Trusting God's Plan in the Fire: Lessons From the Book of DanielSampl

Ever heard of the “Daniel fast”? It’s a fast where a person only eats vegetables and drinks water for a set amount of time in order to seek God for spiritual breakthrough and deliverance. The act of fasting by giving up certain foods is meant to draw you closer to God. Today’s passage is the origin of that fast.

Right away we see that God caused King Nebuchadnezzar’s official to show Daniel favor and sympathy when he requested to not eat the royal food. Look closely at who the official is really concerned about,“I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” v 10 This guy was scared for himself and his job, not Daniel! But that didn’t sway Daniel a bit.

Daniel had a great idea for an accommodation to this rule. He did not say, “Well, I’m just going to go on a hunger strike!” Nope. He presented the official with another option - serve us vegetables and water for 10 days and see how we look then. This was to be a “watch and see” test to which the official agreed.

After the ten days, these four guys looked healthier and better nourished than all the other men in the program. This wasn’t just a test of their health, it was a test of faith! Daniel and the guys passed! After this,“To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.” v 17

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel went before the king to enter his service. Because the Lord gave them favor, they stood out among the crowd, so much so that even the king noticed! “In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” v 20

This is another great example of people standing on their faith in God, trusting Him against all odds and leaving all the consequences to Him. As we see tomorrow, the stakes are going to go higher and so are the challenges!

Questions:

1. Have you ever fasted and what were you doing it for?

2. If you haven’t fasted, why?

3. What did you learn from how Daniel handled not wanting to eat the king’s food?