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The Decision to Honor God

The king of Babylon had planned to nourish these outstanding young men from Judah with the same food and wine that he himself enjoyed. “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine” (Daniel 1:8). From the king’s point of view, it was a splendid menu. The Babylonians would have considered it an honor, and most foreigners would have welcomed such a special diet. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to provide good food for his potential servants so that they would be assured of good health, but also wanted their allegiance to the Babylonian religion. His food was regularly consecrated to the Babylonian gods by offering a portion to them first. This meant that anyone who ate this food gave allegiance to these gods. This presented a problem to Daniel and his friends. If they ate the food, it would appear that they were giving allegiance to the Babylonian gods. In addition, the food would not be prepared according to the regulations God had given to Israel, and were likely to include meats that God had declared unclean.

After the announcement of the menu had been given, the four recognized that they had a decision to make. They were to eat this menu for three years (see Daniel 1:5) in order to prepare themselves to serve the king well. Daniel dared to request of the chief official a special favor, that he and his friends not be required to defile themselves with the royal food. Normally, God’s people are to obey the laws under which they live. There is only one exception—when the earthly law directly contradicts God’s law (see Acts 5:29). Of course these young men took the risk of punishment by the Babylonians and derision from their peers from who went along with the king and ate the diet he prescribed.

We always take a risk when we make a different decision than most of society does. In so many situations, to decide one way is to do the will of God while to decide the other is to disobey Him. The way a person chooses each time is crucial to his Christian walk. The kind of decisions a person makes shows what kind of Christian he is. It also predicts what kind of Christian he will be tomorrow! People shape the degree of spiritual maturity they will show in the future by how they decide today. (See Romans 12:2.)

When Daniel and his three friends discovered that even their diet was to be a Babylonian diet, they must have spent long hours talking over how they would respond to this requirement. God had already prepared their menu and they intended to place their orders only from it. “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways” (Psalm 119:1-3). These young men knew that food that had been offered to idols was forbidden to the godly Israelite (see Exodus 34:15).

Today, as Christians, we are free in Christ to partake of all things and activities as God leads us. But we must take care not to cause difficulty for potential believers and weak believers who are observing us, by participating in or partaking of things that they feel are wrong. In 1 Corinthians 8:9, the apostle Paul says, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling-block to the weak.” As God helps us show the love of Christ to the people around us, we will be glad to restrict our freedom for their good.