Today’s Scripture Reading (April 7,
2014): Daniel 1
Recently
there seems to have been many well-known Christians, including Pastor Rick
Warren, who have advocated the health benefits of a vegetarian style diet based
on the Book of Daniel. These plans usually use the name of Daniel as part of
the diet and often promote the diet as being a biblically based diet guaranteed
to promote health and weight loss. And there is no doubt that these plans do
both of those things, but what isn’t so clear is that these diet plans are
biblically mandated.
But the idea
that they are biblical plans stems from this passage. The problem with saying
that this vegetarian diet is biblically mandated is that it takes the passage
out of context. There is no place in this passage where Daniel announces that
the vegetarian lifestyle (or even that a vegetarian purge or detox) is part of
God’s plan. The problem was that there was no suitable kosher meat available to
be eaten. Most of the meat that would have come to the king’s table would have
been offered as a sacrifice to the gods of Babylon. And for that reason alone,
the meat would not be available for consumption by a good follower of God. But
it also would not have been prepared in such away as to have all of the blood content
of the meat removed, a process that usually involved salting the meat to pull
the moisture out of it. This process is what makes the meat kosher. And it was
this lack of suitable meat that contributes to Daniel’s vegetarian diet, not a belief
in the health benefits of vegetarianism.
In fact, the
story of Daniel actually promotes an opposite life style. There is a belief in
the story that it was a meat diet that was required for health. And this is the
basis for the reaction of the handler of the Hebrew men. He was responsible for
their health, and according to what was understood at the time, that health
demanded a diet with a high meat content.
The miracle
of the story is that not only did the vegetarian diet work, but that it work in
a relatively short period of time. But the moral of the story is not about
diet, it is about the four men’s willingness to place their trust in God and do
the unusual. The resultant health of the men was never attributed to the diet,
but rather to the God that the men had served. Because Daniel and his friends trusted
in God and kept God’s laws, they passed the test. And that was the only reason
that they passed the test.
And this is
one of the themes of Daniel. If we are willing to trust, then good things will
happen. Life has never been about the physical realities that surround us. Life
is about trusting in the God who created our physical realities. No one else
will do.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel
2
No comments:
Post a Comment