Taken Captive

After last week's debacle
of a topical study, I'm returning to exposition. Topical study requires much effort to do it correctly and I simply lack the training. I am much more comfortable with exposition anyway, since it's much harder to ruin the context.

I've decided to work my way through Daniel
for this study. I've never studied this book in detail before, but I've long wanted to do so. It covers the bravery of four godly men during the captivity in Babylon. These men stood for what they believed despite the fact that they could lose their life for doing so. In fact, all four are given a death sentence during this book and all four are delivered from that sentence by God: Daniel (aka Belteshazzar) faced the lion's den and Hananiah (aka Shadrach), Mishael (aka Meshach), and Azariah (aka Abednego) were thrown into a fiery furnace. Each of them survived his respective ordeal. The book also contains a great deal of apocalyptic writing, which I would also like to study more.

The book begins with a brief summary of the setting in chapter 1
:

1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

The book takes place during the captivity of Judah in Babylon. The quick overview of the history of ancient Israel is this: Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan (modern day Israel), Joshua led the Israelites in and conquered the land (previously occupied by the Canaanites, Jebusites, Perizites, Hittites, et. al.), Israel was alternately ruled by no one and rescued from sinfulness by various temporary leaders called the judges, Israel appointed Saul to king, his dynasty ends at the end of his life and he's replaced by David and Israel's golden age of prosperity occurs under David's son's reign, King Solomon. After Solomon dies a civil war divides the kingdom into two nations, Israel (north) and Judah (south). After a couple hundred years, Israel falls to the Assyrians and essentially disappears from history. After another 150 years, Babylon also destroys Judah, but the Jews taken into Babylonian captivity keep their culture and society largely intact during this captivity and eventually return to rebuild Jerusalem about 400 years before the time of Christ.

The particular event recorded here happens a little before Judah is destroyed by Babylon. King Jehoiakim stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar because he was a puppet for Egypt, but then became the puppet of Babylon, which is why Babylon did not destroy Judah at this time. (Though, had Judah remained faithful to God, they wouldn't have been destroyed at all.) However, as the passage mentions, Nebuchadnezzar does rob the temple and carry a number of Jews (including those from the royal family and nobility) into captivity, including Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. This gives us the general setting of the book.

3Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, 4youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

We see here one of the tools Babylon used to assimilate the nations it conquered. The best of the royalty and nobility of the lands conquered would be assimilated into the Babylonian king's court. This would give them authority, train them to think according to Babylonian ways, and distract them from trying to usurp the authority of the King. This program would not have been without it's risks, but given the amount of power Babylon wielded, it must have been relatively effective.

5The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.

These men were even given portions of the best food and drink in the land. They were given the best education possible and were groomed for service in the highest offices attainable.

6Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. 7And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Finally, the men brought into service were not only taught the Chaldean language (the Chaldeans were the highest class of people that ruled the empire centered in Babylon), but they were also given Chaldean names. In fact, each of these names is a play on their Hebrew names, but named after Babylonian gods rather than after the Almighty God. The obvious intention was to help them forget their own nationality and to help them fully assimilate themselves into the Chaldean culture and worship.

These seven verses completely introduce the setting and give us the background we need to understand the real meat, which comes next.

8But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. 9And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, 10and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." 11Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12"Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see."

This conversation reveals a number of interesting facts. The first thing it strikes me with is how faithful Daniel is. Daniel wishes to glorify God. He would do so on the simplest of levels: simply by not defiling himself with the King's food. He immediately sets himself apart from the rest of the students that are being given this treatment. Doing so was risky because that culture was much more bloody than modern western culture. The king could have you beheaded just because he felt like it, he didn't need any justification. If the eunuch had decided to report these young men instead, the king might have decided they were trouble and taken care of them quickly and permanently.

Of course, why go to all this risk? What's wrong with the king's food? The problem is that the Jews had a strict code of food preparation guidelines—Orthodox Jews follow similar guidelines today, i.e. Kosher
food. Food prepared by non-Jews (Gentiles) is considered unclean under the Mosaic Law
. The food may also have included meat like pork, which is forbidden. However, the most serious offense would have been the fact that the food was almost certainly part of an offering to Babylonian gods. Many ancient cultures in that region slaughtered animals ritually and offered the death to their gods. Even the Jews performed ritual sacrifice for the Living God. After the sacrifice was made, the parts that were not burnt up were eaten. Daniel wanted to demonstrate that he did not worship Babylonian gods by refusing to eat food that had been sacrificed to them.

The next thing I note about this passage is Daniel's wisdom. The eunuch was afraid for his life that if he did this, Daniel and the other three would end up in poor health. If it was revealed that they had a different diet than everyone else, his life would be on the line for neglecting these men. Daniel spoke with the steward working for Ashpenaz to make his final plea. However he knew it, Daniel approached the man that could help him and gave a practical plan to a practical man. Daniel offered the steward a safe way to try out the diet and see if it really was a problem. If it didn't work, there was no reason that the steward couldn't turn around and force them back to the king's diet. This shows wisdom, a spirit of godly compromise, and trust that God would provide the appropriate result that would glorify God most.

Finally, and most importantly, we see that God has his hand in place to aid Daniel in this. God had softened the heart of Ashpenaz and made his steward open to Daniel's suggestion. Without God softening hearts, God's work doesn't get done. If the eunuch hadn't been softened to Daniel's plea, the steward might not have had the will to allow the plan to go forward. Without working with the steward, the steward could have reported on Daniel and his life could be in danger. This little piece of the greater story demonstrate's God's central role in working through people to achieve His goals.

14So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. 15At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. 16So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.

Whether the diet of vegetables was truly superior (I consider it likely) or that God simply made these men healthier simply for their obedience, it was obvious that this faithful diet was superior. The steward was so impressed by how good they looked after only 10-days, that he let them stay on it without defiling themselves.

I see the basic conclusion of this the lesson is that faithfulness to God may require standing up for your beliefs despite personal risk. However, it may also mean working with those who do not believe, but are in authority over you. At work, you might be asked to do something you believe to be immoral or underhanded. Perhaps before blustering or arguing, you should consider if there's another possibility. Has God provided a way out of the situation that will avoid defiling yourself and glorify God without offending your boss? It's possible that you can't without taking a stand, but if you can come up with a better compromise that allows each party to fulfill their agenda, God will use you. Even if the outcome results in a reprimand or worse, if you remain faithful to God, God will give that faithfulness its due in heaven and possibly use it on earth in ways you will never see.

Okay, well, I think that's a long enough study for today. Come back next time when we read how God raises these four faithful young men and gives them positions of authority in the land of Babylon.

Cheers.