John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: June 12

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: June 12

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Conscientious Scruples

Dan_1:8-15

Daniel, and his friends were but four out of many who entered the imperial palace of proud Babylon under the circumstances lately described. But they alone found their tender consciences harassed by a scruple respecting food which met them at the outset. The youths thus introduced to the palace were provided for from the royal kitchen, on a dietary defined by certain rules ordered or approved by the king. Now there were several grounds on which a conscientious Jew might regard himself polluted by partaking of food so provided. In the first place, the dietary might, and probably did, comprise articles of food—such as the flesh of swine, hares, etc., which the law interdicted to the Israelites. Or even if of lawful kinds, the law required the animals to be very perfectly cleared of blood: to which end the Jews killed their meat in a peculiar manner, and accounted it unlawful to eat of any that they did not know to have been in this way slaughtered. Note: This matter has been more fully explained in Morning Series: Thirty-Second Week—Tuesday. And, yet further, it was customary among most ancient nations to make an oblation to their gods of some part of what they ate or drank, as a thankful acknowledgment that the good things they enjoyed were their gift. This stood, then, with them in the place which our grace before meat occupies; but it was of the nature of a sacrifice—a thank-offering to those that were no gods, ascribing to them the honor due only to the one Lord of heaven and earth. Yet, more, the heathen—as indeed did the Jews—used for food animals that had actually been offered in sacrifice at the altar of their gods; and in eating meat presented to him by the heathen, a Jew could feel no certainty that he might not be partaking of that which had been offered to idols, and this would have been an abomination to him. It was clear, therefore, that there were grounds on which a conscientious Jew might well hesitate to partake of food thus provided.

Such was the case of the four Hebrew youths. It might have seemed to ordinary minds difficult to mark out the right course of action—or indeed to take any course, at the risk of exciting displeasure by what might be regarded as an offensive display of the specialties of Judaism; and it must be unpleasant and ungracious to apprize those under whose protection circumstances have placed you, and whose favorable opinion of you may have much influence upon your future lot—that the food they provide for you, and which is such as they use themselves, is such as you cannot eat—is such as would defile you. It has the air of exclusiveness and self-righteous arrogance, which it would be painful to seem to manifest towards those entitled to consideration and respect. Consider a little. Suppose that a young Hindu of high caste were entrusted to your care; and suppose that, when you pressed upon him the abundance of your table, he should tell you plainly that all this was an abomination to him, would defile and ruin him; and should forthwith go and dress for himself a little rice in the open air in your court-yard. Just what you would be likely to feel in that case, at having your good cheer despised and counted abominable, is what the Babylonian officers would be likely to feel on becoming acquainted with the scruples of the young Hebrews.

It was altogether a difficult matter, especially to persons so young, and therefore so sensitive to anything like scorn or derision. In such a case, most persons would dislike to move in the matter at all, where it was so much their interest to please; or would seek to effect their exemption by some evasion or circuitous process, in order to extenuate the offensiveness of such an intimation. In fact, we see that most of these youths either troubled themselves not about the matter, or shrunk from the odious difficulties of the task.

But to Daniel, who took the lead in this matter, God had given more grace. He saw the necessity of action; and then he saw that the strictest, plainest, and boldest mode of action was the safest and the best. He went at once to head-quarters—being to no less a personage than the chief of the eunuchs, Ashpenaz, on whom his beaming intelligence had already made a favorable impression. The manner in which this high functionary received the application, that these four youths might be allowed not “to defile themselves with the king’s meat,” is very observable. It was both kind and cautious. Between what it expressed and what it was understood to imply, it amounted to this: he would willingly grant the request; but he was afraid to do so. The king had appointed this diet; and if, through their dispensing with this generous fare, they lost their good looks, inquiry would be made; and if the fact of his concurrence transpired, his head would be in great peril. He probably feared that it might lay his integrity under the suspicion of supplying the youths under his charge with inferior diet, in order that he might make a profit out of the difference. Daniel clearly understood that, although this great person declined to incur the responsibility of giving his own sanction, he would wink at any arrangement they might make with any subordinate officer who might be willing to take the risk, and whose head was of less value than his own. So understanding him, Daniel next applied to Melzar, the eunuch in whose immediate charge, he and his friends were placed— by which it appears that, as in the Turkish seraglio, there was one eunuch for every three or four of these lads. Aware also now where the risk lay, Daniel shaped his application accordingly. He requested that they might be allowed to feed on pulse and water for ten days; and that if they then looked nothing the worse, they should be permitted to continue this sober fare. Melzar consented—perhaps not uninfluenced by the benefit which accrued to himself from this arrangement. They had the good sense to propose, not the comparatively luxurious fare which might be still open to them as Jews, but that which was most simple, inexpensive, and easily prepared—such, perhaps, as they had observed to be already largely provided for the inferior servants of the palace.

The result was triumphant. When Melzar examined them at the end of the ten days, he saw that not only had they lost none of their former comeliness, but that “their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than those of the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.” There are reasons in nature why this simple diet should be more favorable to health and beauty than the dainties from which they abstained. Chardin remarks: “I have observed that the countenances of the Kechichs are in fact more rosy and smooth than those of others; and that the people who fast much—as the Armenians and the Greeks—are, notwithstanding, very beautiful, sparkling with health, and with a clean and lively countenance.” We cannot fail to see, however, that the Lord bestowed his blessing upon their sincere and faithful purpose, and secured their design from failure; for it is not only stated that they were more handsome than the other lads, but that they had become more comely than they themselves had been before.