I originally planned to teach this in Sunday School. It turns out the class had already studied these verses as I was looking at an older study guide. Since I had put in the work, I turned it into an essay. The curriculum used comes from Lifeway’s Bible Studies for Life Collection.
Read Daniel 1.
The Missing Verses
While preparing for a Sunday School class on Daniel chapter 1, I noticed the curriculum chose to skip the first two verses. Sometimes, people omit verses out of an eagerness to unpack a story. Especially the boring verses. Besides, who wants to read about what year a king reigned or what city besieged who? Often, it is easier and quicker to summarize this information. For example, the Book of Daniel opens with the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar, conquering Judah and abducting essential citizens from Jerusalem (Judah’s capital). We feel safe with this background. There is just enough information to allow us to proceed. We can unpack the story of young Daniel and his friends and learn from them how to navigate our faith in a non-Christian culture.
But what if that isn’t the primary intention of this story?
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.
Daniel 1:1-2
Skipping the first verses means missing something important. As I already stated, the first verses provide the backdrop of our story – the Babylonian invasion and Judah’s captivity. However, these verses also clarify that Nebuchadnezzar’s success was due to Yahweh’s1 work.
At the very beginning of this book, we learn that God is in control. In verse 2, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands. Within the story, the Lord gives Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of Ashpenaz. It is the Lord who gives Daniel and his friends knowledge and understanding. And if that weren’t enough, God also gave Daniel an understanding of visions and dreams.
The book of Daniel prominently begins with a message that although Jerusalem has fallen and the people have been taken captive to Babylon, Yahweh is still in charge. In this particular case, forgoing the first two verses subdues God’s role in the story. Therefore, we’re permitted to look for more natural applications. We can emphasize the importance of raising our children in a Christian environment. We can sit in a circle and discuss our convictions and how the world expects us to abandon them. However, Daniel’s story is not a how-to for navigating our culture. It is about identifying with the God who is in control.
Culture and Culture Shock
Consider Daniel’s situation. The Babylonians had stripped him of all sense of normality. Daniel and his friends found themselves away from home and in a strange land. What must that have felt like?
Some Bible teachers compare the television shows of the 1960s with today’s world to help a classroom relate to Daniel’s situation. They associate this tension with culture shock. The television analogy refers to a time gone by: “This is not the world I have known!” Although this type of analogy intends to evoke feelings of unfamiliarity, this example doesn’t paint a picture of culture shock; it describes nostalgia.
Nostalgia is not culture shock. Cultures change over time, but that time numbs the shock.
Culture is “the way things get done around here.” It encapsulates the accepted values, symbols, and rituals of a community. How we dress, what, when, and how we eat and say hello are all aspects of culture. Since culture is something we are born into, it becomes second nature.
Culture shock is the disorientation experienced when entering a new cultural environment that embraces different values, symbols, and rituals. We usually don’t even consider cultural differences until we find ourselves in an environment that does things differently, and then we experience culture shock.
Have you ever watched the reality television show The Amazing Race?
As they race around the world, the contestants on this show experience culture shock weekly. Culture shock is neither good nor bad. It may be disorienting, confusing, and flustering. However, it can also lead to appreciation and admiration for another culture.
You do not have to leave the country to experience culture shock. The differences of another country’s culture may just be more overt.
Daniel and his friends find themselves learning and working in a pagan culture. They are working in an empire that operates on values, expectations, and assumptions different from theirs. They likely experienced culture shock. The Jewish exiles probably found themselves both nauseated by some of the cultural differences and possibly enticed to other aspects.
Did you know?
It is easier to study cultures after you have experienced culture shock. Hofstede asserted that studying culture without experiencing culture shock is like practicing swimming without water.2
Cultural Assimilation
Various reasons may be behind Nebuchadnezzar’s taking young members of Judah to Babylon.
- Ensure that Judah would pay its homage (taxes) to Babylon.
- Discourage Judah from rebelling.
- Increase Babylon’s workforce.
