GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 1:8
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8 But Daniel had his heart set on not defiling himself with the king’s food or with the wine from his banquets. So he sought out the chief eunuch about not defiling himself.
Daniel “had his heart set on not defiling himself.” This is the way the Hebrew verse goes, and Luther and others (as well as my translation here) have put it this way. This means more than that he was simply “concerned” about this; it troubled his heart because it meant being defiled by unclean food. As we have already seen in Xenophon, the Babylonians ate “swine” (Book 5, 2:6). They also ate fish of various varieties (Book 8, 2:6), not all of which could be discerned by Daniel as to which variety it might be, clean or unclean, after being served with the other meats.
The rules of Leviticus 11 are clear: An animal could only be eaten if it had a split hoof and chewed the cud, such as a cow, a deer, a sheep, or a goat (Leviticus 11:3). Animals like rabbits and pigs were forbidden. A fish could only be eaten if it had scales and fins (Leviticus 11:9). Swimming things such as crabs, lobsters, oysters, whales, and eels were forbidden. And as for birds, the Lord gave a list of forbidden birds but not a guiding regulation (Leviticus 11:13-19), and we get the impression that birds that ate other birds, or carrion, or were filthy in other ways were forbidden, leaving such things as pigeons, doves, sparrows and other songbirds, and apparently chickens and ducks although they are not specifically mentioned in the lists in Leviticus 11 or Deuteronomy 14. The other meat that God made commands about is that of certain insects, allowing locusts, crickets, grasshoppers and katydids, but only these (Leviticus 11:22).
The problem for Daniel was not only keeping himself from being defiled before God, but also keeping from offending the king who had commanded him to eat the food. It wasn’t simply that Nebuchadnezzar had offered the food, like your mother-in-law offering you another helping of her prizewinning green bean casserole. He had commanded that this food be given to the young men of Judah. For the servants of the palace, that meant the equivalent of that food, and that food only. Nebuchadnezzar was not an in-law to be politely turned down with a smile and a compliment and a nearly full stomach trying to make room for pie. He was an oriental despot, a king who killed people who offended him. And Daniel was not exactly a wise old man. He was a fourteen or fifteen year-old boy from another country who didn’t speak the language yet, and this was his first meal in his new home (prisoner or not).
This is why Daniel “sought out” the chief eunuch. He did more than ask for permission; he sought, searched, strove, for a solution to his problem. This meant explaining as well as he could what the problem was, and showing this man, the king’s own chief eunuch, that it was an impossible situation for Daniel and for his companions. Here we see the piel verb stem in the word “sought out” showing a variety of things all at once:
1, Showing respect. This is often the force of this verb when a subordinate asks a question or permission from someone with authority over them, such as when Abraham’s servant asked Laban, “Send me on my way to my master” (Genesis 24:54). Daniel shows respect to Ashpenaz, whose wisdom and experience might help the exiles.
2, Earnest action. This is when someone asks or seeks help from a desperate or even deadly situation, such as when Jonah says, “From the depths of the grave I called for help” (Jonah 2:2). Daniel throws himself at the mercy of this Babylonian eunuch.
3, An official statement. Since this was a religious matter of being clean or unclean before God, Daniel might have been making an official, spiritual appeal, in the name of the LORD God. While we would not expect a Babylonian eunuch to fully understand or agree with the details, he was almost certainly a devout worshiper of some pagan deity. He would understand religious rules.
4, The verb showing aim or endeavor. This shows what is in the mind, or what is on the heart, of the speaker or the one doing the action. God shows his intention, his aim, using the piel stem in Amos 1:7, and other verses, “I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza to consume her fortresses.” And God sends Noah and his family into the ark with the intended purpose “to live” (Genesis 7:3). Here Daniel seeks out Ashpenaz with the aim of getting help.
Why all of this heartache and stressful questioning by young Daniel? It was the question of whether he should obey God rather than men. Now, Peter declares this bravely and clearly in Acts 5:29. But Daniel lived five hundred years before Peter had to be brave. For Daniel, this was a matter of the Law of Moses being higher than the law of Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Would it be Babylonian bacon under the Fourth Commandment, or no bacon under the First, Second, and Third Commandments? Our Lutheran Confessions explain the dilemma with clear and helpful words: “Christians are obliged to be subject to civil authority and obey its commands and laws in all that can be done without sin. But when commands of the civil authority cannot be obeyed without sin, we must obey God rather than men” (Augsburg Confession). Therefore the law of God trumps all laws of men, when those human laws would have us sin against God. If Daniel’s trouble were only with something like permission, or an invitation, he could have found a way of refusing the invitation. But this was a command; another matter entirely. So although the government demands obedience by divine right (Romans 13:1; 1 Peter 2:13), that obedience ends whenever and wherever a citizen is required to do something against God’s command and especially against the gospel (Acts 4:19).
Luther says: “What if the prince is in the wrong? Are his people obliged to follow? Answer: No! It is not fitting for anyone to do what is wrong. A person owes a higher obedience to God, who wants what is right, than to men.”
The cross under which Christians live today, especially in our nation in the present time, is that the obligation to obey the government is not removed when the government makes an unjust law, imposition, or tax, and so on, whereby a person must suffer loss or injury. To suffer evil is not against the Christian conscience. To do evil is.
Therefore we must sometimes look to the holy example of David, who as a subject to a wicked king, said many times, “I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:10). May God bless our government, but may he also bring us peace in difficult and confusing times. May he bless us as we carry our crosses and live to thank and praise, and to serve and obey him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 1:8 Babylonian bacon and the Fourth Commandment