The
Power of Critical Commitments
“But
Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal meat and wine…” (Dan. 1:8)
Copyright © 2022 Michael A. Brown
When this particular group of
Israelites were rounded up by Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers and taken into exile in
Babylon in approximately 604 BC (an event recorded in Daniel chapter 1), a
group of ‘the best of the best’ were chosen out to be trained to work in the
Babylonian civil service. Among these
were four young men whose Hebrew names each had a reference to their God Yahweh-El in
them: Daniel and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. This reference to God in their names would no
doubt bring about remembrance of him to them, and it placed upon them their
identity as followers of Yahweh-El.
However, these Hebrew names were removed by the Babylonians by giving them local names in an
attempt to wipe out any knowledge of the God of Israel in the imperial
courts. Interestingly, and by contrast,
these new names (Belteshazzar, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego) all contained references to
the local pagan pantheon. So outwardly, of course, it was an
overt attempt to make these young men conform by removing their Jewish identity.
It was a pressure placed upon them and their faith by the authorities of this
new place in which they lived. The Babylonians evidently hoped and
expected that this simple act would be enough to get them to compromise or even
relinquish their Jewish faith and assimilate into local life.
The surrounding society will always pressure
us to try to squeeze us into its mould.
It wants to make us like itself, so that we fit in and conform as much
as possible and do not stand out. That
way it can control us, and there is no danger of us introducing uncomfortable ‘new
ideas’ which run against the grain, or of becoming reformers who can challenge
specific issues that perhaps need to be changed. In this way its status quo will not be disturbed, and the evil spiritual powers
which control and shape society behind the scenes – and those people with
vested interests in maintaining the status
quo – can preserve their own agenda for it.
Regardless to which materialistic or
celebrity idols it bows down (consciously or unconsciously), secular society
finds the concept of the living God uncomfortable, so it tries to forget him
and conveniently lay him aside as though he is irrelevant to daily life. It does this deliberately and wilfully,
trying to remove from the public square any living and meaningful faith in
God. Its intention is therefore also to
remove our conscious identity in Christ as children of God and to cause us to
identify with itself. If we submit
passively to this, then the danger is that our faith in God becomes dominated
by society and intimidated into a politically correct silence. We are afraid to stand out as being different
and afraid of what others may think or say about us, and we may then begin to
outwardly deny what we inwardly know to be true, and so deny the essential
integrity of our faith. By default, we
then slowly become like everyone else in the surrounding society, we conform to
peer pressure and to the expectations of others as we ‘go with the flow.’ We begin to adopt and embrace the constantly
shifting (and often morally degenerating) values of society.
Finding himself in pagan Babylon, the
capital of the great empire of that time, Daniel, even though he was still
relatively young, had to learn quickly to stand on his own two feet. It would have been very easy for him to ‘follow
the crowd,’ to ‘fit in’ and to keep conveniently quiet about his own personal
faith. The test that arose for this
group of young men concerned a specific point of the law which God had given to
Israel, vis. that they were not to
eat certain kinds of unclean food (cf. Lev.
ch.11). The
royal food which they were given undoubtedly contained some meats that were
unclean, and no doubt both the food and wine had been offered to the Babylonian
gods beforehand. So the choice that was
before them was simple: do we honour God
and obey his law on this specific point in this pagan environment, keeping our distinct
identity as Jewish believers, or do we quietly submit to this pressure, become
people-pleasers and compromise God’s law on this point? Daniel was sharp enough to recognize that
this compromise would deny the integrity of his personal faith. He understood that it presented a real,
practical test of his faith. This matter
had parallels with that of eating meat sacrificed to idols which became an
issue much later in some of the first-generation Christian churches (1 Cor.
ch.8; Rev. 2:14,20).
