Standing Firm in Conviction | Daniel 1:1-21

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Happa, Happy single. Day, Pepa, Pepa, Peppa. Yeah, Happa. Cinco de Maya. Hey, what if I told you Cinco de Mayo helps save the United States from falling apart? What? What I know? That's not true? Yeah, it is true, Sinkle Demayo. It is true. Which is a Mexican rooted Yeah yeah. Okay, So, so I typed into I typed into chat GPT tell some amazing facts about Cinco de Mayo. Oh this is our segment that our podcast listeners probably don't know about. Okay, okay, yep, and here's what it gave me. Yes, so then, I you know, you can't trust everything, Hey, I tells you. So I had to look it up make sure it's true. But here, Sinkle Demayo, isn't Mexico's Independence day? Okay did you know that? Uh No, I'm not even sure I knew what Sincle Demayo is. It's taco, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, So and. Jeff Miller's birthday okay, oh really yeah? Yeah, yeah, my fifth, So single Demayo actually commemorates the Battle of Puebla in eighteen sixty two. Case you were wondering, Oh, wow, yeah, oh that battle. Yeah yeah, yeah, the Battle of Puebla. That's right. So the independence day for Mexico lands on September sixteenth, so that's different. But here you go. The battle was against Napoleon the Third, not Napoleon Bonaparte. Oh for that, No, I did not know. So whenever people hear that the battle was, it was with Napoleon, it's not the same Napoleon, the short little guy with the hand in the stry. Right. The Mexican victory had global ripples. Here's what it says. Historians believe that if Mexico hadn't won the Battle of Puebla, France might have supported the Confederacy in the US Civil War. So it was France against Mexico. Oh, had won that war, that battle against Mexico, they probably would have defeated Mexico and then supported the South in the Civil War. That was the plan. Wow, right, So that Mexican victory may have helped keep France from interfering and even influence the eventual preservation of the Union. Isn't it amazing? Wow? Yeah. And then also Sinko to Myo is a way bigger deal in the US than it is in Mexico. Yeah. So it's more of a Mexican American culture, pride, heritage kind of day here, But in Mexico it's not that big of a day. It's like a minor holiday. Wow. Funny. So it's like President's Day for US where people are like, oh, it's today something. Yeah yeah, yeah, Oh we get the day off yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah. So it says at the Battle of Puebla, the Mexican army had about two thousand poorly equipped soldiers while the French had over six thousand well armed troops. Wow, and yet Mexico won. There you go, isn't that great? Well? You know what that don't under estimate those Mexicans. That's right. Only at the Battle of the Alum right, So then we had one hundred something and we lost, but we held him off for a long time. Yes, have you been to the Alamo? I have never been. Yeah. No, so I've been there many times. We used to live in Texas. I've been there several times. We took a tour one time and this guide takes us all over the grounds and explains the battle. And right here they believe this is where so Davy Crockett went down there. He was a senator and he left Tennessee went down to help fight because he heard about the problem. He goes down there. He was standing out in front of the doors, and according to legend, he ran out of bullets and he flipped his gun around and used it as a club and just stood there and just kept fighting as they were coming over the walls, right and really really crazy. Anyways, this guide takes us all through, he tells us all the stories. He gets us inside and then everything quite down. It was early in the morning and so there wasn't able to us in there. And he said, I just want you to listen to this holy Texas place. Just silent, you know, And he said, and contemplate the sacrifice of brave men and women who are willing to fight for freedom. So you just stand as quiet, and then you start hearing people sniffle, people crying. It was really an amazing wow, amazing woman. Yeah, so hey, the bravery of a few fighting against the the tyranny of the many. That that's the stories here both between sink of to MYO and then my little story with that Lama. So, hey, what a segment today? Yeah, there you go. And it all started with happy Happa sink of the Maya. Yeah, and go get some tacos. Yeah that's right. Yeah, well, hey, welcome to the Bible guys. That was our segment. Actually, so Desiree said, look up on chat GPT and talk about some interesting facts about Sinkle to MYO. Yeah that our people might not know well and all of that. But like, I wonder if I've ever once had a conversation with anybody on Sinkle to my about the meaning of Sinkle to mile. There you have you. Yes, Oh, my daughter's boyfriend's Mexican. Oh I see, and he goes, I don't know what's Sinkle to my always. So we looked it up. Wow, he didn't even know. He knew that it was some holiday the military thing, but he didn't know it was. Yeah, that's so funny. So that's great. And yeah, well hey it's Monday and we are kicking things off right and we are going to transition. Well, we we bring the most important information to our listeners. Yeah, of course, we're trusted sources of information, Yes, speaking of trusted sources of information. Oh, okay, all right. We're shifting. We're shifting to a new book, the Book of Daniels. So you're just by the way that transition works for anything, right, we bring information speaking of information that trusted. I was going to say, I was going to say, uh, speaking of a battle, a battle of a few against many. Yeah, it was Daniel and his friends against the forces of nature of Babylon. Wow. Yeah, I was going to say that. Okay, yeah, but yours is better. So we're going to. Start un because yours is worse. Yeh, it was worse. Uh. If you are a new listener, we keep having to remind people one of our goals is to have like the worst transitions between the silly thing at the beginning and then the yes, the