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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Daniel 01: Why Yo Mama Says “Eat Yo Veggies”
Ever found yourself in a situation where everything feels out of control? The Book of Daniel speaks directly to that chaos with a powerful message: God remains sovereign even when our circumstances suggest otherwise.
Daniel's story begins with Jerusalem's fall—a national catastrophe that sent him and other bright young nobles into Babylonian captivity. Imagine being a teenager, forcibly relocated to your enemy's capital, renamed after their gods, and enrolled in their indoctrination program. Most would simply comply to survive. Yet Daniel and his friends made an extraordinary decision that would alter their destiny—refusing the king's food and wine.
This seemingly small dietary choice represented something profound: maintaining spiritual identity when everything around you is designed to erase it. Rather than becoming combative, Daniel proposed a reasonable test that respected authority while preserving his convictions. The results? After just ten days on vegetables and water, they appeared healthier than those eating royal delicacies. Eventually, they proved "ten times better" than all others in wisdom and understanding.
What makes Daniel truly remarkable is his consistent character through approximately 70 years of service, spanning four kings and two empire transitions. From interpreting dreams to surviving lion's dens, Daniel demonstrates that faithfulness doesn't just help us survive hostile environments—it positions us to thrive and influence them. His story reminds us that our current struggles may actually be divine positioning for purposes beyond what we can see.
The powerful testimony of Daniel speaks directly to anyone feeling overwhelmed by circumstances: "Even if not, God is still good." Your difficult season may be exactly where God needs you to be to do something extraordinary through your life. Ready to discover what faithfulness looks like in your own Babylon? Join us as we explore this timeless story of courage, wisdom, and unwavering trust.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today Daniel, chapter 1. Today's title is why Yo Mama Says Eat Yo Veggies. Why Yo Mama Says Eat Yo Veggies. We're going to have a good time today. This is one of my favorite books of the entire Old Testament and we're going to do the wonderful thing of giving an intro to the whole thing before we jump into this, and so we've got a lot to cover today. It's going to be great.
Speaker 1:But, as always, if you like what we're doing here while you're getting your Bible open to 1 John or it's 1 John to Daniel, chapter one, I got no idea where that came from Make sure that you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job, and the more we dig, the more we find. I also said I was going to give a couple of shout-outs to some new areas that are listening, and I want to say so much thank you to everyone who is listening in Australia and Belgium. Those are two places that have recently started listening to the podcast. Thank you so very much. I am not going to in any way disrespect you by trying one of your accents, but both of you sound much cooler than I do, so you should start your own podcast as well so that I can listen to you reading through the Bible, because that would be a lot of fun. But thank you to everybody from Australia and Belgium who are now listening to this podcast, and I do realize those could not be two different countries, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Okay, you ready? We're going to dive into the book of Daniel, and there are so many wonderful things about the book of Daniel. I'll be honest with you. I could gush about the book of Daniel, which sounds gross for a long time, and there's so many different like main takeaways that we could get from the book of Daniel. It is wonderful. But if I were to put it into one main idea, it would be this God is in control. God is in control, and even when you're in an area that doesn't make any sense, it's just this raw, audacious faith that God is still in control and the kind of the theme verse is it's part of the overall story we're going to read in a couple of days in Daniel, chapter three. But it's this phrase that these three Hebrew teenagers say when looking at the most powerful man in the world. They look at him and they say this Daniel 3, verse 17, 18, it says God, whom is able to save us? But even if he doesn't, we will never serve your gods. In other words, if not, god is still good. I love that. I love the tenacity behind it. I mean they are in a terrible place but they're looking around like God's still got this, and I love that so much, and so we're going to jump into this.
Speaker 1:Let's do a little background on the book of Daniel. First of all, who is Daniel? Daniel is one of the most popular guys in the entire Bible. You got Abraham, moses, david, isaiah, daniel. I mean he's very, very, very famous, and the reason why is because he is a central figure during the time of the exile, but he also prophesies about the far, far-reaching future. He was a Jewish exile from the tribe of Judah who served in high government positions both under the Babylonian and the Persian kings. That's pretty awesome that when the Persians took over the Babylonians, they probably slaughtered everybody, but not Daniel. He was so awesome that he actually served under the next king right.
