Friday – Prophets

Reading – Daniel 1-2

Highlight Verse:

“But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.”
‭‭Daniel‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Daniel was not just a picky eater.

First, he was selected from the smartest and most talented young men taken captive from Israel.

That alone would have given him a measure of respect among his captors.

Add to that the fact that God had given him favor with the chief of staff.

But true respect is earned.

I might be reaching but I think one of the ways that God gave Daniel favor was through the behavior that came from Daniel’s faith.

We witness this in the respectful way that Daniel asks for a special diet.

We are not told why the food would have defiled Daniel and the others. It is possible that it included pork. The meat and wine had likely been from sacrifices to Babylonian gods. I’ve also read that the rich royal food was used to lure people away from their previous cultural values.

Daniel wanted none of that.

He had faith that God would provide a way to not defile himself with the royal food.

With that faith he was able to be both bold and respectful at the same time.

The chief of staff honored that respectfulness and faith and gave Daniel a chance to prove his convictions.

Most of us deal with people everyday who have no respect for our faith. It is tempting to take a “holier than thou” attitude and refuse respect for those people.

Those people are God’s creation too. We should treat them with the same respect as any others, knowing that God longs for them to return to Him.

While respecting them, we should not shy away from maintaining and sharing our faith.

One example was my first customer yesterday. They proudly identify as transgender and started spouting some political statements that were far from my opinions.

The temptation was to get into a political argument. But, through hard, skillful work on this person’s printers, I had earned their respect. I wasn’t about to give that up.

I politely informed them that, while I disagreed with them politically, I view relationships as far more important than politics. They stopped spouting their rhetoric and continued to treat me with respect. Perhaps someday, they will turn to me for advice on faith (which I have made no secret).

How do you balance boldness and respect?
What in your world is important enough to ask boldly for?