Every second Monday a group of women from our church (don’t worry, this isn’t a preachy post) gets together to study the Bible and this term we’re looking at the book of Daniel (commonly known as the guy in the lion’s den). The first study last Monday was about the first chapter of the book and looked at Daniel’s courage to stick to his guns.
Basically Daniel is one of many who is captured by an opposing King and taken away from his homeland. Part of the deal with this is that he and the others are to learn the new language and culture of Babylon (where they are taken to) and are educated in their systems (actually sounds familiar!). They are also given the Kings food to eat.
The story goes that Daniel refuses to eat the Kings food because it goes against his conscience. In his own Jewish culture he wasn’t to ‘defile’ himself with foreign meat and besides, eating the Kings best food pretty much tied him to the King. Daniel chooses to eat veggies and fruit and to drink water for 10 days and he turns out to look better and be healthier than everyone else (surprise, surprise, if only I could do that……ahhh chocolate).
The part of all this that I find interesting is that amongst being captured Daniel manages to find a sort of freedom. He doesn’t just do what he’s asked because he feels obligated to follow everyone around him and he’s better off for it.
For me, I grew up being quite self-righteous and judgemental. I wasn’t aware that I was like this until I was a bit older. It took me a long time to change my thinking and now days I don’t see anyone as below me or anything like that, just because they don’t share my beliefs. I have strong views on a number of topics (particulary spiritual ones) and feel free to ask me about them, but if you don’t agree with me then thats your right to disagree. How does this relate to Daniel? Well I feel that he is a great example of standing up for what you believe without being the traditional ’shoving the Bible down your throat’ type. He just says ‘I belive this to be true, test me on it’.
Having said that, there are some things that ultimately come down to faith and you can’t test me on them (eg: the afterlife, my belief in God and his control etc…). I’m happy to share with you why I believe in these things if asked.
We are only just starting the book of Daniel and its one of those stories that has many pearls of wisdom and memorable moments. I’m looking forward to seeing what we learn next.
Stumble it!