Speaker 1:Where is this? This is in Babylon, in the capital city of Babylon, because what would have happened was is Daniel as a teenager when Jerusalem fell and when it was taken over by Babylon. He would have survived that and he would have been dispersed to Babylon. And the reason why is one of the ways that these major kingdoms back then would keep a hold of this vast empire is they would disperse the conquered people all over the world, but then they'd also take the best and the brightest, bring them back to the capital city, educate them and then use them to help run the nation. It's just the way they did it and it was very effective. To whom and when was this written? Primarily, it was written to the Jewish exiles, and it was between 540 and 530 BCE, before Common Era, toward the end of the exile, and so he was able to live through most of the exile.
Speaker 1:Other background thing what is the main idea? The main idea of this book really is two different things. Now, remember it's overall. God is in control. But many people have read the first six to seven chapters of Daniel. Many people have not read the last half, and the reason why is? The first half is fun, because there's a lot of stories and it's the stories that are very, very popular, and it really teaches us about how God is in control and when the world doesn't make sense, god still got this right. Well, the second half is even more powerful, but so many people haven't read it because it's about how God is the true reigning king who redeems his people, and so he is, just he's going to tell these prophecies. It's going to sound very familiar if you've ever read the New Testament, and we'll get into that in just a second.
Speaker 1:Why is Daniel important? Daniel shows us how to remain faithful to God in a hostile culture. You ever felt like you lived in a hostile culture. There are some of the people that are watching and listening to this podcast that where you live, christianity is a minority. I was talking to someone the other day and where they live, christianity is almost non-existent. They are very alone when it comes to being Christians. Daniel teaches us how to stand for God and that God has a control in a hostile culture. It highlights God's absolute sovereignty over kings, empires and history, and then it blends history and prophecy laying the groundwork for end times theology. So everything you have ever read in the Bible when it comes to end times prophecy, a lot of it circles back to the book of Daniel.
Speaker 1:A couple more things elsewhere in the world. What's going on? While Daniel is alive, babylon is the global superpower. Remember how Jeremiah and Ezekiel have talked about the fall of Jerusalem? Well, daniel would have been around that time and while Ezekiel is writing his prophecies in his exile, daniel's alive and he is making his way up the ranks in the Babylonian Empire. It was around about the time about 586, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish people are exiled and wrestling with their identity and their faith Because, remember, so much of what God did in their life was connected to their land, that was their promised land. Well, they don't have any land anymore. So who are they and what is their faith built on? Later, during this time, as they're grappling with this, persia conquers Babylon and then Cyrus begins allowing some of the exiles to return. So the reason why the 70 years ended like Jeremiah said it was going to happen was because Persia took over Babylon and this guy named Cyrus started letting people go back to their homelands. Spiritually, israel is in crisis and Daniel offers hope, clarity and courage, just like the book of Revelation. Many times people think that Daniel is a book of judgment, but it's really a book of hope and it's talking about how God wins in the end.
Speaker 1:Now some interesting facts about Daniel is it was written in two languages. Now we're going to read it all in English, praise the Lord, but it was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. And that just for my few Bible nerds who don't always realize that many times they think that it's only Nehemiah or Ezra, rather, that was written in two languages, but actually Daniel was as well. Daniel served under four different kings Nebuchadnezzar, belshazzar, darius and Cyrus. Daniel was likely a teenager when he was taken captive and he served well into his 80s.
Speaker 1:Daniel is the revelation of the Old Testament, and the fiery furnace and the lion's den stories are famous even in secular culture, and so many people have no idea where some of these stories come from. But some of the most famous stories in the entire Bible come from the book of Daniel. Now one more thing we're going to jump in, and here's this, because if you're listening to this, live with us as we are building, then pretty soon we're going to be getting into the book of Revelation, and what I've been telling you about is I've been telling you that if you want to understand the book of Revelation, you don't start in the book of Revelation, you start in the Old Testament. You start with Isaiah, ezekiel and Daniel, because like 68% of the book of Revelation comes from the Old Testament and there is a hermeneutical, a biblical interpretation principle that says wherever God mentions something first in the Bible is where the primary meaning comes from. Well, since Revelation is the last book in the Bible, nothing comes first there. So you've got to look earlier to understand the primary meaning, and so much of the second half of the book of Daniel is then used In the New Testament. So here's five reasons to read Daniel if you want to understand the book of Revelation.
