Listen Queue
There is nothing in your queue.
You can add media by tapping the “add to queue” icon located near the media player.
July 19, 2015
Although they were captives in Babylon, Daniel and his friends submitted to their captors, even through changes in location, education, and identification. When required to surrender the dietary practices that marked them as God’s own people, however, they resisted. As Alistair Begg leads us through Daniel 1, we see that it provides not so much a strategy to cope with trying times but comfort and encouragement to be faithful. The focus of the story is not Daniel but the God that he worshipped.
1In the third year of athe reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of bthe vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to cthe land of Shinar, to the house of his god, dand placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. 3Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, ehis chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family1 and of fthe nobility, 4youths without gblemish, of good appearance and hskillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to iteach them the literature and language of the jChaldeans. 5The king assigned them a daily portion of kthe food that the king ate, and of lthe wine that he drank. They were to be educated for mthree years, and at the end of that time they were to nstand before the king. 6Among these were oDaniel, pHananiah, pMishael, and pAzariah of the tribe of Judah. 7And ethe chief of the eunuchs qgave them names: rDaniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
8But Daniel sresolved that he would not tdefile himself with kthe king's food, or with lthe wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to tdefile himself. 9uAnd God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, 10and 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.” 11Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12“Test your servants for vten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat kthe king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” 14So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. 15At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate kthe king's food. 16wSo the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them xvegetables.
17As for these four youths, yGod gave them learning and zskill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had aunderstanding in all visions and dreams. 18At the end of bthe time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore cthey stood before the king. 20And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all dthe magicians and eenchanters that were in all his kingdom. 21And Daniel fwas there until the first year of gKing Cyrus.
Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
