lays siege to Jerusalem and the king of Jerusalem is defeated and he is bound. If you read the closing portion of 2 Chronicles you see that Jehoiakim is bound to be taken to Babylon but then we find out he continues to reign until 598 and what happened while Nebuchadnezzar is conquering Jerusalem and he succeeds in doing that he gets news that his father has died and so we talked about he immediately takes a contingent, Josephus refers to an earlier historian who said that Nebuchadnezzar took a contingent and went straight across the desert back to Babylon and Daniel and captives and booty are carried around up over the fertile crescent and back down into Babylon so that is how Jehoiakim evidently is enabled to remain on the throne but he has a crushing tribute that he has to pay that would be the equivalent to millions of dollars and this is one way that the Babylonians subsidize their empire.

Jehoikim vowed before God that he would be loyal to Nebuchadnezzar but that is not the case so if you have your Bible open to Daniel you can see the first two verses: “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, King of Judah into his hand along with some of the vessels of the house of God. He brought them to the land of Shinar,” another name for the land where Babylon is and it has its roots back in Genesis chapter 10 with the Tower of Babel. So you see Jehoiakim there. Now even though in 605 Jehoiakim vows loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar leaves him on the throne. He has been on the throne since 609. So he has been on the throne about four years when he is subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar.

Come back to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 36. It always interests me how precise historians are to be with the dates that we are dealing with. And in Jeremiah chapter 36 we are in December of 604 B.C. So a little over a year Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar in August of 605. Now we are in December of 604. And you see what happens and you see the ungodly character of Jehoiakim. As chapter 6 opens up, “And the word came to Jeremiah, take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel, and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which Jeremiah had spoken to him.” And then the scroll is sent to be read to the king.

So verse 20, and the people were going to take this and read it to the king and tell Jeremiah, “You better go hide.” So they know something of the character of Jehoiakim. They fear that he will kill Jeremiah on the spot for this because it is a pronouncement of judgment and even at this stage with all that has happened to the northern kingdom and in 605 Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. In 722 the Assyrians had carried away the northern ten tribes; there is no northern kingdom now. They are stubbornly refusing to believe that if they don’t repent of their sin and sinful ways God is going to bring destruction on them.

So these officials bring the scroll of Jeremiah in before the king, verse 20: “They went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to the king.” So they go in and tell the king about this scroll and what is in it. So the king said, “Get the scroll, I want to hear it.” So they sent to Jehudi to get the scroll. “He took it out of the chamber of Elishama and Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him” and when Jehudi read three or four columns in this scroll that would be unrolled you know and read it, “the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire.” So they read three or four columns as the scroll is unrolled then he would take the knife and cut it off and throw it in the fire. They would read three or more columns, take the knife, throw it in the fire. You see his attitude toward the Word of God given to Jeremiah, total disdain not even pretending to be open to what God has said through Jeremiah. “Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid not did they rend their garments” even though some of these officials pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

This reveals to you something of the character of Jehoiakim and he has pledged allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar left him on the throne but he has no intention. Here a little over a year has gone by since he pledged that allegiance and he is refusing to believe. That he is still thinking he can rebel and break the yoke of the Babylonians and have Jerusalem free under his reign.

Verse 27: “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying, ‘take again another scroll and write you write all the words again.’” They did a lot of writing when you read Jeremiah. Baruch has to start writing all over again. No computers, no typewriters, just by hand.

Verse 28: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoikim the King of Judah burned. And concerning Jehoiakim King of Judah you shall say, Thus says the Lord: “You have burned this scroll saying why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and will make man and beast to cease from it. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, he will have no one to sit on the throne of David. His dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him and his descendants and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the men of Judah all the calamity I have declared to them but they did not listen;” remarkable the stubbornness of the human heart. You think that Jehoiakim would have some sensitivity. Nebuchadnezzar is already successfully a year and half earlier, a little less than a year and a half conquered Jerusalem but it doesn’t make any impact.

