The King of Babylon was intent on converting the Jewish youth to their lifestyle and culture. But Daniel and his friends found ways to resist. Daniel 1:8-15 tells some of the story, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and 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.’ Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ‘Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then 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.’ So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At 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. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.”
“Dare to be a Daniel” has been the title of many books and sermons, past and present. But it’s important that we understand the “stand” that Daniel took and why. The nation of Israel was in captivity because of its failure to keep the law of Moses. Daniel and his young friends were dedicated Jews and had set their hearts on keeping the law while in captivity in Babylon. As God had punished the nation for failing to keep the law, God rewarded these young men for keeping it while prisoners in Babylon. The pressure to compromise their standards was great. They were offered all the good things of Babylon and received very special treatment from their captives. Yet, even in the face of this pressure, they held firm to the conviction to keep the law of Moses. Daring to be a Daniel is holding firm to one’s convictions in spite of pressure from others to compromise them. What does that mean for us today?
Peter was told in Acts chapter 10 to take and eat foods that had been forbidden to Jews according to the law of Moses. Peter refused to eat, saying that he would never compromise this standard. But God repeated his vision three times, telling him not to call unclean what God has declared clean. Most commentators suggest that this was simply symbolic and represented the Gentiles who did eat unclean food but did not refer to eating the forbidden food itself. This suggests that the standard of a Jewish diet is still applicable to us today. But Jesus said in Mark 7:18-19, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” Peter’s peer pressure was not from a gentile culture that ate such foods but from the Judaizers who insisted that all gentile converts keep the Jewish laws regarding their diets as well as circumcision. Peter struggled with this peer pressure during much of his ministry. Paul had to confront Peter on these issues, as recorded in his letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 2:11-12 we read Paul’s testimony, “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.” There are still those who would restrict Christians from certain foods. Paul warned Timothy about them. He urges Timothy to stand against those who “forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods created to be received with thanksgiving… for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 1:3-5). Daniel stood against those pressuring him to violate God’s revealed truth. Paul stood against those who pressured him to violate God’s revealed truth. Jesus fulfilled the law, and we are called to stand against the legalists who want to rob us of our freedom in Christ. Dare to be a Paul.