devotional part at the end. But we're kind of going through the highlights of the Old Testament. We just finished up a lot of the Mike Isaiah, Yeah, Mike Isaiah, the stories that Hazekaia and in chronicles and Kings, and now we're moving into, uh, the story of Daniel. There's there's some big stories in Jeremiah will cover Daniel here for the next couple of days, we'll spend some time in the store in the Book of Daniel. Yeah, and so as you remember, our listeners, if you've been following along, Assyria has gone down and Babylon has risen, and Nebu Keidnezzar is the ruler of Babylon. And that's what it's all going to tell us. In the first couple of verses. Oh, it explains that in the verses oh, there's no context needed. Huh, it's really good, it's cool. The only the only context would be this is about six oh five b c. Yep okay okay. It says, during the third year of King Jehoia Kim's reign in Judah, King Nebu Keinezar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave him victory over Jehoia Kim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects of the Temple of God. So Nebu Keinnezer took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure house of his God. Then the king ordered Ashpanaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families who have been brought to Babylon as captives. Select only strong, healthy, and good looking young men, he said, make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace. Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon. The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for three years and when they would and then they would enter the royal service. Daniel, Hannanaiah, Michel, and Azariah were for the young men, chosen all from the tribe of Judah. The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names. Daniel was called the Belta, shazar hannan Andaiah was called Shadrag, Michelle was called Meshak, and Azariah was called a bed nigo, a bed nigo. Although everybody wants to say the bendigo. Yes, and that's what I just started to say, yes, yes, right, a bed nigo. But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the King. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods. Now, God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel, but he responded, I'm afraid of my lord, the King, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other use your age, I'm afraid the king will have me beheaded. Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look over Daniel, Hann and I, A, Michelle and Azariah. Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables on water, Daniel said, and at the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king's food, and then you make your decision in light of what you see. The attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who'd been eating the food assigned by the king. So after that the tenant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others. God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom, and God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams. When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to King Nebukinezer. The King talked with them, and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, Hanna and i A, Michelle, and Azariah. So they entered the royal service. Whenever the King consulted them in any manner requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom. And Daniel remained in the royal service until the first year of King Cyrus. Wow, well, there you. Go, there you go. And I love Daniel. I love the Book of Daniel. I love the stories of the Book of Daniel, and I love Daniel one to eight. It has been a long time favorite verse of mine. But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and the wine that was given by the king. And it's been. Speculated that it's because those that protein was a sacrifice to a false god, right, is that what you've heard that? Or pork Okay, pork was a big part of the Babylonian diet. That could have been that too, yep. But either way, that part is actually a little bit less important. I mean, it's not like it's important to understand that Daniel had his own convictions, right, Like, that part's pretty important, but for the reason why he had his convictions is not so important. So it could have been that they, you know, had. This meat that was sacrificed to false idols, you know, because the king, you know, was not a believer in the true God. So it could have been that, or it could have been that maybe you know that maybe it was poor for whatever reason, he had conviction against it. And but the teaching of verse number eight is something I've always held onto because Daniel had made up his mind before the situation presented itself. So you know, it's you know, the King James version says he purposed in his heart, right, So it's it's it's it's a really powerful thing to determine in your mind where you're going to draw the line before the situation presents itself. So you know, you're going to say, hey, I will not do this. I refuse to do this. I will not cross the boundary in any way. And you're going to set your own convictions. You're going to set your own boundaries, and you're going to purpose in your heart or make the decision before the situation happens. And I just love that. I love how Daniel was very intentional about his convictions and now he had drawn the line in the sand in his own heart before anything actually presented itself. It's not as if he made a ruckus when they came and said here eat, He's like, no, no, no. He made a decision and then he went to the captain the guard and he said, I have a request based on my convictions. Yeah. Right, So it's it's it's it's very cool. I think I think it's a touch more elegant if it was a pork or a forbidden food thing, because then he wasn't only just choosing his personal opinions, right, His convictions were centered on the laws of God right there. Because there's alippery slope with a guy like nebie Keinezer and you know, with Daniel and chatter at Meshek and Ben and go in that when you begin