Good Morning Friends,
“Now God had caused the official to show
favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my
lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you
looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my
head because of you.’ Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had
appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your
servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to
drink. 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.’ So he agreed to
this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked
healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal
food.” (Daniel 1:9-15)
Perhaps this story is clear evidence of the
superiority of a vegetarian diet, but I don’t think that's the point! I hope
not, because I sure like hamburgers and pizza with Canadian bacon. Rather, the
point is to illustrate God’s ability to protect those who walk according to His
will.
Daniel, and his friends, could have justified
eating the food put before them. After all, surely God didn’t want them to
starve to death. God had put them in these important positions in the royal
house, surely He didn’t want them to lose those positions over food.
But no justification was offered. Instead,
they stood their ground and ate only what the Law permitted them to eat -- in
this case only vegetables and water were left when they removed the food
outlawed by the Old Testament regulations. And God honored their commitment and
caused them to remain strong and healthy even with such a restricted diet.
These four men obeyed God and trusted Him
with the outcome. We’ll see that same philosophy put into practice in several
other places in the book of Daniel. That philosophy forms the theme the book of
Daniel teaches about how to live in midst of pain and opposition. Obey God and trust
Him!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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