Worship Service Livestream
April 26, 2026
- Welcome and Announcements
- Have Faith In God
- Prayer of Invocation
- Everlasting God
- By Faith
- Scripture Reading - Daniel 1:3-21
- Trust In God
- Pastor's Message -- The Power Of Conviction
- My Faith Looks Up To Thee
Daniel 1:3-21
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
SERMON NOTES - The Power of Conviction
- Last week we started a new sermon series on Daniel and spent our time considering the historical background of the first two verses because they set the stage for the rest of the book: "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 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."
- The year is 605 BC, and it is a pivotal point in the story of God's people because it marks the beginning of their captivity and exile to Babylon. The walls of Jerusalem would be torn down and the temple destroyed in 586 BC, nineteen years later, but the wheels of defeat had already begun to turn, and this is where the story of Daniel begins.
- When Nebuchadnezzar tool control of Judah he did not bring all of the captives to Babylon at once. The Babylonian captivity included two deportations, and the first one happened under Jehoiakim's reign in 605 BC. This is the one mentioned in the first few verses of Daniel.
- Nebuchadnezzar ordered the chief of his officials to deport some of the Israelites, with the emphasis on members of the royal family and nobles. During this first deportation Nebuchadnezzar brought not only the aristocracy of Judah, but those who were from the line of kings, and notice that he deported young people who were educated, intelligent, politically trained, socially influential, and also those who happened to be attractive.
- Why did Nebuchadnezzar want these young people first? They were the people Babylon wanted to reshape into loyal administrators. Hostages like these would help assure Judah's continued submission to Babylon. They could even be used as bargaining items in case of a revolt.
- The ultimate purpose was indoctrination. They were to learn the literature and language of the Chaldeans. In essence, the goal was a kind of Babylonian brainwashing in which these Jewish young people would fully embrace the political, cultural and religious elements of Babylonian society, not only to make them look favorably upon their conquerors, but to also groom them to become ambassadors to spread Babylonian ideologies and propaganda (v. 5).
- Verses 6-7 is our introduction to Daniel along with three of his companions. One of the first things that is taken from them are their names. Renaming Daniel and his friends was an intentional act of cultural, religious, and psychological assimilation by Babylon.
- By renaming Daniel and his friends with names that glorified the idolatrous gods of Babylon, the captors sought, in effect, to obliterate their given Hebrew names from their memory, all of which glorified the only true and living God. It was part of the larger assimilation program to break them from their past and indoctrinate them into the culture of Babylonian.
- The situation in Daniels case was not about limiting freedom but about personal conviction. His refusal to eat the king's food was based upon his desire to remain true to his God. For him to eat the king's food, no matter how wonderful the quality and taste may have been, would have been morally wrong.