Dainties and Discipleship
Bible Reading:
Daniel 1: 1-21
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
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At first glance, Daniel’s story might seem to be merely an endorsement for vegetarianism. Begin to dig,
though, and you soon discover that it’s not.
Instead this passage introduces us afresh to a battle facing all followers of God - a battle for their
allegiance and for control of their lives.
In verse 2, Babylon is literally the Hebrew word Shinar.
That was the name for the plain where the Tower of Babel stood.
And Babel - well, that’s the preeminent society on display in the Old Testament as defiant against
God’s reign. If they were around today, their city council would probably develop a mission statement something
like,
“A people building a culture that reaches to the heavens, and a reputation unequalled - a people
no one will scatter.”
That spirit of Babel reared its head again in the empire of Babylonia. It was the dominant power of the
day. They tried to enforce their dominance by taking the brightest and the best from nations they conquered,
and through an early form of residential schooling, tried to extinguish the inner lights of their home culture, and
assimilate them into Babylonian religion, language and culture.
Make them, from the heart out, Babylonian.
That way there’d be buy in, no rebellion - solid support for the empire.
So Daniel and his three friends are plunged into training for the Babylonian civil service.
That, in itself, was not wrong.
The Bible describes many who served in foreign governments, and did so with the full blessing of God.
It’s not where Daniel found himself that is at issue in this Bible account.
The issue is one of response.
Daniel has the same challenge that faces all servants of the Lord:
You can’t always change the circumstances in which you find yourself.
That’s often out of your control.
But you can control your response to the circumstance.
As someone has said,
“You can’t stop birds from flying around your head. But you can stop them from making a nest in your
hair.”
Circumstance item -
The king issues orders to have their names changed.
Your name carries a chunk of your identity with it. It does today. If kids want to be cruel to someone,
an easy way to sink a verbal dart is to lampoon their name. It hurts. If I misspell a name in the bulletin, it takes
about 30 seconds after service for that person to make a bee line and correct me.
You are what you are named – that was a far deeper, stronger dynamic in the days of Daniel. So
Nebuchadnezzar figures to start getting to their heart and mind through their names.
Daniel, Mishael
- their names end in “el”, Hebrew abbreviation for“elohim” - God.
Hananiah, Azariah
- their names end in “ah”, Hebrew allusion to the name “Jahweh” - the Lord.
The new names they are given reflect, in one or another, the gods of Babylon -
Aku and Nego.
That was just the way things were - circumstance - nothing Daniel and his buddies could do about it.
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Step two - soften ‘em up.
Give them a top notch education with an unlimited entertainment allowance and meals that were miles
better than any cafeteria would offer.
Now, we’re not told exactly what kind of food it was.
And we’re given no idea as to how it was prepared.
Did it contain pork?
Was the first portion offered on an altar to Aku and Nego?
Scholars have speculated, but fact is, we simply don’t know for sure.
Bottom line is that Daniel recognizes, somewhere in there, that he’s being baited along, lured to chomp on the
hook and get reeled into the boat of Babylonian life, culture and faith.
Now we’re moving beyond circumstance to a choice that had to be made;
a response that needed to be offered.
“Just say ‘NO’, Daniel!”
And he does.
He recognizes a line that he, as a believer in and follower of the Lord, ought not cross.
So he stops and won’t take another step.
Actually - he takes a step out in faith.
He doesn’t fold his arms across his chest in defiant rebellion.
Rather, he folds his hands in a posture of request, and with pounding heart breathing a prayer of trust,
goes out on a limb, counting on God to keep it from getting sawed off behind him.
Daniel figures, “If the Lord has called my people to certain dietary laws, there must be a reason. I don’t
understand them all. But I’ll trust that He is right. And I’ll trust that He’ll honour my obedience.”
Daniel propositions the king’s assistant. Who goes out on a limb, also, and takes him up on it.
By the way - do you think that was just happy circumstance; that Daniel just so happened to get a
guard who was a soft touch?
Or do you think that maybe, just maybe, the Lord was already hearing and responding to his prayers by
bending and shaping the response of the guard before it was even given?
Ah, the pressure on Daniel and his friends.
As I read the story I wonder where the others are. See, these four were not the only Hebrews taken to this
Babylonian prep school.
How come only four line up on the side of the Lord?
Where are the others?
Daniel, your folks will never know.
No one at church will find out, Daniel.
Besides, it’s just part of dorm culture, Dan.
Make this compromise and you’ll get in; have a chance to influence things later.
How else will you get ahead?
Just one little you - do you think that you can change Babylon?
It’s only food. Doesn’t affect your heart, Danny me boy.
Pressure.
Only four stuck it out.
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God’s people continually find themselves in cultures that offer the temptation to sell out their commitment to
Jahweh and His Son, Jesus Christ. And, as this account demonstrates so clearly, those pressures don’t
always come via vivid hoards of demons that scream in our face, or threats of martyrdom hanging over our
heads.
