There is no way for Daniel and his friends to live in Babylon without at least some element of compromise. There is no way for them to live and love in Babylon while being completely disengaged. And in order to have any meaningful engagement it will mean they have to fit in, at least in some way. It’s interesting to me as we read through Daniel 1:8-21 all of the places where they do compromise. Frankly, it’s unsettling.

You know that phrase “line in the sand”? It means placing a marker and saying something like, “I’ll go this far, but no further. I won’t cross that line”. It’s shocking to me that Daniel didn’t draw the line. Let me explain.

When you were brought into exile, you didn’t have much freedom. They wanted to take every bit of their Hebrew identity out of them and make them full-fledged Babylonians. Their plan for Daniel and his friends was to make them “wise men” of Babylon.

This would require learning Aramaic and Akkadian. No more Hebrew. They didn’t draw a line there. They would have been immersed in their literature and learned all of their history. We’re talking a different flood narrative, and credit given throughout to the false gods of Babylon. No line was drawn. Part of their education would have been in learning how to read the future through astrology and sheep livers. It was, essentially, divination. Daniel had to learn this. This is where I’d have drawn the line. Daniel didn’t. They didn’t even budge when their names were changed.

But when it came to eating food from the king’s table, Daniel drew his line. Why? Why draw it here? There are several theories. Some think it had to do with the food not being kosher. That’s possible, but why did he indulge in chapter 10? It likely wasn’t a protest because nobody knew about this except one person. It might have been because the foods were offered to the Babylonian gods, but that doesn’t explain why they could eat vegetables—those would have been offered, too. What is happening here can be found in Proverbs 23:1-3.

The reason why Daniel and his friends refused the king’s food is because it was deceptive food. Eating the king’s food was to create a relationship of dependency with the king. It’s because this was the one place where they could draw a line in the sand and say, “No, we will depend upon YHWH.” It’s where they could sever that tie and remind themselves and others and eventually show others…that GOD was the one to depend upon.

Likewise, we would do well to think about our places of dependency upon this fallen kingdom and work to sever that dependency.

Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/TriggerPhoto