While you are in Jeremiah turn back to chapter 25 and we will see this later in Daniel, Jeremiah 25 and this is the chapter opens up: “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nerbuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” We start out Daniel saying it was the third year of Jehoiakim. Here we are told it was the fourth year of Jehoiakim, it was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. There are two different dating systems being used by Daniel and Jeremiah. He writes about Jehoiakim. One begins the year of a man’s rule in April of our calendar. The other begins it in October and so you count. For example the conquering of Jerusalem occurred in August so it was between those two times so depending on which date you begin Nebuchadnezzar’s reign whether you count the first year from April or the first year from October, you get a difference because now you are in the middle. Well if you are using the one dating system it’s the fourth year. If you are using the other it is the third so it’s not a conflict it has pretty much been clarified. If you are interested in more of the detail you can get a good commentary. They will walk you through it but you know I want you are here to see what Jeremiah has written.

Verse 3: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, (Jeremiah), and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear.” He again calls them, “Turn now everyone from his evil way and form the evil of your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them. Yet you have not listened to Me, declares the Lord.” Verse 7: “In order that you might provoke Me to anger.” I mean is that not a frightening thing. You are doing all you can to provoke the Lord and because He doesn’t immediately respond to your provoking Him you think you are getting away with something but when He does respond it is devastating.

Verse 8: “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘behold you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant,” this godless king but he is going to do God’s work in being the instrument of judgment on God’s people. “Bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations; I will utterly destroy them, and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” You know, the Neo-Babylonian Empire only lasts approximately 70 years. They are raised up by God for one purpose to be the instrument of judgment on the southern kingdom. Then they will be removed by the Persians.

“Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon for their iniquity. I will make it an everlasting desolation;” the sovereignty of God over the nations that becomes an emphasis of the book of Daniel.

We mentioned last week the expression ‘the times of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Gentiles.’ I don’t believe we looked at the passage, I referred to it but I want you to turn there in Luke 21 because 605 B.C. marks the beginning of the times of the Gentiles and in Luke chapter 21 Jesus talks about that and used that expression and we still live in the times of the Gentiles. Luke chapter 21, verse 24. As Jesus talks about the coming tribulation which is that last seven year period which will climax the times of the Gentiles because it will culminate with His return to earth to set up the kingdom again for Israel, the kingdom over which he will reign. The ‘woe’ in verse 23 to those who are pregnant, those who are nursing babies. “There will be great distress upon the land.” I mean it’s just a difficult time to have to take care of a baby or to be pregnant. I mean you have this tribulation. How do you flee? How do you deal with all that when you are in this condition? “They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That characterizes the times of the Gentiles. It begins in 605 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem. We begin that time when Jerusalem and the Jews with naturally Jerusalem like we use Washington to refer to the United States. Jerusalem is under the control of the Gentiles. They have times of more control, less control but there will not be a kingdom again until Christ comes. So it began in 605 that will run to the end of the 70th week of Daniel which we will talk about as we move further into Daniel. That’s the times of the Gentiles. You ought to have that statement underlined. It’s characterized by Jerusalem is trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. Jerusalem and the Jews dominated by the Gentile powers.

You can come over to Romans chapter 11. Again we referred to this but I don’t believe we turned to it last time; Romans chapter 11. There is another expression, ‘the fullness of the Gentiles’ which is different from the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles refers to Gentiles dominating Jerusalem and Israel. The fullness of the Gentiles begins in Acts 2 and is the church age, the time when God is dealing with His redemptive purposes through the church, not the nation Israel. So in Romans chapter 11, verse 25: “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel,” because some Jews are being saved during this time. Paul, who writes this letter was a Jew who was saved in the church age. “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved.” And the seven year tribulation will prepare Israel finally at the end of that time. They will say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” and we have the deliverer come from Zion and so on. So the fullness of the Gentiles refers basically to the church age when God is focusing His work of salvation among the Gentiles; the distinction between the times of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Gentiles.

