Lesson 3: Daniel Under Pressure

Daniel 1:5-10
5 The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.
6 Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
7 And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.
9 And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs,
10 and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.”


Daniel and his three friends were placed into an environment which intended to change everything they had been taught and believed. Had they been taken to a place where they would have been tortured or beaten or mistreated as slaves, it might have been easy to hate their captors and remain true to the things they learned as children in their homes. However, this was not King Nebuchadnezzar’s plan. He wanted to indoctrinate them into the ways of his gods and separate them from everything they had ever known or believed. His plan for success was to give these boys everything their hearts could imagine of “the good life” that only royalty could dream of having. They would receive the best clothes, the highest education, and were promised jobs for life with the king. They would be given the same food the king himself ate. Whatever they needed or wanted would be theirs for the asking.

What would it take to tempt you to give up your trust in Jesus? Ask this question in another way – what is the most important goal of your life? The world today is teaching us that we can have anything we want. But that is not true. Look around you at reality – how many people around you are satisfied with what they have? In Daniel’s case, the supply of all they could imagine would last only for as long as the king was pleased with what they said or did. Failure meant only one thing: death. “The good things of life” have only a temporary pleasure attached to them. They cannot provide long-term satisfaction because God “put eternity” into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Nothing but the eternal – God – can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

*What is the most important goal in your life?