Daniel (4)

Daniel Standing Before the King

Daniel (4)

Daniel Standing Before the King

Scripture: Daniel 1:3-21 (omitted)

• Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and took captives. Among these captives were members of the royal family, officials and their descendants.

• The king ordered the chief of his court officials to bring in some men from among these captives and train them so that they would be qualified to serve in the king’s palace.

→ The king’s requirements for selecting men:

• Young men without any physical defect

• Handsome

• Showing aptitude for every kind of learning

• Well informed

• Quick to understand

★ After being selected:

• They learned the Chaldean language and literature.

• The king assigned them a daily portion of food and wine from the king’s table.

• They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

→ Four young men of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah

• They were from Judah, and they now faced three temptations:

Firstly, their standing before the king was a temptation. This temptation was daily.

Secondly, they were given a portion of the king’s food and wine. The food of the Babylonians was generally sacrificed to idols. Offering the idol-sacrificed food was a temptation to Daniel and his companions.

Thirdly: the chief official gave them new names with the names of idols as follows:

Daniel | Hebrew Meaning: God is the Judge

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Belteshazzar | Chaldean Meaning: Beloved by Bel

(Bel was the god and idol of the Chaldeans)

Hanani | Hebrew Meaning: The Grace of the Lord

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Shadrach | Chaldean Meaning: Shining upon the sun god

(The sun god is a god of idols)

Mishael | Hebrew Meaning: Who is the Power of God / Who can be like God?

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Meshach | Chaldean Meaning: Like the goddess Shakh

Azariah | Hebrew Meaning: The Help of the Lord

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Abednego | Chaldean Meaning: Faithful servant of the fire god Nego

• The “God” in the names of the four young men of Judah was the God they worshiped, but now their names were changed to the names with names of a foreign god. They were still young then, and they were forced to forget their own God from that moment on. It’s easy for people to forget God. Changing their names was a temptation.

→ How Daniel dealt with the temptations:

• At this time, Daniel was still a young man, but he “resolves not to defile himself with royal food and drink”. For a captive, it was such a great favor to have a portion of the king’s food and wine. To refuse it would truly be ungrateful and dangerous.

• His resolution demonstrated that he knew whom he believed and trusted. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Note the following verse 9:

“Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel”.

• It means that God was with Daniel through this temptation.

• However, the official was afraid that the king would kill him if the four young men looking worse than the other young men because they would not eat and drink what they were assigned.

• Daniel said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel and his companions, “Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to ear and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see!”

★ “Ten” is a number indicating “at least, minimum” or “at most”. Daniel asked them to test, not for a month or a year, but for “ten days.” To understand the meaning of “ten days,” we can read two passages.

Genesis Chapter 24: The story of finding a wife for Isaac.

• Abraham sent his servant back to his country and his own relatives and get a wife for his son Isaac.

• The servant met a young woman named Rebekah by a well. She was the granddaughter of Nahor (Abraham’s brother), and her father was Bethuel. (Genesis 22:20-22)

• The engagement was arranged, and the next morning the servant was about to take Rebekah away. Rebekah’s brother Laban and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us a few more days, at least ten days, and then she may go.” (Genesis 24:55)

Revelation 2:8-11: The Church in Smyrna

• The church in Smyrna was severely persecuted by the Roman Empire. Therefore, Lord Jesus said to the angel of this church, “The devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days.”

• “Ten days” here means “at most”. God set a time-limit for his people’s trial. But do not forget one thing: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Throughout church history, the persecution by the Roman Empire was a long, dark night for his followers. Therefore, Lord Jesus’ word to the church in Smyrna was: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

★ Daniel said to the chief eunuch, “Please test our servants for ten days. Give us only vegetables and water to drink. Then look at our faces and the faces of the young men who ate the king’s food and treat your servants as you have seen them.”

• Daniel said this because he believed in God’s authority; God could bless them with only vegetables and water. Their hearts were set on not eating anything sacrificed to idols, and they wanted to distinguish themselves.

• The commissioners agreed. After ten days, they saw that Daniel and his companions were more handsome and plump than all the young men who ate the king’s food. So the commissioners removed the food and wine that had been given to them, and they ate only vegetables and drank only water.

• These four young men overcame this temptation, and God gave them wisdom and understanding in all kinds of writing. Daniel also understood various visions and dreams. If continue reading the Book of Daniel, we will see Daniel’s interpretation of dreams, and God also gave him visions. These all indicate that he had spiritual revelations.

★ When the appointed time arrived, the chief eunuch brought them before the king.

• Daniel and his companions were of the Jewish people. There were likely more than just Daniel and his three companions among the exiles of the Jewish people; there were also others among the captives. However, only Daniel and his three companions remained with the king to serve.

• Daniel and his companions overcame temptation, and God especially blessed them, giving them all kinds of wisdom and knowledge. “The king spoke with them and found that there was no young man like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, or Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king. The king tested them on all things, and they found that their wisdom and understanding surpassed that of all the magicians and sorcerers of the kingdom tenfold.” (Daniel 1:19-20)

• Serving before the king certainly involved temptation. By trusting and relying on God, they overcame these temptations and were able to reveal God’s glory. Reading on, we will see their testimony. God used them to bring Nebuchadnezzar to know Him.

→ Daniel was still alive in the first year of Cyrus’s reign. (Daniel 1:21)

• Daniel lived a long life, until the time of Cyrus. Daniel lived under four foreign kings. Cyrus was the king of Persia.

• The king mentioned in the first chapter of Daniel is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Bible records the destruction of Babylon in Chapter 5, and the king was then Belshazzar, descendant of Nebuchadnezzar. (Daniel 5:1, 30)

• Babylon was conquered by the Median and Persian kingdoms. Then Persia was replaced by Greece, and Greece was conquered by the Roman Empire.