When It all Falls to Pieces … What Do You Do?

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 1:8

Devotion

Have you ever had a summer vacation go as planned? Everything lined up just right, the weather cooperated, the kids got along? I doubt it. Vacation is a metaphor for life. Our plans don’t always go as, well, planned.

What do you do when:

the dream job becomes a nightmare?
the happy marriage becomes a heartbreak?
the charming kids become contemptible adolescents?
the peaceful neighborhood becomes drama-land?

It happens. And when it does, we have a choice to make. We can choose to become angry or bitter. We can contribute to the drama and heartbreak. We can live in denial. Or we can see God in it and figure a way to stay close to him. This is the story of four young Hebrew men suddenly ripped from everything familiar and thrust into a new and intimidating world.

King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and we are told he,

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—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. (Daniel 1:3-4)

Not only do these boys get to go to Empire University, but they also receive royal food and wine from the king’s table! Sure, they were ripped from everything familiar. If their parents were still alive, they probably never saw them again. Siblings? Only if they had “handsome” brothers. Whatever careers they dreamed of were a thing of the past. They had their lives, a few friends, and good food. They survived the invasion of their home country only to be imported to the heart of the conquering nation.

The biblical text takes note of four young men. “Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.” While we know Daniel, we know his three friends better by their Babylonian names: “The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego” (Daniel 1:6, 7).

For these four young men, things don’t go as planned. What will they do? We don’t have to wait long to find out. “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 1:8).

This is curious. Why did Daniel draw the line here?

He was willing to go to their school.
He was willing to learn their curriculum.
He was willing to serve their government.
He was willing to accept a new name.

But the food and wine? Some have speculated that the food wasn’t what was called Kosher and either had forbidden food in it or had touched forbidden food. Others have suggested maybe the food had first been offered to a Babylonian deity and was unacceptable. No one knows for sure, and maybe it’s better that way. Some of the puzzles in the Bible aren’t for us to solve. It’s possible if we knew the underlying reasons, we’d just ignore this part of the Bible like we are sometimes prone to do.

Have you ever done something because you knew it was the right thing to do? Maybe it didn’t make sense to people around you? Maybe people even teased you about it. But in your heart, you knew, this is it?

In the summer of 1988 between my junior and senior year of high school, I attended the National Youth for Christ rally in Washington, D.C. A team of powerhouse Christian speakers challenged several thousand high schoolers to live out our Christian faith.

I decided to start carrying my Bible to class that fall, and it was no small Bible! It was a big leather-bound Bible loaded with extra pages of study notes. Now I attended a large, public, city school in Lansing, Michigan, and you didn’t see many Bibles in the classroom.

That fall I’d pull the Bible out of my backpack and put it on a corner of my desk. If I had a break in class, I’d open it and read it. The first time I did that I thought, well, here it goes. I’m probably going to get mocked. Instead, I had a lot of, “What’s that?” and “Can I take a look?”. Some other students told me they were Christians, and I discovered more kids in my school that were interested in God.

I carried my Bible, and Daniel skipped the fancy food and wine.

You might know the story, and I encourage you to read all of chapter one of Daniel. Here’s the quick summary: the official gives approval, the boys eat a simple diet, and by the end of the probationary period they look healthier.

Lest you think this is a Bible-based diet plan, it is no such thing. This isn’t about the food. This is about four young men and their faith in God. And God rewards the faithful. We know this, because that’s what the Bible says.

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning … 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 (Daniel 1:17, 20).

Sometimes, when our plans fall apart, the best thing to do is trust God and do the next right thing. We don’t have the big picture, but we have a piece. What do we do with what we know? We do the next right thing. For Daniel and his friends, they trusted God and refused the food. For me 35 years ago it was to carry my Bible to school. Simple things stack up when we trust God.

What’s the next right thing God is calling you to do?

PRAYER

Dear God,

When our plans fail, help us see you. Give us wisdom to find the next right thing and courage to do it. Strengthen our faith to trust your lead, knowing you reward faithfulness. Amen.

Bill Search
Location Pastor

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