- Culturally assimilate Judah’s future leaders.
We mustn’t view Nebuchadnezzar’s actions as unique to him or morally outrageous. They were practical and still occur today. For example, in 2006, Disney and Pixar merged. These businesses had vastly different cultures (how things get done around here). A large part of a successful merger is determining how these two cultures will engage. Will one culture dominate? Will a new culture emerge? The success or failure of mergers depends on recognizing and addressing cultural differences.
Have you ever noticed how people groups cluster together? For example, in Angier, there is a thriving Hispanic community. If you go to Morrisville, there is a flourishing Indian population playing cricket in the streets.
When refugees come to our country, ministries recognize that there is a critical but small window of opportunity for effective evangelism. That window is the time immediately after they arrive and before they find and integrate with their national community. At that time, they are more open (or vulnerable) to the gospel at that time.
NOTE: This is not an exclusively “Christian” tactic. Religious groups seeking converts and governments seeking to assimilate people into the culture use similar tactics. This window of opportunity is a well-known variable.
Indoctrinating the Youth
It is also not a coincidence or an accident when groups seek to gain an audience with a nation’s children. Nebuchadnezzar recognized the value of culturally assimilating other kingdoms. He also saw the value of targeting the youth (not the adults).3
How King Nebuchadnezzar indoctrinated the youth:
- The king assigned Ashpenaz to train the Jewish boys for service in his palace and teach them Babylonian culture, language, and literature.
- The training would require three years of learning.
- The king ordered the daily provisioning of royal food to these young students.
- Ashpenaz assigned the youth Babylonian names.4
Often, one takeaway from this story is the importance of raising children in a God-fearing home (2 Timothy 1:5). There is value in raising our children in a home that honors God. However, any discussion here feels, at best, anecdotal. We can draw from personal experiences and recognize the value of having a Christian foundation. Still, the first chapter of Daniel gives us nothing about Daniel or his friends’ upbringing or if something in their upbringing distinguished these four youths from the rest of the youths brought into the King’s palace. Remember that Daniel and his friends will hold firm to a conviction when other Israelites do not.
Our convictions, not our circumstances, define who we are.
This is an identity statement.
As the story continues, a distinguishable theme emerges: the culture of Babylon is contrasted with the culture of four Jewish boys. Daniel draws a line in the sand and says, “No further. We can not do what you ask.”
What did Daniel and his friends refuse to do?
Did these four refuse to learn the Babylonian culture? No.
Did these four refuse their new Babylonian (possibly pagan) names? No.
What they did was refuse the king’s food.
This story concerns the four youths who wouldn’t eat the king’s food. Why?
- It may have been food God had deemed unclean.
- It may have been food sacrificed to idols.
The passage does not tell us precisely what was defiling about the food and wine. It may have been the Babylonian distinctiveness of the food. We have distinctive foods today. We can distinguish between Italian, Mexican, Portuguese, Chinese, etc.
Does anyone else find this odd?
Food was the line, not the teaching, not the new names.
Why is food the line in the sand?
Here’s how the story sounds: It’s like having my children sent off to a public school that wants to imbue them with ideas contrary to how I’ve raised them and changed their names. Then, seeking to honor what I’ve taught them, they refuse to eat the cafeteria food.
It sounds weird.
Now, the Bible study curriculum I’ve been reading makes a good point. If the young boys had eaten from the king’s table and appeared vigorous, alert, and robust afterward, their condition would have been attributed to what the Babylonians had furnished, which fits the theological theme of the story (God gave).
How might you encourage the children in your church to live out their faith if they attended a public school?
Daniel and his friends could also be making a stand against total assimilation—a rebellion. Eating the food – sharing in the culture’s food – even if it were clean – embodies an acceptance that Daniel and his friends could not stomach. In some manner, eating the food represented identity. Maybe the saying, “You are what you eat.” is appropriate in this context. Regardless, this story is about identity. Specifically, how Daniel and his friends chose to distinguish themselves from the pagan culture around them.5
Conviction offers a distinction between groups.