to go, well, we're in a foreign land now, and we know what God's laws are, but we don't want to die. God doesn't want us to die, so we'll just have to compromise here and there, which the other elite young men did. All the other guys with them are also from the royal families of Judah, right, right. It doesn't mention that they they did not as. A matter of fact, that they were. These four boys were compared against all the other young men, that's right. So all the other young men indulged, well, you know, and they felt justified to do so, probably, But you have these four young men who go, we're not going to compromise what we know is right. And when you begin to receive gifts and embrace the culture of this pagan culture, it's just a slippery slope to become just like them, which we know happens later in the book, because there's going to be a time when these are the only guys that are standing up when everybody else is bowing down. Right, So this is I think the beginning that they predetermined in their heart we are not going to if there's any possible way, We're not going to compromise our our beliefs in God's ways, in God's words, right. So that's a part of that. I love the predetermined thing. I think that's really important. I think a lot of young people in particular don't think through why they believe what they believe right, and so then we rarely go, I don't care what God says, I'm going to do what I want to do. Usually we just do what we want to do because we don't know what God says, or because we haven't embraced what God says right. It's not always a lot of the dumbest things we've done in our lives wasn't full on rebellion. A lot of it was just either ignorance or I hadn't thought it through and slipped into it and then thought what did I do? Right? But they predetermined it and just highlights their wisdom. The other thing I love about this and I've been thinking a lot about this. You and I just before the podcast started, we're talking about a situation I'm trying to help resolve, and the situation, the problem, it's a huge problem, not with our church or anything, but outside of our situation, and it really centers on a lack of diplomacy. The problems came partly because bad people decided to do bad things, but also otherwise good leaders lacked diplomacy. It's possible to do the right thing the wrong way and get the wrong result. Right, so if you do the right thing, you know what you did is right, but you did it the wrong way, you're going to get the wrong result, not the right result, even though you did the right thing. So one of the things that one of the elements I'm putting together the framework. It's sort of like Christians who type in all caps. It's maybe the right idea, but yeah, now you're screaming online. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm putting together the framework. Maybe you and I can work on it later. Putting together the framework for a substantial either a seminar or a booklet something, maybe an ebook on biblical diplomacy. There's not a lot written about biblical diplomacy. And Daniel is one of the key factors. There's a bunch of them in the Bible, of just very wise men and women that use good tactics that can be applied and here Daniel. Daniel knew that this was going to be for three years. The guideline from the king was set this aside. They're going to be trained for three years and then I'm going to if they're good enough, I'm going to bring them into the royal service. So Daniel knows that we got three years on this one. He goes to what's the guy's name, Ashpinas the chief of staff and says, hey, listen, so we've got this issue. We're not going to eat that food if there's any way we're not going to eat it. But if you'd give us this other food, the food that we can eat legally in our law, in our belief system, we'd really appreciate it. We won't cause any more trouble. And Ashpinaz goes, dude, I'm going to get killed if you guys, you have to be sharp looking and better than everybody else. And he goes, okay, then just test us for ten days. So what he found was this really good, elegant solution and if it worked out, it was going to be a win win for both. And then he said just test it, and so he was working for the win win. It turned out that they were better, and so Ashpinaz wins because he has these four you league guys, Daniel shatterick me, scheck in a bed and go win. So taking the time, Daniel did not just fight it, going no, we won't do it. Do whatever you're gonna do to us. Daniel also was solution oriented, offering an elegant solution that if it worked out in his test, then Ashpanaz was going to be a winner too. Yeah, and so this this idea of biblical diplomacy. One of those is working for a win win, And well, I forgot the other one that I was going to say. I said them both, Hey, so do you believe that this was a miracle of sorts like a god or like a god blessed kind of a challenge, because, after all, you know Ashpinash said, well, we all know what's going to happen if you only eat vegetables. If you only eat vegetables, you're going to look pale and weak. And then Daniel, because of his conviction and his belief and because of God's law, says, I'll tell you what, let's throw out a challenge. And so it's safe to assume that because you know, I mean, it doesn't have to be this way. But I viewed this way, it's safe to assume that God did this. God caused them to look fairer and stronger and healthier that God showed up. In other words, this wasn't just a It wasn't merely a practical solution. It was a weird I know, God wants us not to partake in this food, like this is a God thing. And guess what God's going to take care of us. God will make us look healthier. Yeah, well God, God adds his super to our natural right, So they did the right thing. Now, I can tell you if you're eating a fatty, you know, less than stellar diet like a king would eat, versus somebody deciding to eat, you know, a really good healthy thing. But we don't know. It could have been that the king was very keen on lean protein. Yeah, I