DANIEL 1:7-17 YOU, LORD ARE MY LORD

Written by , Rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia
 
⁷ The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. ⁸ 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. ⁹ Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, ¹⁰ 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.”

¹¹ Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ¹² “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ 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.”

¹⁴ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. ¹⁶ So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. ¹⁷ 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.

There is no power on earth that can own you unless you give yourself to that power. All through Scripture, the naming of another is an act of ownership of the one being named by the one doing the naming. In Genesis, God gave dominion of creation to humankind by having man name all the living creatures (2:19-20). God renames Jacob, Israel (Genesis 32:28) and Jesus renames Cephas, Peter (Matthew 16:18). From the human side, in Genesis 32, Jacob tries to gain control over the “angel” by demanding to know his name before he will let go of him. Likewise, the young Hebrew men are given Chaldean names declaring them as property of Nebuchadnezzar and as the first step to making them proper Babylonians.

But four of the young men would not bend in their allegiance to their God as their only Master. They exercised that allegiance by refusing to eat from the table of the King. Refusing the meat and wine from his table and only eating vegetables and drinking water they announced and demonstrated God’s providence. In addition to being healthier than even their royally fed counterparts, the four young men were so in tune with God that they received divine knowledge and understanding.

How often we allow the world, or even the church, to name us. We get so fixated on what we are supposed to think and do that we prosper more in the ways of the world than in the ways of God. Do you want to discern God’s perfect will for your life? Do you want to know what you can do to proper the kingdom of God? Perhaps the answer to these questions can only be found when you declare and demonstrate your absolute allegiance to God.

O God, my Creator and sovereign Lord, give me a portion of the faith of Daniel, that I too might live a life that is a pure witness to your authority, power and glory. I desire to do what you have created me to do, so that your kingdom might be made known and extended through my life. Amen.

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