Doug Van Pelt

Daniel Ate No Donuts

This is one of the first sites I saw when driving away from LAX last week -- that giant donut sign. I wonder if it was fatty foods like this, among other things, that Daniel chose not to "defile himself" with. In the first few chapters of Daniel, we see him and his peers in exile. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who all got new names during their exile in Babylon. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the head official for permission to do this. He received some resistence and hesitation, so he had him test he and his peers. For ten days they ate nothing but vegatables and water. At the end of ten days these guys looked healthier than all the rest.

That's so cool. The details aren't completely apparent, like what was it about the royal food that would "defile" them... Would it make them ceremonially unclean (like eating pork)? Or was it just the spoiled rich and fatty food that would defile them by making them weak or lazy? And why did they fare better than the other guys? Maybe it was part determination, part healthy diet, part regimented exercise. Either way it was plenty cool. They excelled in wisdom and were also gifted supernaturally with the ability to interpret dreams, etc.

Three of those guys were really tested not too long after. King Nebuchadnezzar made a 90 foot tall gold statue that he wanted everyone to worship on musical cue. These three guys (now known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) spoke humbly but boldly before the king:

"'O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.'"

Of course, this made the king furious, and he threw the once favored lads into the fiery furnace, with the furnace heated seven times the normal setting. The flames were so intense that it flat out killed the soldiers who threw them in the furnace.

What happened next makes the believer often stand up and cheer (cuz it's better than a Rocky movie): "'Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?' They replied, 'Certainly, O king.' He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbounc and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.' Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!'"

When they came out, everyone noticed that nothing on them was burned -- not even a hair of their heads was singed -- and not even the smell of fire was on them. "Then Nebuchadnezzar said, 'Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Who has sent His angel and rescued His servants! they trusted in Him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.'"

There are several details that are cool about this story. I love the fact that these guys made room for the potential of God's will to be death for them. "But even if He does not..." That is a powerful testimony. It defies one of the chief principles of the faith movement (never doubt or waver, claim the positive, don't ever utter a doubtful or negative word). People in this movement are taught to mimic or use only one part of Scripture (like the phrase where Paul talks about the double-minded man being unstable in all his ways), yet this passage of Scripture AND the famous teaching where Jesus instructs us how to pray ("...not my will, but Thy will be done...") give us a balance that reinforces the overall picture that God is in control and He does what He wants to do. When He wants us to tenasciously hold on to a positive confession and believe for something to happen, that is what we should do. When we are in doubt or do not know everything that's going on (face it, that's practically all of the time), then we can pray or stand up like these guys did. It also reinforces the truth that God is not a giant gumball machine in the sky, waiting to give us our goodies and requests when we say the right prayer and put a quarter in. His is the Boss, the Father, the One in charge. He does what He wants to do. All we can do is ask like children, and know (this is a real kicker) that He is good and He is still in control even when we don't get our way. These guys made a stand even in the face of their possible death. They wanted this king to know that even if their God didn't rescue them, that they wouldn't bow down to his false gods. That is awesome.

This reminds me of a subject that is sure to come up (especially with jaded critics and unbelievers) about the disaster in the Gulf Coast right now. Judgment of God. God's judgment. Wrath of God. His response to sin. Blah blah blah... The people that immediately jump to a conclusion of, 'Oh, God must be judging New Orleans because it is a place of drunkenness, drug use, illicit sex, palm reading, homosexuality, the occult, all kinds of evil...' That is probably the last conclusion you want to come to when it comes to stuff like this. If it's our early response, we might have to ask ourselves if we think we are better than non-believers and if we expect to be treated better than the "sinners" in the world. First of all, we are sinners set free and saved by grace, not by earning it or deserving it. Secondly, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We live in a fallen world. Bacteria randomly attacks with no morals or judgment on the body it's invading. Thirdly, if you look at Scripture, it is often God's people that get the WORST TREATMENT, not the better. In many, many cases, standing up and believing in God means getting the worst end of the deal, getting the worst treatment, getting slavery, inprisonment, getting beat up, ripped off, raped, mocked, and getting killed.

Could the point be made any clearer?
I could be wrong, but I'm convinced that Hurrican Katrina is not God's judgment on the Gulf Coast. Man, jumping to the wrong conclusion can be so stinkin' wrong! Now, it's true that God may bring judgment upon man for his decisions and behavior, and sometimes we may not know if He did or didn't, but that's the last conclusion I'm going to draw.

This is a great time for Christians to shine, though. This is a great time to volunteer and help out. If you've been wanting to do some short-terms missions work, there are probably opportunities to help. Contacting the American Red Cross is probably a good resource to start.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 30, 2005 09:33 AM