don't know that. That's what it hints at. It It doesn't hint in anything, right, Well, it hints at. The fact that they chose vegetables, yes, right, which means they chose a really healthy man. So what I'm asking is, I'm asking do you believe have you always viewed it as And. Again no, I didn't view it as a supernatural thing. Oh yeah, but when we get to heaven. This is one of the things I'm gonna ask gotten because I mean, we're gonna have some time to talk, right, Yeah, we're gonna have some time to. Follow, So supernatural it depends. Are you saying this was a miracle and this wouldn't normally have happened, but it happened there. I don't believe that. Do I think that God blessed them for choosing to do the right thing? Yes, well those are the same things. Well no, because I think if you decided to do the same thing, I think God would bless you too. So I don't know that it needs to be this walking on water kind of a miracle. I'm not saying. I'm not saying this. It's like a natural result of doing the right thing. I'm not saying it's a fiery furnace moment. But I am saying that they did step out of the fire furnace. You know, he's he's going to be in the lions den. These are these are people who are saying, I will not do this thing. I won't bow down. I won't. I won't I won't shut the doors. I'm gonna open my windows. I'm I'm not gonna stop praying, and I won't eat the eat that's going to defile me, which is an indication against against the laws of God, which means, in my opinion, I think this is in the same category. I think. I think I think that because there's no other reason why ashvinash would have thought he was gonna look paler and look leaner and uh not as healthy. Unless unless he didn't understand the meals that these young men were wanting prepared for. Them well, but he was also a professional. And yeah, so so I'm not arguing it other than the fact that it does seem to say insaneventeen. God does give them a supernatural aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom, and God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meetings of visions and dreams. So it highlights the fact that there are miracles in their knowledge, but it doesn't say anything about physical miracles. I food. So that's all. I was saying. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I'm trying not to. I'm going to play I'm going to play Chris star Ball here and say I don't want the scriptures. I don't want you to say something that's not in there. Yeah, right, because it's silent on the miracle side of the food thing, right, but it's not silent on the miracle side of he gave them an unusual aptitude for. So I should have started I thought I did, but I should have started with the clarity of like it indicates no, in no way does it indicate that it's just practical and like scientific and nutritional or miraculous, and no way to indicate that. And so there is you. Know, there's the Daniel diet, right, and there's all these different things where people are like, look, there's proof. There's proof right here. See if you eat this way, that's the way it's better, right, And that makes me chuckle inside because I'm like I'm like, oh, yeah, I know. All you got to do is just you know, step into a furnace and you want some like smoke either. Right. So it's like, well, one is articulated as a miracle and the other one is not articulated as a miracle. Yes, that is correct, right, So the the bigger picture here, quite honestly, And that's a fun little debate. I like that kind of stuff, right, yes, right, And this is just asking for fun, a couple of preachers nerding out on on the details of a thing. But the bigger picture. Is they. Determined in their heart that they weren't going to and I think it's easier. There's a note here, it's easier to resist temptation if you've thought through your convictions about the temptation before it arises. Daniel and his friends made their decision to be faithful to the laws of God before they were faced with the King's delicacies, so they did not hesitate to stick with their convictions. That's another reason I think it was bad food. It's because it's a delicacy kind of a thing. Anyways, we will get into trouble if we have not previously decided where to draw the line before such situations arise. Decide in your commitments. Decide on your commitments and what you will do, and then when temptation comes, you'll be ready to say no. It's far easier to say no to a thing that you've already predetermined it's going to be a no. Yeah. I try to predetermine my decisions, you know. I say that all the time. Duties never conflict, right, right, say it all the time. My wife hates it when I say that, but it's true. I have a series of priorities in my life that I've determined God is first, and God's Ways are first. My wife is second, my family is third, my church is fourth, and then within there my responsibilities within the church, my various team leaders and things, and then my work with TTI, and I can kind of just spell it down from there, and so duties never conflict. If I have one that goes against the other, it's easy to make a decision. Then, because it's a predetermined thing. There's always one thing that's more important than the other thing. And so while it feels conflicting to me, boy, those are both important to me, I've already determined one is more important than the other, and so it's way easier to make the decision that I don't lose sleep over those decisions because I know, all right, I've predetermined I have a set of priorities, and I have to go with my priorities, so I can't do everything. And I think that's what they did there, is they decided God's Way was their priority, and it made it way easier for them to make decisions, whereas all the other young men hadn't really thought those things through, and they wound up going the King's way well, and they wound up adopting the culture. Well. Hey, I can't wait to dive into the rest of Daniel. And thanks for joining with us, and hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible gush