Alright, let’s come back to Daniel. We won’t redo this stuff next time so you have got it fixed in your mind. I trust you will do a test in a week or two and we will begin with name all the kings of the Babylonian Empire and I would flunk. But then I don’t have to pass it. I am the teacher, that’s right. I used to teach graduate students. I loved it. Give me the significance and all the uses of all the perfect tense in John’s epistle. That’s great. I got some great papers. I still use them. Alright, we looked at the first two verses of Daniel that tells us how Daniel gets and what Daniel 1 is, is just an overview to set the stage for the rest of the book. How does Daniel get to Babylon? Who are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? What is their situation? What will be their role in Babylon, particularly Daniel? How does he come to prominence? These things are dealt with.

So verse 3: “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.” And we referred to this. They are key people. Daniel may be of the royal family. Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah chapter 39, verse 7: “Some of your sons (referring to Hezekiah here, Isaiah speaking to Hezekiah) some of your sons who will issue from you, who you will begat will be taken away. They will become officials in the palace in the king of Babylon.” That is exactly what is said and is true of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They have been taken to be officials in the palace of the king of Babylon; so good reason to think that these men were of royal heritage.

See what happens here. You know we read, when reading something like Jeremiah and some of the things there and Ezekiel who prophesied during the captivity and you get something of the horror that the captivity was to the Jews and what this meant. And we just read here that the king orders the chief of his officials to bring some of the sons of Israel of the royal family and bring them to Babylon. You think what a shattering event this is. You are going to be taken from our homeland and there where you may have had some importance. You are carted away to a foreign land to deal with the language and customs you don’t know, families torn apart. It’s just read as a statement here and these children who had been raised, Daniel and his three friends, the context makes clear they were exceptional young men, they were godly young men and they are rooted up from their home land, from family and friends and carried away to a faraway foreign country. And we are told that they are youth who had no defect, good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom and endowed with understanding, discerning knowledge, and had ability for serving in the king’s court and they are to be taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

They dug up a picture here. Would you put up that clay tablet? This gives you an idea of what they had to learn, cuneiform or Acadian. We find these clay tablets. This could have been the language there; all these wedge shape impressions. Now we have an alphabet. How many letters in our alphabet? Twenty six, right? You counted, a, b, c… You know how many different symbols and forms had to be memorized, 700 to read and write this. So here you come. You get to Babylon. It’s not bad enough. I’ve been torn out of my land, my family, all my heritage. Now I am going to school and I am in a three-year classroom. We are told it was a three year training program and one of the things you are going to do is learn the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

The more I look at those pictures and I think how in the world do you ever figure that out, learn and memorize 700 of these impressions so you can read it, so you can write it? You are responsible here. Now you are going to be one of the wise people in the land. You have to be conversant in this and be able to deal with it and you realize the pressure that these young men are under and they are young. At the end of chapter 1 we are told that Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus. He’s not going to die in the first year because he is going to continue on because when we get to chapter 10, verse 1 we will find that God is still giving Daniel revelation in the third year of Cyrus. It just means here at the end of chapter 1 he continues through all the Babylonian kings, all seventy years. Now, that being the case, I mean if he was 15 when he was carried away to Babylon he is in his mid- eighties. If he is upper teens he is close to 90. Here he is, we will find him still faithfully serving the Lord, being used of the Lord. Remarkable. Apart from Joseph, his position of influence in the context of a foreign power is greater than anybody else recorded in Scripture. I mean, remarkable.

So here is where he is, he’s official. King James translated this word that we have as official as a Eunuch and you have that in the margin of your Bible. It can be used for that but that word I don’t think fits with Daniel here. These are to be young men in whom there is no defect. This is the same word used in the book of Genesis chapter 37, verse 36; chapter 39, verse 1 of Potiphar in the context of where Potiphar’s wife attempts to lure Joseph into a relationship. He’s called an official using this same word. Well obviously he is a married man so it depends on the context. Here it seems ‘official’ is the better translation. That’s pretty well become commonly accepted as the translation. Other times it is used that way as well.

