We'll Never Be Royals
Our devo’s often continue the musings from Sunday sermons, but we’re going to experiment with weekly opportunities to join the kids’ conversation, too, listening along with the Scripture from our Kid Min. Someone somewhere once said something about the value of a child-like faith, after all! (Yup, Jesus in Matt. 18.)
3 Then the [conquering Babylonian] king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. 5 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.
6 Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 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. - Daniel 1:3-8
In the aftermath of military and political defeat, four young Israelites find their life situations radically changed. They have been part of the ruling class, we see in v. 3 of Daniel 1, and they’re healthy, intelligent educated, even good looking! Once lifted high, now they’ve been brought low - answering to new names and forced from their homes, into the service of the conquering Babylonian king.
From the perspectives of the Babylonians, this is probably considered an honor. Certainly it’s also an attempt to sway the powerful among the newly conquered people, to win their allegiance with the promise of special treatment - even special meals from the king’s luxurious table.
But Daniel, and his friends along with him, resist what the text tells us would be defilement. Such a strong word! Partly this is about love of God, about wanting to honor the dietary restrictions their people followed as devotional practice, avoiding foods God had named as unclean. It was also about love of their people - resisting the lure of comforts that would align them with the oppressors rather than the oppressed.
As some would put it today, it’s a reminder that faithfulness means we stop trying to sit at the tables Jesus would have flipped.
So a quick heart check: Imagine a table spread with amazing food and surrounded by seemingly happy royals - the have’s. The have not’s gather with their simple meal on the floor at a distance. What part of you craves that invitation to sit with the have’s and abandon the have-nots? Now imagine - where is Jesus sitting? When he invites you to sit with him (and he does), what does your heart say?
Talk with Jesus about these things.