When Daniel and his friends asked to only eat vegetables instead of the royal food they did not do so because they thought that vegetables were healthier. They made that choice in order to remain faithful to God’s commands and avoid eating food which God had commanded the Israelites not to eat. Daniel did not know why eating the royal food put before him was unhealthy, but he was sure that following God’s commands was better than the alternative. In the same way, we may not know why it is better to obey certain of God’s commands, but we should have confidence that God has given them to us for a reason.
My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month. So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.
Happy Anniversary, Darling!
We often focus on Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. However, today I am going to look at a few other things about that. The first thing I would like to note is that Nebuchadnezzar’s request that his wise men interpret his dream without him telling them what the dream was suggests that Nebuchadnezzar had become skeptical of the mystical powers his wise men claimed. When Daniel comes before the king, he denies having any mystical power and credits his interpretation entirely to God. My understanding of what Daniel said was that anyone who put their faith in God could request what God had given Daniel and have an equal chance with Daniel of receiving the answer. In considering this we should look at what Daniel did when he realized the danger he, and his friends, were in because of Nebuchadnezzar’s skepticism regarding his wise men. Daniel went to his friends and asked them to pray, pleading with God for mercy. Daniel himself then spent the night in prayer until God revealed the answer to him. At that point Daniel thanked and praised God. Additionally, when Daniel appeared before Nebuchadnezzar, he insisted that the credit for the interpretation belonged to God, not to himself.
I really like the story of how Daniel and his friends chose to eat only foods which met Jewish dietary laws. The first aspect of the story shows us four young men who were brave enough to request of their captors a less enjoyable experience in order to remain faithful to their beliefs. The second aspect of the story shows us that God rewarded them for their faithfulness by making healthier and more capable of learning than their counterparts. From what is written and what we know of the diets of the elites of the day, the diet chosen by Daniel and his companions was probably healthier than that of their counterparts. But the moral of the story is NOT that they excelled because they ate a healthier diet. The moral of the story is that they excelled because they were faithful in honoring God.
I have often spent a lot of time considering the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. However, today I want to focus on what this story tells us about our relationship with God. When Nebuchadnezzar made his demand on the wise men present, their response was that only the gods can meet that demand and they are not available to us to ask. Daniel had a different response. He agreed with the other wise men in stating that only a god could provide what the king asked, but he saw it differently. First, Daniel took the position that there was only one God, not many gods. Second, Daniel believed that God would communicate with those who sought Him. Therefore, Daniel turned to God in prayer, and asked his friends to do likewise. The other wise men viewed the gods as beings who were inaccessible to men. Daniel and his friends viewed God as one to whom they could turn for guidance. Let us be like them: faithfully honoring God in the face of other’s skepticism, and prayerfully seeking His guidance.
I want to make one other point. In the book of Daniel, his friends are mostly referred to by the Babylonian names they were given, but Daniel is mostly referred to by his Hebrew name. Related to that is the fact that Ezekiel refers to a man by the name of Daniel who was legendary for his wisdom and righteousness. So, the reason Daniel was not referred to more in the book of Daniel as Belteshazaar was so that people would see that he was similarly wise and righteous as his legendary namesake.
In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me. So here we are on day 11 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage. Happy Anniversary Darling!
I have read many people who interpret the actions of Daniel and his three friends as dietary advice and there have been times I have looked at this passage to consider its practical application. However, the point of the passage is that Daniel and his friends were healthier than the other young men because they were faithful to God’s commands. Now, I find myself looking at what we can tell about the diet of Daniel and his friends versus that of the other young men. The difference which tells us anything useful is that Daniel and his friends drank only water while the other young men drank wine. To me, this right here explains the difference between them, both initially and at the end. We have here a bunch of young men away from their parents for the first time in their life given lots of tasty food and as much wine as they can drink. They would have drunk to excess and eaten way too much of food that was not particularly good for them (and very little of what was good for them). That would have left their minds a bit muddled for their studies. Whereas Daniel and his friends were drinking only water and eating food which was sustaining, but probably not tempting them to eat to excess. Their heads would have been clearer when it came time to study and learn.
Then in chapter 2 we have the story of Daniel interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. This bears a resemblance to Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. Just as with Joseph, Daniel refuses to take credit for providing the interpretation. Daniel insisted that his ability to interpret the dream was no reflection of any special skill or merit on his own part. God chose to reveal something about the future to Nebuchadnezzar through the dream and Daniel was merely the conduit for God sending him the message. Daniel did everything in his power to make sure that the glory for the interpretation he provided went to God. Daniel and his friends were not healthier and smarter than their fellows because any of them had special insights into the correct diet for young men. They were healthier and smarter because they faithfully followed God’s commands. Daniel did not obtain Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its interpretation because he was smarter, wiser, or possessed arcane skills that others did not. He did so because he asked God in fervent prayer for that answer and God provided it to him. God could have used someone else to deliver the message. Daniel was the one He chose because Daniel put his trust in God.
