Thursday
Thursday
Cultural Conformity and Nonconformity
But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.
Daniel 1:8
The second exilic prophet was Daniel. His story began in 605 BC, that is, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. It was also the year of the first deportation of Jewish captives from Jerusalem to Babylon, and in this first batch of exiles were some young men of both royal and noble birth. They were handsome, without any physical defect, intelligent, and knowledgeable. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain or palace master, to select a few of them to be educated in Babylonian culture so as to be fitted for the civil service. They were assigned a daily portion of the royal rations of food and wine, and at the end of three years they would be expected to serve in the king’s court. Among them were four candidates—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whose names the palace master changed to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
“But,” as the narrative abruptly changes direction, “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine” (v. 8). It is not clear to us which dietary prohibition Daniel was determined to observe, but it was evidently clear to him. He was willing to be taught “the language and literature of the Babylonians” (v. 4), to assume a new name, and no doubt to submit to cosmetic treatments, but there he drew the line. He emphatically would not break the law of his God.
This incident is a remarkable example of cultural discrimination. The fact is that every culture, being a human construct, is a mixture of good and evil, truth and error, beauty and ugliness. Daniel and his friends resolved to assimilate all that was good in Chaldean culture but were equally determined to reject everything that was incompatible with their revealed faith.
Moreover, as they began, so they continued. Their integrity soon involved them in serious civil disobedience, as they refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image (chap. 3) and as Daniel refused to stop praying to Yahweh (chap. 6). These faithful Jews paid a high price for their integrity—the fiery furnace in the first case and the lions’ den in the second.
For further reading: Daniel 1