History is full of stories of people like Daniel who have been taken into captivity and ‘trained’ (or indoctrinated) to become part of the new society and culture they’d been deposited in. Daniel and his friends had to learn a new language, new culture, new systems of belief, new rules and regulations, new systems of punishment and probably a great deal more too. It must have been absolutely overwhelming. So we have to take our hats off to Daniel and his 3 compatriots. They decided that they would make a stand and remain separate from their captors’ culture by not accepting the things they knew to be unholy. They were intent on maintaining their identity as Israelites. There were 3 reasons for not accepting the royal food and wine.
Firstly it wasn’t kosher. In other words it had been slaughtered as part of a pagan religion that they didn’t adhere to so it was unholy for them to eat it. Secondly, to Jewish people eating with others is a sign of friendship and acceptance – they were not going to accept the Babylonians as friends. Thirdly, the Jewish people were not vegetarians (NB this passage is not about vegetarianism). Meat was a luxury for them that had strong associations with their belief in God; remember Passover and the significance of the sacrifices they made as a nation. Eating meat sacrificed to a false god was unconscionable. The protest was made at considerable risk. King Jehoiakim could have put them and his own servants to death for their disobedience had they been discovered.
It leaves us with a question to answer for ourselves. We live in a culture that has largely turned away from God. It does what it wants to do and has no real regard for the standards of living that God has set for us. As Christians we need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to make the kind of stand that Daniel and his friends made. Are we prepared to avoid certain things because we are intent on maintaining our identity as Christians? That question isn’t about vegetarianism it’s about our integrity as followers of Jesus and whether or not we’re prepared to stand apart from the culture we live in so that we honour Him and not the world around us. In other words are we prepared to stand up for Jesus as the old hymn charges us to do?
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Questions:
What aspects of life do you consider important to your faith in God and what have you surrendered to the way of the world? How are you ‘Standing up for Jesus?’
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, bless us with the strength to set ourselves apart for you in the world. Grant that we might not give in to earthly pressure to conform so that all may know we belong to you. Amen.