This
pressure and test came to this group of Jewish captives when they were still
relatively young, and therefore at an age when they could be influenced more
easily. No doubt they also felt
intimidated by their new and very pagan surroundings. So the majority of young men in this group
did what many people do: they took the easy way out by compromising. They compromised their Jewish faith by
choosing to submit to eating the royal food and wine (perhaps because they were
afraid of the potential consequences of not doing so, or perhaps simply because
they did not practice the tenets of their faith anyway), thereby taking the road
of safety and convenience. They were
afraid to be seen as the odd ones out.
They were afraid to swim against the tide. However,
these young men (whose names we do not know) remained unknown forever afterwards. They were forgotten and their lives sank into
obscurity and anonymity. Their spiritual
lives (if indeed they had one) sank into mediocrity with little or no influence
for God. There is no record of any
testimony for God being raised from their lives. It seems that they lived simply unto
themselves just like anyone else. We learn nothing of lasting value from their
lives, indeed all we learn is what the consequences are of compromise and
passive conformity to our surroundings.
The
crucial issue in all this centres around the question: WHO WILL DISCIPLE US? We have
two choices. Firstly, we can allow
surrounding society to disciple us by submitting passively to its expectations
and values, so producing within us conformity with itself. The end product is that we begin to
think like it thinks, talk like it talks, do what it does, and believe what it
believes. Or, secondly (and like Daniel
and his three friends), we can proactively follow and practise the teaching of
the word of God on specific points where its teaching differs from the values
of surrounding society, and thereby become disciples of Christ. It is
this crucial question that was faced and answered (one way or the other) by
this group of Jewish young men in Babylon.
Putting it in New Testament terms, the
core principle in personal discipleship is that God’s word is applied to our
lives in specific ways. To be a disciple
of Christ is to be ‘an apprentice learning the way,’ to be one who is growing
in terms of the practical application of the word of God to daily life, so that
we no longer conform to our old nature and the ways of the world, and we no
longer continue to do the things that we once did. We live increasingly as new creations in
Christ. So being a disciple means that
we proactively resolve to live by kingdom values and teaching. And it is this which Daniel and his three
friends did. But taking the first choice and choosing the path of conformity (like
the others did) means that by default we allow ourselves to be influenced and passively
discipled into the ways of the world, and we cannot therefore become disciples
of Christ.
So Daniel resolved not to defile himself. He knew that his primary identity was as a
child and seeker of God, over and above any changes that the Babylonians might
seek to make to his identity by changing his name. So he determined that he would live by what
he presently understood of the word of God and would put it into practice,
consecrating himself to this. It takes a person of courage and conviction
to take this kind of stand. Daniel –
and indeed all believers who have had the courage to act with such inner
resolve down through the ages – acted in accordance with his inner conscience
in this matter. He took God’s side and
stood with him. Like David, he proved to
be a man after God’s own heart. He had
the courage to stand out and be different, when many others around him simply
followed the crowd (cf. Prov. 1:10,15-16).
He did not deny outwardly what he knew inwardly to be true. Probably nobody would have bothered anyway,
even if he had decided to do what the others did and quietly got on with eating
and drinking the royal food and wine. Probably
no-one would have taken him aside and questioned him about the convictions of
his faith. And he undoubtedly knew this,
but yet he still determined for himself that he was going to walk with God
while he was in Babylon, regardless of what others around him did.
So he put God and his own personal faith
first and refused in his heart to compromise, even if nobody but God himself
would ever be aware of this inward stance. He took the decision not to do what other
people around him were doing, just because they were doing it. He chose not to follow the crowd or to submit
to the unspoken expectations of his peer group.
As a young man, he chose to be different. He nailed his colours to the mast. He knew that it was wrong for him to eat and
drink the royal meat and wine, so he resolved not to do it. Therefore he went to the chief official and then the guard to seek
another way through this situation, one which would not involve compromise to
God’s law. He stood boldly for God in a way in which many people of his own and
several previous generations in Judah had failed to.
