Crossroads Church

SOAP = Scripture Observation Application Prayer

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S: Daniel 1:8-15 “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. ⁹Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. ¹⁰But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.” ¹¹Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. ¹²“Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. ¹³“At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food. Then make your decision in light of what you see.” ¹⁴The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.”

O: This passage is a vegetarian’s favorite story of the Bible! Of course the point isn’t to give up meat (real Christians don’t do that!). Daniel refused to eat the king’s food because it was “unclean” according to Jewish standards and most likely dedicated to foreign gods. In refusing to eat what the king had commanded, Daniel was putting himself in grave danger. As it turns out, God blessed Daniel for his obedience. Eating vegetables and drinking only water, he bulks up and becomes better fit than any of the others.

A: We used to sing a song years ago that went “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone…” Great song. Hard to do. It’s so hard to go against the grain. So hard to go left when everyone else is going right. The culture we live in today is all about “eating meat sacrificed to foreign gods.” For example, so much of what we call “entertainment” (the movies and TV shows we watch and the music we listen to) dishonors God. Yet we blindly “eat”…without thinking, we follow the crowd…and live, in essence, like “Christian atheists.”

P: Father, give us discernment. Open our eyes to that which is defiled. To that which is dishonoring to you. And then give us the courage to do what Daniel did—to courageously dare to be different.

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