Daniel 1:1-21 • Daniel & Friends Tested and Enter the King's Service

Steve Schott
Mar 4
8 min read

Updated: 2 minutes ago

Introduction to Daniel

► The book of Daniel takes place during the exile of Judah into Babylon.

→ Starting with the events of 605BC, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, began his 3-phase process of exiling the Jewish people from Jerusalem to Babylon.

• 1st wave - occurring in 605BC, only a select group were taken away at this time. Included were the current king of Judea, Jehoiakim, as well as Daniel, and his 3 friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (2 Kings 24:1-5; 2 Chronicles 36:4-8).

• 2nd wave - about 597BC, King Jehoiachin (Jehoiakim's son) was taken captive, as was the prophet Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar also pillaged the temple in Jerusalem "all the treasures of the house of the LORD,..." (2 Kings 24:13). 10,000 captive were taken at this time (2 Kings 24:14-16).

• 3rd wave - King Zedekiah is captured, all of his sons were killed in his sight, then his eyes were put out, before being brought to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-7). Then the remaining valuable items from the temple are plundered, and the temple itself is destroyed. The remaining leadership are all killed, and the bulk of any remaining survivors are taken away (2 Kings 25:8-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21).

► Daniel 1:1-21 →

The Choice Young Men - Daniel and his friends taken to Babylon

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

→ According to 2 Chronicles 36:1-8, Jehoiakim became king after his brother "Joahaz the son of Josiah" was deposed by Pharoah Neco of Egypt. Joahaz had become king after the death of his father Josiah. Then Neco made his brother "Eliakim" the next king, and "changed his name to Jehoiakim."

→ Jehoiakim was taken to Babylon at this time, leaving his son Jehoiachin to take his place.

→ Neb also took "SOME (emphasis mine) of the vessels of the house of God;..." and added them to the "treasury of his god", whoever that was. I emphasized "some" because it seems that in each of the 3 waves of exilic activity Neb kept bringing more and more of the temple items back to Babylon.

³ Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, ⁴ youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

→ Nebuchadnezzar charged Ashpenaz with the task of taking some of the affluent "youths" from among the leading families of Jerusalem, some royal and some noble, with the intent of assimilating them not just into Babylonian society, but into the very hierarchy of the "king's court".

→ Included would be an educational experience to equip them to live and act as native Chaldeans, equipped to serve at the highest levels of the ruling court.

⁵ The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.

→ As part of their training, there were to be fed the same food and drink as the king, to further assimilate them.

→ A three year plan was put into play to accomplish this task.

⁶ Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. ⁷ Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.

→ According to several commentators, the re-naming process was possibly somewhat symbolic, sort of like the idea that if I name you, I own you.

Jewish Name Meaning Babylonian name Meaning

• Daniel "God is my judge" Belteshazzar "Bel Protect the King"

• Hananiah "the Lord is Gracious" Shadrach "Command of Aku"

• Mishael "Who is like the Lord?" Meshach "Who is what Aku Is?"

• Azariah "the Lord is my Helper" Abed-nego "Servant of Nego"

→ Back in the day, names seemed to have more significance to issues or events in the time of their birth, and were sometimes changed because of a change in circumstances.

• An example of this would be Abram ("exalted father"), whom the LORD renamed Abraham ("father of a multitude") (Gen 17:1-5).

• The irony, of course, for this situation is that Abram was named "exalted father" while he had no children, and was renamed Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude" when he only had one son (Ishmael).

→ I also think it's ironic that most of the time Daniel refers to himself by his Jewish name, but I think most of us who are familiar with this book will remember his friends by their new names rather than their old ones.

Daniel's Resolve - To avoid defilement before God

⁸ But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

→ We're never told what specifically that Daniel found wrong with the food, but since the text says "he would not defile himself" with it, one has to assume that the food was not kosher, meaning it included items forbidden by God as dictated to the Jewish people during the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

→ Daniel is smart enough, maybe respectful enough, to bring the issue to the awareness of the man in charge, allowing him to become part of the solution.

→ It's almost as if Daniel is asking his help to find a way to be able to not be in conflict with either the King or with God.

⁹ Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials, ¹⁰ and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.”

→ While being favorably received by the commander, the commander was "afraid" of the kings' response, should his allowance of Daniel's purpose cause he and his friends to seem to be malnourished.

→ The commander was of the mind that anything less than a perfect transition to a Chaldean lifestyle would bring a death-sentence upon himself.

¹¹ But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ¹² “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

→ Daniel wisely suggested a 10 day test, to evaluate the legitimacy of his plan. Just vegetables and water for us.

¹⁴ So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. ¹⁶ So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

→ The test being successful, they were allowed to continue eating the new diet continuously.

→ Maybe vegetarianism is biblical ☺! I'm not going to try it though.

¹⁷ As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

→ So God blessed them during their 3 years of training, and apparently specially equipped Daniel to be able to interpret "visions and dreams".

¹⁸ Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹ The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. ²⁰ As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. ²¹ And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

→ Once they were presented to Nebuchadnezzar, he found the 4 of them more well suited for their new tasks than any other of the Jewish exiles, or even of any of his current staff.

→ When it mentions that "Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king", that's letting us know that this now 18 year old boy, would serve God in this foreign land until he was in his 80's.

→ There is no record of Daniel ever returning to Jerusalem, so we can assume that he spent his latter days in Babylon and died there.

So What?

► We can see, right from the very start of Daniel's time in Babylon, that he is sold-out for God.

► Regardless of who's the king of the land, Daniel is choosing to live in a way that keeps himself from violating his faithfulness to God.

► We'll see it repeated over and over again throughout this book, where Daniel and his 3 friends will have to choose to stand for God in a way that could possibly cost them their lives.

► But they remain resolute, and God remains faithful to them.

► And they will also state that even if God should allow them to die, they will remain faithful.

Posts in this series

► An introduction to the book of Daniel

► Daniel 1:1-21 • Daniel & Friends Tested and Enter the King's Service

► Daniel 2:1-49 • Nebuchadnezzar's First Dream and Promotion of Daniel

► Daniel 3:1-30 • The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace

► Daniel 4:1-37 • Nebuchadnezzar Dreams. Goes Insane, and Comes to His Senses

► Daniel 5:1-30 • The Handwriting on the Wall

► Daniel 6:1-28 • Daniel in the Lion's Den

► Daniel 7:1-28 • Daniel's Dream and Visions of Four Beasts

► Daniel 8:1-27 • Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat