Wednesday, September 14, 2016

THE TEST



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion 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. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

Daniel 1:1-16

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we move into the Book of Daniel and the opening verses set the scene for us:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. Daniel 1:1-7

From our study of the Old Testament as it applies to the Israelites in Judah and Jerusalem at the time of God’s judgment, we know that the Lord sent the Babylonians twice. As Daniel opens, we are looking at the first besiegement of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his forces. Occurring “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, we know the king, some of the Israelites, and “articles from the temple of God” were taken into custody by Nebuchadnezzar and taken back to Babylon. The items from God’s temple were taken into the temple of Babylon’s god and stored in a treasure house. As for some of the Israelites taken, they were carefully selected to enter into the king’s service by Ashpenaz, the chief of his Nebuchadnezzar’s court officials. God’s word tells us the criteria for selection included:

1. Israelites from the royal family and nobility.
2. Young men who were free from any physical defect and handsome, intelligent with an aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified for service in the king’s palace.

Those selected would be taught the “language and literature of the Babylonians” and be assigned “a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table.” And the training for the young Israelite men would last three years after which, they would become servants of the king.

Now we don’t know exactly how many young men Ashpenaz selected but are given the names of four (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah ) who hailed from Judah. Note where Nebuchadnezzar’s chief official gave them the following new names, names that would connect them to the Babylonian culture:

Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach, and Azariah became Abednego.

The latter half of this passage gets into the actual training and preparation of these four young men with Daniel emerging as the leader of the group. Look again at these words:

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion 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. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.  Daniel 1:8-16

As we look at these verses, we see an immediate crisis occur. Yes, the king had graciously allowed the chosen Israelites to eat and drink food and wine from the royal table but there was only problem with that as some of the food and wine was first offered up to the Babylonian idols and thus would be considered desecrated by any person devoted fully to the Lord God Almighty, the Lord who said He would have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3). To eat the food and drink would be akin to defiling oneself thus making them unclean and that was something Daniel and his fellow men were unwilling to do. And so as we see, Daniel asked the chief official for permission not to eat the royal food and drink so they would not have to violate basic tenets of their religious beliefs.

At this point, something amazing happens in our passage. For we see a special verse inserted into the middle of the exchange of dialogue, a verse that is important to know as the scene continues to unfold. For God’s word tells us, the Lord had already predisposed the chief official to “show favor and compassion to Daniel”. In other words, God was moving in Daniel’s situation before he even began to stand up for what he believed in.

So it was as easy as that right?

God caused the official to show Daniel favor and compassion thus the official went along with whatever Daniel wanted to do.

Not exactly, for we read that the official reaches a sticking point in the matter. It’s not that he doesn’t want to show favor and compassion for Daniel but frankly, he is worried about his own skin if Daniel and his three comrades began to look malnourished when compared to their Israelite counterparts. This would draw the king’s attention and we get a sense that the outcome for the chief official would not be favorable as he felt he could lose his head over it.

It wasn’t looking good for Team Daniel but note the brilliant plan that he comes up with. For Daniel proposes a ten-day test to the official with the following stipulations:

1. The chief official would give Daniel and his three friends only vegetables to eat and water to drink over that ten day period.
2. After ten days, the chief official could compare the Israelites’ appearance against the other men who had chosen to eat, drink, and be merry from the royal table to see whether or not there was any change.
3. The chief official would respond in accordance to the results of the ten-day trial.

With these precursors in place, the official went along with Daniel’s plan.

So what was the outcome of the test?

Well, the chief official must have been astonished because the scriptures tell us that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah “looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food” and so the official continued to feed them vegetables in lieu of the choice food and wine.

So what is our takeaway from all this? What is God trying to open our eyes to as we begin the study of this book?

I think He is reminding us that sometimes people need to see God at work before they will believe. We know God had prepared the official’s heart to show compassion and favor toward Daniel but still the official had a hard time buying into what Daniel was asking him to do until the test run was suggested.

Often times, people we try and help believe in God hold the same skepticism. Instead of jumping right in, they need to have try a test run first. Think again about the official and imagine the impact that David’s faith had to have on him who surely was aware of Daniel’s God but practicing polytheism himself as this was the religious system of Babylon. Through the test, the official got a glimpse of God’s sustenance and how He works to take care of His devoted followers, even against what worldly conventional thinking would have one believe.

Further, ponder this for a moment. For I am sure that the chief official’s counterparts would wonder why these young men were healthier than the others and possibly even credit the attending official as the catalyst for it but deep inside, the official knew it was only the work of God Himself that made it happen. Daniel’s test helped make him a believer.

In closing, let us consider the following questions, my friends:

How can we be like Daniel in our own lives?

How can we better demonstrate a steadfast trust in God today, even in the midst of so much skepticism about what we believe in?

Can we, like Daniel, have the courage and confidence in our faith to reject anything we might be asked to do that would compromise God’s word, will, and way?

How many people can we lead to believe in God through our faith, trust, and obedience to His will, word, and way?

and

When God is watching us and the way we live, are we passing His test which asks us to help others come to know and trust Him?

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

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