Daniel Chapter 1
Daniel and his determination to be pure (1:1-21)
Daniel refuses to eat the king’s meat (8-17)
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.9 Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Daniel before the king (1:18-21)
18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.19 And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
What we learned:
Daniel resolved to live a clean, Godly life; and from what we can read in Scriptures, he appears for the most part to have achieved this.
Daniel lived in Babylon throughout the seventy years of Babylonian captivity and into the reign of Cyrus the Persian who built the Medo-Persian Empire. He was active in the reigns of several kings: (1) Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned 604-561 B.C. and began the; (2) Belshazzar, who was a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and probably reigned as viceroy under Nabonidus; (3) Darius, the Mede, who took the kingdom the night of Belshazzar’s great feast; and (4) Cyrus, the Medo-Persian, who fully established the Medo-Persian Empire, the second of the world empires following Nebuchadnezzar. It seems Daniel died in the first year of King Cyrus, and he may have helped inspire the decision of Cyrus to have the Temple rebuilt (cf. 2 Chr. 36:22,23; Ezra 1:1-4) (The Rice Reference Bible, 1981, pg. 911)
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001 chaplain@alaskaseniors.com
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