Xanthe Hancox

Please test your servants for ten days: give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. Daniel 1:12-14

Daniel and his community had been uprooted from their homeland and deported to a foreign country. They had left behind their culture, their way of life, and many of their religious practices. God, however, used this situation to put his people in positions of influence.

So we find Daniel and his three friends employed in respectable government jobs. Yet while God had placed them there, life was a tricky balance between honoring their employer and honoring God. Daniel and his three friends did not insist on water and veggies because they were on some kind of health kick, but because the food supplied by their new boss conflicted with God’s commands. Did they consider compromise or outright rebellion?

In the end, we know how they responded. The four colleagues respectfully proposed a trial period in which they would be allowed to eat according to their convictions. Their supervisor agreed—and God proved faithful. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego worked with integrity, and God blessed them.

Although we could probably all use more veggies in our diets (as I write this, I’m gnawing on a pizza crust), this verse is not about our five-a-day, but about living the way Christ calls us to. We too are surrounded by competing values and ethics. Sometimes the pressure to compromise our convictions can overwhelm us, whether at the office, in the classroom, or at home. Yet we have an identity that is given to us in Christ. Let us commit ourselves to integrity, faithfully obeying God’s Word and trusting him.

Prayer: Lord, serving you with integrity is not always easy. And sometimes the outcome may be harder than it was for Daniel and his friends. Yet you have called us to live as your children. Help us to live and work with integrity. Amen.