Daniel 1 - Eat Your Greens

They say when you get older, you’ll learn to like vegetables. And I mean, they’re kind of right. I definitely like vegetables more than I used to. I used to hate things like carrots and beans. Now I don’t mind them as much. Still don’t really like celery though. Or onions.

Some of you probably don’t believe me, though. You think you’re going to hate vegetables forever. But others of you might be thinking the opposite. Maybe you like vegetables and can’t imagine why somebody wouldn’t.

If that’s you – if you’re one of those kids that like vegetables – then you’re not alone. There’s a guy in the Bible who loved vegetables way more than he liked bacon. Actually, there were a few of these guys, but the people I want to talk about today are Daniel and three of his friends.

But before we talk about them and their love for all things leafy, I need to give you a little context. Daniel lived during a tough time in Israel’s history. Daniel was part of the kingdom of Judah, which had just been taken over by this group of people called the Babylonians. The king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, had sent his armies to destroy the city of Jerusalem and take a bunch of the people of Judah back to live in Babylon. So when we first meet our vegetable loving friends, they’re a long way from home.

Anyways, after bringing a bunch of these people back to Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar picked out the smartest and the strongest and the healthiest of the people of Judah to serve in his palace. Daniel was one of these people, and so were his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Just try to imagine for a second what it would have felt like to be Daniel or one of his friends. You’ve just been taken from your home to live in an entirely new country. Not only that, but once you get there, you’re taken away from your family to work somewhere totally new. You don’t know anybody, you can’t understand what anybody’s saying, and now you have to work for the guys who destroyed your home!

If that were me, I’d probably have been pretty scared. And homesick. And probably pretty angry at the king. But above all, I would be thankful that I had my friends with me to help make things a little easier.

But Daniel and his friends didn’t really have a choice. King Nebuchadnezzar was their king now, whether they liked it or not. So they started learning the Babylonian language and doing their new jobs in the king’s palace like they were told to. And honestly, things weren’t so bad. The work was interesting and the soldiers guarding them treated them fairly well.

There was one problem though. You see, the king wanted to make sure his servants were ready to work hard, so every day he gave them this HUGE feast of bread and meat and wine! And when I say feast, I don’t mean the palace leftovers. I’m talking about massive steaks and sausages and buckets full of bacon!  And whenever it was dinner time, the servants would rush over to the table and eat this fat, juicy meat until they were full!

Well, not all of the servants. The first time that Daniel and his friends saw this meal, they refused to eat it. The laws of Israel stopped Daniel and his friends from eating certain kinds of food, and those were the only foods that the king served! Daniel and his friends didn’t want to disobey God, so they asked the official in charge of them for vegetables instead.

Only vegetables… So weird.

That’s certainly what the official thought. And he realized right away that this was going to be a problem.

“Look Daniel,” he said, “You know I like you and your friends, but there’s nothing I can do about this one. Meat makes you strong, vegetables don’t! The King wants you healthy and strong, so you’re just going to have to eat this stuff!

“But we can’t,” replied Daniel. “Our law forbids it!”

“That may be, but you’re not in Judah anymore! You can’t just go around listening to some other law. You have to listen to King Nebuchadnezzar and his law first. Besides, if the king sees that you four look weaker than the other servants because you’re not eating meat, he’ll take his anger out on me! And I’m not about to have the king angry at me just so you can eat some veggies!”

Daniel paused for a moment. No, he thought. We’re not just going to stop obeying God. He must always come first! Then he said to the official. “Please test us for ten days. Then compare us with the young men who eat the king’s food. See how we look. After that, do what you want to” (Daniel 1:13, NIrV).

The official looked at Daniel, then at the feast, and then back at Daniel. All this fuss over some meat? he thought. There are tons of people in Babylon who would give anything for a meal like this. But he said to Daniel, “Alright. 10 days. But if you guys look any weaker than the other servants, you start eating the meat right after that, no questions asked!

“Agreed,” Daniel replied. And so, for the next 10 days, Daniel and his friends were only given vegetables to eat while the rest of the servants ate the king’s meaty feast. And the whole time, the official was expecting to see Daniel and his friends grow weaker and look less healthy. After all, they weren’t getting any protein in their diets! But turns out, the opposite happened. Each day, Daniel and his friends looked stronger and healthier. And by the end of the 10 days, our four Israelite heroes looked the healthiest they ever had!

The official was super confused. A diet of only vegetables wasn’t supposed to make them stronger. It didn’t make any sense. But he was happy to see that Daniel and his friends were healthy (especially because this meant the king wouldn’t get mad at him). So the official let Daniel and his friends continue with their veggie-only diet.

Of course, we know the truth. A veggie-only diet should have made Daniel and his friends weaker than the other servants. But Daniel and his friends had something on their side that the other servants didn’t: God!

God saw that Daniel and his friends were in a super tough situation. They were away from their home in a kingdom that didn’t believe in God. And Daniel and his friends were being asked to do things that went against God’s instructions, something we’re going to be hearing a lot about over the next month.

But God also saw that Daniel and his friends were willing to put God and His law first, even if that meant they might get in trouble with King Nebuchadnezzar. And because of that – because Daniel and his friends didn’t eat the food they weren’t supposed to – God made it so that their vegetarian diet was enough to keep Daniel and his friends strong and healthy.

It’s important to obey the rules that your parents, your teachers, or even the government put in place. These rules exist to keep us safe and to help us treat others well. But unfortunately, sometimes these rules or the people around us will try to make us do things that go against what God wants us to do – like when Nebuchadnezzar wanted Daniel and his friends to eat the meat.

When that happens, we need to remember this lesson: Follow your leaders, but follow God first. We must always put God and His instructions first. When rules or people in charge of us tell us to do something that goes against what God would want, we need to remember that God’s ways are always best. It may not always be easy to follow God’s way, but it’s the right thing to do!

Jesus had to do that too. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were constantly telling Him to stop teaching because they didn’t like what He had to say. But Jesus was speaking the truth, and He wasn’t going to let anyone stop Him from saying and doing what was right.

So I hope you’ll think about this. This is definitely a tough lesson, and you might want to talk to you parents about how you can do what is right even when the people around you are telling you to do something else. But don’t worry, we’ll be working through this idea a few times this month as we continue talking about Daniel. I hope you’ll come back and join us for the rest! 

~Brentagious