THE people of Israel—the Jews—had so departed from serving and obeying
God, that at length, in the reign of Jehoiakim, God allowed the King
of Babylon to come up against Jerusalem with a great army and to
besiege it, and eventually to take the city. He carried away not only
Jehoiakim, the king, but afterwards Zedekiah (whom Nebuchadnezzar
had set up in Jerusalem instead of Jehoiakim), and with him, he took
all the nobles who were not killed in the siege, and every smith or
craftsman who might be useful in Babylon.
He carried away also the whole of the sacred and precious vessels from
the Temple of God, and put them into the house of his own idol in
Babylon.
Thus the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were completely destroyed;
and none were left in the land but the very poorest of the people.
So now you must picture to yourselves how Nebuchadnezzar instructed his
lords and officers to choose, out of the ten thousand captives whom
they had brought to Babylon, all the best of the young men: all that
were skilful in wisdom or clever in science, who should be brought into
the king's palace and should be taught the learning and language of the
Chaldeans.
These young men were given into the charge of Ashpenaz, one of the
king's trusted chamberlains, and Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be
fed from the king's table, and nourished, so that at the end of three
years, they should be able to stand before the king.
Now among these high-born young men were four, whose names in Judah had
been Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; but Ashpenaz named them
afresh, and called them Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So you will now understand why these young men were sometimes called by
one name and sometimes by another in the Book of Daniel.
When the orders came, and Daniel was told that he and his companions
were to be fed with the king's food, Daniel purposed in his heart that
he would not defile himself with it, nor with the wine which the king
drank.
The reason of this was, that the food was not prepared as the Jews'
food was; for God had given them strict rules as to how their meat
was to be killed; and also, the wine of these heathen kings was often
offered to their idols before they tasted it themselves, and thus, in
the Jews' sight, was defiled.
So Daniel spoke to Ashpenaz, and begged him earnestly to excuse him and
his companions from eating the king's food.
[Illustration: Their wisdom and understanding was far beyond that of
any of the others.]
Now God Himself, Who was watching over His servants, these captives in
Babylon, had great purposes which they were to carry out, not only for
the Jews, but by and by for the whole world.
But as God takes care of the little things as well as the great things,
He had softened the heart of Ashpenaz, so that he tenderly loved Daniel.
And when he heard Daniel's request, he did not speak roughly to him, as
those great princes generally did in those days, but explained to him
how difficult it would be for him to comply with what he asked.
He told Daniel that if he did not give them the king's food, they would
not look as well fed or handsome as the other captives, nor as the king
would expect them to look; and if he yielded to Daniel's request, he
might endanger his own head to the king! For in those days, life was
of no value in the eyes of the great sovereigns. They did exactly as
pleased them at the moment.
Then Daniel explained it all to Melzar, who was the man whom Ashpenaz
had set over them to control these smaller matters, and asked him to
"prove" them by allowing them to have only "pulse to eat, and water to
drink"; and if, after ten days, they looked less well than the others
who were having the rich food from the king's table, then Daniel and
his friends would do what Melzar wished.