Returning to the point made for this Bible Study, “Our convictions, not our circumstances, define who we are.” It is an identity statement. It is a very true statement. Conviction offers a distinction between groups. As we see in this chapter, that distinction can reinforce identity. Daniel and his friends decided not to eat the Babylonian food – the king’s food, distinguishing themselves and providing a means to express their identity faithfully while serving the Babylonian Empire.
But it isn’t a uniquely Christian statement. This statement also pertains to the convictions of others: Muslims, Atheists, LGBT, etc. Non-Christians have convictions, too. Just stop for a moment and think about how other – non-Christian groups – identify/distinguish their convictions from others in their culture. Other groups will utilize distinctive clothing, colors, and even food choices to create an identity to differentiate themselves and their convictions from the mainstream culture.
To be candid, they do it better than Christians.
Today, one of the Christian community’s problems is a lack of visible convictions. We can talk all day about distinguishing beliefs, but we can internalize and keep our views hidden. My fascination with this story comes more from identity than belief. What do we visibly do or not do to distinguish ourselves from others? I’m not looking for big-ticket items like not getting an abortion or not sleeping with your girlfriend. Those, too, are easily kept hidden. In what ways can Christians distinguish themselves from the world around them? What might parallel with Daniel’s method?
Once upon a time, more churches frowned upon alcohol. (I enjoy a beer.) Say what you want about drinking or not drinking. Maybe the church’s stance against drinking could have been more of an identity statement than a moral stance. In the 90s, teenagers were encouraged to wear Christian t-shirts. I remember it feeling corny, but maybe instead of being an evangelistic tool – we could have considered it a means of identity. Perhaps Christians have blended too well into the world around us.
This line of thinking begs the question, does the identity action need to be public? Who knew about what Daniel was doing? Other students, the teacher, and the steward all knew. The king did not. Maybe we need to think closer to home. Find ways to distinguish our identity as Christ followers among our classmates, coworkers, and neighbors.
How will you choose to distinguish yourself as belonging to Christ?
Daniel made a wager so that he and his four friends could maintain their identity as non-Babylonian. Maybe it was also forbidden by their law. What they choose to eat or not eat is not the point. The point is that, once again, God intervenes.
- Daniel found favor in the eyes of Ashpenaz and Ashpenaz’s steward
- Daniel asked Ashpenaz for permission first.
- Ashpenaz worries about his well-being (he doesn’t want to endanger his head).
- Daniel made the same request to the steward.
- The test was for ten days.
- The wager worked.
Daniel and his friends would learn about Babylonian culture. They were the best in the room. They learned from the Babylonians, attended classes, and even kept their Babylonian names. However, Daniel credits God with giving them success and wisdom. The same God who gave Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel favor in the eyes of Ashpenaz and gave Daniel and his friends knowledge and wisdom.
This story shows how God’s involvement nullifies political and military power. Furthermore, it assuresus that through God’s involvement, Daniel and his friends can overcome pagan theology and secular learning, even surpassing Nebuchadnezzar’s expectations. It is a story of incredible encouragement for anyone in the workplace or serving in an environment (school) that may not value Christian morals or principles – even seeking to mold you to conform to their values, symbols, and rituals.
- Daniel doesn’t reference God with the usual Yahweh; instead, he uses the Lord. This replacement may ensure that the reader does not view God as merely Israel’s. The goal is not to pit Yahweh against the Babylonian Gods; rather, it is to depict the sovereignty of God. He sent them to Babylon. He is in charge. ↩︎
- Hofstede, Geert. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition. McGraw-Hill Education. Kindle Edition. ↩︎
- E.g., trans-rights movement. Probably also why schools limit religious groups. ↩︎
- These new names are diffiuclt to understand. They may possibly be names denoting service to paga gods (e.g., Abednego may mean “servant of Nabu”). ↩︎
- The stories in Daniel tell an alternate view of the world and ask us – the reader – what we’re prepared to risk for this alternate world. ↩︎