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“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank” (Daniel 1:19-20).
All the students in the Cape and Jackson area have officially begun the 2014-15 school year. Each year as this time period comes I can’t help but think about my time in school. From the innocent elementary days to my awkward middle school years (also known as The Dark Ages) and well beyond my high school classes, school has always and will always have this in common; the inescapable amount of peer pressure and fear of standing out.
Over the years the things students are pressured to do and the methods that the pressuring is done by may change, but the concept is always present. So caught up and focused on being just like the people around us that we forget that we are not. Many of us forget as young Christian that we can’t save the world if we are too busy trying to be like the world. But not all.
In each generation we have young leaders much like Daniel in the first chapter of Daniel. At the time King Nebuchadnezzar had just taken control of Jerusalem and as victor he commanded that the best looking and most skillful youths of Judah to be taught the ways of the Chaldeans. It was not until reading this recently I realized the strategic brilliance of his command. Nebuchadnezzar was taking the people that everyone looked up to and shaping them to into his followers, knowing that the rest of the country would eventually follow with much less resistance. He was using popularity to his advantage. It was a great plan and he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for Daniel and the other “meddling kids.” (Sorry couldn’t help myself.)
Right from the start Daniel was aware that the schooling they were going to undergo would come at odds with God’s commandments. I love what verse 8 in that first chapter says about Daniel. It says he was resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or drink, meaning he was determined! He knew that being captured and enslaved did not excuse him from the eating commandments God gave his people nor did the fact that the rest of his countrymen gave in. He was determined to stand for God even if it meant he stood alone. We read on that God made sure he did not have to stand alone and found friends in Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
What an amazing start to the amazing story of Daniel! But yet I bring it all back to today. Sometimes we forget that being popular is not in itself a bad thing. How we gain that popularity and what we do with it however is a different story. I pray that each week that each of us, not just students, take Daniel ‘s challenge. To be resolved, determined, and intentionally go out of our way to be different from those around us. Not just for the sake of being different, but for the sake of our Christ. To stand for Him even if it means we stand alone, knowing that Jesus stood for us when no one else would. No matter how big your platform is, stand on it and be resolved!
Matt Olguin
Jackson Church of Christ
Jackson, MO