Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the
royal food and wine…”
The Babylonian strategy was to take the brightest and best from
each culture and make them Babylonian in their thinking and Babylonian in their
religion.
Daniel and his friends are humble enough and smart enough not to balk at being renamed, they know that sticks and stones and Babylonian spears can break their bones, but changes of names couldn’t really harm them.
Whereas, when it came to their eating habits, that was another story. Long before we knew about germs and microbes and the nature of diseases, God knew. So He forbade the nation of Israel to eat certain foods that were prone to disease, if not handled right. Foods like pork and crustaceans. Foods that King Neb was likely to serve for dinner.
In addition, the Babylonians had a practice of offering their animals to their gods as sacrifices before they ate them. So for Daniel and his friends wanted to stay away from eating any meat that had been offered to idols.
Daniel and his friends are humble enough and smart enough not to balk at being renamed, they know that sticks and stones and Babylonian spears can break their bones, but changes of names couldn’t really harm them.
Whereas, when it came to their eating habits, that was another story. Long before we knew about germs and microbes and the nature of diseases, God knew. So He forbade the nation of Israel to eat certain foods that were prone to disease, if not handled right. Foods like pork and crustaceans. Foods that King Neb was likely to serve for dinner.
In addition, the Babylonians had a practice of offering their animals to their gods as sacrifices before they ate them. So for Daniel and his friends wanted to stay away from eating any meat that had been offered to idols.
Daniel was definite about his conviction to maintain inner purity! As we live in a world prone to seek out the mediocre, I pray we resolve to not defile the inner purity we discover in Jesus. You know I love ya, Don
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