I have always liked the story of the four friends described here. I am sure that part of that comes from the fact that I was taught this story from a young age and that these four young men were held up as examples for me to emulate. And they are indeed people whom young people should be taught to emulate. We have here four young men who were yanked out of their comfortable lives as the future leaders of their nation and taken to live out their lives in a foreign land. In this foreign land, they were set up, along with many of their peers who were brought from their homeland with them, in a life of luxury, but with high expectations upon them. They could have joined with their fellow ex-patriots and enjoyed the luxurious food and drink offered to them. After all, there is safety in numbers. Instead these four chose to be faithful to God and stand out from the rest. We should do likewise.
In the second chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar believed that his advisers, who claimed extraordinary powers, were scamming him. So, he required them to not only interpret his dream, but to tell him what it was. They told him, accurately, that only the divine could answer his request. For whatever reason, Daniel and his friends were not part of those to whom Nebuchadnezzar made his request, but were part of the group who Nebuchadnezzar planned to execute for their failure. There is much to be learned from Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dreams, but I want to focus on the way in which Daniel handled this circumstance. Daniel asked his friends to ask God to tell them the answer to Nebuchadnezzar’s demand. Then, when God had given him the answer, he praised God. Daniel gave all of the credit to God as the repository of all wisdom and all knowledge. Daniel made clear to Nebuchadnezzar that his ability to tell Nebuchadnezzar what his dream was and to interpret it was not because he, Daniel, was somehow better than others. Our willingness to trust God’s grace does not make us superior to others, just more blessed, a state which others can have by accepting the gift of God’s grace.
Today’s passage contains two stories, each with their own message. The first story is about how Daniel and his three friends became officials in the Babylonian Empire. The four of them were brought to Babylon as part of a group of young men from Jerusalem. We would probably have thought of them as boys since they were almost certainly no older than 18, and possibly as young as 12. However, when these four when they started their training were determined to be faithful to God. Part of that was keeping a kosher diet. Daniel requested a diet of vegetables for himself and his friends because none of the meat available to them was killed and prepared according to the laws laid out by God. Daniel did not request a diet of all vegetables because meat in itself was a problem but because the meat available to them would not have been killed and prepared according to the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses laid out few requirements concerning the harvesting and preparation of vegetables.
The passage tells us that Daniel and his three friends were the only ones among the group they were trained with who chose a kosher diet. We often think of them as being trained among a group of young men (really just boys) from all over the Babylonian Empire. However, the passage only mentions that they were among a group of young men brought back from Jerusalem. So, we have to conclude that the young men to whom Daniel and his friends were compared were also from the nobility of Jerusalem. All of these young men had been taught God’s Law, but only these four chose to attempt to follow it. Even after these four pointed the way by taking a stand, none of the others followed their lead. They did not allow the failure of their peers to follow their lead discourage them from doing what God had commanded.
The second story is the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king had a dream which struck him as very portentous and he wanted to know what it meant. So, he called all of his various soothsayers, those who claimed supernatural ability to tell the future from various signs (one of which was dreams). They asked the king to tell them what the dream was and then they would tell him what it meant. However, Nebuchadnezzar demanded that they tell him what the dream was and what it meant without him telling them what he had dreamed. My suspicion is that the reason he asked them to tell him what he had dreamed was because he could not really remember the dream. Perhaps he had even previously told them about a dream, received an explanation of its meaning, and then later remembered other parts of the dream which made the meaning they had told him nonsense. In any event, none of these men could tell him what he had dreamed.
In response to their failure, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the execution of all the “wise men of Babylon”. I am speculating here, but I believe that Nebuchadnezzar ordered this because he believed that his soothsayers had been scamming him all along and that the other “wise men” were complicit in the scam. In any event, the execution order included Daniel and his three friends even though they had not been part of the group summoned to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Daniel immediately went to the king and requested time to find the answer. Daniel and his friends then prayed to God for aid. God revealed to Daniel Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its interpretation. When Daniel went to the king with the answer God had given him, he stressed that he did not obtain this information because he was particularly talented. I think this is the most important part of this story. The other men who offered to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream all claimed a special skill and/or power which would allow them to do so. Daniel claimed that anyone could have obtained the answer because it came from God, not human agency.
It is interesting that of the four young men mentioned in this passage we know three of them by their Babylonian names and one of them by his Hebrew name. I don’t think this fact is of any consequence, but I find it interesting. Anyway…young men from the leading houses of Jerusalem were being trained to be functionaries in the Babylonian Empire. They were to be provided food and wine from the king of Babylon’s own kitchens, theoretically, the best quality food available in Babylon. The reason that Daniel and his friends chose to eat only vegetables and drink only water was because those were the only food and drink which they could get from the King’s kitchens which they could be sure met Jewish dietary laws. The passage does not intend to convey that Daniel and his friends were healthier than the other young men because of their diet. Rather, the lesson it intends to convey was that they were healthier and better nourished because they were faithful. I can, in retrospect, compare what we know about the diets of Babylonian nobles with the diet chosen by Daniel and his friends and see why they were healthier. However, Daniel and his friends did not choose their diet because it was healthier. They chose it because it was they understood to be God’s command. They did not know that a kosher diet was healthier, and they did not care. The fact of the matter is that if we follow God’s rules concerning sexual behavior, how we treat others, etc we will be healthier, happier, smarter, and wiser than if we do not. We do not need to understand why doing the specific things God commands will have those results. More importantly, we should not follow those rules because we want to be healthier, happier, smarter, or wiser. We should follow those rules because we love God and wish to please Him.