What about us? In our own lives, how far do we want to go
with God? How much are we prepared to be
different to the crowd around us? The
choice ‘not to defile ourselves’ is crucial to living and walking with God (2
Cor. 7:1) and is essential to developing inward purity and holiness and to
preparing ourselves for the work of God (2 Tim. 2:20-22). If we want to walk with God and be used by
him in our lives, then at some point along the way, we will have to face the
same kind of test of the integrity of our faith that Daniel faced here. And it
will be on specific issues in our lives, just as it was for Daniel. For example, it may be in the area of sexual
morality; it may be in relation to the use of alcohol or watching certain kinds
of films; or it may touch on an area of financial integrity, and so on.
This was not the kind of facile,
spineless New Year’s resolution that many Western people make at the turn of
every calendar year and which, in practice, rarely seems to last more than just
a few days at the most. No. Daniel’s heart resolve (and that of his three
friends) was an expression of the deep integrity of their heart faith in
Yahweh-El, and it was this matter of the integrity of their faith that was at
stake here. Should they honour God and obey his word, even in a strongly pagan
environment, or not? The resolve and
inner determination of these four young men to honour God drew a line in the
sand and marked out the difference between themselves and their peer group
around them. It proved to be a watershed
moment, and brought about a parting of the ways between them and the others.
It
was the kind of inner resolve that Joshua also reflected when he said his oft-quoted
words: ‘But if serving the LORD seems
undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve… But as for me and my
household, we will serve the LORD’ (Josh. 24:15). Put simply, he was saying that, regardless of
the decisions which other people around him took, he himself would obey the
LORD and follow him. So there were certain things in life which
he would do, and there were certain things which he would not do. Implicit
to such resolve is that it marks you out immediately as one who follows God. You stand out for him, and therefore you are different
from other people; you are not the same as everyone else. This
inner resolve of being a disciple reflects the fact that you have the courage
and the inner strength of developed character to determine yourself what kind of person
you are going to be. It was the
determination of these young men to be faithful to Yahweh-El in a spiritually
hostile context, and their refusal to compromise their allegiance to him, which
made them stand out and made them what they were in God.
To
walk with God in our lives, we must learn to walk according to our real and
primary identity as children of God in Christ, and to maintain this over a
lifetime, regardless of what label has been placed upon us by others, just as
Daniel and his three friends did. God
sees us as we are, his beloved children in Christ. We cannot afford to be conformed to the
world, but must be transformed according to the renewing of our minds in Christ
(Rom. 12:2, 1 Cor. 2:16). We prove to
others who we are, and we slowly build up an ongoing reputation for ourselves,
by walking consistently in our outward life according to the integrity of our
inward character and faith. Daniel was able to walk with God
consistently over a whole lifetime, because he walked according to his inward
convictions and faith, and did not compromise.
He did not know at this point, of course,
what the longer-term practical consequences of this decision would be; that all
came later. However, this outward commitment
flowing from his inner resolve proved critical in determining not simply the
outcome of this situation, but also in determining the course of the rest of
his life. It was a crucial part of God’s preparation of him for his later
ministry. All commentators on the
book of Daniel view this incident as being the critical event in his life which
opened up the way for him into becoming the man of God that he later became. It is the hinge upon which the whole of the book turns. His prophetic ministry later in life, his
experience of deep visions from God, God’s positioning of him as a high-level
civil servant through the reigns of several different emperors, were all made
potentially possible because of his pivotal stand for God in this incident. None of
those later things would have happened to him, if he had not stood for God here. Often
it is the seemingly small, but significant commitments at a young age which are
crucial to opening up a future in God and being used by him.
