Deeper Reflection
In Daniel 1, Daniel was facing a discipleship challenge, defined by
an expression repeated five times: “the king’s choice food” (vv.5, 8;
1 Dan 1:13, 15, 16). For Daniel, to eat “the king’s choice food” would
result in spiritual defilement. So, having “resolved not to defile himself ”
by eating “the king’s choice food”, Daniel “asked the chief official for
permission not to defile himself in this way” (v.8, NIV). Then the narrator
tells us what happened next: “God gave [nathan] Daniel favor and
compassion” before this chief official (v.9).This is the second time that “God gave” occurs in Daniel 1. It first occurs
in verse 2: “The Lord gave [nathan].” This is the central theological idea
– and thus, the central theological reality – in Daniel 1: God’s supreme
sovereignty. Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Jerusalem and his deporting
of the vessels from God’s temple to the temple of his god, Daniel and his
three friends being captured by Nebuchadnezzar and exiled to Babylon,
and then being Babylonised – all these happenings are subsumed under
“the Lord gave” (vv.1-7).And Nebuchadnezzar’s requirement of the Judahite youths to eat “the
king’s choice food” (v.5) is also subsumed under “the Lord gave”. And
it is in this “the king’s choice food” crisis that we see “God gave” again.
The sovereign God is both the source of the crisis and the salvation
from the crisis. “God gave Daniel favor [hesed] and compassion” points to
God’s covenant faithfulness. Hesed refers to God’s steadfast covenant love.
Clearly then, “God gave” is to be our theological anchor in following
the faithful covenant God faithfully.
