But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see." So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
Each of the people taken from the nobility and royal family to be transformed into the image of the Babylonians. However, Daniel and his three friends refuse to allow that. Daniel convinced Nebuchadnezzar's chief eunuch to give them only vegetables and water.
It was a test--the first of many in the book of Daniel--concerning the faithfulness of God. The chief eunuch worried that the lack of meat and wine and the other delicacies given to everyone else would make these four young men look worse than the rest and cost him his job.
The chief eunuch finally succumbed to Daniel's persuasion and allowed an experiment for ten days. After those ten days, these four looked much better and were more fully rounded in flesh than everyone else. From that time on, the chief eunuch gave them only vegetables and water instead of their original provisions commanded by Nebuchadnezzar. God proved to be faithful to His people by providing even better for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego even better than He did for everyone else.
This points us to the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." As the Catechism explains, "God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving." The four young men received everything that God gave them with thanksgiving and they were well-provided in body and future.
Daniel 1:17-21
As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.
God not only blessed them physically but also in everything that Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to have. God did this so that He had people who were faithful to Him in the hierarchy of the kingdom of Babylon so that His people would be cared for by their oppressors even while God had turned their back on them for the time being.
In fact, God had provided for them so well that Nebuchadnezzar found them ten times wiser, smarter and insightful than anyone else that he had in his court. They became his most trusted advisors. We see from the final verse of the chapter that Daniel served in this capacity until the first year of King Cyrus (539 BC). This places Daniel's influence over the land of Babylon to be close to fifty years. An entire lifetime of God's provisions being shown to him by the power and authority entrusted to him because of his faithfulness to God.
Faithfulness to God and His Word is what causes young people to be able to transform the world, just as these four youths transformed a worldwide empire by their faithfulness to their God.
NOTE: All Scriptures come from the English Standard Version (C) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
