Saturday, October 16, 2010

A Veggie Tale


Dan 1:9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
Dan 1:10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.
Dan 1:11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
Dan 1:12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.
Dan 1:13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
Dan 1:14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
Dan 1:15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.

Well, we know one thing for certain, Daniel was neither Baptist nor Episcopalian! He chose vegetables and water over the king’s prime rib and wine. A Baptist would never have turned down the beef and the Episcopalian would not have rejected the alcohol. (Come on folks, let's learn to laugh at ourselves. If you need to, extract these denominations and insert another :<)

We do know this about Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, after ten days of abstinence from the king's meat, they fared far fairer and fatter than the others of their sort (vs 10). The veggies, or pulse, that they ate in deference to the Lord nourished them far more than an indulgent diet.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus sitting at Sycar's well, welcoming the disciples back from the local Safeway store. They urged Him to take a bite of food. Remember how He responded? "I have meat to eat that you don't know about." And that food was to do His Father's will, in this case, soul-winning.

We are bombarded on every side with diet suggestions. I suppose we should pay attention to eating properly, but the Lord can nourish us with beans and water if necessary, t-bones not withstanding.

And that is today's Veggie Tale.

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