It took me about 15 minutes to read this passage. This part of Daniel’s book gives us a sampling of the lives of four young Hebrew captives; Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Just by looking at their names we see that their parents honored the God of Israel. When we examine their early lives it is apparent that their parents succeeded in impressing a reverence and respect of the Lord Almighty on their young minds. These four young men supported one another as they entered an adventure into the realm of Babylonian language and mysticism. In spite of the attempts to indoctrinate them they would not surrender their commitment to God’s covenant. Though they had no control over the circumstances they did have control how they reacted to their plight. When they were removed from their inheritance they resolved to be true to God. When they were taken from the place of God’s temple they made their lives a reflection of his law for God’s glory. In chapter 1 verse 8 Daniel recognized that the food they were being served was not acceptable to God. So he refused to eat it. The four didn’t need to seek God’s guidance; they knew God’s standards for food. Within the kings provisions they found the answer to their dilemma was to eat only the vegetables the king provided. After a test to show God faithful to their steward they lived in obedience to God first. Chapter 3 is another example of their resolve to honor God first. They knew the first and second commandments, and to honor the king by worshiping an image he created was to dishonor God. They didn’t have to pray for God to guide them on this topic. He nature had not changed.
I see this lesson for Christians today: We don’t need to seek God’s guidance on topics that he has already made very clear in his word.
Stuart
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