They are going to learn. They are going to go to school. Now they have it better than a lot of people have it because they are going to be groomed for important positions. This is one way that Nebuchadnezzar will establish his empire. He takes the best from those he has conquered, trains them to serve on his behalf, very wise, very smart and you know it gives him connections back to these people.

“He appoints 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.” So you realize they are going to get the best of the training. This would be the elite training. I mean when Nebuchadnezzar says I want the best to get the best training and he is going to take care of them. So in that sense we look and say “Well you know, God is taking care of Daniel.” I mean amazing. He takes these four young men. There would have been others but these four are the only ones named here.

We are told now in verse 6 who we are talking about: “Among them form the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them.” Their Jewish names connect them to Israel and the God of Israel. Now they are given Babylonian names that will connect them to Babylonian gods. This happened to Joseph when he was in Egypt as well. So it is not unusual. You want to connect them to Babylon, to your culture, to your religious system. Now interesting they don’t fight against this name because you know it doesn’t involve them directly. You can call me whatever you want in effect. It doesn’t change their heart, it doesn’t defile them. We know them more by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego but we know Daniel by Daniel. He is given the name Belteshazzar. Don’t get him confused with the later King Belshazzar with the handwriting on the wall but the names we won’t go through what each of them means but they connect them to the gods of Israel and now the gods of Babylon.

The issue for Daniel and his friends comes to be the food. Daniel made up his mind he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or the wine which he drank. So he asked for permission to have a different menu. You know you could rationalize here. I have been torn away from my roots, family, friends, and home land. I mean the land is so crucial to Israel. And here God is providing for me. I mean if you are going to eat the food, the same food that is prepared for Nebuchadnezzar you are going to eat well but he made up his mind he wouldn’t because it would be defiling. I mean the simplest explanation is what is required under the Mosaic Law, what could be eaten and not eaten.

Turn back to Leviticus 11. We are not going to read the chapter but I do want to read a couple of verses out of it. As the chapter opens up, Leviticus 11: “The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, ‘speak to the sons of Israel saying these are the creatures which you may eat from.’” And he goes through this chapter here. Then there are other instructions sprinkled throughout the law about what you can eat, what you can’t eat. You can’t eat these kinds, verse 13: “You shall detest among the birds,” these animals. Then it goes on through. Why all of this? Down to verse 44: “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, thus you shall be holy for I am holy.” So these laws are important to the Jews and their relationship to God. It could be defiling.

Remember Peter struggled with this into the New Testament as a Jew eating food that Gentiles would eat. These laws were crucial for marking Israel off, separating them from others. So Daniel made up his mind he is not going to defile himself but he handles it well. Keep in mind this is a teenage young man probably. Again the age isn’t told but when you get to how extensive and long he has position in Babylon hardly anybody wants to make him older than 20 when he is carried away because then you get him into his 90’s and functioning with the capacities. So Daniel asks the commander of the officials for permission not to defile himself and Daniel has conducted himself well.

God granted favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials. God’s at work. Things are not out of control. The devastating conquering of Jerusalem and Nebuchadnezzar is not a nice man. He is not a nice conqueror. He’s not doing this to Daniel and these other young men who have brought here for training because he’s a nice king. He’s totally self-absorbed and selfish and when there is any indication of not obeying him absolutely he is willing to do away with them as we see with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when Nebuchadnezzar is so enraged because they don’t do exactly what he says and he throws them into the furnace to burn them up. And God is working though and even this commander, official, that acts as Nebuchadnezzar’s representative here to get done what Nebuchadnezzar says must be done, he likes Daniel. He has compassion for Daniel and yet he is afraid. Verse 10: “I am afraid of my lord, the king, who has appointed your food and drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age?” I mean you are commanded and you don’t eat the king’s food the king is going to look and say “Why do they look so haggard?” Well, they didn’t want to eat what you wanted so I gave them something else. He said, “You will make me forfeit my head to the king.” You see all he is to the king is a slave and a slave that doesn’t obey is not worth anything. He will cut off my head.