Speaker 1:Number one is shared imagery. When we get to Revelation, there's beasts with horns and thrones and fiery judgments and all that stuff. It first comes in Daniel Timeline structure you ever like, so if you're someone who believes in a tribulation and all that stuff. There is this thing called the 70 weeks prophecy, and there's a lot of people who think that you can use that to predict that there'll be seven years, because, the way they do, 70 weeks, they divide that up into seven years three and a half years of good, three and a half years of bad. That doesn't come from revelation, it comes from Daniel Prophetic foundation.
Speaker 1:Daniel establishes the rise and fall of empires leading up to the final kingdom. That's what Revelation is really all about the rise and fall of empires, messianic clues, daniel 7's son of man Daniel 7, he's going to say son of man directly influences Revelation's depiction of Jesus. And in the book of Mark, jesus is going to call himself the son of man, over and over and over again. And so for people who this is an apologetic thing, for people who say, well, jesus never said he was the Messiah, well, that's because they don't know their Bible. Because in Daniel, chapter 7, he's going to call the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of man. So every single time in the book of Mark where Jesus says the son of man, he's saying I'm the guy, I am God.
Speaker 1:And then, lastly, god's sovereignty theme. Both books affirm that, despite chaos, god is always on control. And so the overall idea of Daniel is God is in control, god is in control, and so it doesn't matter. And the idea behind this as well, is no matter how chaotic our lives are, god's in control. And so it doesn't matter. And the idea behind this as well is no matter how chaotic our lives are, god's in control, because no matter how chaotic your life is, I just about guarantee, without any disrespect, I just about guarantee it wasn't as crazy as Daniel's right.
Speaker 1:And then here's the last thing we're going to move into Daniel, chapter 1, and that is this have you ever heard of something called the Daniel fast? Many people do the Daniel fast as a way to fast and pray, and the reason why is because they say that the Daniel fast is where I mean there's, there's a lot of nuances, but basically no meat, no sweets, no bread, drink water, right. And so there's this idea. And then, how long do you do it? Most people say, do it 21 days. So there is this idea that in the book of Daniel, there is this moment when Daniel says I am going to fast for 21 days. I am only going to eat vegetables and fruit or whatever. But actually the Daniel fast comes from several different places in the book of Daniel. You have to put it all together to get it. So I'm not in any way saying negatively. I'm just saying it's very interesting that it is built upon the overall different places, and so as we get there I'll show you some of those different ones and bring it up, okay, because that's a pretty famous popular thing. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Daniel, chapter 1, verse 1 says this during the third year of King Jehoiakim's reign in Judah, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and beseeched it. The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure house of his God. The king ordered Ashfazaz, the chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families who had been brought to Babylon as captives. So once again, remember that what would happen is they were then dispersed, and so some of the ones who were taken from Jerusalem all the way to Babylon, which had taken a long time to get there. These are the ones, and he says verse 4,. It says he selects only strong, healthy and good-looking young men. Praise the Lord, which has taken a long time to get there. These are the ones, and he says verse 4, it says so. Basically, he said you need to learn them some stuff, give them some of that book learning going. So they were enrolled into, basically, the Harvard of Babylon. They were taught how to do all the things and stuff. Verse 5. They were to be trained for three years and then they would enter into the royal service.
Speaker 1:Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah were the four of the young men chosen, all from the tribes of Judah. The chiefs of staff renamed them these Babylonian names Daniel was named Belshazzar, hananiah was called Shadrach, Mishael was called Meshach and Azariah was called Abednego. Now, you probably didn't know that, but that was not their original names. It was actually Hananiah, mishael and Azariah.
Speaker 1:But Daniel determined not to defile himself by eating the food and the wine given to them by the king. So he asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods. Now, god had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel. But he responded I am afraid of my lord, the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine. If you become pale and thin compared to the other young ewes your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded. Now, pause. Now, why did he do this? The reason why is because the food and wine that would have been given to them was first, most likely, sacrificed to the gods of the nation. And he's saying no, no, we're not going to do that. We're still going to be loyal to Yahweh, loyal to the king of kings and the Lord of lords. I know that we're in this hostile place, but God's still God. And so he's saying we don't want to dishonor the Lord.