Many issues later on in our lives
hinge on the reality of our personal consecration, integrity and heart
commitment at the present time. As one writer put it:
‘It is he
who is faithful in things that are least who may be expected to be found
faithful also in things that are greater: and this evidently is the Lord’s view
of this matter… Hence he is calling for
“overcomers” whose general faithfulness to principle, even in small things,
will give evidence of the disposition, the character, to
which may be entrusted the great responsibilities of the Kingdom...’[1]
This inner resolve by which Daniel lived
influenced others and caused him to become a leader. It had lasting and long-term, fruitful consequences
in his life. God’s leaders are not born, they are made, and the kind of inner
resolve of determining to follow the integrity of our faith in God, such as
Daniel displayed, is a major factor in a believer becoming a leader of others
in the kingdom of God. In fact it is the foundation-stone of
Christian influence. We can make a difference, if we ourselves first
determine that we will be the
difference. We
lead others through our proven example. It is people who live by the inner resolve
of godly, personal conviction whose lives then influence others in a God-ward
direction. Resolve carries with it
the weight of inner conviction, and it is such inner conviction which creates
followership and causes people to come with us on our journey. People follow the inner strength of men and
women of conviction. They become willing
followers because they see the reality and power of an example lived out before
them which they themselves aspire to emulate.
So our (positive) example and our
inner conviction inspire and help to shape the lives of others.
The first people to follow Daniel were
his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Through following and imitating Daniel, they
learned in experience that, if they would honour God, then they could trust him to deliver them. At later points in their lives, each of Daniel and his three friends
had the inner strength of spiritual character not to compromise their faith and
cave in under pressure, because they had already faced this issue in chapter 1 when
they were younger and they had ‘passed the test’ then. So, in chapter 3, his three friends, now standing
by themselves, in danger of losing their own lives and yet prepared to pay the
ultimate price for their faith, refused to bow before the king’s statue and did
not take the easy road of compromise.
And again they passed the test with flying colours, as the narrative
records. God delivered them, and this
testimony made such an impact on Nebuchadnezzar that he promoted them to
high position in the province. Similarly,
in chapter 6, Daniel refused to obey the Persian king’s edict and continued to
pray to Yahweh-El three times a day. He also
was willing to pay the ultimate price for this, but God again honoured him, delivering him from the lions’ den. We do not develop strength of spiritual
character out of thin air. If we want to
be able to stand without compromising at some point in the future, then we must
learn to stand NOW.
We
can also note other consequences of the resolve of these young men to honour
God and his word. God honours those who determine that they will honour him (1 Sam.
2:30). The person of resolve has a
future in God, because such resolve gives God the opportunity to work. The way in which we live our lives has a
direct bearing on whether and how God can use us. He uses
people who will consecrate themselves to him. Such a person makes his/her future different
to what it would otherwise be. Being
used by God and becoming an example that others can look to for inspiration, is
an outcome of the way in which we live
our lives. Our future in God and its blessing are rooted in our present heart
commitment. We are exhorted to
consider the outcome of the way of life of our leaders and forebears in the
faith and to imitate their faith, so that the same principles can be worked out
in our lives also (Heb. 13:7). One of
the key ingredients in making ordinary believers into heroes/heroines of the
faith is the fact that, when tested, they consistently resolve to stay true to
the inward convictions of their faith, to follow God wholeheartedly and not to
defile themselves. It is such examples of integrity and crucial heart commitment when
tested that we are exhorted to look to and to emulate in our own lives, so that
we ourselves can reap similar blessing and reward.
So
God blessed these young men naturally in terms of their knowledge and
understanding (1:17) to the point that they were far better than all the other
learned men in the kingdom of Babylon.
Furthermore, God blessed Daniel in particular with what would nowadays
be called a ‘charismatic gift’ in terms of his ability to understand visions
and dreams (1:17). These four young men
stood out head and shoulders above everyone else (1:19-20). All four of them were eventually promoted to
high places of influence and power in the empire (cf. 2:49, 3:30). As Daniel himself matured and grew older, his reputation as a man of integrity in high
position and as a godly and gifted servant of the Most High God caused him to
be able to influence a whole succession of different kings and rulers over
several decades, even into the time of the Persian Empire, many years later (chs.2, 4, 5, 6).
He was known and sought after by kings in their time of need
(5:11-12). He became a man who could
understand the Scriptures and hear the prophetic word of God (9:2-3), and also
had the privilege of receiving several significant prophetic visions which are
key to understanding the end times.
Daniel became a man whom God honoured and treasured, he was man in whom
God was well pleased (10:19).
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