Christina Joyce

Daniels first approach is to have tenacity and try again with a different approach and request that they try something for 10 days and if it does not work, nothing is lost and no one gets into trouble. God affects the outcome by making them listen to reason from Daniel who they show favour.

I believ Daniel took a stand against eating the King's food in Babylon so as not to defile himself according to the law that God gave the Israelites ESP not to take on the unrighteousness practices of other nations, and I suspect he didn't want the wine because he would be expected to drink to make him merry rather than for digestive purposes. It upsets his conscience because he wants to remain faithful on the inside to his family and nation. Which shows his character and confidence in who he is.

Having come from royal and noble households, Daniel and his friends must have had all the privileges of healthy lifestyle, good education the freedoms and confidences of their identities. So they must have found the change difficult in a hostile arrogant selfish culture. They would have had to deal with the anger of the powers that took over their home city and land. Now in Babylon their status was one of a servant in training being manipulated to how the king wanted them. To have their names changed was robbing them of their identity. Their new names where not encouraging or uplifting. To be made into eunuchs was for them loosing their masculinity and any hope of marriage and fathering children. A blow to the future they believed they would have. Their compromises were on the outside. Their hearts were still devoted to God of Israelites

I left the culture of white South Africa in the 1970s where I was not brought up in a Christian home. The culture was pleasure seeking, much wine drinking, emotional fighting, and broken marriages. I came to England to nurse and in opposition to what Daniel experienced, I came into a Christian culture where I experienced kindness and grace. Here I made the best surrender in my life ....to Jesus. For me I also had a lot to learn but held onto my South Africaness.