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Belteshazzar and his friends

Daniel Chapter 1. Belteshazzar and his friends. Context of Daniel Ch 1. Israelites have just been taken captive by the Babylonians 605 BC Ashpenaz selected some of Israel’s royal and Nobel family to serve the King. Daniel 1:5-21.

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Belteshazzar and his friends

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  1. Daniel Chapter 1 Belteshazzar and his friends

  2. Context of Daniel Ch 1 • Israelites have just been taken captive by the Babylonians • 605 BC • Ashpenaz selected some of Israel’s royal and Nobel family to serve the King

  3. Daniel 1:5-21 The king assigned them a daily amount 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. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

  4. Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat 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.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

  5. Daniel and Belteshazzar • Daniel: daniyel, “God is my judge” • Belteshazzar: beltsa’ssar, “Bel, protect his life” • Not uncommon for foreigners to be given new names, ie; Joseph and Esther

  6. Why did Daniel reject the food? • Ga’almeaning defilment of the moral body • 2 Reasons for rejection of food • 1. Kosher Law, the Babylonians ate pigsmeat and horseflesh • 2. Babylonian food was first sacraficed to Bel and Marduk

  7. Reasons to go with the crowd • 1. Refusing food was an insult to the king • 2. Peer pressure from the Jews who where eating food • 3. Unorthodox behavior would stunt career growth • 4. Quality of food • 5. New location freed them from Kosher Law • 6. God allowed captivity

  8. Daniel’s quest for purity • Daniel and his friends chose to deny the pleasures of the world to remain pure to God • Purity in the O.T. mostly refers to the purity of Gold. (Job 23:10) • Purity in the N.T. (hagnos) refers to being free from sin.

  9. New Testament Food Laws • Most of the early Christians where Jewish converts and struggled with abandoning Jewish Law • Paul deals with the freedom of food in Romans Ch 14 (The Food Chapter) and I Corinthians 10 • God deals with Peter in Acts 10

  10. New Testament Purity • Purity isn’t about “following rules” or Laws, but abstaining from sinful choices. • Purity isn’t found in what we eat or drink, but how we live our lives • Daniel remained pure the best he knew how and was rewarded for it, we are to remain pure because it is part of our calling

  11. I John 3:2-6 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

  12. Going against the flow • As Christians we are called to be different than the world. • Daniel went against conventional wisdom and was actually rewarded for it. • Sometimes in life the ultimate reward is not here on earth, but in heaven.

  13. An Oak Tree is just a nut that stood its ground

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