Speaker 1:Verse 11,. Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed to the chief of staff to look after Daniel and Ananias, mishael and Azariah, please test us for 10 days on a diet of vegetables and water. Daniel said At and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days, daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. Now pause. In other words, them jokers are getting fat, which is also hilarious to me, because I have known people who have said I'm going to do the Daniel fast so I can lose weight. Well, according to this, if you do the Daniel fast, you're going to look healthier and better nourished than otherwise doing it. So they started gaining a couple LBs by eating vegetables and water. I don't know what kind of vegetables that was, but that was probably from the south, which meant it was highly deep fried, which is probably the only way you can get big by eating. Vegetables is deep fried. Here we go, verse 16. After that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.
Speaker 1:God gave these four men unusual aptitude, in other words, they were smart for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom. And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams. When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, hananiah, mishael and Azariah. They entered into the royal service. Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters of his entire kingdom. Daniel remained in the royal service until the joke was about 80 years old.
Speaker 1:Now, one other thing we're going to finish up and we're going to pray today, and that is this. One thing that you don't see in there was also interesting is the area that Daniel was put into was an area where especially as we get further into it and he's able to interpret dreams and this kind of stuff the people that he is eventually put in charge of were the enchanters and the different ones, because they, they, they knew that he was serving God. They just didn't know quite how that worked. And he was actually in charge of a group called the King makers, and the kingmakers were the people who would advise the king. They would make him king, they would give him the wisdom that they needed, and it's very interesting that Daniel was a kingmaker. And it was then, 500 years later, that a group of wise men kingmakers, read the book of Daniel and they went looking for the coming king, who was born in a manger. We now call them the wise men from Luke, chapter 2. So it's a very interesting kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But what can we pull away from this as we finish our time together? First of all, daniel is extremely interesting. He is awesome and he's great. But one of the things I love is that God is in control, and that's easy to say when everything's going well, isn't it? We get the new job, our kids are born healthy. Everything is just going great. We get the promotion, we got the new car, we got the house loan. You know, we got the A on the test. Whatever it is for you, it's easy to say, man, god is in control. You know why? Because it's going well Well. How hard is it for us to say God is in control when everything's not going well?
Speaker 1:Daniel had determined that he was going to honor God in the worst place imaginable. He is in the capital city of his enemies. His enemies have won. His enemies have said this is what you're going to do, this is how you're going to do it. Wouldn't it have been easy to have just gone with the flow? Hey, listen, no one else knows. I'm here, we're beaten when, in Rome, do what Rome does, just just. You know whatever, let's just go with it.
Speaker 1:But he said no, I may not understand what God is doing. I'm going to understand why I'm here and I don't want to be here, but I'm not going to turn my back on God, because I trust he hasn't turned his back on me. Can I encourage you today? I have no idea what you're going through, but can I tell you you're not going through it by yourself and no matter how bad it is and no matter how hard it is to admit, can I tell you God's in control, and I say that because we don't want God to be in control when there's a mess, because we don't want to have to blame that on God. But can I tell you that just because it's there doesn't mean that God can't bring you through it, doesn't mean that God can't renew it.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, some of the greatest ministries I've ever seen are from people who have gone through terrible things and then God had a way to make something ugly into something beautiful. So don't judge your situation by what you see right now. Judge about God's faithfulness from the past, about what you see right now. Judge about God's faithfulness from the past, because if he'd been faithful before, he'll be faithful now. And don't give up, because God's in control. And, just like what was going on with Daniel, it may get worse before it gets better. But even in that terrible season, god can still do a great thing in your life. God is going to put Daniel in one of the most prominent positions in the most powerful empire in the world, and he doesn't do that in the middle of greatness, he does that in the middle of struggle. He does that in the middle of where he would rather not be, and so maybe the place you don't want to be is exactly where God needs you to be, so he can do what only he can do in your life.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now, god, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your word, thank you for the book of Daniel. Thank you because it challenges us, god, just to have an audacious faith and trust in you and no matter where we are, no matter what's going on, you are in control. We celebrate you and we are excited about the book of Daniel. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. In the name in jesus name, we pray amen. Anyway, what god's word says in daniel 3, verse 17 and 18 god is able to save us, but even if he doesn't, we will never serve your gods. In other words, even if not, god is still in control. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For daniel, chapter 2.