The Bible tells us that Satan prowls around like a lion (1 Peter 5:8).
If you’ve ever seen one of these National Geographic documentaries, you know that they are masters of stealth;
slinking quietly through the cover of the grasses that so naturally cover the fields. By the time their prey sees
them rise out of the grass, it’s too late.
Forces of darkness crawl through the coverings and seemingly natural and harmless elements of many a
culture.
We easily become lured into complacency.
Our guard goes down.
And by the time we realize what has happened, it’s too late.
For Daniel it was the dainties of the dinner table that threatened his discipleship;
the little sweet treats that were the kiss of death to his obedience and devotion to the Lord.
The challenge for you and I come not so much in the form of dishes on the dinner table. Rather, we are
seduced by temptations of a consumer society that defines us not by who we are but by what we have.
Those “dainties” of the ad agencies trap many, just as many were trapped in Daniel’s day.
A definition of our being by what we have.
The consumer society’s version of renaming people.
Take clothes. We all pull our pants on one leg at a time. Yet sometimes, for some folks, the name on
the label is very important.
What type of backpack do you carry your books in when going to school?
Do we look at people any differently, or feel differently about ourselves, depending on whether our
address is off Centrepointe or off Caldwell?
Whether your visa card is gold or platinum?
Whether you have Rogers digital or rabbit ears on your TV?
Hear me right,
please.
I’m not suggesting that it’s wrong to have things. Even nice things.
You don’t automatically sin by buying a Rolex.
The question is more one of how much of you gets tied up in that purchase.
I hope you’re using the devotionals that go along with this present series on stewardship. In Tuesday of week
two, we’re told what researchers found when they asked the question -
“What hampers your search for the good life?”
Know what the top answer was?
“We’re short of money.”
Most people thought that by increasing their financial situation by 10 to 20 percent
would increase their general level of happiness.
And so the mad race begins.
We work to get up that extra rung, rake in those extra bucks.
We spend – ah, how our society is a mad, driven bunch of consumers.
And when the consumption slows down, when consumers fall exhausted to the side of the
aisles, TV commentators scream, Recession, and all of North America begins to panic.
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Proverbs 22 tells us “the borrower is servant to the lender.”
Tell me, how many loans do you have?
Our generation is the first one that is raised on, and has come to heavily lean on - credit.
Cards maxed out.
Lines of credit fully drawn.
Minimum payments the best that people can make.
And as a result?
Two jobs.... or more.
Stress levels through the roof,
ulcerating peoples’ stomach linings
and threatening marriages.
Credit becomes our master.
Our patterns of consumption begin to dominate and enslave us.
There’s a simple fact of life for all of us, which says that we have only so much capacity to focus on
things; there are only so many items that can have a top priority in our lives; we have only so much energy and
attention we can give.
It’s like money - spend it on one thing, and you can’t spend the same money on something else.
Or time - use it for one activity, and you can never use that same time for something else...... even
though folks keep trying it with cell phones & driving.
Same thing with our minds and our hearts............. and our souls.
When Jesus was on earth He said:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” [Matthew 6:24]
Now, no one, absolutely no one, makes a conscious decision to worship money.
But like the tempting choices that faced Daniel, choices that sucked in all but three of his friends, it can so
easily sneak up on us.
It’s the lion prowling in the grass thing.
When you realize it, it’s too late. Credit has you by the throat. You’re caught in the claws of patterns of
consumption.
Daniel realized, in a wisdom far beyond his years, that he was about to cross a dangerous line.
And stopped.
Can we see it?
And - as those seeking to be faithful stewards -
are we helping our children begin to see it?
to rise above the seductive siren calls of ad moguls?
to be deliberate with their spending?
to see financial resources as meant for more than their own entertainment and comfortable
frills?
to see money as something given them by God; given to be used wisely — and to be shared
with others.
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Daniel 1 reminds us that when God’s people refuse to cave in to cultural pressures and choose instead
ways of obedience, God’s blessing results.
At the end of their time of testing, Daniel and his friends were not only physically healthy, but they also
possessed a knowledge and insight that the secular culture could not give (v.17).
And - like the response of the guard to Daniel’s proposition - do you want to write that off to happy
coincidence? Or can you see the guiding hand of God at work?
Friends - that guiding hand of God remains at work today.
As for what you require to meet daily needs - hear the words of Jesus:
“....your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.” [Matthew 6:32-33]
And let me challenge you -
Go home and review your spending of the last few months.
What does it tell you – who comes first? What matters most?
Pay attention to what it says - the numbers won’t lie.
Pay attention to what you find.
The circumstance in which you live is something you can’t change.
The response that you offer to society is within your control.
Our Lord, whose name you carry, dear Christian,
is waiting for your response.
What will you tell Him?
