With every command of God there is a promised reward. Daniel and his friends were committed to eat only what God’s laws for the Jewish diet allowed.
Perhaps the Babylonians didn’t know much about diet, but we know that what Daniel and his friends ate was much more nourishing than the rich foods given to the others. So we can understand the results.
Just following God’s directions for living holds benefits we may not see right away, but the benefits will be clearly seen at last.
Dan 1:8-21
Daniel’s Faithfulness…
Daniel made up his mind not to let himself become ritually unclean by eating the food and drinking the wine of the royal court, so he asked Ashpenaz to help him, and God made Ashpenaz sympathetic to Daniel. Ashpenaz, however, was afraid of the king, so he said to Daniel, “The king has decided what you are to eat and drink, and if you don’t look as fit as the other young men, he may kill me.”
So Daniel went to the guard whom Ashpenaz had placed in charge of him and his three friends. “Test us for ten days,” he said. “Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare us with the young men who are eating the food of the royal court, and base your decision on how we look.” He agreed to let them try it for ten days.
When the time was up, they looked healthier and stronger than all those who had been eating the royal food. So from then on the guard let them continue to eat vegetables instead of what the king provided.
God gave the four young men knowledge and skill in literature and philosophy. In addition, he gave Daniel skill in interpreting visions and dreams.
At the end of the three years set by the king, Ashpenaz took all the young men to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them all, and Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah impressed him more than any of the others. So they became members of the king’s court. No matter what question the king asked or what problem he raised, these four knew ten times more than any fortune-teller or magician in his whole kingdom.
Daniel remained at the royal court until Cyrus, the emperor of Persia, conquered Babylonia.
