Daniel 1:17-19 (ESV)

[17] 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. [18] 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. [19] 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.

I imagine that some of the other young men that were brought into captivity with Daniel and his friends would have thought they had it pretty good. They were eating the king’s food and wine. They were preferentially treated. Sure they had to learn Babylonian language, history, and culture, but life was pretty good. Why just eat vegetables like Daniel when you could eat top of the line cuisine from the king’s table?

 Hebrews 11:25 talks about Moses “choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” Daniel understood that. He chose vegetables over “the fleeting pleasures of sin.” In the end, Daniel and his friends became favorites of the throne and were given the best positions. The king “found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom” (Dan 1:20). Those who enjoyed the king’s food ended up with lesser positions.

 Every day we make choices. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can choose to indulge self, or reckon self as dead. Jesus said it like this, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Paul wrote, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).

 It seems that we have that choice daily, sometimes hourly. The choices we make lead us further and further down a particular path. How were Daniel’s friends able to stand up to the king when he told them to worship his statue? How was Daniel able to pray, knowing that it was against the law and would likely result in the Lion’s Den? It started with the choice they made on Day One of their time in Babylon. “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself “ (Dan 1:8). The resolve that moved them to ask the steward for a test established a pattern of life for those men that sustained them in darker times.

 I read last night that China destroyed a large Evangelical church building in Hong Kong. Would we have the resolve to continue to worship God if that happened? Would we stand for the name of Jesus Christ if we faced death like the Christians of Uganda did in the 1970s under the bloody regime of “The Butcher,” Idi Amin? How can we expect to shine the truth of the gospel in dark times when the choices we make today are too often about self-fulfillment rather than self-denial?

 I remember a song we used to sing as children, “Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known.” Those words were written by Philip Bliss in 1873, but they are as challenging today as they were when they were written. What choices are you making each day? Are you choosing self-fulfillment or self-denial? Philippians 3:19 speaks of those whom verse 18 calls “enemies of the cross of Christ.” It says, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” Are you choosing to follow the leading of the Spirit or the leading of your own appetites? Perhaps the words of Joshua, in Joshua 24:15, are appropriate, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”