Fast Food; Which King’s Table Are You Eating From?

Introduction:

I remember as a teenager that Thanksgiving meant I would be setting at the kids table

Dad’s wedding chicken tenders for the kids!

I also pay attention at weddings to who sits a what table and why

Setting and eating with people is a big part of our society.

Eating meals together can

develop relationships, settles business deals, reunite people,

in extreme cases, a meal around a table can be where love begins and an opportunity to safely end a relationship without making a scene.

The table is also where a lot of bad habits can be formed and what can cause many long term problems for people.

Today I want to look at the story of Daniel to see the contrast in Kings and their tables and which one is the best to eat from

Open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 1

There are several fad diets around this chapter

Like the toddler who holds their breath until they turn blue, we often use things like prayer, fasting and other forms of asceticism to GET OUR WAY

Fasting or having food restrictions is not so God will do what you want.

It is so that we can evaluate that somethings place in our lives.

Daniel 1 HCSB

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord handed Jehoiakim king of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god. The king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility— young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace —and to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to serve in the king’s court. Among them, from the descendants of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them other names: he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah. Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief official not to defile himself. God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official, yet he said to Daniel, “My lord the king assigned your food and drink. I’m afraid of what would happen if he saw your faces looking thinner than those of the other young men your age. You would endanger my life with the king.” So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief official had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” He agreed with them about this and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to serve in the king’s court. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them 10 times better than all the diviner-priests and mediums in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Daniel’s Captivity in Babylon (1-7)

Fasting in a Time of Feasts (8-17)

Daniel’s Faithfulness Rewarded (18-21)

Daniel’s Captivity in Babylon (1-7)

Explanation: Read the Text

Learn new language and culture:

Given new names

Given a diet offered to Babylonian gods

Illustration: I graduated in the mid 90’s which meant I survived the

80’s. America was a different America then.

Learn new language and culture:

Sis -non binary and DEI Diverse, Equity, Inclusion

Given new names

It used to be, I could be proud to be a Conservative White man

Now I am relabel, misogynistic, privileged racist.

Argumentation.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah

Isaiah 15-23 all warn that Judah and surrounding areas will be captured.

Zephaniah 1:4–7 ESV

“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, those who have turned back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.” Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

Daniel and his friends are troubled with this captivity.

However, to the others, it would feel like great freedom.

Preferential treatment, influence, access to the King, and the food and wine!

We can find ourselves there too.

We taste and see what the world has to offer and slowly we begin to be mesmerized by the ways and we walk right into captivity without even noticing it.

Sure they were still Israelites, but after three years. they were Babylonians.

Some people claim Christ in name but their lives are far from him

Application.

Not everything in this world is a trap. But some walk right into the cage and never realize their captives.

Knowing God’s truth will help you know the difference.

Transition: What was it that finally made Daniel protest? (Don’t!)

Fasting in a Time of Feasts (8-17).

Explanation. Explain as you read

Illustration. Manna and the desensitizing of miracles.

Scientists scratch their heads and dismiss it

God wanted Israel to see His provision for their everyday need and not lose the wonder of it all.

eventually they became entitles and demanding.

Today, people have misaligned the point of Daniel’s diet and they ascribe a holiness to it.

Daniel is not the hero of this story. Veggies are not the hereo of this story.

God is the hero of this story.

Wisdom, understanding, influence, prophetic power to show that He is still supreme over the God’s of Babylon.

Argumentation.

Foods as symbols, In those days, foods had values to them that connected to culture and religion.

Today we live in a very transient world so we have foods from all over.

Sushi makes me think of Japan not Iowa but…

Regions used the foods they had and it became their culture. Many cultures used foods for religious ceremonies.

When God brought Israel out of Egypt he gave them restrictions on foods to eat and avoid. also how to prepare them. This was so that the world would know they are set apart to God.

Passover: holds all kinds of teaching in their meal

Shank bone = sacrifice of the Jewish people

Hard Boiled Egg = the spring season

Horseradish = Pain of slavery

An Apples and mixed nuts = mortar mix used to make bricks

Parsley dipped in salt water = Tears of the enslaved Jews

Romain Lettuce = The bitterness of slavery

[ JOE, Wait until I ask for the slide please.]

Israel was also to avoid animals like pork. T

This to was so they would be set apart in action.

So do we have to continue to eat that way?

No because we now Identified by Christ and His Spirit upon us

Luke 22:14–16 HCSB

When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

Luke 22:20 HCSB

In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you.

Later Peter was told by God to eat that which was once off limits

Acts 10:9–16 HCSB

The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the housetop about noon. Then he became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he went into a visionary state. He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!” “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything common and ritually unclean!” Again, a second time, a voice said to him, “What God has made clean, you must not call common.” This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into heaven.

Just as food and wine was used to offer praise and sacrifices in Daniel’s day it can be used the same today.

As far as what is and is not allowed to us we have no more dietary restrictions as to the foods themselves.

Some of us use food as worship as we give ourselves over to gluttony and impulse.

1 John 2:16 HCSB

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

This aligns more with why we would have spiritual fasts.

Physical fasts are great too. Autophagy, glucose.

Spiritually, when we remove something from us for a specific time, it is to see its power over us.

It helps assure us that we are not giving into our flesh.

Finally I want to talk about convictions

Illustration: There is a Mediterranean restaurant in Grandview.

Romans 14:21–23 NLT

It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

Not everything is good for you.

1 Corinthians 6:12–13 (HCSB)

“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be brought under the control of anything.

“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both of them.

Argumentation.

Daniel did protest at the new language class, cultural integration 101, he didn’t complain when he was given a new name because all of those things were not forbidden by God.

Daniel, would not reject His God’s commands, but instead trusted God and believed He would make a way through His obedience.

Application

1. Daniel Chose the right things to stand up for.

2. Daniel did not say make a way, and I will obey.

3. Some of us evaluate God’s will through our situations, rather than believing God to do right in a bad situation.

4. Daniel believed God was for Him and while he was probably as afraid as the eunuch, he believed God would make the situation favorable for His people.

God can do the impossible in your life but He may be waiting for you to respond in obedience.

Daniel’s Faithfulness Rewarded (18-21).

Explanation:

everyone was given the same opportunities, But Daniel, seeking to live for the Lord was give favor and wisdom which brought Glory back to god.

The medians, false priests sought glory for their own namesake.

Daniel chose to eat the same food that Jesus ate.

John 4:32 HCSB

But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

Bringing glory to God filled them more than anything this world has to offer.

Which King’s table do you eat at?

One that lures you to the ways of this world and into captivity?

Or the one that leads you into freedom through His

truth?

Christ is able to do 10x more for you than you can on your own.

Response: yet not I but through Christ in me