Daniel is understanding. He doesn’t say, “That’s your problem, I’m not eating it.” No, he says, “For me and my three friends,” he doesn’t speak for the others. Then he says, “Put us to the test. For ten days give us vegetables, the fruit of the ground; that way we are not going to have problems with meat where the blood hasn’t been drained or animals that are forbidden;” so all kind of fruit of the ground, water to drink perhaps because maybe the wine was sacrificed. We don’t know. “Test us for ten days then look at our appearance.” I mean Daniel has this full confidence and trust in the Lord. Let’s put it in the Lord’s hands. I believe that after ten days you will see we look good.

And so they do a ten day test. That is short enough that this official realizes that if they are not looking so good he has time to make a correction before they are going to get before the king. So you see the reasonableness of Daniel in dealing with pagan people. He doesn’t go out of the way to put them at risk. He’s very reasonable. He’s committed to be faithful to the Lord but he is committed to do it in a way that doesn’t put this man in a bad spot so to speak.

“At the end of ten days,” verse 15 “their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.” So they go on their own diet.

You know this has nothing to do with health. We’ve got somebody who is well known who is now selling the book on the Daniel Diet. It will bring my grey hair down to the grave. This has nothing to do with that. I don’t care if you want to go on a vegetable diet or a carbohydrate diet or a protein diet or a milk shake diet. Do whatever you want but don’t tie it to Scripture. That’s not what Daniel 1 is about. That’s not an issue at all. To do that you would have to go to Acts chapter 10 and say what? Peter is supposed to eat all these unclean animals. God didn’t want him healthy. The church should eat unhealthy things and get cancer and die but God was concerned, the Daniel Diet. I wouldn’t mind if you write a diet book. I used to have shelves of diet books. You might as well try them all. You will find something you like but I won’t buy any that are connected to Scripture. That is a totally different thing.

Verse 17: “As for these four youths” just to summarize this, “God gave them knowledge and intelligence.” You see God is sovereign here. It is His plan for them. They are to be faithful to Him and they demonstrate their faithfulness but it is God at work in a supernatural way and they just are able. It’s like God gave Solomon supernatural wisdom. “God gives these knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom.” I mean they probably picked up the cuneiform language and writing quicker than anybody else. Now obviously they were men of intelligence. They were recognized as that but God is working and He gave them this knowledge and intelligence.

At the end of the days they come and stand before Nebuchadnezzar. They are evaluated by him and he finds them better. Verse 20: “Every matter of wisdom and understanding which the king consulted them, he found then ten times better.” That’s not you know, exactly ten times that they did ten times better on but it just shows how much vastly superior to everyone else. God is honoring them and using them for their faithfulness to Him.

Then you have this summary: “Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus.” He is going to live through all the Babylonian rulers and into the reign of Cyrus and we will talk more about that as we get further on in Daniel.

Faithfulness started at an early age. Think about that. Here he is, a teenager and he is committed to be faithful to God’s Word as he has it and circumstances don’t alter that. That’s a sign of godliness. His character is not shaped by the circumstances. His character is shaped by his unshakeable commitment to God and what God has said to honor Him with his life and trust the Lord will take care of what needs to be taken care of. That’s why we have the song, “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone” and so on.

So we will move into the book and we will see how God has used him in remarkable ways. Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your sovereignty in individual lives of Your children and in the lives of pagan, godless rulers like Nebuchadnezzar. You rule over all. How simple it is, we simply bow in obedience to You and Your Word, believe what You have said, honor You by our obedience, have our trust in You and allow You to use us for the accomplishing of Your purposes. May this characterize us wherever You send us. Wherever You take us, however You choose to use us in the days of the week before us may we be faithful we pray in Christ’s name, amen.