The Boys Who Said No to the King's Table

Ezekiel was not the first of God's people to be taken to Babylon. Years before he saw his river, King Nebuchadnezzar came with his army and surrounded Jerusalem, and God handed Judah's king over to him. The king carried home gold cups from God's temple for the treasure-house of his own god. He carried home people, too.

"Bring me the best young men from Judah's royal families," the king told Ashpenaz, his chief official. "Clever ones, quick to learn. Teach them our language and books for three years, and feed them from my own table."

Four of the boys Ashpenaz chose were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He gave them Babylonian names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. (Each of their old names had God in it. Daniel means "God is my judge." The new names honored the gods of Babylon, and Belteshazzar is a lot to shout across a courtyard.)

Every day servants carried in roast meat and jugs of wine from the king's kitchen. The other young men dug in. Daniel did not. He had made up his mind not to make himself unclean with the king's food. God's law told his people what they could eat, and the king's cooks took no notice of God's law.

"Please," Daniel asked Ashpenaz, "don't make us eat it."

God made Ashpenaz kind toward Daniel. But Ashpenaz was also scared. "What if the king sees you looking thinner than the others?" he said. "He would have my head!" (He meant his actual head. Babylonian kings were not known for patience.)

So Daniel went to the guard in charge of the four friends.

"Test us for ten days," Daniel said. "Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare us with the young men who eat the king's food, and decide."

The guard agreed.

For ten days the others feasted, while four boys from Judah sat crunching beans and greens.

On the tenth day the guard looked them over, and then looked again. Daniel and his friends were healthier and better fed than every young man at the king's table. Their cheeks were rounder!

So the guard took the king's food away from them for good and kept bringing vegetables.

God gave the four friends skill in every kind of learning. And to Daniel he gave something more: he could understand visions and dreams.

When the three years were over, the king talked with every young man, and none matched these four. Whatever he asked, they answered ten times better than all the magicians and wise men in his kingdom.

Daniel stayed true to God all his life. But four faithful boys could not bring God's people home, and the temple cups stayed locked away for many years.

Daniel lived to see the first captives set off for home, and still God's people were watching for the King God had promised. Then another young man went without food, not for ten days but for forty, alone in the desert. "Turn these stones into bread," God's enemy told him. "People do not live on bread alone," the hungry man answered, "but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Then the enemy offered him every kingdom in the world, glittering like Babylon, if only he would bow down. "Worship the Lord your God," the man answered, "and serve only him."

On his last night, Jesus sat at a table of his own. He took bread, broke it, and gave it to his friends. "This is my body," he said, "given for you."