RESOLVE IN YOUR HEART DANIEL 1: 5-16

RESOLVE IN YOUR HEART

(CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN)

   Among these were some from Judah:  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Beltheshazzaar, 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 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.  So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

Daniel 1: 6-16  (NIV)

LIFE APPLICATION STUDY BIBLE COMMENTARY

   Nebuchadnezzar changed the names of Daniel and his friends because he wanted to make them Babylonian--in their own eyes and in the eyes of the Babylonian people.  New names would help them assimilate into the culture.  Daniel means "God is my Judge" in Hebrew; his name was changed to Belteshazzar meaning "Bel, protect his life!" (Bel, also called Marduk, was the chief Babylonian god).  Hananiah means "the Lord shows grace", his new name, Shadrack, probably means "under the command of Aku" (the moon god).  Mishael means "who is like God?"; Azariah means "the Lord helps";his new name, Abednego, means "servant of Nego/Nebo" (or Nabu, the god of learning and writing).  This was how the king attempted to change the religious loyalty of these young men from Judah's God to Babylonia's gods.

   Daniel resolved not to eat this food, either because the meat was some food forbidden by Jewish law, like pork, or because accepting the king's food and drink was the first step toward depending on his gifts and favors.  Although Daniel was in a culture that did not honor God, he still obeyed God's laws.

   Resolve is a strong word that means to be devoted to principle and to be committed to a course of action.  When Daniel resolved not to defile himself, he was being true to a lifelong determination to do what was right and not to give in to the pressures around him.  We too are often assaulted by pressures to compromise our standard and be more like the world around us.  Merely wanting or preferring God's will and way is not enough to stand against the onslaught of temptation like Daniel, we must resolve to obey God.

   It is easier to resist temptation if you have thought through your convictions well before the temptation arrives.  Daniel and his friends made their decision to be faithful to the laws of God before they were faced with the king's delicacies, so they did not hesitate to stick with their convictions.  We will get into trouble if we have not previously decided where to draw the line.  Before such situations arise, decide on your commitments.  Then when temptation comes, you will be ready to say no.

God moved with an unseen hand to change the heart of this Babylonian official.  The strong moral conviction of these four young men made an impact.  God promises to be with his people in times of trial and temptation.  His active intervention often comes just when we take a stand for him.  stand for God and trust him to protect you in ways you may not be able to see.

   The Babylonians were trying to change the thinking of these Jews by giving them a Babylonian education, their loyalty by changing their names, and their life-style by changing their diet.  Without compromising, Daniel found a way to live by God's standards in a culture that did not honor God.  Wisely choosing to negotiate rather than to rebel, Daniel suggested an experimental ten-day diet of vegetables and water, instead of the royal foods and wine the king offered.  Without compromising, Daniel quickly thought of a practical, creative solution that saved his life and the lives of his companions.  As God's people, we may adjust to our culture as long as we do not compromise God's laws.

MY THOUGHTS

   Check out my New Year's Resolutions posted on https://omaslife.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-years-resolutions.html and see how this lesson ties in with my personal life.  It is amazing.  Just one step at a time in easy things may lead to bigger steps in tougher things.

   As I have long taught my children, "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything."

Are you committed to God?  Have you accepted His gift of salvation through His only begotten Son?  Click here for more information:   https://omaswisdom.blogspot.com/p/path-to-salvation.html.

 

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GOD BALANCES THE BOOKS DANIEL 1:1-5

DANIEL

   (1) 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 in 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.  (5)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.  Daniel 1:1-5  (NIV)

COMMENTARY

   Judah was exiled to Babylonia because she disobeyed God's word regarding covenant-keeping, the sabbath years, and idolatry.  The first deportation included Daniel, and the second included Ezekiel.  A third deportation took place in 586, when Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple.

   The word was fulfilled, which God had previously declared via Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets.  For a number of years Jehovah had been sending prophets to the backsliding kings of Judah, warning them that the day of His patience had almost run out, and that though Israel had been His chosen people, yet because of their sin He was going to give them over to the power of their enemies, and the land of Palestine was to lie desolate.  Singularly enough, as we might consider it, God connects this with their failure to keep the sabbatic year.  He had told them, when they came into the land, that every seventh year must be His.  For 490 years they had not kept one sabbatic year.  They doubtless thought they would do better by tilling the land annually, and that they would be richer as a result of making their own way.  God had told them that if they gave every seventh year to Him they would have abundance in the sixth year to last them until harvest in the eighth year; but they evidently did not believe Him, and they thought to better themselves by their own efforts.  Thus, through COVETOUSNESS--a sin that is eating like a cancer among many of God's professed people today-- the word of the Lord was ignored and His commandment broken.  For 490 years He seemed to be indifferent to this breach of obedience on their part.  They had cheated God out of seventy years, they thought; but He squared the account by giving them into the power of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, who carried them away to the land of Shinar; and there they remained until the seventy years had expired, while the lost sabbaths were being made up.

   But there was a second and greater reason still why God chose to give His heritage over to the power of the Chaldeans.  For centuries idolatry had been gaining ground among them.  They had turned away from Him, the living and true God, to serve the false gods of the heathen.  Now Babylon was the home of idolatry; so sending the Jews there would teach them to loathe the idols they had loved.  And we find the lesson was well impressed.  Ever since the captivity the Jewish nation, whatever its other sins, has been free from this great evil.

   Note that Chapter 1 and verses 1 - 3 of  Chapter 2 were written in Hebrew.  Beginning with verse 4 of Chapter 2 until the end of Chapter 7, it is written in Aramaic.  The parts of Daniel written in Hebrew are especially noteworthy to the Jew; the Aramaic parts are for the Gentile to better understand.  We will discuss the language further in Chapter 8.

   Did you note that the actions in heaven manifested on earth?  God waited 490 years for a number of reasons that tie into future events.  Oh, how I am so in awe of my God!

How about you?  Do you have a relationship with Him?  To learn more, click here:   https://omaswisdom.blogspot.com/p/path-to-salvation.html.

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